Madame Elisabeth to the Marquise de Bombelles, spring 1787, regarding the Assembly of the Notables

The Assembly continues as before and with the same plans. The Notables talk with more freedom (though they have never cramped themselves in that), and I hope good may come of it. My brother has such good intentions, he desires the right so much and to make his people happy, he has kept himself so pure, that it is impossible God should not bless his good qualities with great successes. He did his Easter duties to-day. God will encourage him, God will show him the right way: I hope much. The preacher in his address encouraged him immensely to take counsel of his own heart. He was right, for my brother is very good and very superior to the whole Court united.

Image: An engraving depicting the Assembly of the Notables

Maria Elisabeth Josepha of Austria, the sixth child of Maria Theresa and elder sister to Marie Antoinette, by Joseph Ducreux. 1769.

(C) RMN (Château de Versailles) / Gérard Blot

‘Marie Antoinette’s village’ by southernbets

A portrait of the imprisoned Marie Antoinette in widow’s garb by Alexandre Kucharski.

‘La Conciergerie’ by y.caradec on Flickr

A masked ball given at Versailles to celebrate the marriage of Louis the Dauphin and his first wife, Maria Theresa of Spain, in 1745. (1860 reprint of a 1764 plate.)

Embroidery design for the bedroom of Marie Antoinette in her Grand Chamber at Versailles.

(C) RMN (Château de Versailles) / Gérard Blot