were Enfants de France, and thus their future as leaders of France needed to be assured. Second, by concentrating on her children, the queen sought to improve the dissolute image she had acquired as result from the Diamond Necklace Affair. Third, the king had begun to withdraw from a decision making role in government due to the onset of an acute case of depression from all the pressures he was under. As a result, Marie Antoinette finally emerged as a politically viable entity. The country's poor financial climate resulted in the Assembly of Notables being dissolved on May 25 because of its inability to get things done. This lack of solutions was wrongly blamed on the queen. In reality, the blame should have been placed on a combination of several other factors. There had been too many expensive wars, a too-large royal family whose large frivolous expenditures far exceeded those of the queen, and an unwillingness on the part of many of the aristocrats in charge to help defray
