Marie Antoinette had several adopted children.

M arie Antoinette never said "Let them eat cake" about the people of France, but she might have said it about her children. The Austrian-born queen of France had four biological children with King Louis XVI, only one of whom survived childhood. But the infamous couple had a much larger family than most people realize.

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By the Numbers

Marie Antoinette's age when she married Louis XVI

Rooms in the Palace of Versailles

2,300

Did you know?

Marie Antoinette apologized to her executioner.

Marie Antoinette may have been out of touch with her people, but let it not be said that she was impolite. After being tried and found guilty of three charges (including high treason) by the Revolutionary Tribunal on October 16, 1793, she was sentenced to death by guillotine. After accidentally stepping on the foot of her executioner, Charles-Henri Sanson, while climbing the scaffold, she spoke her last words: "Pardonnez-moi, monsieur. Je ne l'ai pas fait exprès," or "Pardon me, sir, I meant not to do it." She was initially buried in an unmarked grave in Madeleine cemetery, but the remains of her and Louis XVI were exhumed and reburied at the Basilica of Saint-Denis in 1815, during the Bourbon Restoration.