Okay, back to basics, what we were founded on…Marie Antoinette Trivia. Just in case you don’t know, Maria Teresa was Empress of Austria and Queen of Bohemia and Hungary and Marie Antoinette’s iron-fisted mother.

The formidable woman gave birth to sixteen children, waged wars, married her children off as political pawns, Queen of Bohemia and Hungary in her own right she and her husband had to be elected Emperor and Empress of the Holy Roman Empire. Maria Teresa also considered Tsarina Catherine the Great a personal rival. Guess every Mr. Pibb needs its Dr. Pepper…

Catherine the Great: “Mountain Dew” to Maria Teresa’s “Mellow Yellow”

As an Empress, Maria Teresa was all business (all the time) and no level of physical pain stopped her from running her Empire, a quagmire in which she was perpetually entrenched.

On November 2, 1755, her labor pains began and Maria Teresa took to her bedchamber, like any other woman, to wait out the tidal wave of excruciation. Unlike any other woman she took to bed with a large stack of paperwork to pass the time, (Fraser, 3).

According to Evelyne Lever, “since Maria Teresa hated wasting time, she took advantage of the momentary inconvenience to have a decayed tooth extracted” (4). I wonder if either devoir distracted from the contractions…

She gave birth to her daughter at half-past eight in the evening in the Hofburg Palace in Vienna. “As soon as was practical, Maria Teresa returned to work, signing papers from her bed,” (Fraser, 3).

Hofburg Palace where Marie Antoinette was born

They named the baby Archduchess Maria Antonia Josephina Johanna…they would merely call her “Antoine.” The fact that she was born on November 2, All Soul’s Day would prove to be an ill-omen, especially that year.

• Trivia ‘toinette #5: Refusal to Travel sans Make-up Foils Chance at Freedom (tiarasandtrianon.wordpress.com)