Marie Antoinette: last French queen before the Revolution

You're Dead to Me

BBC

Comedy, History

4.7 • 10.9K Ratings

🗓️ 3 October 2025

⏱️ 58 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Greg Jenner is joined in the eighteenth century by historian Professor Katherine Astbury and comedian Jen Brister to learn about French queen Marie Antoinette. Born an Austrian princess, Marie Antoinette went on to be the last queen of France before the Revolution and the abolition of the monarchy. She is famous now for saying "let them eat cake", for her love of fashion, and her supposedly extravagant spending at a time when ordinary people in France were going hungry. But how true are any of these stories, and where did these myths about her originate? In this episode, we look at Marie Antoinette’s Austrian childhood and overbearing mother, her marriage to Louis XVI and time as queen of France, and the hatred directed at her by the revolutionaries. Along the way we take in her involvement in politics, her love of the theatre, and her possible Swedish sweetheart.

If you’re a fan of radicals and revolutionaries, maligned women from history and royal scandals, you’ll love our episode on Marie Antoinette.

If you want more from Jen Brister, check out our episodes on Emma of Normandy and Hernán Cortés and Malintzin. Or for controversial French queens, listen to our episode on Catherine de’Medici.

You’re Dead To Me is the comedy podcast that takes history seriously. Every episode, Greg Jenner brings together the best names in history and comedy to learn and laugh about the past.

Hosted by: Greg Jenner Research by: Charlotte Emily Edgeshaw Written by: Charlotte Emily Edgeshaw, Emmie Rose Price-Goodfellow, Emma Nagouse, and Greg Jenner Produced by: Emmie Rose Price-Goodfellow and Greg Jenner Audio Producer: Steve Hankey Production Coordinator: Gill Huggett Senior Producer: Emma Nagouse Executive Editor: Philip Sellars

Transcript

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0:00.0	BBC Sounds, Music, radio podcasts.
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0:10.8	I'm Amal Rajin. Join me on my new podcast for in-depth conversations with pioneers and
0:16.0	innovators, talking about the trends and ideas that could help shape and change our future.
0:21.4	We are going to be digital citizens of this AI world, whether we like it or not.
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0:39.3	Listen on BBC Sounds.
0:41.5	Hello, Greg here.
0:42.5	Just a reminder, before we get going, that episodes of Your Dead to Me are released on Fridays
0:46.6	wherever you get your podcasts.
0:48.4	But if you're in the UK, you can listen to the latest episodes 28 days earlier than
0:53.5	anywhere else.
0:54.6	First on BBC Sounds.
0:57.8	Hello and welcome to You're Dead to Me,
1:00.0	the Radio 4 comedy podcast that takes history seriously.
1:02.9	My name is Greg Janna.
1:03.9	I'm a public historian, author and broadcaster.
1:06.3	And today we are hopping into our hoop skirts
1:08.2	and styling our hair in the French fashion
1:10.3	as we travel back to 18th century France to learn about Queen Marie Antoinette.
	...

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