On May 16, 1770, the marriage of Marie-Antoinette de Habsbourg-Lorraine with the Dauphin Louis-Auguste de Bourbon is celebrated at Versailles, the official royal residence since Louis XIV. Admittedly very (too) young and of diametrically opposed characters, they nevertheless carry the hope of the dynasty and the whole people. The festivities of the wedding of Marie-Antoinette and Louis XVI are going to be the scene of a drama after the fireworks , which will cause the death of hundreds of people in the rue Royale . Bad omen for dolphins?
Festivities in Versailles and Paris to celebrate the wedding of the future Louis XVI
The festivities organized in Versailles are a real delight . Plays, operas, minuets, masked balls, banquets and fireworks punctuate the days following the arrival of the Dauphine. One evening particularly marks the Duke of Croÿ, a privileged witness of this era:the illumination of the Grand Canal . Paper lanterns line the floor and adorn the tall yews on each side of the Canal, pyramids decorate the Green Carpet. Splendid boats illuminated with lanterns and hung with canopies sail peacefully on the water, tracing furrows of light in the water. Marie Antoinette wedding
That evening, the people of Paris crowded into the lighted groves, while the courtiers contemplated this spectacle from the terrace. The young Marie-Antoinette, overexcited, wants to go down to admire the gardens and stroll with the crowd. To the great surprise of the Duke of Croÿ, she was refused permission...
Never mind, the young girl intends to catch up on May 30, 1770 , the date chosen to draw fire from Paris. If Versailles is indeed the seat of government and power, Paris remains the capital of France. So that the people can take part in the royal festivities, the city has the right to its own popular spectacle . The bombs were installed between the statue of the king which adorns the vast Place Louis XV, now Place de la Concorde, and Rue Royale. The whole square and the surrounding houses are illuminated, the northern ramparts are adorned with two cords of lanterns and lanterns shine in the trees like glowworms.
The decor of the fire, widely described in the Gazette , of course represents the Temple of Hymen , placed "on a base decorated with waterfalls, fountains and groups of allegorical figures". The main face is formed by six columns bearing a pediment in which is represented the emblem of France and the Empire, as well as the united figures of the Dauphin and the Dauphine. This side decorated with garlands overlooks the colonnades where boxes have been erected for the Court and persons of high distinction invited by the city.Marie-Antoinette wedding
The orchestra sets up. Around 7:00 p.m., the wine fountains begin to flow and bread and meat are distributed to the people.The fire is started at 9:00 a.m. The Duke of Croÿ is relatively disappointed with the show, which he describes as "fairly beautiful, nothing rare". The people then have only one solution to return to the illuminated suburbs, to go back through the rue Royale, in which there is inevitably "a double rising and falling column of curious people leaving the boulevards to see the fireworks, and of those who went up from the Place Louis XV towards the boulevards. »
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The drama of the deadly stampede in the rue Royale described by the Duke of Croÿ
Let us follow the wanderings of the Duke of Croÿ, very surprised by the extraordinary influx of people who want to go out at the same time. He sees with horror this flood which arrives. Fortunately, his carriage is among the first parked towards the exit. With his six companions, he climbs inside. Others, like the Duc de Sully, jump behind to escape the crowd. They then hurry to go to the suburbs to have supper with the Princess of Tingry. The meal over, the friends put their noses outside again, determined to return home. The Duke of Croÿ then recounts the surrealist scene available to them:
After supper, at midnight, we were very surprised to find in front of the door the same carriages that we had seen on entering, and just as clogged, unable to move. We advanced a little, on foot, to hear the news, and we found the people in a consternation which made them tremble. Everyone spoke only of the heaps of dead he had seen. I thought that was an exaggeration, but the next day I had it checked by the police. There were a hundred and thirty-two dead bodies gathered, including eighty-three women and forty-nine men. (…) We only transported, at first, twenty-six wounded, but many others dragged themselves and died the next day, so that we heard nothing but the consequences of a fight.
What happened during Marie-Antoinette's wedding celebrations?
At that time, Paris was in full swing. Baron Haussmann and his orderly urbanism having not yet been there, the city developed in an anarchic way around a few rare major axes . No overall consistency in the layout of these winding and narrow alleys, small passages that are real cut-throats...
The famous rue Royale, in particular, is far from complete . It is dotted with holes, veritable ditches dug for the foundations that no one has bothered to cover. After the fireworks, the people, not very happy with the spectacle, hasten to reach the boulevards by the only possible exit, the rue Royale, a narrow space which is not made to accommodate such a large flow. The pressure of the mass is such that it creates “a prodigious support on a point”. At this exact spot, carriages caught in the crowd block the exit to a wider passage. To make matters worse, the widths are riddled with ruts and piles of stones caused by the work in progress. Inevitably, these dangerous conditions lead to a disaster :
The first to fall into the ruts were trampled and suffocated first by the others. The effort made to draw them back stopped everything, and the great mass of the crowd continuing, without knowing it, to push, the effort was such that the men, by the pressure, suffocated three horses killed stiffly, and broke up. ' choked each other so that the carriage doors on the side were broken in, so that there were dead who were carried away by the pressure, and who, although dead, were carried far without falling.
Terrible scenes. The cries mingle with the howls, the fear wins the spirits, in front of the heaps of dead and dying. The lucky ones lose their breath for a few moments. In total, about three hundred people died during and after the incident… Marie-Antoinette, who was on her way to join the party , returns in tears to Versailles at the announcement of this painful news.
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Desolation after the tragedy of the fireworks at the wedding of Louis XVI and Marie-Antoinette
At the palace, no one thinks of partying anymore... The dolphin feels responsible. He wishes to use the 6,000 pounds that his grandfather the king grants him each month for his "menu-pleasures" to support the Parisians. He sends them to Monsieur de Sartine, Lieutenant-General of Police, with a note from his hand ordering him to distribute this sum. “I learned of the misfortune that happened on my occasion; I am penetrated. They brought me what the king sends me every month for my petty pleasures; I can only dispose of this, I send it to you; help the most unfortunate” Louis-Auguste. The Dauphine, also devastated, follows her example.
Paris is ringing. Desolation reigns.
Those who had no one to regret were saddened by such beginnings of a union whose bonds, instead of woven with flowers, were watered with blood, and inspired dark forebodings. It seemed as if the mighty voice of destiny spoke an ominous oracle.
A terrible omen indeed. We know today what dramatic events will actually take place twenty years later on this same square:the beheading of this couple, then so young and full of hope, in whose honor the catastrophic fireworks of May 30 were drawn ! Troubling coincidence. Even the most skeptical will admit that this story got off to a bad start...
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Marie Antoinette wedding