When Marie Thérèse Louise of Savoy was brought to France in 1767, she was married to Louis-Alexandre de Bourbon-Penthièvre. As such, she assumed the title of Princesse de Lamballe and became a Princess of the Blood (by marriage). On paper, the match was certainly good - her new status put her at the zenith of the French aristocracy and her father-in-law was one of the wealthiest men in France.
However, not everything was too good to be true. Louis-Alexandre was an incorrigible debauchee whose wild existence caused endless scandal at court. He was initially fascinated by his new wife but before long he resumed his old ways. Louis-Alexandre had contracted a venereal disease - likely syphilis - which killed him on 6 May 1768 - a year after his marriage.
This left Marie Thérèse Louise as a young widow - she was just nineteen years old. Luckily, she does not seem to have been infected by her husband during their brief marriage nor did she have children by him.
The question soon arose - would she remarry? She was certainly in a good position to do so but the situation was not nearly as straightforward as that. For one, she held an immensely privileged position at court and enjoyed a very good relationship with her father-in-law. The latter had seen her as a potential good influence for his wayward son and continued to hold her in high esteem after the death of Louis-Alexandre. Financially and status-wise she was therefore secure.
It should also be remembered that her experience with marriage (albeit brief) was not particularly pleasant. Just five months into her marriage her husband had attempted to elope with a mistress which naturally caused her immense public humiliation. Furthermore, his deteriorating condition meant that she was at constant risk of catching his venereal disease herself. She might not have been particularly willing to enter into another union anytime soon.
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| Marie Thérèse Louise |
Yet the wishes of a princess rarely counts and before long several matches were proposed. The most glittering match has already been covered in another post and shall just briefly be mentioned: Louis XV. It was put forward that the aging Louis XV should marry the teenaged Princesse de Lamballe after the death of queen Marie Leszczynska. It was hoped by his family - especially Mesdames - that her pious and caring nature would lead their father away from his mistress. Technically, Marie Thérèse Louise would have been an ideal candidate as she was easily used as a pawn. She lacked intelligence and possessed no passion for intrigue - Marie Antoinette referred to it as her lacking the "Italian spirit", as Marie Thérèse Louise was part Italian and part German. Thus, she would have been very easy to manipulate by others. Yet Marie Thérèse Louise herself never advocated for the match and when her father-in-law outright refused to give his consent, she did not protest. Neither did the king and the marriage plans evaporated.
Marrying the king of France was a tad too grand a match but there were other candidates for the beautiful Marie Thérèse Louise. One was the Prince de Lambesc who was proposed as a candidate in 1771. Charles-Eugène de Lorraine-Brionne was a member of the house of Lorraine and of Guise and a dedicated soldier. He was twenty years old in 1771 and - unlike Louis-Alexandre - did not have a tarnished reputation. The union was suggested by Charles-Eugène's own mother, the Comtesse de Brionne.
The match would have required Marie Thérèse Louise to take a step down the hierarchical ladder of Versailles. As it happens, it proved one of the first delicate tests of another young foreigner at court: Marie Antoinette. She had recently made the acquaintance of Lamballe and had quickly become firm friends with her. As such, the new dauphine could easily have put her weight behind the match but it would have been a precarious position.
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| Prince de Lambesc |
This was one of those situations were the intricate and complicated relations of the French court came to the fore. Marie Antoinette herself was descended from the house of Lorraine so some might expect her to support the match. Yet, the Comtesse de Brionne had spearheaded recent attempts on behalf of the Lorraine-family to advance themselves at court - against protocol. Thus, if the new dauphine actively supported her Lorraine "relatives" she would likely have walked straight into a hornets nest and incurred the wrath of the collective princes of the blood. Wisely, the Austrian ambassador counseled his young charge to simply defer the matter to the king himself. Marie Antoinette agreed and the match was consequently brought before Louis XV.
Luckily for Louis XV - who hated squabbles of the kind - the prospect of potentially being publicly rejected by none other than the king himself was too much of a risk. The Comtesse de Brionne dropped the matter and Marie Thérèse Louise remained unwed. As for Charles-Eugène, he would marry twice but only after the revolution.
It has been suggested that her father-in-law actively opposed her remarrying at all. If that is true then it is a testament to how much she had endeared herself to the Duc de Penthièvre. It certainly was not a financially sensible solution of him to make. According to her marriage contract, in the case of the death of her husband (as happened) she was the financial responsibility of her father-in-law. He had to pay for her upkeep, her allowance, her staff - everything. In return, her family surrendered her person but they were relieved of the expenses of keeping her. That arrangement would cease if she remarried. Such cold and calculated measures (after all, she was a person, not a pet) were quite common in these cases but it would certainly give her father-in-law an incentive to get her off his hands. It therefore suggests that their relationship was genuinely good.
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| The Prince de Lamballe - her first and only husband |
Marie Thérèse Louise would never remarry. Undoubtedly, she continued to be the object of several projects but she quickly found that her position at court was quite enjoyable. She enjoyed both immense wealth, a high rank and independence. Nor did she have to contend with an unpleasant husband such as her first husband had proven to be. Whether she actually wished to remarry is uncertain - she has not left any clues behind. Or has she?
One thing is written clues or contemporaries accounts, but Marie Thérèse Louise's own actions surely speak for themselves. It is a clue in it self that she herself never advanced any candidate for her second husband and remained either outright passive or quietly opposed to the new marriage proposals mentioned above. After the ascension of Marie Antoinette to the throne of France, Marie Thérèse Louise would have excellent opportunities to marry a man of her own choice - especially as the queen was known for denying her friends nothing. It might simply be the truth that she never wished to remarry at all.
She also had another option: returning to Savoy. As the childless widow of a prince, she could have returned to her homeland - an option that was out of the question for most princesses who never saw their homes again. Yet, she did not. She seems to have carved an existence for herself at the court of France that she came to enjoy and appreciate. That was further augmented when the position of Surintendante of the Queen's Household was reinstated for her sake. It placed her at the pinnacle of the royal households and ensured her actual influence at court, her own income and esteem amongst both French and foreign courtiers. Furthermore, her reputation was stellar - Marie Antoinette herself described her as "pure" and that sentiment was shared by many. It was certainly heightened by the fact that she never took a lover either. Consequently, she came to enjoy an excellent reputation as well. It is therefore easy to ask - why would one give that up?
