Princess Louise-Marie of France
Encyclopedia
- See also Louise-Marie of France (1812-1850), Queen of the Belgians.
Louise Marie de France (15 July 1737 - 23 December 1787) was the youngest of the ten children of King Louis XV of France
Louis XV of France
Louis XV was a Bourbon monarch who ruled as King of France and of Navarre from 1 September 1715 until his death. He succeeded his great-grandfather at the age of five, his first cousin Philippe II, Duke of Orléans, served as Regent of the kingdom until Louis's majority in 1723...
and his wife, Queen Maria Leszczyńska
Maria Leszczynska
Marie Leszczyńska was a queen consort of France. She was a daughter of King Stanisław Leszczyński of Poland and Catherine Opalińska. She married King Louis XV of France and was the grandmother of Louis XVI, Louis XVIII, and Charles X. In France, she was referred to as Marie Leczinska...
. As a daughter of the king, she held the rank of a fille de France, and was known as Madame Louise. She outlived her father, mother, and all of her siblings except for her two older sisters, Madame Adélaïde and Madame Victoire
Victoire of France
Victoire de France, Princess of France was the seventh child and fifth daughter of King Louis XV of France and his Queen consort Maria Leszczyńska...
.
Biography
Louise Marie de France was born at VersaillesVersailles
Versailles , a city renowned for its château, the Palace of Versailles, was the de facto capital of the kingdom of France for over a century, from 1682 to 1789. It is now a wealthy suburb of Paris and remains an important administrative and judicial centre...
on 15 July 1737, and was known as "Madame Septième" (one of her seven older sisters died before her birth) or "Madame Dernière", later "Madame Louise". She was brought up at the Abbey of Fontevraud with Louis' three other youngest daughters, Madame Victoire, Madame Sophie and Madame Thérèse
Princess Thérèse of France
Thérèse de France, fille de France was a French Princesse du Sang.-Biography:...
(who died at Fontevraud at the age of eight). At the convent, she is known to have reminded a nun that she was the daughter of the King, and was given the reply: "And I am the daughter of God".
None of her father's projects for her marriage came to fruition, and she sought sanctuary from the world in her religion. In 1748, there were rumours that Louis would have her engaged to Charles Edward Stuart
Charles Edward Stuart
Prince Charles Edward Louis John Casimir Sylvester Severino Maria Stuart commonly known as Bonnie Prince Charlie or The Young Pretender was the second Jacobite pretender to the thrones of Great Britain , and Ireland...
(also known as Bonnie Prince Charlie, the Young Pretender to the throne of England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
). She said:
N'ai-je pas sujet d'être bien inquiète puisqu'on me destine un époux, moi qui n'en veux d'autre que Jésus-Christ?" ("Shouldn't I be anxious when I am destined for a husband, when I don't want any other than Jesus Christ?).
She returned to the court of Versailles in 1750, where she stayed for another twenty years, experiencing there the death of her older sister, Madame Henriette, in 1752; the births of her nieces and nephews; the assassination attempt on her father in 1757; the introduction of Madame du Barry
Madame du Barry
Jeanne Bécu, comtesse du Barry was the last Maîtresse-en-titre of Louis XV of France and one of the victims of the Reign of Terror during the French Revolution.-Early life:...
; the construction of the Petit Trianon
Petit Trianon
The Petit Trianon is a small château located on the grounds of the Palace of Versailles in Versailles, France.-Design and construction:...
; the death of her older sister, Madame Infante, and, finally, the death of her mother, Queen Maria Leszczyńska
Maria Leszczynska
Marie Leszczyńska was a queen consort of France. She was a daughter of King Stanisław Leszczyński of Poland and Catherine Opalińska. She married King Louis XV of France and was the grandmother of Louis XVI, Louis XVIII, and Charles X. In France, she was referred to as Marie Leczinska...
.
In 1770, to general amazement, Louise asked her father to allow her to become a Carmelite nun
Nun
A nun is a woman who has taken vows committing her to live a spiritual life. She may be an ascetic who voluntarily chooses to leave mainstream society and live her life in prayer and contemplation in a monastery or convent...
. She believed that becoming a nun would compensate for her father's lax morals. The year she left (1770), she saw the marriage of her nephew Louis-Auguste to Archduchess Marie Antoinette of Austria
Marie Antoinette
Marie Antoinette ; 2 November 1755 – 16 October 1793) was an Archduchess of Austria and the Queen of France and of Navarre. She was the fifteenth and penultimate child of Holy Roman Empress Maria Theresa and Holy Roman Emperor Francis I....
.
She joined the convent
Convent
A convent is either a community of priests, religious brothers, religious sisters, or nuns, or the building used by the community, particularly in the Roman Catholic Church and in the Anglican Communion...
at Saint-Denis
Saint-Denis
Saint-Denis is a commune in the northern suburbs of Paris, France. It is located from the centre of Paris. Saint-Denis is a sous-préfecture of the Seine-Saint-Denis département, being the seat of the Arrondissement of Saint-Denis....
, where the order's rule was obeyed strictly, taking the name Thérèse of Saint Augustine. A year later, in 1771, she gave her vows and was fully accepted in to the order.
She was Mother Superior
Abbess
An abbess is the female superior, or mother superior, of a community of nuns, often an abbey....
of the convent, from 1773 to 1779, and a second term from 1785 and interceded with her father to allow Austrian Carmelites persecuted by the Emperor Joseph II
Joseph II, Holy Roman Emperor
Joseph II was Holy Roman Emperor from 1765 to 1790 and ruler of the Habsburg lands from 1780 to 1790. He was the eldest son of Empress Maria Theresa and her husband, Francis I...
to enter France. While at the convent, she tried her best to make sure that the other nuns treated her as an equal rather than the daughter of a king. As a child, she had had an accident which had affected her knee. As a result, she found it difficult to kneel and when offered assistance, she refused.
She died at Saint-Denis, suffering from a stomach complaint. Her last words were:
Au paradis! Vite! Au grand galop!" ("To heaven! Quickly! At the gallop!)
Along with other royal tombs at Saint-Denis, her remains were desecrated during the French Revolution
French Revolution
The French Revolution , sometimes distinguished as the 'Great French Revolution' , was a period of radical social and political upheaval in France and Europe. The absolute monarchy that had ruled France for centuries collapsed in three years...
. Pope Pius IX
Pope Pius IX
Blessed Pope Pius IX , born Giovanni Maria Mastai-Ferretti, was the longest-reigning elected Pope in the history of the Catholic Church, serving from 16 June 1846 until his death, a period of nearly 32 years. During his pontificate, he convened the First Vatican Council in 1869, which decreed papal...
declared her Venerable
Venerable
The Venerable is used as a style or epithet in several Christian churches. It is also the common English-language translation of a number of Buddhist titles.-Roman Catholic:...
on 19 June 1873. Her life is celebrated on 23 December.