hat is the place of Marie Antoinette in history? She was neither the Martyred Queen of her more fervent biographers nor the wanton who was the sole cause of her country’s ruin, as believed by her detractors. Only in the last three years of her life did Marie Antoinette really become an individual, thinking for herself but not necessarily about herself. In the history of France, her role is passive. Unlike the equally unfortunate Mary, Queen of Scots, she was never a ruler in her own right, but the unwise consort of an incompetent soverign. Although the daughter of one of the greatest female rulers Europe has seen, Maria Theresa of Austria, and marked out from birth as a bride to be of the future King of France, she never received an education to fit her for such a life. Yet until this very day, we find ourselves still talking about, what some consider, the last Queen.