Were 'Pardon, Monsieur!' Really Marie Antoinette's Last Words?

[Jim_B]

I first heard it when actress Jane Seymour was being interviewed about a miniseries she was doing on Marie Antoinette. Seymour seemed to side with those people who think the French queen never deserved her fate. In fact, Seymour further contended, when Marie Antoinette accidentally stepped on her executioner’s foot, she said “Pardon, Monsieur”.

Did Antoinette really say this? And if she didn’t, who started this rumor?

[omni-not]

One source among many…

http://www.royalscandals.com/part9.htm

[Eve]

Even sadder is poor Madame Du Barry, who was draggeed hysterical to the guillotine, screaming (well, in French, of course), “Oh, please do not hurt me–you are going to hurt me!”

Poor gal, she never harmed a soul.

[Ms_Macphisto]

By sheer coincidence, I’ve got a biography of Marie Antoinette by Antonia Fraser out from the library right now. From p. 440 of the book:

Stepping lightly - “with bravado” - she sprang up the steps of the scaffold despite her bound hands, pausing only to apologize to Sanson (the executioner) for stepping on his foot - “I did not do it on purpose.”