Marie-Thérèse (Marie-Thérèse Charlotte; 19 December 1778 – 19 October 1851) was the eldest child of King Louis XVI and Queen Marie Antoinette of France, and their only child to reach adulthood. In 1799, she married her cousin Louis Antoine, Duke of Angoulême, the eldest son of Charles X of France, henceforth becoming the Duchess of Angoulême. She, along with her younger brother, Louis XVII, were the only members of their immediate family to survive the French Revolution.
She became Dauphine of France upon the accession of her uncle and father-in-law, Charles X, to the French throne in 1824. On 2 August 1830, after the July Revolution, both Charles X and her husband signed an instrument of abdication 20 minutes apart. Some popular sources identify her to be a short-reigning Queen of France in the 20-minute interval between the signatures, but scholarly sources generally consider this to be a myth. She is, however, the undisputed legitimate Queen of France from 1836 to 1844 according to the Legitimists.
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 , 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:
Marie-Thérèse was baptised on the day of her birth. She was named after her maternal grandmother, the Empress Maria Theresa. Her second 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 rankNagel (2009), p. 47. 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:
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.
Life during the Revolution (1789–1795) As Marie-Thérèse matured, the march toward the French Revolution was gaining momentum. Social discontent mixed with a crippling budget deficit provoked an outburst of anti-absolutist sentiment. By 1789, France was hurtling toward revolution as the result of bankruptcy brought on by the country's support of the American Revolution and high food prices due to drought, all of which was exacerbated by propagandists whose central object of scorn and ridicule was the Queen of France, Marie Antoinette.
As the attacks upon the Queen grew ever more vicious, the popularity of the monarchy plummeted. Inside the court at Versailles, jealousies and xenophobia were the principal causes of resentment and anger toward Marie Antoinette. Her unpopularity with certain powerful members of the court, including the Duke of Orléans, led to the printing and distribution of scurrilous pamphlets, known as libelles, which accused her of a range of sexual depravities, spending the country into financial ruin, and other ridiculous misinformation. While it is now generally agreed that the Queen's actions did little to provoke such animosity, the damage these pamphlets inflicted upon the monarchy proved to be a catalyst for the upheaval to come. These pamphlets would culminate in the sham trial of the Queen in 1793.
The worsening political situation, however, had little effect on Marie-Thérèse. More immediate tragedy struck when her younger sister, Sophie, died in 1787. This was followed two years later by the Dauphin, Louis Joseph, who died of tuberculosis on 4 June 1789, in the middle of the chaos of the Estates General.
Forced move to the Tuileries Palace in Paris When the Bastille was stormed by an armed mob on 14 July 1789, the situation reached a climax. The life of the 10-year-old Madame Royale began to be affected as several members of the royal household were sent abroad for their own safety. The Count of Artois, her uncle, and the Duchess of Polignac, governess of the royal children, left the kingdom on the orders of Louis XVI.
The Duchess of Polignac was replaced by Louise Élisabeth de Croÿ, Marquise de Tourzel, whose daughter Pauline became a lifelong friend of Marie-Thérèse.
On 5 October, an armed mob from Paris marched on Versailles, intent on 'acquiring food believed to be stored there', and to advance political demands. After the invasion of the palace in the early hours of 6 October, on which the Queen was almost murdered in her bed and which had forced the royal family to take refuge in the King's apartment, the crowd demanded and obtained the move of the King and his family to the Tuileries Palace in Paris.
As the political situation deteriorated, Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette realized that their lives were in danger, and went along with the plan of escape organised with the help of Axel von Fersen. The plan was for the royal family to flee to the northeastern fortress of Montmédy, a royalist stronghold, but the attempted flight was intercepted in Varennes, and the family was arrested and escorted back to Paris.
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,Castelot (1962), p. 88. 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.Nagel (2009), p. 146. 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:
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,Castelot (1962), p. 110–111. 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.
Exile (1795–1814)
Marie-Thérèse arrived in Vienna on 9 January 1796, in the evening, 22 days after she had left the Temple.Castelot (1962), p. 126.
She later moved to Mitau, Courland (now Jelgava, Latvia), where her father's eldest surviving brother, the Count of Provence, lived as a guest of Tsar Paul I of Russia. He was the legitimate King of France as Louis XVIII after the death of Marie-Thérèse's brother. With no children of his own, he wished his niece to marry her cousin, Louis-Antoine, Duke of Angoulême, son of his brother, the Count of Artois. Marie-Thérèse agreed.
Louis-Antoine was a shy, stammering young man. His father tried to persuade Louis XVIII against the marriage. However, the wedding took place on 10 June 1799 at Jelgava Palace.
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.