Marie Antoinette became dauphine of France through marriage to the future Louis XVI in 1770, a dynastic alliance linking the Bourbon and Habsburg courts. As queen from 1774, her role involved ceremonial duties, patronage, household appointments and the production of heirs, rather than a formal ministerial office. Difficulty adapting to court expectations and her foreign birth made her vulnerable to hostility. Spending on clothing, entertainments and the Petit Trianon helped create an image of extravagance, though France's financial crisis arose from far larger fiscal and military problems than her expenditure.

She cultivated a circle of friends and supported artistic and theatrical interests. The privacy she sought at Trianon challenged expectations that royal life should remain visible to courtiers and subjects. Hostile pamphlets turned court conduct into sexual and political accusations. The Diamond Necklace Affair of 1785 damaged her standing even though she had not arranged the fraud. The phrase urging hungry people to eat cake is unsupported as a statement by her and belongs to a wider tradition of stories about unfeeling rulers.

After the Revolution began in 1789, the royal family was compelled to leave Versailles for Paris. Marie Antoinette resisted changes that threatened the monarchy and communicated with foreign relatives and political allies. She explored arrangements with figures such as Mirabeau, but her attachment to royal authority limited reconciliation with revolutionary expectations. The attempted flight to the eastern frontier in June 1791 ended at Varennes, gravely undermining confidence in the king's acceptance of the new order. War with Austria and Prussia in 1792 intensified suspicions, through her communications as well as prejudice.

The overthrow of the monarchy in August 1792 led to imprisonment of the family in the Temple. After Louis's execution in January 1793, she was separated from her son and transferred to the Conciergerie. The Revolutionary Tribunal convicted her in October, and she was executed on 16 October 1793. The proceedings combined allegations of political betrayal with degrading and unfounded personal accusations. Later memory alternately presented her as a frivolous cause of revolution or an innocent martyr, neither of which captures the whole record. She participated in the monarchy's defence and made political choices while facing propaganda, institutional collapse and violence of revolutionary conflict.