Hello

Today,surfing through the Imperial Museum of Brazil's online archive,I found this copy of Marie Antoinette's will from 1816,Paris.

Copie figur du testament de la reine, imitant parfaitement l`Ecriture de cette Auguste Princesse

As described by the Museum: facsimile of the last message from 16/10/1793 of Marie Antoinette to her sister, exposing her concerns with her two children,and saying good bye to her family.

I don't speak french,and I don't know if there is an english translation of this letter on the internet,but I would love to read it.Anyone here knows?

updated by @leopoldina: 06 Oct 2016 06:15:28AM

Great find! i'd too love to read it

I've heard about this letter also and it was as wonderful as I imagine! XD I can translate it shortly for you sis <3 if you can't find a english link. But hope you do because i'm afraid my english vocabulary is not good enough and it will just ruin the letter teehee! :P:P

From a 19th century biography of Marie Antoinette by Charles Duke Yonge, available on Project Gutenberg (link below).
16th October, 4.30 A.M.

It is to you, my sister, that I write for the last time. I have just been condemned, not to a shameful death, for such is only for cri min als, but to go and rejoin your brother. Innocent like him, I hope to show the same firmness in my last moments. I am calm, as one is when one's conscience reproaches one with nothing. I feel profound sorrow in leaving my poor children: you know that I only lived for them and for you, my good and tender sister. You who out of love have sacrificed everything to be with us, in what a position do I leave you! I have learned from the proceedings at my trial that my daughter was separated from you. Alas! poor child; I do not venture to write to her; she would not receive my letter. I do not e ven know whether this will reach you. Do you receive my blessing for both of them. I hope that one day when they are older they may be able to rejoin yo u, and to enjoy to the full your tender care. Let them both think of the lesson which I have never ceased to impress upon them, that the principles and the exact performance of their duties are the chief foundation of life; and then mutual affection and confidence in one another will constitute its happiness. Let my daughter feel that at her age she ought always to aid her brother by the advice which her greater
experience and her affection may inspire her to give him. And let my son in his turn render to his sister all the care and all the services which affection can inspire. Let them, in short, both feel that, in whatever positions they may be placed, they will never be truly happy but through their union. Let them f ollow our example. In our own misfortunes how much comfort has our affection for one another afforded us! And, in times of happiness, we have enjoyed that doubly from being able to share it with a friend; and where can one find friends more tender and more united than in one's own family? Let my son never forget the last words of his father, which I repeat emphatically; let him never seek to avenge our deaths.

I have to speak to you of one thing which is very painful to my heart, I know how much pain the child must have caused you. Forgive him, my dear sister; think of his age, and how easy it is to make a child say whatever one wishes, especially when he does not understand it. It will come to pass one day, I hope, that he will better feel the value of your kindness and of your tender affection for both of them. It remains to confide to you my last thoughts. I should have wished to write them at th e beginning of my trial; but, besides that they did not leave me any means of writing, events have passed so rapidly that I really have not had time.

I die in the Catholic Apostolic and Roman religion, that of my fathers, that in which I was brought up, and which I have always professed. Having no spiritual consolation to look for, not even knowing whether there are still in this place any priests of that religion (and indeed the place where I am would expose them to too much danger if they were to enter it but once), I sincerely implore pardon of God for all the faults which I may have committed during my life. I trust that, in His goodness, He will mercifully accept my last prayers, as well as those which I have for a long time addressed to Him, to receive my soul into His mercy. I beg pardon of all whom I know, and especially of you, my sister, for all the vexations which, without intending it, I may have caused you. I pardon all my enemies the evils that they have done me. I bid farewell to my aunts and to all my brothers and sisters. I had friends. The idea of being forever separated from them and from all their troubles is one of the greatest sorrows that I suffer in dying. Let them at least know that to my latest moment I thought of them.

Farewell, my good and tender sister. May this letter reach you. Think always of me; I embrace you with all my heart, as I do my poor dear children. My God, how heart-rending it is to leave them forever! Farewell! farewell! I must now occupy myself with my spiritual duties, as I am not free in my actions. Perhaps they will bring me a priest; but I here protest that I will not say a word to him, but that I will treat him as a total stranger. (Translation by Charles Duke Yonge)

http://infomotions.com/etexts/gutenberg/dirs/1/0/5/5/10555/10555.htm

Yes, this kind of pamphlet looks very familiar! During the Bourbon Restoration especially, at the anniversaries of the death of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette (which were national events typically commemorated with a Mass), the Last Will and Testament of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette's letter to Elisabeth were read. In fact, you can find this letter inscribed on the pedastal of the statue of Marie Antoinette in the Chapelle Expiatoire, in Paris. These two documents were particularly popular during the campaign to have the "royal martytrs," as they were known, canonized. What a lovely piece of history! (I remember the souvenir I brought back from my last visit to the Basilica of St. Denis was a moden facisimile of the Will of the King and Queen, and the letter to Elisabeth. They still sell well!)

Has someone every contested the validity of the will?

It isn't really a will to "contest", as Marie Antoinette did not leave anything to Madame Elisabeth except the care of her children, if possible. It is more on the "testament" side of "last will and testament"; indeed the French name is simply "Testament de la Reine." Apart from being the last letter of a very very famous woman, personally I think it is a very affecting letter, Antoinette thinking far more of Elisabeth's comfort (consoling her over the testimony of sexual abuse the young dauphin/Louis XVII gave, which was read at his mother's trial) and what her children will face than of her own ordeal. She was ready to face her end and did so with dignity and courage, following her husband's example.

Imagine copying out a number of those in an imitation of the Queen's handwriting, as the cover says? We are so used to photocopiers and scanners ... this is what you had to do if you wanted something like that before photoengraving was possible. I think it shows the level of interest in the Bourbons and Marie Antoinette herself, a quarter-century after the Revolution and Reign of Terror, and of course during the Restoration.

I understand it was a testament - I apologize for the wrong use of word - but in the context of this time I truly wonder how the letter got to Elisabeth. Of course, it would have been a marvelous piece of propaganda to be used during the Restoration - to prove that Marie Antoinette was a loving a caring mother. But if it is indeed real, it would be interesting to know how to the letter was written from her cell and made it to Marie-Elisabeth's hands in Austria.