Her mother set her up for a powerful marriage, a marriage that thrust her into the midst of the French Revolution and made her the ultimate representation of the excesses of royalty.
Its free-spending government has pushed up the price at which the country's budget balances to $85 a barrel, according to the IMF-and that number is higher when outlays from its sovereign wealth fund are included.
That night he looked as if he would like the fun of quizzing her figures and pretending to be horrified at her extravagance, as he often did, being particularly proud of his prudent wife.