Evidence of a Non-Platonic Relationship
Words like “adore”, “madly”, and “beloved” jumped out of the pages. They indicate that, despite her marriage to the French Crown Prince and later king, the relationship Marie Antoinette and von Fersen was not platonic. Even in worldly France and the decadent world of the eighteenth century French court, women did not lightly use words like “beloved” to men who were not their husbands. Stuff like that triggered duels, and in the case of a queen, was treason that could lead to a trial for adultery and execution. Indeed, French history had examples in which extramarital affairs with royal women ended in the torture and execution of their lovers, and the imprisonment of the royal ladies. For Marie Antoinette to refer to von Fersen as her “beloved” on paper, in her own handwriting, was not like a modern innocent “Dear X”.
People noticed that the Queen of France was attracted to Count Axel von Fersen. Sweden’s envoy to the court of King Louis XVI noted in 1779 that despite her marriage, Marie Antoinette couldn’t hide her love for the Swedish count in public. The Swedish envoy was worried that a scandal might erupt at any moment. He was relieved when Fersen left for the American Colonies in 1780. There, he served as an aide de camp to the Comte de Rochambeau, commander of the French army that fought on the Patriots’ side. Von Fersen was persent when the allied French and American armies besieged and forced the surrender of a British army at Yorktown in 1781. He returned to France in 1783, and resumed his affair with Marie Antoinette.