Princess Marie Louise of Savoy
Encyclopedia
Maria Luisa of Savoy was a member of the House of Savoy
. She was married at the age of 16 to Louis Alexandre de Bourbon, Prince de Lamballe, the heir to the greatest fortune in France. After her marriage, which lasted a year, she went to court and became the confidante of Queen Marie Antoinette
. Her death in the massacres of September 1792
during the French Revolution
sparked a movement of anti-revolutionary propaganda, which ultimately led to the development and implementation of the Reign of Terror
.
. Her father was Louis Victor, Prince of Carignano, a maternal grandson of Victor Amadeus II of Sardinia
and his mistress Jeanne d'Albert de Luynes
.
Her mother, Christine of Hesse-Rotenburg, was the daughter of Ernest Leopold, Landgrave of Hesse-Rotenburg
. Her aunts included, Polyxena of Hesse-Rotenburg, the wife of Charles Emmanuel III of Sardinia
(Victor Amadeus III was her first cousin) and Caroline of Hesse-Rotenburg
was a Princess of Condé
and wife of Louis Henri, Duke of Bourbon. Louis Joseph, Prince of Condé was another first cousin who was at the French court.
On 31 January 1767, she married by proxy Louis Alexandre de Bourbon, prince de Lamballe, grandson of Louis XIV's
legitimised son, Louis Alexandre de Bourbon
, comte de Toulouse, and the only surviving son of Duke of Penthièvre, who had arranged the marriage.
The Prince of Lamballe was a débauché. For the first few months of the marriage, he was devoted to his wife. The couple spent their honeymoon at the Château de Nangis
,then went to reside in Paris. Five months into the marriage, the prince took as his mistress Mademoiselle de La Chassaigne, an opera dancer. At one point, Louis Alexandre even sold his wife's diamonds to raise money to pay his debts.
In 1768, at the age of nineteen, Marie Louise became a widow when her husband died of a venereal disease at the Château de Louveciennes
. She inherited her husband's already considerable fortune, making her wealthy in her own right.
She lived at the Hôtel de Toulouse
in Paris, and at the Château de Rambouillet
. On 4 January 1769, there was an announcement of the marriage of Marie Louise's sister-in-law Mademoiselle de Penthièvre
, heiress to the greatest fortune in France, to the young Philippe d'Orléans
, duc de Chartres, and old friend of the late prince de Lamballe.
The princesse de Lamballe was present at every ceremony, and the new Dauphine, to whom she was presented, was charmed with her and overwhelmed her with attentions which the spectators did not fail to notice. More than one saw even then the dawn of an intimacy which later was to give so much trouble to the two friends.
At that time, Madame de Lamballe was almost constantly at court. During 1771, she assisted at every ceremonial. The "Gazette de France" mentions her presence in the chapel at high mass on Holy Thursday, at which the king was present accompanied by the royal family, the Dukes of Bourbon
and Penthièvre. In May, she went to Fontainebleau, was there presented by the king to the future Countess of Provence (first cousin), and attended the supper after. She was present at the birth of the future Louis-Philippe of France
in Paris in October 1773.
At the accession of her husband to the throne in May 1774, at the death of Louis XV, Marie Antoinette became Queen of France. In September of the next year, she appointed Marie Louise "Superintendent of the Queen's Household", the highest rank possible for a lady-in-waiting
at Versailles, which earned Marie Louise the resentment of many aristocrats. Her pre-eminence in courtly high society was eventually eclipsed by Yolande de Polastron, duchesse de Polignac, who arrived at Versailles in 1775.
Marie Louise was by nature extremely prudish and there was never any gossip about her private life. However, in popular anti-monarchist propaganda of the time, she was regularly portrayed in pornographic pamphlets, showing her as the queen's lesbian
lover to undermine the public image of the monarchy.
after the Women's March on Versailles in October 1789. In Paris, her salon
served as a meeting place for the queen and the members of the National Constituent Assembly
, many of whom the queen wished to win over to the cause of the Bourbon Monarchy
.
During her stay at a house she rented in the Royal Crescent
, Bath, Great Britain
in 1791 to appeal for help for the French royal family, the princess wrote her will
, since she feared death upon returning to Paris. Nonetheless, she did return out of loyalty to Marie Antoinette. She went to the Tuileries, and continued her services to the queen until the attack on the palace on 10 August 1792, when the royal family took refuge in the Legislative Assembly
, and was later imprisoned in the Temple
, after the Legislative Assembly was taken.
On 19 August, she and the Marquise de Tourzel, governess to the royal children, were separated from the royal family and transferred to the La Force prison
. On 3 September, she was brought before a hastily assembled tribunal which demanded she "take an oath to love liberty and equality and to swear hatred to the King and the Queen and to the monarchy". She refused, upon which her trial summarily ended with the words, "Élargissez madame" ("Take madame away"). She was immediately taken to the street and thrown to a group of men who killed her within minutes.
Some reports allege that she was raped and that her breasts were cut off, in addition to other bodily mutilations, and that her head was cut off and stuck on a pike. Other reports say that it was brought to a nearby café where it was laid in front of the customers, who were asked to drink in celebration of her death. Other reports state that the head was taken to a barber in order to dress the hair to make it instantly recognizable, though this has been contested. Following this, the head was replaced upon the pike and was paraded beneath Marie Antoinette’s window at the Temple.
Those who were carrying it wished the queen to kiss the lips of her favourite, as it was a frequent slander that the two had been lovers. The head was not allowed to be brought into the building, but the queen's guards did force her to look out of the window at the sight, whereupon she fainted almost immediately. In her historical biography, Marie Antoinette : The Journey Antonia Fraser
claims that the queen did not actually see the head of her long-time friend, but was aware of what was occurring, stating, "...the municipal officers had had the decency to close the shutters and the commissioners kept them away from the windows...one of these officers told the King '..they are trying to show you the head of Madame de Lamballe'...Mercifully, the Queen then fainted away".
Five citizens of the local section in Paris delivered her body (minus her head which was still being displayed on a pike) to the authorities shortly after her death. Royalist accounts of the incident claimed her body was displayed on the street for a full day. Her body (like that of her brother-in-law Philippe Égalité) was never found, which is why it is not entombed in the Orléans family necropolis at Dreux. According to Madame Tussaud
, she was ordered to make the death mask
.
in W.S. Van Dyke's 1938 film Marie Antoinette
and by Mary Nighy
in the 2006 film Marie Antoinette
directed by Sofia Coppola
.
House of Savoy
The House of Savoy was formed in the early 11th century in the historical Savoy region. Through gradual expansion, it grew from ruling a small county in that region to eventually rule the Kingdom of Italy from 1861 until the end of World War II, king of Croatia and King of Armenia...
. She was married at the age of 16 to Louis Alexandre de Bourbon, Prince de Lamballe, the heir to the greatest fortune in France. After her marriage, which lasted a year, she went to court and became the confidante of Queen Marie Antoinette
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....
. Her death in the massacres of September 1792
September Massacres
The September Massacres were a wave of mob violence which overtook Paris in late summer 1792, during the French Revolution. By the time it had subsided, half the prison population of Paris had been executed: some 1,200 trapped prisoners, including many women and young boys...
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...
sparked a movement of anti-revolutionary propaganda, which ultimately led to the development and implementation of the Reign of Terror
Reign of Terror
The Reign of Terror , also known simply as The Terror , was a period of violence that occurred after the onset of the French Revolution, incited by conflict between rival political factions, the Girondins and the Jacobins, and marked by mass executions of "enemies of...
.
Biography
Marie Louise was born in TurinTurin
Turin is a city and major business and cultural centre in northern Italy, capital of the Piedmont region, located mainly on the left bank of the Po River and surrounded by the Alpine arch. The population of the city proper is 909,193 while the population of the urban area is estimated by Eurostat...
. Her father was Louis Victor, Prince of Carignano, a maternal grandson of Victor Amadeus II of Sardinia
Victor Amadeus II of Sardinia
Victor Amadeus II was Duke of Savoy from 1675 to 1730. He also held the titles of marquis of Saluzzo, duke of Montferrat, prince of Piedmont, count of Aosta, Moriana and Nizza. Louis XIV organised his marriage in order to maintain French influence in the Duchy but Victor Amadeus soon broke away...
and his mistress Jeanne d'Albert de Luynes
Jeanne Baptiste d'Albert de Luynes
Jeanne Baptiste d'Albert de Luynes, comtesse de Verrue was a French noblewoman and the mistress of Victor Amadeus II of Sardinia.-Biography:...
.
Her mother, Christine of Hesse-Rotenburg, was the daughter of Ernest Leopold, Landgrave of Hesse-Rotenburg
Ernest Leopold, Landgrave of Hesse-Rotenburg
Ernst Leopold of Hesse-Rotenburg was landgrave of Hessen-Rheinfels-Rotenburg between 1725 and 1749.Born in Langenschwalbach, he was a son of landgrave William of Hesse-Rotenburg and Maria Anna of Löwenstein-Wertheim .He died in Rotenburg in 1749.-Marriage and issue:He married his first cousin...
. Her aunts included, Polyxena of Hesse-Rotenburg, the wife of Charles Emmanuel III of Sardinia
Charles Emmanuel III of Sardinia
Charles Emmanuel III was the Duke of Savoy and King of Sardinia from 1730 until his death.-Biography:...
(Victor Amadeus III was her first cousin) and Caroline of Hesse-Rotenburg
Landgravine Caroline of Hesse-Rotenburg
Princess Caroline of Hesse-Rheinfels-Rotenburg was the consort of Louis Henri, Duke of Bourbon.-Biography:Born at Rotenburg an der Fulda in Hesse, Germany, she was the daughter of Ernest Leopold, Landgrave of Hesse-Rotenburg, head of the Roman Catholic branch of the House of Hesse, by his wife...
was a Princess of Condé
Princess of Condé
- Princess of Condé :-See also:*Duchess of Bourbon*Duchess of Guise*Duchess of Enghien*Duchess of Montmorency...
and wife of Louis Henri, Duke of Bourbon. Louis Joseph, Prince of Condé was another first cousin who was at the French court.
On 31 January 1767, she married by proxy Louis Alexandre de Bourbon, prince de Lamballe, grandson of Louis XIV's
Louis XIV of France
Louis XIV , known as Louis the Great or the Sun King , was a Bourbon monarch who ruled as King of France and Navarre. His reign, from 1643 to his death in 1715, began at the age of four and lasted seventy-two years, three months, and eighteen days...
legitimised son, Louis Alexandre de Bourbon
Louis-Alexandre de Bourbon, Comte de Toulouse
Louis Alexandre de Bourbon, comte de Toulouse , duc de Penthièvre , d'Arc, de Châteauvillain and de Rambouillet , , was the son of Louis XIV and of his mistress Madame de Montespan...
, comte de Toulouse, and the only surviving son of Duke of Penthièvre, who had arranged the marriage.
The Prince of Lamballe was a débauché. For the first few months of the marriage, he was devoted to his wife. The couple spent their honeymoon at the Château de Nangis
Château de Nangis
The Château de Nangis, also called Château de La Motte Nangis, is a modernised castle located in the heart of the town of Nangis, in the Seine-et-Marne département of France. It protected the population of the "seigneurie" during the Hundred Years' War...
,then went to reside in Paris. Five months into the marriage, the prince took as his mistress Mademoiselle de La Chassaigne, an opera dancer. At one point, Louis Alexandre even sold his wife's diamonds to raise money to pay his debts.
In 1768, at the age of nineteen, Marie Louise became a widow when her husband died of a venereal disease at the Château de Louveciennes
Château de Louveciennes
The Château de Louveciennes in Louveciennes, in the Yvelines department of France, is composed of the château itself, constructed at the end of the 17th century. It was then expanded and redecorated by Ange-Jacques Gabriel for Madame du Barry in the 18th century, and the music pavilion was...
. She inherited her husband's already considerable fortune, making her wealthy in her own right.
She lived at the Hôtel de Toulouse
Hôtel de Toulouse
The Hôtel de Toulouse, former Hôtel de La Vrillière, situated 1 rue de La Vrillière, in the 1st arrondissement of Paris, was built between 1635 and 1640 by François Mansart, for Louis Phélypeaux, seigneur de La Vrillière....
in Paris, and at the Château de Rambouillet
Château de Rambouillet
The château de Rambouillet is a castle in the town of Rambouillet, Yvelines department, in the Île-de-France region in northern France, southwest of Paris...
. On 4 January 1769, there was an announcement of the marriage of Marie Louise's sister-in-law Mademoiselle de Penthièvre
Louise Marie Adélaïde de Bourbon
Louise Marie Adélaïde de Bourbon, Duchess of Orléans, , was the daughter of Louis Jean Marie de Bourbon, Duke of Penthièvre and of Princess Maria Theresa Felicitas of Modena. At the death of her brother, Louis Alexandre de Bourbon, prince de Lamballe, she became the wealthiest heiress in France...
, heiress to the greatest fortune in France, to the young Philippe d'Orléans
Louis Philippe II, Duke of Orléans
Louis Philippe Joseph d'Orléans commonly known as Philippe, was a member of a cadet branch of the House of Bourbon, the ruling dynasty of France. He actively supported the French Revolution and adopted the name Philippe Égalité, but was nonetheless guillotined during the Reign of Terror...
, duc de Chartres, and old friend of the late prince de Lamballe.
The princesse de Lamballe was present at every ceremony, and the new Dauphine, to whom she was presented, was charmed with her and overwhelmed her with attentions which the spectators did not fail to notice. More than one saw even then the dawn of an intimacy which later was to give so much trouble to the two friends.
At that time, Madame de Lamballe was almost constantly at court. During 1771, she assisted at every ceremonial. The "Gazette de France" mentions her presence in the chapel at high mass on Holy Thursday, at which the king was present accompanied by the royal family, the Dukes of Bourbon
Louis Henry II, Prince of Condé
Louis Henri de Bourbon was the Prince of Condé from 1818 to his death.-Life:He was the only son of Louis Joseph, Prince of Condé and his wife, Charlotte de Rohan....
and Penthièvre. In May, she went to Fontainebleau, was there presented by the king to the future Countess of Provence (first cousin), and attended the supper after. She was present at the birth of the future Louis-Philippe of France
Louis-Philippe of France
Louis Philippe I was King of the French from 1830 to 1848 in what was known as the July Monarchy. His father was a duke who supported the French Revolution but was nevertheless guillotined. Louis Philippe fled France as a young man and spent 21 years in exile, including considerable time in the...
in Paris in October 1773.
At the accession of her husband to the throne in May 1774, at the death of Louis XV, Marie Antoinette became Queen of France. In September of the next year, she appointed Marie Louise "Superintendent of the Queen's Household", the highest rank possible for a lady-in-waiting
Lady-in-waiting
A lady-in-waiting is a female personal assistant at a royal court, attending on a queen, a princess, or a high-ranking noblewoman. Historically, in Europe a lady-in-waiting was often a noblewoman from a family highly thought of in good society, but was of lower rank than the woman on whom she...
at Versailles, which earned Marie Louise the resentment of many aristocrats. Her pre-eminence in courtly high society was eventually eclipsed by Yolande de Polastron, duchesse de Polignac, who arrived at Versailles in 1775.
Marie Louise was by nature extremely prudish and there was never any gossip about her private life. However, in popular anti-monarchist propaganda of the time, she was regularly portrayed in pornographic pamphlets, showing her as the queen's lesbian
Lesbian
Lesbian is a term most widely used in the English language to describe sexual and romantic desire between females. The word may be used as a noun, to refer to women who identify themselves or who are characterized by others as having the primary attribute of female homosexuality, or as an...
lover to undermine the public image of the monarchy.
Revolution
The princesse de Lamballe accompanied the royal family to the Tuileries PalaceTuileries Palace
The Tuileries Palace was a royal palace in Paris which stood on the right bank of the River Seine until 1871, when it was destroyed in the upheaval during the suppression of the Paris Commune...
after the Women's March on Versailles in October 1789. In Paris, her salon
Salon (gathering)
A salon is a gathering of people under the roof of an inspiring host, held partly to amuse one another and partly to refine taste and increase their knowledge of the participants through conversation. These gatherings often consciously followed Horace's definition of the aims of poetry, "either to...
served as a meeting place for the queen and the members of the National Constituent Assembly
National Constituent Assembly
The National Constituent Assembly was formed from the National Assembly on 9 July 1789, during the first stages of the French Revolution. It dissolved on 30 September 1791 and was succeeded by the Legislative Assembly.-Background:...
, many of whom the queen wished to win over to the cause of the Bourbon Monarchy
House of Bourbon
The House of Bourbon is a European royal house, a branch of the Capetian dynasty . Bourbon kings first ruled Navarre and France in the 16th century. By the 18th century, members of the Bourbon dynasty also held thrones in Spain, Naples, Sicily, and Parma...
.
During her stay at a house she rented in the Royal Crescent
Royal Crescent
The Royal Crescent is a residential road of 30 houses laid out in a crescent in the city of Bath, England. Designed by the architect John Wood the Younger and built between 1767 and 1774, it is among the greatest examples of Georgian architecture to be found in the United Kingdom and is a grade I...
, Bath, Great Britain
Kingdom of Great Britain
The former Kingdom of Great Britain, sometimes described as the 'United Kingdom of Great Britain', That the Two Kingdoms of Scotland and England, shall upon the 1st May next ensuing the date hereof, and forever after, be United into One Kingdom by the Name of GREAT BRITAIN. was a sovereign...
in 1791 to appeal for help for the French royal family, the princess wrote her will
Will (law)
A will or testament is a legal declaration by which a person, the testator, names one or more persons to manage his/her estate and provides for the transfer of his/her property at death...
, since she feared death upon returning to Paris. Nonetheless, she did return out of loyalty to Marie Antoinette. She went to the Tuileries, and continued her services to the queen until the attack on the palace on 10 August 1792, when the royal family took refuge in the Legislative Assembly
Legislative Assembly (France)
During the French Revolution, the Legislative Assembly was the legislature of France from 1 October 1791 to September 1792. It provided the focus of political debate and revolutionary law-making between the periods of the National Constituent Assembly and of the National Convention.The Legislative...
, and was later imprisoned in the Temple
Temple (Paris)
The Temple was a medieval fortress in Paris, located in what is now the IIIe arrondissement. It was built by the Knights Templar from the 12th century, as their European headquarters. In the 13th century it replaced earlier works of the Vieille Temple in Le Marais...
, after the Legislative Assembly was taken.
Death
La Force Prison
La Force Prison was a French prison located in the Rue du Roi de Sicile, what is now the 4th arrondissement of Paris.Originally the private residence of the Duke of la Force, the structure was converted into a prison in 1780....
. On 3 September, she was brought before a hastily assembled tribunal which demanded she "take an oath to love liberty and equality and to swear hatred to the King and the Queen and to the monarchy". She refused, upon which her trial summarily ended with the words, "Élargissez madame" ("Take madame away"). She was immediately taken to the street and thrown to a group of men who killed her within minutes.
Some reports allege that she was raped and that her breasts were cut off, in addition to other bodily mutilations, and that her head was cut off and stuck on a pike. Other reports say that it was brought to a nearby café where it was laid in front of the customers, who were asked to drink in celebration of her death. Other reports state that the head was taken to a barber in order to dress the hair to make it instantly recognizable, though this has been contested. Following this, the head was replaced upon the pike and was paraded beneath Marie Antoinette’s window at the Temple.
Those who were carrying it wished the queen to kiss the lips of her favourite, as it was a frequent slander that the two had been lovers. The head was not allowed to be brought into the building, but the queen's guards did force her to look out of the window at the sight, whereupon she fainted almost immediately. In her historical biography, Marie Antoinette : The Journey Antonia Fraser
Antonia Fraser
Lady Antonia Margaret Caroline Fraser, DBE , née Pakenham, is an Anglo-Irish author of history, novels, biographies and detective fiction, best known as Antonia Fraser...
claims that the queen did not actually see the head of her long-time friend, but was aware of what was occurring, stating, "...the municipal officers had had the decency to close the shutters and the commissioners kept them away from the windows...one of these officers told the King '..they are trying to show you the head of Madame de Lamballe'...Mercifully, the Queen then fainted away".
Five citizens of the local section in Paris delivered her body (minus her head which was still being displayed on a pike) to the authorities shortly after her death. Royalist accounts of the incident claimed her body was displayed on the street for a full day. Her body (like that of her brother-in-law Philippe Égalité) was never found, which is why it is not entombed in the Orléans family necropolis at Dreux. According to Madame Tussaud
Marie Tussaud
Anna Maria Tussaud was an artist known for her wax sculptures and Madame Tussaud's, the wax museum she founded in London.- Biography :...
, she was ordered to make the death mask
Death mask
In Western cultures a death mask is a wax or plaster cast made of a person’s face following death. Death masks may be mementos of the dead, or be used for creation of portraits...
.
In media
The princesse de Lamballe has been portrayed in several films and miniseries. Two of the more notable portrayals were by Anita LouiseAnita Louise
-Life and career:Born Anita Louise Fremault in New York, New York, she made her acting debut on Broadway at the age of six, and within a year was appearing regularly in Hollywood films...
in W.S. Van Dyke's 1938 film Marie Antoinette
Marie Antoinette (1938 film)
Marie Antoinette is a 1938 film produced by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. It was directed by W. S. Van Dyke and starred Norma Shearer as Marie Antoinette...
and by Mary Nighy
Mary Nighy
Mary Nighy is an English actress and film maker. She was named one of the UK Film Council's breakthrough Brits in 2005.-Work:Nighy is director of Foster Films...
in the 2006 film Marie Antoinette
Marie Antoinette (2006 film)
Marie Antoinette is a 2006 biographical film, written and directed by Sofia Coppola. It is very loosely based on the life of the Queen consort in the years leading up to the French Revolution. It won an Academy Award for Best Costume Design...
directed by Sofia Coppola
Sofia Coppola
Sofia Carmina Coppola is an American screenwriter, film director, actress, and producer.In 2003 she received the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay for Lost in Translation, and became the third woman to be nominated for an Academy Award for Directing...
.