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70 free Marie Antoinette trivia questions with answers — history quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
This Marie Antoinette trivia quiz follows the Habsburg archduchess from the Hofburg in Vienna to the scaffold on the Place de la Révolution. The easy questions cover the basics most people half-remember: which country she came from, whom she married, the nickname the pamphlets gave her, and the cake line she almost certainly never uttered. From there it moves into the detail of her life at Versailles: the little château her husband gave her, the mock village she built, the hairdresser and the poufs, the play she helped get past the censor, and the balloon launch she watched. The harder end goes to the Affair of the Diamond Necklace, the fake Russian baroness of the flight to Varennes, her secret deal with Mirabeau, the number she was given at the Conciergerie, her last words to the executioner, and what happened to her body in 1815. There is also a section on her children, including the four she adopted. Every answer was checked against her encyclopaedia entry before publishing and the supporting sentence is stored with each question. If you want the wider story, our French Revolution and Napoleon quizzes pick up where this one ends.
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Q 01In which city was Marie Antoinette born?
Vienna
She was born at the Hofburg Palace on 2 November 1755, the fifteenth and last child of her parents.
Q 02Marie Antoinette was the youngest daughter of which formidable ruler?
Empress Maria Theresa
Maria Theresa had fifteen children before her; the birth of this last daughter brought complications that made doctors fear for the mother's life.
Q 03Which royal house was Marie Antoinette born into?
Habsburg-Lorraine
She was an Austrian archduchess by birth, which French pamphleteers never let anyone forget.
Q 04Marie Antoinette's birthday fell on which Catholic day of mourning, so was marked a day early?
All Souls' Day
Her childhood birthday was marked instead on All Saints' Day, 1 November.
Q 05Which child prodigy did seven-year-old Maria Antonia meet at Schönbrunn in 1762?
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Legend has it the boy proposed marriage to her; the meeting is at least documented for 13 October 1762.
Q 06Which composer taught the young archduchess music and later followed her to France?
Christoph Willibald Gluck
She learned the harp, harpsichord and flute; as queen she took him under her patronage in 1774.
Q 07Which sister, three years older, was Marie Antoinette's lifelong close companion?
Maria Carolina
She became Queen of Naples and, after 1793, took her rage at the revolutionaries out on reformers in her own kingdom.
Q 08Before her marriage, a French dentist was brought in to do what to the future queen?
Straighten her teeth
The makeover, urged by the Duke of Choiseul, also included new hairstyles modelled on Madame de Pompadour.
Q 09How old was Marie Antoinette when she became dauphine of France?
14
The marriage sealed a Franco-Austrian alliance aimed at containing Prussia and Britain.
Q 10Who stood in for the dauphin at Marie Antoinette's proxy wedding in April 1770?
Her brother Archduke Ferdinand
She met her real husband a month later at the edge of the forest of Compiègne.
Q 11For roughly how many years did the royal couple fail to consummate their marriage?
Seven
The delay fed years of gossip and was only resolved after her brother Joseph II paid a frank visit in 1777.
Q 12Which royal mistress did the young dauphine pointedly refuse to speak to until New Year's Day 1772?
Madame du Barry
Her eventual remark was just 'There are a lot of people at Versailles today', but it was enough to end the crisis.
Q 13On what date did Louis XVI ascend the throne, making Marie Antoinette queen?
10 May 1774
He was crowned on the death of his grandfather Louis XV, who had died of smallpox.
Q 21Which architect built the queen's Théâtre de la Reine and her rustic 'hamlet' at Versailles?
Richard Mique
The hamlet's design was copied from that of the Prince of Condé and was smaller than many other nobles' mock villages.
Q 22The layered muslin dress the queen wore in a 1783 portrait, which scandalised the court, was called what?
The gaulle
It replaced heavy makeup and wide hoops with a simpler look that older courtiers disliked.
Q 23Which favourite did the queen make governess of the royal children in 1782, to court dismay?
The Duchess of Polignac
Q 14Which small château at Versailles did Louis XVI give his wife two weeks after becoming king?
The Petit Trianon
Louis XV had built it for Madame de Pompadour; rumours soon claimed she had plastered its walls with gold and diamonds.
Q 15Which dressmaker created the queen's gowns and the towering 'pouf' hairstyles?
Rose Bertin
Poufs could reach three feet high, topped with the 'panache' of feather plumes.
Q 16The 1775 riots over the price of bread that damaged the queen's reputation are known as what?
The Flour War
Ordinary French people were beginning to blame her personally for the country's inability to pay its debts.
Q 17Which princess became Marie Antoinette's close friend and superintendent of her household?
The Princesse de Lamballe
She returned from London to the queen's side at the end of 1791 despite the danger, and was killed by a mob in September 1792.
Q 18Under what alias did Emperor Joseph II travel incognito to France in 1777 to visit his sister?
Comte de Falkenstein
He described the royal couple to his brother Leopold as 'a couple of complete blunderers'.
Q 19What was the name of the queen's first child, born in December 1778?
Marie-Thérèse Charlotte
Known as Madame Royale, she was the only one of the four children to survive the Revolution.
Q 20Which Swedish count was rumoured to be Marie Antoinette's lover?
Axel von Fersen
Redacted passages of her letters to him, uncovered from 2016, confirm a very strong emotional bond but mention no physical relationship.
The Polignac family's sudden wealth outraged the older aristocracy and fed popular disapproval of the queen.
Q 24Which scientific first did Marie Antoinette encourage and witness in the 1780s?
The launch of a Montgolfière hot air balloon
The pilot was Jean-François Pilâtre de Rozier, who two years later became the first person to die in an aviation accident.
Q 25Which banned Beaumarchais play was publicly performed in 1784 thanks to the queen?
The Marriage of Figaro
It inspired a famous opera two years later and, ironically, was a disaster for the image of the aristocracy.
Q 26Which residence did Louis XVI buy in his wife's name in 1784, causing outrage?
The Château de Saint-Cloud
It cost almost 6 million livres before redecoration, at a time when France was struggling to repay its debt.
Q 27How many children did Marie Antoinette give birth to?
Four
Two daughters and two sons; the youngest, Madame Sophie, lived only eleven months.
Q 28Which Italian adventurer was among those caught up in the Affair of the Diamond Necklace?
Alessandro Cagliostro
The cast also included a forger and a prostitute who happened to look like the queen.
Q 29Which senior churchman was tricked into buying the diamond necklace, believing it would win the queen's favour?
Cardinal de Rohan
The queen had disliked him since he was ambassador to her father's court in her childhood and never addressed a word to him.
Q 30Which self-styled countess masterminded the diamond necklace swindle?
Jeanne de Valois-Saint-Rémy
Sentenced to life in the Salpêtrière, she escaped to London and published slanders about a supposed affair with the queen.