Marie-Antoinette (1755-1793), daughter of the powerful Maria Theresa who ruled Vienna, married the heir to the French throne in 1770, Louis XVI, the grandson of Louis XV. With the death of Louis XV four years later, the young king and queen were unprepared to rule the country. Marie-Antoinette did not fully understand the responsibility of being the queen of France and spent much of her time with her entourage, cut off from the court. It was the courts support she would lack during the French Revolution. When riots broke out as a result of citizens starving due to the high cost of bread, the Palace of Versailles was besieged and only through the intervention of La Fayette, an American major general appointed as a commander of the national guard in France, was Marie-Antoinettes life saved. However, La Fayette was unsuccessful in saving Marie-Antoinette and Louis XVI from the guillotine in 1793.
