Axel de Fersen | The true and only love of Marie Antoinette

We all know the Queen of France , Marie Antoinette , which died in the guillotine after the French Revolution. But we know little about his life and his feelings. History tells us that They married her very young with the future king of France Louis XVI and that between them there was a real affection . However, Marie Antoinette did not love Luis, there was another man in her life: Axel de Fersen, the true love of Marie Antoinette.

Join us to discover a little more about this man of Swedish origin who fell deeply in love with the queen who would be famous for her excesses or her fateful end. Who was Axel de Fersen? What did he do? Was it noble? How did you meet Marie Antoinette? Let's see a little more than, undoubtedly, it should have been a romance more than passionate .

Axel de Fersen, the true love of Marie Antoinette

Axel de Fersen, the true love of Marie Antoinette

Marie Antoinette by Martin van Meytens (1767)

To Marie Antoinette she was married at the tender age of 14 with the dolphin of France, the future Louis XVI. It was a state wedding to achieve, through this link, to strengthen the ties between two countries that had historically been enemies: Austria and France . Between the contracting parties did not ignite the flame of love, unlike how it happened between the famous Queen Victoria and her husband Prince Albert , but the companionship.

Marie Antoinette was labeled as promiscuous, but according to many historians, his only true love was the Swedish Count Axel de Fersen.

Axel de Fersen, María Anonieta in love

Marie Antoinette "en gaule", 1783, by the painter Élisabeth Vigée-Lebrun

Count Hans Axel of Fersen was born in Stockholm the same year as Marie Antoinette, 1755 . Son of field marshal Fredrik Axel Fersen and countess Hedwig Catalina de la Gardie, like many young people of his time, to finish his training, he traveled through Europe to perform what was known as "The Tour". In 1774 He got in the French court, where he made a great impression for his good looks and sympathy. At a party at the opera he met Marie Antoinette I had attended incognito. It seems that the crush was immediate . Axel returned to his country, but he returned to France in 1778 . Marie Antoinette had not forgotten and made him one of the "relatives of the queen" , the people closest to her.

Axel de Fersen, the true love of Marie Antoinette

Axel de Fersen in 1781 (left) and 1799 (right)

He Count Fersen , which was military training, was not satisfied with staying in court and departed to various military destinations , among them participated in the War of Independence of the USA. UU In all professional destinations, although it was famous for its female conquests, always maintained a constant correspondence with the queen and he visited the French court as many times as he could. In the letters of Marie Antoinette Written love messages for Axel have been discovered with invisible ink:

"Je vais finir, non pas sans vous dire mon bien cher et tendre ami that je vous aime à la folie et jamais jamais je ne peux être un moment sans vous adorer"

("I will finish, not without saying to you, my dearest and tender friend that I love you to the point of madness and that never, never will be able to be a moment without adoraros" Of a letter written to Axel de Fersen in 1792).

In June 1789 Axel de Fersen rented a house in the village of Versailles worried about the situation of the queen and happened to be one of the trusted people of the royal marriage . After the popular uprising that started the French Revolution, the royal family was forced to remain under house arrest . In 1791 they prepared a flight that is known as the "flight of Varennes" . Axel de Fersen was involved in the preparations Y was the escort of the royal family until Louis XVI, wanting to protect him in case the escape did not succeed, forced him - although he resisted - to follow a different path to meet once crossed the border with Belgium. The flight failed and the royal family was returned to Paris.

Axel de Fersen, the true love of Maria Antoinette 1

In 1792, Fersen returned to meet secretly with Marie Antoinette and Louis XVI to organize another escape, but the king was not willing to risk again. Count he did not desist in his attempt to save them and traveled the European courts trying to get help for French monarchs, But it was in vain. Louis XVI was guillotined on January 17, 1793. From that moment, all Axel's attempts by Fersen go directed to save the queen He even tried to buy the revolutionaries, but it did not help. Marie Antoinette was executed on October 16, 1793 . Axel de Fersen did not forget it. He returned to Sweden and years later, on June 20, 1810, would die stoned and trampled by a mob instigated by its political adversaries.

If you have been interested in this article, you may want to read the post: Marie Antoinette syndrome: white hair overnight .


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