PURPLE-HEARTED QUEEN
By Beatrice Hotchkiss

Traditional history books have seldom mentioned it, but there is ample evidence that Marie Antoinette's favorite color was purple. This is not an insignificant fact, as some might think, but one that may offer great insight into the character of a queen, who I believe, has been heavily and unfairly judged, both in her lifetime and up to today.

Purple is traditionally considered to be a color of majesty or royalty. But this does not mean that it is merely a color of wealth and power. On a deeper level, purple symbolizes loyalty, dignity, wisdom and truth.

When Marie had her portrait painted by the master, Marcel Bonet, she chose to pose holding a purple rose, instead of wearing that extravagant diamond tiara that King Louis XVI had given her. She knew that it would be insensitive to wear such a tiara at a time when the French masses were starving and angry. By choosing the rose, Marie acted with wisdom and loyalty to her people.

As one of the last acts of her short life, Marie chose to wear purple slippers for her walk to the guillotine. Convicted of crimes for which she never confessed, crimes that were never proven, Marie accepted her death sentence with resignation. However, as she walked to meet her death in her favorite purple slippers, she expressed her unshakable dignity and her silent protest as to the truth.