Marie Antoinette (1755-1793) was born November 2, 1755 in Vienna, Austria. She was the youngest daughter of Francis Stephen I and Maria Theresa, Emperor and Empress of the Holy Roman Empire. She married the crown prince of France in 1770 and in 1774, she became queen when her husband was crowned King Louis XVI of France (House of Bourbon).

In 1793, at the height of the French Revolution, King Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette were convicted and executed on the guillotine and subsequently interred in the royal crypt at the Saint Denis Basilica in Paris.

In recent years, a locket of Marie Antoinettes hair has been analyzed and the mtDNA haplotype and sequence has been determined.

Marie Antoinette's mtDNA

The HVR-1 and HVR-2 regions (D-Loop) of Marie Antoinette's mtDNA has been identified by testing a hair sample from Marie Antoinette.  The mtDNA data was confirmed by testing the DNA from hair samples from two of Marie Antionette's sisters, Johanna-Gabriela and Maria-Josepha, and testing the DNA samples two of Marie Antinette's living maternal relatives, Queen Anna of Romania and her brother Andre de Bourbon-Parme.