Élisabeth Philippine Marie Hélène of France
Encyclopedia
{|align=left
|
Élisabeth of France (Élisabeth Philippine Marie Hélène de France; 3 May 1764 – 10 May 1794), known as Madame Élisabeth, was a French princess
and the youngest sister of King Louis XVI
. During the French Revolution
, she remained beside the king and his family and was executed at Place de la Révolution
in Paris
during the Terror
.
Élisabeth was born on 3 May 1764 in the Palace of Versailles
in France, the youngest child of Louis, Dauphin of France, and his wife, Marie-Josèphe of Saxony. Her paternal grandparents were King Louis XV of France
and his consort, Queen Maria Leszczyńska
. As the granddaughter of the king, she was a Petite-Fille de France
. Her maternal grandparents were King Augustus III of Poland
, also the Elector of Saxony
, and his wife, the Archduchess Maria Josepha
, daughter of the Holy Roman Emperor Joseph I
.
She was raised by Marie Louise de Rohan, comtesse de Marsan and Governess of the Children of France
and sister of the Prince of Soubise
. She was given a good education. A skillful rider, she was also interested in art; several of her drawings are preserved in the museum of the Château de Versailles.
Élisabeth was deeply religious. She was devoted to her brother the king, and refused to marry (as it would have been to a foreign prince) so that she might remain in France: in 1777, a marriage was suggested to Joseph II, Holy Roman Emperor
, but she declined with her brother's consent.
, were the staunchest conservatives in the royal family. Unlike Artois, who, on the order of the king, left France on 17 July 1789, three days after the storming of the Bastille
, Élisabeth refused to emigrate when the gravity of the events set forth by the French Revolution
became clear. After the march of women to Versailles on 5 October 1789, and the transfer of the royal family to the Tuileries Palace
in Paris, she remained with the king and his family, rather than with her aunts, Madame Adélaïde and Madame Victoire, at the château de Bellevue, near Paris. She corresponded with the exiled comte d'Artois, and one of her letters, in which she expressed her view that a foreign intervention by the exiled French royalists and foreign monarchies was necessary to restore the old regime, was intercepted by the National Assembly. She was loyal to the royal couple, but was more unyielding toward any compromises in the limitation of the powers of the Church and the monarchy.
In February 1791, she chose not to emigrate with her aunts Adélaïde and Victoire, but accompanied the royal family on its unsuccessful escape attempt
of 20 June 1791, which was stopped at Varennes
. During the storming of the Tuileries Palace, she showed herself to the crowd, who mistook her for the queen.
On 10 August 1792, when insurgents attacked the Tuileries, she followed the king and his family, seeking refuge at the Legislative Assembly
, where she witnessed, later on in the day, her brother's dethronement. The whole family was transferred to the Temple Tower
three days later. After the execution of the former king on 21 January 1793 and the separation of her nephew, the young "Louis XVII"
from the rest of the family on 3 July, Élisabeth was left with Marie Antoinette
, and Marie-Thérèse Charlotte
, Madame Royale, in their apartment in the Tower. The former queen was taken to the Conciergerie
on 2 August 1793, and executed on 16 October. Marie Antoinette's last letter, written in the early hours of the day of her execution, was addressed to Élisabeth, but never reached her. Élisabeth and Marie-Thérèse were kept in ignorance of Marie Antoinette's death.
. She was accused of assisting the king's flight, of supplying émigré
s with funds, and of encouraging the resistance of the royal troops during the events of 10 August 1792
. During her trial, she replied, when addressed as "The Sister of a Tyrant": "If my brother had been what you call him, you would not have been where you are, nor I where I am". She was condemned to death and guillotine
d the following day.
She was executed along with 23 other men and women, who had been tried and condemned at the same time as she. A devout Roman Catholic, and the highest ranking among them, in the cart taking them to their execution, and while waiting her turn, she helped several of them through the ordeal, encouraging them and reciting the De profundis
until her time came.
At the foot of the guillotine, two of the women who were also in the cart asked to kiss her before their execution. Elizabeth gladly did so, and then was forced by the executioners to remain in the cart and watch the others being executed, before she herself was finally taken up to be guillotined.
While she was being strapped to the board, her shawl fell off, exposing her shoulders, and she cried to the executioner Au nom de votre mère, monsieur, couvrez-moi. "In the name of your mother, monsieur, cover me."
Her body was buried in a common grave at the Errancis Cemetery
in Paris. At the time of the Restoration
, her brother Louis XVIII searched for her remains, only to discover that the bodies interred there had decomposed to a state where they could no longer be identified . Élisabeth's remains, with that of other victims of the guillotine (including Robespierre, also buried at the Errancis Cemetery), were later placed in the Catacombs of Paris
. A medallion represents her at the Basilica of Saint Denis.
as the only means to drive it from the land.
Royalist literature represents her as a Catholic martyr, while left-wing historians severely criticise her for extreme conservatism, which seemed excessive even to Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette. Several biographies have been published of her in French, while extensive treatment of her life is given in Antonia Fraser
's biography of Marie Antoinette and Deborah Cadbury's investigative biography of Louis XVII.
|
Élisabeth of France (Élisabeth Philippine Marie Hélène de France; 3 May 1764 – 10 May 1794), known as Madame Élisabeth, was a French princess
Fils de France
Fils de France was the style and rank held by the sons of the kings and dauphins of France. A daughter was known as a fille de France .The children of the dauphin, who was the king's heir apparent, were accorded the same style and status as if they were the king's children instead of his...
and the youngest sister of King Louis XVI
Louis XVI of France
Louis XVI was a Bourbon monarch who ruled as King of France and Navarre until 1791, and then as King of the French from 1791 to 1792, before being executed in 1793....
. 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...
, she remained beside the king and his family and was executed at Place de la Révolution
Place de la Concorde
The Place de la Concorde in area, it is the largest square in the French capital. It is located in the city's eighth arrondissement, at the eastern end of the Champs-Élysées.- History :...
in Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
during the 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...
.
Life
Palace of Versailles
The Palace of Versailles , or simply Versailles, is a royal château in Versailles in the Île-de-France region of France. In French it is the Château de Versailles....
in France, the youngest child of Louis, Dauphin of France, and his wife, Marie-Josèphe of Saxony. Her paternal grandparents were 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 consort, 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 the granddaughter of the king, she was a Petite-Fille de France
Fils de France
Fils de France was the style and rank held by the sons of the kings and dauphins of France. A daughter was known as a fille de France .The children of the dauphin, who was the king's heir apparent, were accorded the same style and status as if they were the king's children instead of his...
. Her maternal grandparents were King Augustus III of Poland
Augustus III of Poland
Augustus III, known as the Saxon ; ; also Prince-elector Friedrich August II was the Elector of Saxony in 1733-1763, as Frederick Augustus II , King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania in 1734-1763.-Biography:Augustus was the only legitimate son of Augustus II the Strong, Imperial Prince-Elector...
, also the Elector of Saxony
Rulers of Saxony
This article lists Dukes, Electors, and Kings ruling over different territories named Saxony from the beginning of the Saxon Duchy in the 9th century to the end of the Saxon Kingdom in 1918.-Dukes of Saxony:...
, and his wife, the Archduchess Maria Josepha
Maria Josepha of Austria
Maria Josepha of Austria was born an Archduchess of Austria, and from 1711 to 1713 was heiress presumptive to the Habsburg Empire...
, daughter of the Holy Roman Emperor Joseph I
Joseph I, Holy Roman Emperor
Joseph I , Holy Roman Emperor, King of Bohemia, King of Hungary, King of the Romans was the elder son of Emperor Leopold I and his third wife, Eleonor Magdalene of Neuburg....
.
She was raised by Marie Louise de Rohan, comtesse de Marsan and Governess of the Children of France
Governess of the Children of France
In France, the Governess of the Children of France , was charged with the education of the children and grand children of the monarch. The holder of the office was taken from the highest ranking nobility of France...
and sister of the Prince of Soubise
Charles, Prince of Soubise
Charles de Rohan , duke of Rohan-Rohan, seigneur of Roberval, and marshal of France from 1758, was a military man, a minister to the kings Louis XV and Louis XVI, and a notorious libertine. The last male of his branch of the House of Rohan, he was also the great grandfather to the duc d'Enghien,...
. She was given a good education. A skillful rider, she was also interested in art; several of her drawings are preserved in the museum of the Château de Versailles.
Élisabeth was deeply religious. She was devoted to her brother the king, and refused to marry (as it would have been to a foreign prince) so that she might remain in France: in 1777, a marriage was suggested to Joseph II, Holy Roman Emperor
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...
, but she declined with her brother's consent.
Revolution
Élisabeth and her brother Charles-Philippe, comte d'ArtoisCharles X of France
Charles X was known for most of his life as the Comte d'Artois before he reigned as King of France and of Navarre from 16 September 1824 until 2 August 1830. A younger brother to Kings Louis XVI and Louis XVIII, he supported the latter in exile and eventually succeeded him...
, were the staunchest conservatives in the royal family. Unlike Artois, who, on the order of the king, left France on 17 July 1789, three days after the storming of the Bastille
Storming of the Bastille
The storming of the Bastille occurred in Paris on the morning of 14 July 1789. The medieval fortress and prison in Paris known as the Bastille represented royal authority in the centre of Paris. While the prison only contained seven inmates at the time of its storming, its fall was the flashpoint...
, Élisabeth refused to emigrate when the gravity of the events set forth by 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...
became clear. After the march of women to Versailles on 5 October 1789, and the transfer of the royal family to the Tuileries Palace
Tuileries 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...
in Paris, she remained with the king and his family, rather than with her aunts, Madame Adélaïde and Madame Victoire, at the château de Bellevue, near Paris. She corresponded with the exiled comte d'Artois, and one of her letters, in which she expressed her view that a foreign intervention by the exiled French royalists and foreign monarchies was necessary to restore the old regime, was intercepted by the National Assembly. She was loyal to the royal couple, but was more unyielding toward any compromises in the limitation of the powers of the Church and the monarchy.
In February 1791, she chose not to emigrate with her aunts Adélaïde and Victoire, but accompanied the royal family on its unsuccessful escape attempt
Flight to Varennes
The Flight to Varennes was a significant episode in the French Revolution during which King Louis XVI of France, his wife Marie Antoinette, and their immediate family attempted unsuccessfully to escape from Paris in order to initiate a counter-revolution...
of 20 June 1791, which was stopped at Varennes
Varennes-en-Argonne
Varennes-en-Argonne or simply Varennes is a commune in the Meuse department in Lorraine in north-eastern France.Population : 691.-Geography:Varennes-en-Argonne lies on the river Aire to the northeast of Sainte-Menehould, near Verdun.-History:...
. During the storming of the Tuileries Palace, she showed herself to the crowd, who mistook her for the queen.
On 10 August 1792, when insurgents attacked the Tuileries, she followed the king and his family, seeking refuge at 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...
, where she witnessed, later on in the day, her brother's dethronement. The whole family was transferred to the Temple Tower
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...
three days later. After the execution of the former king on 21 January 1793 and the separation of her nephew, the young "Louis XVII"
Louis XVII of France
Louis XVII , from birth to 1789 known as Louis-Charles, Duke of Normandy; then from 1789 to 1791 as Louis-Charles, Dauphin of France; and from 1791 to 1793 as Louis-Charles, Prince Royal of France, was the son of King Louis XVI of France and Queen Marie Antoinette...
from the rest of the family on 3 July, Élisabeth was left with 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....
, and Marie-Thérèse Charlotte
Marie-Thérèse-Charlotte of France
Marie Thérèse de France was the eldest child of King Louis XVI of France and his wife, Queen Marie Antoinette...
, Madame Royale, in their apartment in the Tower. The former queen was taken to the Conciergerie
Conciergerie
La Conciergerie is a former royal palace and prison in Paris, France, located on the west of the Île de la Cité, near the Cathedral of Notre-Dame. It is part of the larger complex known as the Palais de Justice, which is still used for judicial purposes...
on 2 August 1793, and executed on 16 October. Marie Antoinette's last letter, written in the early hours of the day of her execution, was addressed to Élisabeth, but never reached her. Élisabeth and Marie-Thérèse were kept in ignorance of Marie Antoinette's death.
Trial and execution
Élisabeth was not regarded as dangerous by Robespierre, and the original plan had been to banish her from France. She spent her last days with Marie-Thérèse, comforting and looking after her niece, who later wrote of her: "I feel I have her nature . . . [she] considered me and cared for me as her daughter, and I, I honoured her as a second mother". On 9 May 1794, however, she was transferred to the Conciergerie and brought before the Revolutionary TribunalRevolutionary Tribunal
The Revolutionary Tribunal was a court which was instituted in Paris by the Convention during the French Revolution for the trial of political offenders, and eventually became one of the most powerful engines of the Reign of Terror....
. She was accused of assisting the king's flight, of supplying émigré
Émigré
Émigré is a French term that literally refers to a person who has "migrated out", but often carries a connotation of politico-social self-exile....
s with funds, and of encouraging the resistance of the royal troops during the events of 10 August 1792
10th of August (French Revolution)
On 10 August 1792, during the French Revolution, revolutionary Fédéré militias — with the backing of a new municipal government of Paris that came to be known as the "insurrectionary" Paris Commune and ultimately supported by the National Guard — besieged the Tuileries palace. King Louis XVI and...
. During her trial, she replied, when addressed as "The Sister of a Tyrant": "If my brother had been what you call him, you would not have been where you are, nor I where I am". She was condemned to death and guillotine
Guillotine
The guillotine is a device used for carrying out :executions by decapitation. It consists of a tall upright frame from which an angled blade is suspended. This blade is raised with a rope and then allowed to drop, severing the head from the body...
d the following day.
She was executed along with 23 other men and women, who had been tried and condemned at the same time as she. A devout Roman Catholic, and the highest ranking among them, in the cart taking them to their execution, and while waiting her turn, she helped several of them through the ordeal, encouraging them and reciting the De profundis
Psalm 130
Psalm 130 , traditionally De profundis from its Latin incipit, is one of the Penitential psalms.-Commentary:...
until her time came.
At the foot of the guillotine, two of the women who were also in the cart asked to kiss her before their execution. Elizabeth gladly did so, and then was forced by the executioners to remain in the cart and watch the others being executed, before she herself was finally taken up to be guillotined.
While she was being strapped to the board, her shawl fell off, exposing her shoulders, and she cried to the executioner Au nom de votre mère, monsieur, couvrez-moi. "In the name of your mother, monsieur, cover me."
Her body was buried in a common grave at the Errancis Cemetery
Errancis Cemetery
Errancis Cemetery or Cimetière des Errancis is a former cemetery in Paris and was used to dispose of the corpses of guillotine victims.-History and location:...
in Paris. At the time of the Restoration
Bourbon Restoration
The Bourbon Restoration is the name given to the period following the successive events of the French Revolution , the end of the First Republic , and then the forcible end of the First French Empire under Napoleon – when a coalition of European powers restored by arms the monarchy to the...
, her brother Louis XVIII searched for her remains, only to discover that the bodies interred there had decomposed to a state where they could no longer be identified . Élisabeth's remains, with that of other victims of the guillotine (including Robespierre, also buried at the Errancis Cemetery), were later placed in the Catacombs of Paris
Catacombs of Paris
The Catacombs of Paris or Catacombes de Paris are an underground ossuary in Paris, France. Located south of the former city gate , the ossuary holds the remains of about 6 million people and fills a renovated section of caverns and tunnels that are the remains of Paris' stone mines...
. A medallion represents her at the Basilica of Saint Denis.
Assessment
Élisabeth, who had turned thirty a week before her death, was executed essentially because she was a sister of the king; however, the general consensus of the French revolutionaries was that she was a supporter of the ultra-right royalist faction. There is much evidence to suggest that she actively supported the intrigues of the comte d'Artois to bring foreign armies into France to crush the Revolution. In monarchist circles, her exemplary private life elicited much admiration. Élisabeth was much praised for her charitable nature, familial devotion and devout Catholic faith. There can be no question that she saw the Revolution as the incarnation of evil on earth and viewed civil warCivil war
A civil war is a war between organized groups within the same nation state or republic, or, less commonly, between two countries created from a formerly-united nation state....
as the only means to drive it from the land.
Royalist literature represents her as a Catholic martyr, while left-wing historians severely criticise her for extreme conservatism, which seemed excessive even to Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette. Several biographies have been published of her in French, while extensive treatment of her life is given in 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...
's biography of Marie Antoinette and Deborah Cadbury's investigative biography of Louis XVII.
Primary source
Duchess of Angoulême's Memoirs on the Captivity in the Temple (from the autograph manuscript; see in particular Part 3)- Duchess of Angoulême's Memoirs on the Captivity in the Temple, (1823 English translation of a slightly redacted French edition; see in particular Part 3)