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Among the most jealously guarded relics of the ancien régime are locks of Marie-Antoinette's hair (1755-93). The survival of samples of the queen's hair is fortuitous for more than sentimental reasons and raises issues concerning the political significance of Marie-Antoinette's hair through the centuries. The sociological role of fashion during the second half of the eighteenth century, particularly at the court of France, has long been established, and Marie-Antoinette is a central figure in its study. Although she is typically characterized as either an arbiter of fashion, or, conversely, its victim, there has not yet been a study that politically contextualizes the performative role of Marie-Antoinette's hairstyles. As Dena Goodman has recently noted:
For Marie-Antoinette, the struggle for agency and personal autonomy-the ability to be herself and act according to her own will and desires-was carried out on the public stage and within a set of dynamic forces, within what we might call history itself. She was constantly being identified, constructed, presented, and represented.1
One fundamental element in this process was the queen's hair, an element of her body that served as a site of agency, an embodiment of her acceptance of or resistance to external forces. As such, Marie-Antoinette's hairstyles functioned as a corporeal element in the establishment of her French identity, served a performafive role within the context of French queenship, and continued to operate as a site of dynastic agency even after her death.
Marie-Antoinette's hair was already political before she married the dauphin Louis Auguste (1754-93) in 1770. "Bella gerant alii, tu, felix Austria nube" ["Other nations wage war, you, happy Austria, marry"] was the Habsburg family motto and the youngest daughter of the empress Maria-Theresa (1717-80) was to be the pledge of faith in the alliance between the traditional enemies France and Austria. The marriage negotiations took four years, and from 1768 a concerted effort was made to provide the archduchess with a French education. As a future queen of France, it was vital that Marie-Antoinette's body appear as French as possible. This was not just a question of social etiquette, but a critical symbolic matter. France was governed by Salic law, which prohibited inheritance through or by women. The law was ancient, and according to Guy Coquille's Institution au...