11. Marie Antoinette Was The Royal Scapegoat
In the French monarchy, it was normal, even customary, for the king to take a mistress. Famous mistresses of the French king, like Diane de Poiters and Madame de Pompadour, held high positions within the royal court. They also tended to take the blame for just about anything that went awry in the palace, as they were often at fault for domestic issues within the royal family. This blame could go as far as being scapegoats for international disputes and internal problems within the state.
King Louis XVI never took a mistress, though, possibly because of his well-known health problems that prevented consummation of his marriage with Marie Antoinette for seven years. Because there was no mistress to serve as the royal scapegoat, that role often fell to Marie Antoinette. She is remembered for the lavish excesses that she took upon herself, which had defined the French monarchy for centuries before her time. However, compared to the men and women that came before her, she contributed to only a minor fraction of France’s national debt.
Despite the Monica Lewinsky scandal, Hillary Clinton still was the scapegoat of Washington, D.C., being blamed for all kinds of national and international problems, like the Benghazi attack, for which she was not a causative factor.