Marie Antoinette in the Sea of Time

[ChrisNuttall]

I’ve recently been reading the ‘Tearmoon Empire’ light novels – I’ll review them sooner or later – and the basic idea is that Princess Mia, an expy of Marie Antoinette dies under the guillotine … and wakes up in her own body, twenty years or so before the revolution that destroyed her kingdom and sent her to her execution. Being an ardent coward who literally remembers her own death, Mia promptly sets out to be a good princess and then ruler.

What if that happens to the real Marie Antoinette?

She dies under the blade, then finds herself in her own body the moment she crosses the border into France to marry Louis? She recalls everything that happened, right up to her own death. What does she do? Can she change the world? Or is history doomed to repeat itself?

Chris

Tearmoon Empire

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[ChrisNuttall]

Marie Antoinette In The Sea of Time



Premise: Marie Antoinette dies under the guillotine and wakes up in her own body, as she crosses the border into France. Armed with the knowledge of the future, is there anything she can do to change things and save her family?



Thoughts:



The Marie Antoinette of 1770 was a teenage girl with little real sense of her ‘wifely duties.’ The Marie Antoinette of 1793 was a mature woman who understood her husband very well and, to add to this, knew all the missteps she’d made in OTL. It is quite likely she would be able to bond with her husband quicker, advising him on how best to rule when he came to the throne.

Marie Antoinette of 1793 would also have the advantage of knowing all the French etiquette already, allowing her to make friends within France quicker (rather than enduring the disapproval of the French matrons).

She would also be confident and secure in herself enough to stand up to her formidable mother and point out the problems of trying to befriend people she was obliged, in her mother’s eyes, to oppose (in the interests of Austria-Hungary). If her mother refused to accept this, Marie Antoinette could simply decline to talk to a woman who, from her point of view, had been dead for quite some time.

In this timeline, we have a much more experienced queen on the throne who already knows a lot about history. She can advise her husband from the shadows if a public role seems inadvisable – and her advice would be good, at least at first.

France’s problems were vast, but – from Marie Antoinette’s point of view – they’d been sharpened by French involvement in the American Revolution. She would logically press for no French involvement, as the costs of joining the war had far exceeded the rewards.

This might avert the immediate crisis, but France still needs to reform her finances and quickly. Marie Antoinette would presumably call for Jacques Necker and push his views forward, unlike OTL. With her support, he might be able to make meaningful and lasting reforms.

There would also be the matter of land reform. Could the monarchy support transferring lands to the peasants? Would the clergy turn into a roadblock if the church’s properties were also threatened? Could the king manipulate politics, with Marie Antoinette’s advice, to isolate the nobles who would otherwise oppose the reforms?

She would be tempted, very tempted, to strike at the early rebels from OTL. She wouldn’t know about Napoleon – he came after her death – but she’d know many of the radicals who sentenced her and her family to death. Could she wipe them out? Or co-opt them? Would it be worth the effort, when they were the symptom of problems plaguing France?



Could any, or all, of this save France?