Marie Antoinette was 'One of Us': British Accounts of the Martyred Wicked Queen

Like Princess Di, Marie Antoinette was a woman in her mid-30s, also a young mother who died of unnatural causes, and in both cases, commentators evoked sympathy through turning a powerful royal figure into a symbol of sacrificed and victimized womanhood. Binhammer proves various representations of Marie Antoinette--some constructing her as wicked, others as the martyred royal--with the intent of unpacking how the category "woman" operates in the moment of the royal woman's death.