Marie Thérèse, Madame Royale

Not to be confused with Marie Thérèse of France.
Marie Thérèse of France
Madame Royale
Portrait by Nocret, c. 1671
Born(1667-01-02)2 January 1667
Château de Saint-Germain-en-Laye, Saint-Germain-en-Laye, France
Died1 March 1672(1672-03-01) (aged 5)
Château de Saint-Germain-en-Laye
Burial3 March 1672
Basilica of Saint-Denis
HouseBourbon
FatherLouis XIV
MotherMaria Theresa of Spain

Marie Thérèse of France (2 January 1667 – 1 March 1672) was a French princess, a fille de France. She was the fourth child of King Louis XIV and Queen Maria Theresa. As the eldest surviving daughter of a French king, she was known at court by the traditional honorific Madame Royale.

Life

Birth and childhood

Marie Thérèse was born on 2 January 1667 at the Château de Saint-Germain-en-Laye, the third daughter of King Louis XIV and Queen Maria Theresa of Spain.[1][2] Her parents were double-first cousins to each other, meaning that they shared all four grandparents together.[3]

As a Fille de France ("Daughter of France"), she was entitled to the style of Royal Highness. She was christened in 1668 at the chapel of the Louvre Palace and named Marie Thérèse after her mother. Her royal governess was Louise de Prie.

Her mother wanted her to become Queen consort of Spain by marrying King Charles II of Spain.[4] Marie Thérèse later adapted the nickname "la petite Madame" to distinguish herself from her uncle's wives, Madame Henrietta and Madame Elizabeth Charlotte.

Death

On the night of 1 March 1672, Marie Thérèse died at the age of five from tuberculosis.[1] After her death, her parents retreated to the Palace of Versailles and upon returning her father was "reportedly constantly in her bedroom."[5] Her aunt, the Duchess of Orléans who was there at the time of her passing, later detailed her death in her memoirs:

A cautery which had been improperly made in the nape of the neck had drawn her mouth all on one side, so that it was almost entirely in her left cheek. For this reason talking was very painful to her, and she said very little. It was necessary to be accustomed to her way of speaking to understand her. Just when she was about to die her mouth resumed its proper place, and she did not seem at all ugly. I was present at her death. She did not say a word to her father, although a convulsion had restored her mouth. The King, who had a good heart and was very fond of his children, wept excessively and made me weep also. The Queen was not present, for, being pregnant, they would not let her come.[6]

Ancestry

References

Citations

  1. ^ a b c de Guibours 1726, p. 175.
  2. ^ Duclos 1869, p. 938.
  3. ^ Mansel 2020, p. 99.
  4. ^ Langdon-Davies 1963, pp. 88–89.
  5. ^ Mansel 2020, p. 256.
  6. ^ von der Pfalz-Simmern 1895, p. 211.

Sources

  • de Guibours, Anselm (1726). Histoire généalogique et chronologique de la maison royale de France [Genealogical and chronological history of the royal house of France] (in French). Vol. 1 (3rd ed.). Paris: La compagnie des libraires.
  • Duclos, Henri (1869). Madame de La Vallière et Marie-Thérèse d'Autriche, femme de Louis XIV: Avec pièces et documents inédits [Madame de La Vallière and Marie-Thérèse of Austria, wife of Louis XIV: with unpublished pieces and documents] (in French). Vol. 2. Didier. p. 938.
  • Mansel, Philip (September 2020) [2019]. King of the World: The Life of Louis XIV. University of Chicago Press. ISBN 9780226690926.
  • Langdon-Davies, John (1963). Carlos: The King Who Would Not Die. New Jersey: Prentice Hall.
  • von der Pfalz-Simmern, Elizabeth Charlotte (1895) [22 May 2025]. Secret Memoirs of the Court of Louis XIV and of the Regency. Connecticut: Grolier.
  • Media related to Marie Thérèse of France (1667-1672) at Wikimedia Commons
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