As the visiting musician was himself just six years old, all of Maria Theresa’s children, even those in the younger group, were allowed to attend the performance. There is a charming account of a gathering at Schönbrunn on October 13, 1762, just three weeks before Marie Antoinette’s seventh birthday, when a pint-sized musical prodigy by the name of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was invited to entertain the imperial family. Of all his children, she most resembled him, not so much in looks as in nature-she was highly social and at her best in company (and, like him, somewhat less successful in the schoolroom). Marie Antoinette was her father’s favorite: Francis loved the sweet smiles and adorable prattle of this last baby girl, and indulged her affectionately. She was exceptionally pretty, all big blue eyes, blond curls, and merry disposition, not unlike Maria Theresa herself as a young girl. Toinette, as she was nicknamed (although she was also often referred to simply as “the little one”), was her mother’s 15th child and youngest daughter. Thus, it could be argued that, since both her youngest daughter and the Austrian-French alliance came into being at more or less the same moment in history, it was George Washington who put Marie Antoinette on the throne of France. The crisis had driven Maria Theresa into a treaty with Louis XV, arranged surreptitiously through Madame de Pompadour.

Just a year earlier, an overeager American colonial had exceeded his orders and opened fire on a sleeping French reconnaissance unit, rekindling hostilities between England and France. Marie Antoinette was born on November 2, 1755.

The lady queen nancy goldstone