Marie Thérèse de Choiseul was the niece of Louis XV's famous minister Étienne François de Choiseul who played a key role in arranging the marriage between Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette. Her parents - the duc and duchesse de Stainville - welcomed her into the world on 8 December 1766. Unbeknownst to everyone her life would be both short and unjust.
Considering her elevated birth, a prestigious marriage was arranged for her. At the age of 16 she was married off to Prince Joseph of Monaco. Before she left France she was permitted a formal presentation to the king and queen on 8 December 1782 where she officially took a seat on a tabouret as befit her new rank. Thus, she was shipped off to Monaco to make a life for herself as best she could. Luckily, her marriage to Joseph seems to have been a happy one. Marie Thérèse gave birth to three children while in Monaco: Honorine, Athénais and Delphine. Her three daughters came like clockwork - every two years from 1784-1788. Unfortunately, Delphine died while young.
While Marie Thérèse was busy setting up her life, something was brewing across the border in France - the revolution was coming. And finally, it came. Monaco was officially annexed by revolutionary France in March 1793 which spelt disaster for Marie Thérèse and her husband. The French had just executed Louis XVI and the Reign of Terror was in full swing. By sheer coincidence, Marie Thérèse was alone when the revolutionaries came to her home. The revolution reduced her family to normal citizens but their reduction in rank was not enough.
The problem was that Joseph spent a considerable amount of time abroad in an effort to obtain loans to keep his family afloat. Unfortunately, this immediately marked him - and his family - as suspicious. In the fever of revolutionary France everyone could be a spy; especially someone who moved frequently beyond French borders. However, the revolutionary authorities had a problem. It was Joseph's activities that raised their suspicions but they could not get a hold of him while he remained abroad - but they could arrest his family.
Thus, Marie Thérèse was arrested alongside her in-laws on charges of conspiracy. The irony was that the whole thing could have been avoided. Both Marie-Thérèse and Joseph had apparently left France (where they were visiting) when things started to heat up. As the situation became more dire, Marie-Thérèse reentered French territory to seek out her daughters who were staying elsewhere for the moment. When she returned, she was arrested. Initially, the authorities recognised that she was technically a foreigner (by marriage but a woman's status and nationality depended on her marriage - Marie Thérèse had become Monegasque by marriage).
However, it did not last long. Shortly after, Marie-Thérèse was arrested again while in Paris. The family was taken to the prison of Sainte-Pélagie. Luckily her daughters were spared the imprisonment and left in the care of their governess. Over the next weeks Marie Thérèse was moved from prison to prison which indicates that she was separated from her family.
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It quickly became clear that Marie Thérèse was in dire trouble. Despite having been away from the French court for over a decade, her association by birth was a serious threat. Combined with her husband's activities after the outbreak of the revolution, her fate was sealed. Without much ado, Marie Thérèse was found guilty of conspiracy and sentenced to death.
In a desperate attempt to gain a little more time Marie Thérèse claimed that she was two and a half months pregnant. Taken aback, the authorities had her examined by an apothecary which caused somewhat of a scandal as typically such an examination was done by an official "health officer". It was quickly discovered to be a ruse. The reason was heartbreaking. She wanted one more day so that her hair could be cut to be sent to her daughters as a keepsake. The alternative was that the executioner would hack away at her hair before discarding it on the floor.
Her final day was spent bleakly. She had technically obtained an audience with Antoine Quentin Fouqier-Tinville, a man known disturbingly as the "provider to the guillotine". He had acted as prosecutor for none other than Marie Antoinette herself. However, he never granted her the promised audience - in consequence, she spent her last day waiting in his antechamber. In response she wrote a letter protesting her imprisonment as a foreign princess but to no avail.
Marie Thérèse was taken to the guillotine on 27 June 1794 - at the age of just 27. She had donned rouge in the morning to mask any whiteness from fear. The cart taking her there was later referred to as "the last cart to the guillotine" - not quite accurate but almost.
Her last words were allegedly addressed to another prisoners on the cart: "Be brave, my friend, crime alone display weakness". She had even had the wherewithal to address the crowds lining the road to the guillotine with the words: "Citizens, I go to my death with all the tranquility which inspires innocence; I wish you a better death".
Her execution coincided with the very same day that the Jacobin government fell - the very same authorities that had condemned a young woman to death on flimsy to no evidence. In a case of twisted irony her own prosecutor would be guillotined himself. The tale of Marie Thérèse is particularly tragic because this was a woman who had technically "gotten away". Her marriage had seen her sent away from Versailles a decade before the revolution broke out but it still did not safe her. Furthermore, she had survived the most violent times of the revolution for an aristocrat.
Her husband survived the ordeal. Upon learning of the fate of his family, he remained in exile in Great Britain where he eventually remarried. Both her daughters' married but only Honorine had children. As it happens, she actually got her last wish. Her hair was indeed delivered to her daughters after her death.
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