Marie Clotilde of FranceBurke's Royal Families of the World Volume I on p. 364 shows that (1) her father's geographic epithet was "of France" and (2) that her name of address in Sardinia was Clotilde (not Maria Clotilde)David Williamson in Debrett's Kings and Queens of Europe pp. 81 & 159 show that (1) her father's (not a king himself) geographic epithet was "of France" and (2) that her French name of address was Clotilde (not Marie-Clotilde) (Marie Adélaïde Clotilde Xavière; 23 September 1759 – 7 March 1802), known as Clotilde in Italy, was Queen of Sardinia by marriage to Charles Emmanuel IV of Sardinia. She was a younger sister of Louis XVI of France. She was politically active and acted as the de facto first minister of her spouse during his reign. She has been declared venerable by Pope Pius VII.
Princess of France
Born in Versailles, Clotilde was the elder daughter of Louis, Dauphin of France, the only son of King Louis XV and his wife, Queen Marie Leszczyńska, and Princess Maria Josepha of Saxony. As the daughter of the Dauphin, she was a Fille de France (Daughter of France), and as the granddaughter of Louis XV, she was also a Petite-fille de France (Granddaughter of France). Upon the death of their grandfather in May 1774, Clotilde's oldest brother, Louis-Auguste, became King Louis XVI.
Clotilde and her younger sister Élisabeth were raised by Madame de Marsan, Governess to the Children of France. The sisters were considered much dissimilar in personality. Because she was overweight, Clotilde was nicknamed Gros-Madame in her youth.Hardy, B. C. (Blanche Christabel), The Princesse de Lamballe; a biography, 1908, Project Gutenberg They were given the usual education of royal princesses in that time, focusing upon accomplishments, religion and virtue, an education to which Clotilde reportedly willingly subjected herself. They were tutored botany by M. Lemonnier, history and geography lessons by M. Leblond, and religion by Abbe de Montigat, Canon of Chartres, and they followed the court between the royal palaces with their days divided between studies, walks in the park, or drives in the forest.Maxwell-Scott, Mary Monica, Madame Elizabeth de France, 1764-1794, London : E. Arnold, 1908
While Clotilde was described as a docile pupil, "who made herself loved by all who approached her", Élisabeth long refused to study, stating that "there were always people at hand whose duty it was to think for Princes", and treated her staff with impatience. Because of their difference, Madame de Marsan, who was not able to handle Élisabeth, preferred Clotilde, which made Élisabeth jealous and created a rift between the sisters. Their relationship improved when Élisabeth fell ill and Clotilde insisted upon nursing her; during that time, Clotilde taught Élisabeth the alphabet and gave her an interest in religion. Clotilde came to be Élisabeth's good friend, tutor and counselor.
Clotilde did not have a good relationship with her sister-in-law Marie Antoinette, who reportedly demonstrated too openly that she preferred her sister Élisabeth, which caused some offense at court.
Marriage
Clotilde adapted herself to strict Catholic devotion early on and had the wish to follow the example of her aunt, Madame Louise, and join the Order of the Carmelites. Instead, however, Clotilde was in February 1775 officially engaged by her brother King Louis XVI to Charles Emmanuel, Prince of Piedmont, eldest son of Victor Amadeus III of Sardinia and Maria Antonia Ferdinanda of Spain. The match between Clotilde and Charles Emmanuel was part of a wider series of Franco-Savoyard dynastic marriages taking place in a time span of eight years: after the wedding between Charles Emmanuel's cousin Princess Marie Louise of Savoy and her relative Louis Alexandre, Prince of Lamballe in 1767, Charles Emmanuel's sister Marie Joséphine, had married Clotilde's older brother, the Count of Provence in 1771, and another of Charles Emmanuel's sisters, Marie Thérèse, had married Clotilde's youngest brother, the Count of Artois in 1773. Clotilde did not wish to marry, but adjusted herself to the will of her brother. She asked the Princess de Lamballe about the personality of her intended spouse, and was taught Italian in order to fulfill her role as eventual Queen of Sardinia.
On 12 June 1775, Clotilde attended the coronation of her brother Louis XVI in Reims. On 8 August, the ambassador of Sardinia, count de Viry, presented the official proposal to Clotilde from Charles Emmanuel, and on the 16th, the official engagement was announced to the royal court.A sister of Louis XVI, Marie-Clotilde de france, queen of Sardinia (1759–1802), 1911 On 21 August 1775, Louis XVI had his sister Clotilde married in Versailles by procuration to Charles Emmanuel, Prince of Piedmont, with her second eldest brother the Count of Provence as proxy for the groom, and with Cardinal de la Roche-Aymon officiating at the ceremony.
Clotilde departed from Versailles on 27 August and separated from the King, Queen and her sister at Choisy, before continuing with her brother the Count of Provence. The farewell between the sisters was described as intense, with Élisabeth hardly able to tear herself from the arms of Clotilde; Queen Marie Antoinette commented: "My sister Élisabeth is a charming child, who has intelligence, character, and much grace; she showed the greatest feeling, and much above her age, at the departure of her sister. The poor little girl was in despair, and as her health is very delicate, she was taken ill and had a very severe nervous attack. I own to my dear mamma that I fear I am getting too attached to her, feeling, from the example of my aunts, how essential it is for her happiness not to remain an old maid in this country."Princess of France Elisabeth, Elisabeth The Life and Letters of Madame Elisabeth de France, Sister of Louis XVI, Versailles HistoricalSociety, 1899
In Lyon, Clotilde made herself popular by her successful request to grant an amnesty to the imprisoned deserters in the town prison, before finally arriving at the border at Pont-de-Beauvoisin on 5 September. There, she was separated from her French entourage and ceremoniously transferred by count de Clermont-Tonnerre to count de Viry and her new Italian household, notably her new lady-in-waiting Madama Theresa Balbi, who was to become her favourite until her death. Having crossed the border with her new court, she was introduced to Charles Emmanuel.
Accompanied by her brother the Count of Provence and her husband, she was introduced to her father-in-law at Les Échelles and to her mother-in-law and the rest of the Sardinian court at Chambéry, before making her formal entrance to Turin on the 30 September. The official wedding took place in Turin. At the occasion of her marriage, there were comments in the French court that her groom had been given two brides instead of one, in reference to her weight.Antonia Fraser : Marie Antoinette (2002) Her father-in-law was concerned that her weight might affect her ability to bear children. The groom reportedly commented that he had been given "more to worship".
Princess of Piedmont
Clotilde established a good relationship to her new family and became popular with the public. Her father-in-law came to refer to her as an angel of peace because of her frequent mediating between quarreling family members, particularly between him and her spouse. She quickly and successfully adapted to the strict court rules of her fervently Catholic mother-in-law Queen Maria Antonia, dutifully participated in all representational activities expected of her in her role as crown princess, and demonstrated that the strict morals at court would be as stringently upheld in her future tenure as queen as they were by the current queen.Woodacre, Elena: Queenship in the Mediterranean: Negotiating the Role of the Queen in the Medieval and Early Modern Eras (2013) She was close to her sisters-in-law, the Duchess of Aosta and the Duchess of Chablais. She was well liked by the members of her household for her consideration for them, and her piety and frequent private worship established her reputation of piety among the public. During her first years in Savoy, she enjoyed fashion and entertainment and, despite her saintly reputation, her spouse himself said that it was in fact not her nature to be humble and submissive, and that she had to struggle to achieve this.
Although the union was arranged for political reasons, Clotilde and Charles Emmanuel became devoted to each other, united in their piety and a strong belief in the Catholic faith. She played the guitar to his singing, they studied religious texts together, and enjoyed spending time at Moncalieri Castle and the Palace of Venaria to relax from the court etiquette. The marriage was to be childless. Concerns was raised that her difficulty to conceive was due to her weight, and during the course of her first years of marriage, she was subjected to a number of fertility treatments, among those being a diet that caused her to lose a great deal of weight. In 1779, there was a sign of pregnancy that proved to be false, and in 1783, after eight years of attempts to have issue, Clotilde asked Charles Emmanuel to end sexual relations and live in chastity as uti frater et soror, a request he willingly agreed to. Charles Emmanuel, being of passive character, leaned on Clotilde as a stronger personality, and she came to have a great influence upon him as a stabilizing factor and adviser, and she acted as a mediator during his conflicts with his father the King, often caused by Charles Emmanuel's nervous difficulties, a condition Clotilde took it upon herself to hide from others and stabilize.
The French Revolution proved to be a disaster for her family. Her youngest brother, the Count of Artois, left France in 1789 and was given permission by Turin to stay there under the protection of her father-in-law, the King of Sardinia. Clotilde also harboured Louis Joseph, Prince of Condé, Louise de Condé, Louis Antoine, Duke of Enghien, as well as, in March 1791, her aunts Mesdames de France, Madame Adélaïde and Madame Victoire. After the departure of her brother the Count of Artois, her sister-in-law, the Countess of Artois, sank into a depression and contemplated to become a nun, but was persuaded not to by Clotilde, who pointed out her duty to her children. During this period, Turin was filled with aristocratic French émigrés, who were greatly disliked by the public in Piedmont and also caused Piedmont to be regarded as an enemy by the government in Paris, and Clotilde was placed in a difficult situation, as her charitable activity among the French emigré community was noted.
In the 1790s, Clotilde was described by the exiled Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun as remarkably changed in her appearance as well as personality. As Vigée Le Brun's stay in Italy occurred between 1789 and 1792, and was granted audience to Clotilde by letters of introduction by the Mesdames de France, the meeting likely took place in 1791 or 1792, despite the fact that Vigée Le Brun - perhaps in retrospect - referred to Clotilde and her spouse as king and queen, while they were in fact still Prince and Princess of Piedmont at this point: