The character assassination of Marie-Antoinette : defamation in the age of the French Revolution

Defamatory character attacks, particularly sexual slanders, pursued Marie-Antoinette to the guillotine. However, prior to the revolution of 1789, such attacks occurred primarily at the royal court, and were conducted through rumours and malicious bon mots. Pamphlet attacks on the queen, by contrast, were systematically prevented from reaching the public, by the impounding or suppression of entire editions, which were stored in the Bastille. Pre-revolutionary pamphlets resurfaced following the liberation of the Bastille in July 1789 and, inter-acting with scandalous accounts of the diamond necklace affair, fueled revolutionary mythologising about the wicked queen. However, revolutionary character attacks also grew out of the actions of the queen herself, who many citizens rightly perceived as an enemy.