The Ghosts of the Trianon-Marie Antoinette and The French Revolution
Three months later, back in England, Miss Moberly happened to mention the sketching woman to Miss Jourdain. Miss Jourdain declared that she had not seen such a woman. They were intrigued by this element of mystery. How could one of them have seen a figure and not the other? When they further compared recollections they both remembered feeling that something strange had occurred in the garden, so they decided to each write down a separate account of what they had seen and compare notes.
It turned out that there were a number of figures whom Moberly had seen, and Jourdain had not, but on other details they agreed. Investigating further, Jourdain discovered that the day on which they had visited the palace was the anniversary of the sacking of Versailles in 1792 during the French Revolution.
Versailles was once the residence of French kings, and one of them, Louis XVI, had given the Petit Trianon to his wife, Marie Antoinette, as her own private getaway at Versailles. But Marie was known for her extravagant taste and arrogance during a time when France suffered from an economic crisis. A poor harvest in 1788, along with a government heavily in debt to foreign nations, resulted in a large increase in the price of bread. That angered the ordinary citizens of France, who demanded a change in the French government, beginning the French Revolution.
They learned that at the height of the French Revolution, on October 5, 1789 Marie Antoinette had been sitting at the Petit Trianon when she first learned that a mob from Paris was marching towards the palace gates. Both she and Louis XVI were captured at Versailles by a mob of angry citizens. Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette had witnessed the massacre of their Swiss Guards and had been imprisoned in the Hall of the Assembly. Finally, they were beheaded in January 1793.
The two began to wonder if they had somehow seen the ghost of Marie Antoinette, or rather, if they had somehow slipped back in time. As if to confirm their suspicion, Moberly came across a picture of Marie Antoinette drawn by the artist Wertmüller. To her astonishment it depicted the same sketching woman she had seen near the Petit Trianon. Even the clothes were the same.
What struck the women about their research was one date: August 10. Not only was this the date in 1792 that Marie and Louis XVI had been imprisoned, but it was also the day--109 years later--that Miss Moberly and Miss Jourdain had visited Versailles. Was this merely a coincidence, or did it suggest that their experience was real? This helped convince the women that they had travelled back in time. Secondly, Miss Moberly and Miss Jourdain concluded that they had seen not the present Petit Trianon, but the Trianon as it appeared over a hundred years earlier.
Intrigued by the growing mystery, Jourdain returned to Versailles in January 1902 and discovered that she was unable to retrace their earlier steps. The grounds seemed mysteriously altered.
Jourdain and Moberly decided that Marie Antoinette's memory of this terrifying moment must have somehow lingered and persisted through the years, and it was into this memory that they had inadvertently stumbled. This explained the sensation of dark depression they had felt at the time.
When Miss Jourdain asked acquaintances if they had heard any stories about ghosts at the Petit Trianon, a French friend told her that on a certain day in August Marie Antoinette could be seen sitting outside the Petit Trianon, wearing a light hat and a pink dress. Her friend continued to say that the entire place is haunted with the people who used to be there with her.
Read More:
The Ghosts of the Trianon-Time SlipsThe Ghosts of the Trianon-Marie Antoinette and The French Revolution
The Ghosts of the Trianon-Society for Psychical Research Investigation
More Ghost Stories:
The Boothill Cemetery Ghost
Freddy Jackson's Ghost
Ghost Ship Sighting, Milnerton Beach, Cape Town
Lord Combermere's Ghost Photo |
Related Websites |
