Pastel Louise De France Fille De Louis XV

pastel of louise de france last daughter of louis xv

signature at the bottom left to decipher

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Louise-Marie de France (1737 - 1787), known as Madame Louise or Madame Last, was the youngest of the children of Louis XV and Marie Leszczyńska. She was called Madame Louise after her baptism in 1747. She entered Carmel in 1770 under the name of Thérèse de Saint-Augustin, and there was the charge of novice mistress and then treasurer. She was elected prioress three times. Died in 1787, she was declared venerable in 1873.
The King's Daughter
Louise-Marie of France was born on July 15, 1737 in Versailles. She is the tenth child the 35-year-old Queen has given birth. The doctors assure the sovereign that another childbirth could be fatal. The queen who is afraid of losing the good graces of her husband, who is only 27 years old and is still ardent, prefers to silence the doctor's warnings but gradually refuses her door to the king.
It was also the time when Louis XV displayed his first favorite under the resigned but indulgent gaze of his “principal minister” and former tutor, Cardinal de Fleury, who knew only too well the king's main character flaws: sickly shyness. and the propensity for boredom.
The king abandons the queen, and to those who question him about an eleventh pregnancy of the queen he replies that the infant will be "Madam Last". Louise-Marie of France was called Madame Seventh then, from her baptism, Madame Louise.
In 1738, perhaps for the sake of economy, the four youngest Ladies of France were entrusted to the prestigious Abbaye de Fontevraud, Motherhouse of the Order of Fontevraud whose abbess, still a lady of high birth, is charged by Louis XV with the education of the girls of France. Louise-Françoise de Rochechouart then Louise-Claire de Montmorency1 will devote themselves to this task.
Madame Louise stood out there for her wit, but also for her pride. Still a child, she does not hesitate to demand that the people in her service stand up when she enters a room because she is, she says, "the daughter of your king". To which he was answered by his preceptor: “And I, Madam, am the daughter of your God. "1.
She was baptized in the Catholic religion with François Marc Antoine de Bussy as godfather and Marie-Louise Bailly-Adenet as godmother.
"Madame" Louise
In 1750, at the age of 13, she returned with her sister Madame Sophie to court, where the king affectionately nicknamed her "Chiffe".
Slightly hunchbacked, she always remains a princess apart, fleeing the world, seeking solace and courage in religion. Louis XV had several marriage plans for her, notably in 1766 with the Holy Roman Emperor Joseph II, but none saw the light of day. The princess hardly supports the actions of the king and his diplomats.
Already in 1748, when Louise, aged 11, was still at Fontevraud, rumor had it that her father intended Prince Charles Edward for her, claiming Stuart to the English throne. Madame Louise then declared:
"Am I not reason to be very worried since a husband is destined for me, I who want no other than Jesus Christ?" "
It is also said that, not lacking in character, the princess does not hesitate to exaggerate her physical deformation when she crosses paths with an ambassador, in order to cut short any matrimonial project.
Moreover, Madame Louise does not support the court with its intrigues, its jealousies and its ceremonial which, constantly putting it in representation, is experienced as slavery forcing her to be perpetually in representation, to change clothes several times a day, to rush without running from one place to another in the castle.
Mourning
The 1750s were for the royal family a time of mourning and for Louise a time of reflection and maturation. A few months after Madame Louise's return to court, her sister Madame Henriette, the king's favorite daughter, died at only 25 years old. It was during this period that the first signs of the king's unpopularity appeared.
In 1759, the Duchess of Parma, Henriette's twin sister, died in Versailles soon followed by their nephew, the Duke of Burgundy, eldest son of the Dauphin in 1761, then by their niece Isabelle de Parme (wife of the future Joseph II of the Saint -Empire) died in childbirth at age 22 in 1763.
The only son of the royal couple, the Dauphin Louis, died at the age of 36 in December 1765, as did their maternal grandfather, the King of Poland at the Château de Lunéville in February 1766. His sister-in-law the Dauphine Marie-Josèphe died in 1767.
Finally, the death of Queen Marie Leszczynska in June 1768 put an end to this series of mourning.
Some time later, the presentation to the court of the Countess du Barry, Louis XV's new favorite pushes Madame Louise to officially announce her desire to enter Carmel, an order