Welcome to the History Tricks, where any resemblance to a boring old history lesson is purely coincidental.

Hello and welcome to the show! This is the second half of our reboot of our first ever podcast, Marie Antoinette, from way back in 2011.

Let's begin with a quick recap of what we've already talked about.

14-year-old Archdechis Maria Antonia has left her mother and her native Austria to go and marry the 15-year-old heir to the throne of France.

The formality and politics in Marie Antoinette's new home are really getting her down.

Worst of all, she and her husband Louis do not seem to be able to consummate their marriage after many years.

Why does it become of her? We shall see!

Now on with the show!

Marie Antoinette became the queen quite early. She was only 19 when Grandpa King died after a bout with smallpox.

And of course, husband Louis was immediately the king, and he and Marie Antoinette fell to their knees and said, God help us, we are too young to reign.

That could not have been a more true statement. Basically, Louis, aged 20, became the victim of his advisors.

He was so indecisive in those older politicos, knew well how to manipulate old boy to get with him.

Not at all. He was just not a powerful force at all.

Maria Antoinette was actually not crowned at the coronation. Symbolic or not, technically an unconcernated royal marriage meant, like you said earlier, technically Louis could send her back to Austria.

Nevertheless, one of the perks of being the queen no longer were the scary and sculled the old ladies in charge.

She was able to raise her best friends and confidants. There were two main ones, the Princess D'Alembal, who had married into a legitimized royal branch, so she's actually related to Grandpa King.

And the Duchess Di Polignac, who was very, very versi, should be say, super loose, super naughty.

She's got Lombol, regarded as an angel by everyone she met, on one shoulder, and you've got this stash, mefrass on the other side as the devil telling her to do naughty stuff.

I actually think that's brilliant friends choosing. You want them both. They're both very important in your life, and that's what she had here, I think.

I guess so. I guess so. I wonder, like, Princess Lombol and Polignac, would they have been friends with that Maria Antoinette? They're not real like at all.

Three's are horror. You need that buffer. Yeah, we get three's of, I'm sorry, I hate to be sexist, and maybe it's his way of men, but I'm not a man, so I don't know male friendships too well.

But three in a friendship is a very awkward number.

...