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Marie Thérèse of France — news, coverage & facts — IJR

Early life (1778–1789)

Marie-Thérèse Charlotte was born at the Palace of Versailles on 19 December 1778, the first child (after eight years of her parents' marriage) and eldest daughter of King Louis XVI and Queen Marie Antoinette. As the daughter of the King of France, she was a fille de France, and as the eldest daughter of the King, she was styled Madame Royale at birth.

Marie Antoinette almost died of suffocation during the birth process due to a crowded and unventilated room, forcing men to break open the windows, which had been shut for the winter, in an attempt to revive her. As a result of this horrible experience, Louis XVI banned public viewing, allowing only close family members and a handful of trusted courtiers to witness the birth of the next royal children. When she was revived, the Queen greeted her daughter (whom she later nicknamed Mousseline la sérieuse) with delight:

Poor little girl, you are not what was desired, but you are no less dear to me on that account. A son would have been the property of the state. You shall be mine; you shall have my undivided care; you will share all my happinesses and you will alleviate my sufferings . . ..

Marie-Thérèse was baptised on the day of her birth. She was named after her maternal grandmother, the Empress Maria Theresa. Her third name, Charlotte, was for her mother's favourite sister, Maria Carolina of Austria, Queen consort of Naples and Sicily, who was known as Charlotte in the family.

Marie-Thérèse's household was headed by her governess, Princess Victoire de Rohan-Guéméné, who later had to resign due to her husband's bankruptcy and was replaced by one of the Queen's closest friends, Yolande de Polastron, Duchess of Polignac. The actual care was, however, given by the sub-governesses, notably Baroness Marie Angélique de Mackau. Louis XVI was an affectionate father, who delighted in spoiling his daughter, while her mother was stricter.

Marie Antoinette was determined that her daughter should not grow up to be as haughty as her husband's unmarried aunts. She often invited children of lower rank to come and dine with Marie-Thérèse and, according to some accounts, encouraged the child to give her toys to the poor. In contrast to her image as a materialistic Queen who ignored the plight of the poor, Marie Antoinette attempted to teach her daughter about the sufferings of others. One account, written by a partisan source some years after her death, says that on New Year's Day in 1784, after having some beautiful toys brought to Marie-Thérèse's apartment, Marie Antoinette told her:

I should have liked to have given you all these as New Year's gifts, but the winter is very hard, there is a crowd of unhappy people who have no bread to eat, no clothes to wear, no wood to make a fire. I have given them all my money; I have none left to buy you presents, so there will be none this year.Marie-Thérèse was joined by two brothers and a sister, Louis Joseph Xavier François, Dauphin of France, in 1781, Louis Charles, Duke of Normandy, in 1785, and Sophie Hélène Béatrix, Madame Sophie, in 1786. Out of all her siblings, she was closest to Louis Joseph, and after his death, Louis Charles. As a young girl, Marie-Thérèse was noted to be quite attractive, with beautiful blue eyes, inheriting the good looks of her mother and maternal grandmother. She was the only one of her parents' four children to survive past age 10.

Imprisonment in the Temple

On 10 August 1792, after the royal family had taken refuge in the Legislative Assembly, Louis XVI was deposed, although the monarchy was not abolished until 21 September. On 13 August the entire royal family was imprisoned in the Temple Tower, remains of a former medieval fortress. On 21 January 1793, Louis XVI was executed on the guillotine, at which time Marie-Thérèse's young brother Louis Charles was recognised as King Louis XVII of France by the royalists.

In March 1793 General Charles François Dumouriez came up with the idea to restore the monarchy and free Marie Antoinette and her children. His ally, the 20-year-old Duke of Chartres, intended to marry Marie-Thérèse. When they failed in getting support from the troops, the men went toward the Austrian camp and lived in exile.

Three months later, in the evening of 3 July 1793, guards entered the royal family's chambers, forcibly took away the eight-year-old Louis Charles, and entrusted him to the care of the abusive Antoine Simon, a cobbler and Temple commissioner. Remaining in their chambers in the Tower were Marie Antoinette, Marie-Thérèse and Madame Élisabeth, Louis XVI's youngest sister. When Marie Antoinette was taken to the Conciergerie one month later, in the night of 2 August, Marie-Thérèse was left in the care of her aunt Élisabeth who, in turn, was taken away on 9 May 1794 and executed the following day. Of the royal prisoners in the Temple, Marie-Thérèse Charlotte was the only one to survive the Reign of Terror.

Her stay in the Temple Tower was one of solitude and often great boredom. The two books she had, the famous prayer book by the name of The Imitation of Christ and Voyages by Jean-François de La Harpe, were read over and over, so much so that she grew tired of them. But her appeal for more books was denied by government officials, and many other requests were frequently refused, while she often had to endure listening to her brother's cries and screams whenever he was beaten. On 11 May, Maximilien Robespierre visited Marie-Thérèse, but there is no record of the conversation. During her imprisonment, Marie-Thérèse was never told what had happened to her family. All she knew was that her father was dead. The following words were scratched on the wall of her room in the tower:

Marie-Thérèse Charlotte is the most unhappy person in the world. She can obtain no news of her mother; nor be reunited to her, though she has asked it a thousand times. Live, my good mother! whom I love well, but of whom I can hear no tidings. O my father! watch over me from Heaven above. O my God! forgive those who have made my parents suffer.

Marie-Thérèse-Charlotte est la plus malheureuse personne du monde. Elle ne peut obtenir de savoir des nouvelles de sa mère, pas même d'être réunie à elle quoiqu'elle l'ait demandé mille fois. Vive ma bonne mère que j'aime bien et dont je ne peux savoir des nouvelles. Ô mon père, veillez sur moi du haut du Ciel. Ô mon Dieu, pardonnez à ceux qui ont fait souffrir mes parents.

In late August 1795 Marie-Thérèse was finally told what had happened to her family. When she had been informed of each of their fates, the distraught Marie-Thérèse began to cry, letting out loud sobs of anguish and grief.

It was only once the Terror was over that Marie-Thérèse was allowed to leave France. She was liberated on 18 December 1795, on the eve of her seventeenth birthday, exchanged for prominent French prisoners (Pierre Riel de Beurnonville, Jean-Baptiste Drouet, Hugues-Bernard Maret, Armand-Gaston Camus, Nicolas Marie Quinette, and Charles-Louis Huguet de Sémonville) and taken to Vienna, the capital city of her cousin, the Holy Roman Emperor Francis II, and also her mother's birthplace.

Life in Britain

The royal family moved to Great Britain, where they settled at Hartwell House, Buckinghamshire, while her father-in-law spent most of his time in Edinburgh, where he had been given apartments at Holyrood Palace.

The couple did not consummate their marriage until mid-1812, according to their doctor's reports, noted by author and historian Susan Nagel. Marie-Therese, according to British newspapers, was severely ill the week of October 31-November 5, 1812 but had recovered in early November. On December 19, 1812, her thirty-fourth birthday, she discovered she was pregnant and bursting with happiness. She may have experienced nausea from morning sickness in the month prior. In January, Princess Charlotte of Wales noticed that the Duchess was in high spirits, while Monsieur Lefebvre, Marie-Therese's doctor, wrote to Francois Hue, "At this moment, I am tending to a woman who lives above me and who is pregnant for the first time after more than thirteen years of marriage." Three days later, Francois Hue wrote to his wife that the Duke of Angoulême would become a father in June. Madame Hue wrote down, "Monsieur Hue and Monsieur Lefebvre designate Madame the Duchess of Angoulême, announcing her pregnancy." On February 15, Louise de Conde wrote to her father about her shock concerning the pregnancy. At least a week and a half earlier, British newspapers recorded that Marie-Therese was severely indisposed and was advised by her doctors to "not attend the drawing room on Thursday."

Sometime between February 15 and June 1813, Marie-Therese lost the child, most likely at Hartwell House, and went to Bath with her uncle to recover, likely after her labor with a stillborn child, on July 15 and August 7 of 1813, while residing at 70-71 or 72 Great Pulteney Street with her uncle later in October. Susan Nagel referred to the event as a "miscarriage", when Francois Hue's letter mentioned the due date in June. This would mean that Marie-Therese's pregnancy in February was already past five months gestation, and almost certainly advanced enough to constitute a stillbirth. Allegedly, in mid-May, according to British newspapers, “The Duke D'Angouleme, Baron De Rolli, and the Duke D'Artois, left London yesterday for the Continent. Prague is said to be their destination, where, according to report, a Congress of Princes is to be held.” The newspapers also referenced Louis-Antoine attending another ball at Carlton House without Marie-Therese or any other family members days prior, when only two major balls took place on February 5 and June 30, making the ball and Congress of Princes false or incomplete rumors.

The long years of exile ended with the abdication of Napoleon Bonaparte in 1814 and the first Bourbon Restoration, when Louis XVIII was restored to the throne of France, 21 years after the death of his brother Louis XVI.

Bourbon Restoration (1814–1830)

Louis XVIII attempted to steer a middle course between liberals and the Ultra-royalists led by the Count of Artois. He also attempted to suppress the many men who claimed to be Marie-Thérèse's long-lost younger brother, Louis XVII. Those claimants caused the princess a great deal of distress.

Marie-Thérèse found her return emotionally draining and she was distrustful of the many Frenchmen who had supported either the Republic or Empire. She visited the site where her brother had died and the Madeleine Cemetery where her parents were buried. The royal remains were exhumed on 18 January 1815 and re-interred in the Basilica of Saint-Denis, the royal necropolis of France, on 21 January 1815, the 22nd anniversary of Louis XVI's death.

In March 1815 Napoleon returned to France and rapidly began to gain supporters, raising an army in the period known as the Hundred Days. Louis XVIII fled France, but Marie-Thérèse, who was in Bordeaux at the time, attempted to rally the local troops. The troops agreed to defend her but not to cause a civil war with Napoleon’s troops. Marie-Thérèse stayed in Bordeaux despite Napoleon’s orders for her to be arrested. When his army arrived General Clauzel forced the point. Believing her cause was lost, and to spare Bordeaux senseless destruction, she finally agreed to leave. Her actions caused Napoleon to remark that she was 'the only man in her family.'

After Napoleon was defeated at Waterloo on 18 June 1815, the House of Bourbon was restored for a second time, and Louis XVIII returned to France.

On 13 February 1820, tragedy struck when the Count of Artois' younger son, the Duke of Berry, was assassinated by the Bonapartist Louis Pierre Louvel, a saddler. Soon after, the royal family was cheered when it was learned that the Duchess of Berry was pregnant at the time of her husband's death. On 29 September 1820, she gave birth to a son, Henri, Duke of Bordeaux, the 'Miracle child', who later, as the Bourbon pretender to the French throne, assumed the title of Count of Chambord.