The House of Gramont

The family of Gramont came from the very south of France. Their duchy bordered modern-day Spain, including the kingdoms of Navarre and Aragon. As for the family, they had had control of this area since the 10th century. Over the centuries, they rose from the title of seigneur de Gramont, to Comte de Gramont and were finally rewarded with the elevation of their lands into a dukedom in 1643 by Louis XIV.

The family that would have been known to the courts of Louis XIV, XV and XVI was therefore headed by these Ducs de Gramont:

1) Antoine II de Gramont & (I) Louise de Roquelaure, (II) Claude de Montmorency

Antoine was held the title of Comte de Gramont as well as Viceroy of Navarre. He had married Louise de Roquelaure in 1601 but she died after just a few years of marriage. He was then remarried to Claude de Montmorency in 1608.

Antoine and Louise had two sons:

• Antoine III, Duc de Gramont
• Roger, Comte de Louvigny

Antoine then had two further sons by Claude:

• Henri, Comte de Toulongeon
• Philibert, Comte de Gramont

Antoine II

2) Antoine III de Gramont & Françoise-Marguerite du Plessis

Antoine was a devoted follower of Cardinal Richelieu. As was expected of men of his status at the time, he entered the royal army during the Thirty Years' War; apparently, he was quite skilled as a commander and was awarded the title of Marèchal de France. At the death of his father, the patents of their dukedom had not yet been registered, so Antoine III found himself in the awkward situation of having to petition for it to be done. Nevertheless, he succeeded in his endeavour and was officially entered as a Duc in 1648. Likely due to his close relationship with Cardinal Richelieu and the fact that his family had remained loyal during the Fronde, Antoine was entrusted with several posts as ambassador. The most important of these was when he was sent to the court of Spain to officially request the hand of Marie-Thérèse for Louis XIV. He would die in 1678

Françoise-Marguerite was the niece of Cardinal Richelieu - it is likely that their marriage was brought about as a reward for Antoine's continued loyalty.

Their marriage - celebrated in 1634 - produced four children:

• Guy Armand, Comte de Guiche
• Catherine-Charlotte, Princesse de Monaco
• Antoine-Charles, Duc de Gramont
• Henriette-Catherine, Marquise de Raffetot

Antoine III

3) Antoine IV de Gramont & (I) Marie-Charlotte de Castelnau, (II) Anne Baillet de La Cour

Like his father, Antoine IV turned out to be a skilled soldier. Besides distinguishing himself in the Franco-Dutch War of the 1670's and was also sent to Spain as ambassador. He was given the governorship of Bayonne for his services.

Marie-Charlotte de Castelnau would become a mistress to Louis XIV for a brief period, before he returned to Madame de Montespan.

Antoine would remarry after the death of Marie-Charlotte in 1710.

They had two children:

• Catherine-Charlotte, Duchesse de Boufflers
• Antoine V, Duc de Gramont

Antoine IV

Marie-Charlotte 

4) Antoine V de Gramont & Marie-Christine de Noailles

The martial gene appears to have been strong in the family. Antoine was made a musketeer at the age of 13 and two years later was put in charge of his own regiment. He served in both the Nine Years' War, the War of the League of Augsburg and the War of the Spanish Succession - he was wounded in the last one. From then on, the military honours came in a steady succession: Colonel-General of Dragoons in 1702, Colonel-General of the French Guards in 1704 and Marèchal de France in 1724.

Over the years, Antoine appears to have retained the trust of Louis XIV. Besides the governorship of Bayonne, he was given those of Navarre and Béarn (a sign of favour, since his father had had the same posts but this was not a hereditary one); he would also serve as envoy to Spain. When Louis XIV died, he had placed Antoine as a member of the Regency Council for War.

Marie Christine was deeply involved in charity. At court, she took a special interest in those who had been disinherited as well as the hospital of Vichy. That city named a road after her in 1937: the Rue de Gramont.

The couple married in 1687 and had four children:

• Antoine VI, Duc de Gramont
• Louis, Duc de Gramont
• Marie Adélaide, Duchesse de Biron
• Catherine-Charlotte-Thérèse, Duchesse de Saint-Simon

Marie-Christine de Noailles

Antoine V

5) Antoine VI Louis-Armand de Gramont &  Louise-Françoise d'Aumont

Surprisingly, not much is known about the fifth Duc de Gramont. It can reasonably be assumed that he also followed a military career and he did receive the captaincy of the French Guards.

Louise-Françoise was the daughter of the Duc d'Humières.

Antoine and Louise-Françoise had three children:

• Charles-Antoine, died in childhood
• Louis Marie, died in childhood
• Louise de Gramont, Princesse de Lambesc
• Marie-Louise-Victoire, Duchesse de Gramont

6) Louis de Gramont & Geneviève de Gontaut-Biron

Louis inherited the title of Duc de Gramont when his elder brother died without a male heir. While he did serve in the army, he did not possess the same military acumen as his forebears. During the Battle of Dettingen, he was at the head of 23.000 French soldiers who had managed to ensnare the combined forces of England and Austria-Hungary. His task was to hold his men in position so that the Anglo-Austrians could be completely defeated. However, Louis became impatient after waiting for six hours, and ordered his men to attack. This opened up an escape route through which the allied forces streamed through.

Louis' luck in battle would not turn. Two years later, he found himself on the battlefield of Fontenoy where he was killed.

Louis and Geneviève had four children:

• Marie Christine Chrétienne, Comtesse de Rupelmonde
• Antoine VII, Duc de Gramont
• Antoine-Adrien
• Marie Perpétue

Louis de Gramont

7) Antoine VII de Gramont & (I) Marie-Louise-Victoire de Gramont, (II) Béatrix de Choiseul-Beaupré-Stanville

Antoine was passed over by Louis XV for the captaincy of the French Guards; instead, it was given to his uncle, the Duc de Biron, who had distinguished himself at Fontenoy. Unlike his ancestors, Antoine VII was no military man. He had no taste for either the battlefield or the court but preferred to spent time on his country estates. Here, he lived an extremely lavish life - so much so, that it was feared that he would spend the entire family fortune. For this reason, he was put under a sort of guardianship which would limit his access to the family money.

Antoine married Marie-Louise-Victoire who was the daughter of his own cousin. Upon his marriage, he was given the title of Duc de Lesparre besides that of Duc de Gramont. Their relationship was not good and they were formally separated. When she died, he remarried to Béatrix de Choiseul - but only after promising to behave more prudently in the future. However, he soon relapsed into his old ways and incurred the royal wrath by neglecting both his court duties and those attached to his governorships. It fell to Béatrix to intercede with Louis XV - twice. She would also request a separation from her husband which was granted in 1761.

Béatrix was the sister of the powerful minister Choiseul who orchestrated the marriage between Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette. She would guillotined in 1794. Antoine was also imprisoned where he showed himself truly incorrigible. He fell in love with a young woman and allegedly married her. It was only due to the death of Robespierre that he was not guillotined himself.

Interesting facts about the family

• Catherine-Charlotte, daughter of Antoine III, would become the mistress of Louis XIV. She also had an affair with her cousin, the Marquis de Puyguilleim, whom she had wanted to marry but was refused permission by her father. She would later be a lady-in-waiting to Madame de Montespan
• The house produced a dame d'atours to Marie Antoinette: Geneviève de Gramont, daughter of Antoine Adrien
• Following the revolution, a part of the family were guillotined. Those that escaped remained loyal to the Bourbons and even escorted Charles X (formerly Comte d'Artois) back to France
• The family had ties with England. The fourth son of Antoine II, Philibert, had married Elizabeth Hamilton. His brother-in-law would later write a memoir on his life 
• An ancestress, Diane d'Andouins, had been the mistress of Henri III
• The eldest son, and initial heir, of Antoine III (Guy Armand) was one of the most infamous playboys of his age and notorious for leading the life of a libertine 

Titles held by the family

Duc de Gramont

Duc de Lesparre

Comte de Guiche

Comte de Louvigny

Comte de Toulougen

Vicomte d'Aster

Baron d'Andouins

Viceroy de Navarre

Souverain de Bidache

Other family portraits:

Philibert, son of Antoine II and 
Claude de Montmorency 

Guy Armand de Gramont,
Comte de Guiche - a great friend 
of Philippe d'Orléans

Marie-Sophie de Courcillon, Princesse de Rohan

On 6 August 1713, Marie Sophie was born into the family of Courcillon. Her grand-father was the Marquis de Dangeau who wrote the well-known memoir on the court of Versailles. Her own father, Philippe-Egon, was severely wounded at the Battle of Malplaquet.

Like most children of the nobility, Marie-Sophie was likely brought up in her parents' houses rather than at court. At the age of 16, she was married off to Charles-François d'Albert d'Ailly, Prince de Picquigny. The match was nothing unusual for the times; the couple were only six years apart in age and of equal social standing. Not long after their marriage, the sixteen-year old Princesse was pregnant. She would give birth to a daughter, Marie Thérèse. It is not known how the relationship between husband and wife was behind closed doors. Either way, it did not last long. Just two years after their marriage, Charles-François died - Marie-Thérèse followed him five years later. 

Marie-Sophie was left a widow at 17 years old and since she had no sons by her late husband, there was no pretext for her to take over the lands of her late husband until her child came of age. Instead - in the eyes of society at the time - she was once again eligible for a new marriage. Her family did not hesitate long. Charles-François had died in 1731; on 2 September 1732, Marie-Sophie was remarried to Hercule Mériadec de Rohan. 

Marie-Sophie likely had no particular say in the matter. Her new husband was 43 years older than her - but very wealthy and loaded with titles. He was captain-lieutenant of the guards while also holding the title of lieutenant-general. His titles included Prince de Maubuisson, Prince de Soubise and Duc de Rohan-Rohan.  He was a prince étrangère which meant that she would be entitled to use the title of Princesse de Rohan.

  

Marie-Sophie

Her new husband did not present a problem for her independence - in practice, if not by law. Marie-Sophie was welcome to establish her own salon at their Parisian Hôtel de Soubise where she could entertain her friends and intellectuals of the day. For instance, she was well-known to have sincere friendship with many artists and authors of her age. It is likely that she had a good deal to say about the décor when Boffrand was commissioned to redo the interior of the Hôtel de Soubise.

There was another aspect to their marriage which left the two parties at almost complete liberty from one another. While Hercule's own son had died in 1724, he had managed to sire a son of his own. This new Prince de Soubise would be the heir of Hercule. Thus, there was no need to produce an heir to the dukedom and they could live apart if they so pleased.

Of her husband's first marriage, there were three surviving daughters, one of whom, Louise Gabrielle Julie, she became very good friends with. It must have been an awkward situation to begin with as Marie-Sophie was ten years younger than her step-daughter. 

Besides her time at her hotel in Paris, Marie-Sophie spent time at Versailles, where her rank as a duchess meant that she was in the highest rank of the nobility - outside the royal family itself. She would introduce  Anne Marie Louise de La Tour d'Auvergne, the new Princesse de Soubise to the court in 1737. She was the wife of Hercule's grandson and thereby his heir.

By 1746, her husband died and Marie-Sophie found herself widowed again. She had never had children by her second husband and had none either by her liaison with the Duc de Richelieu following this date. She spent a good deal of her time in Paris. On 4 April 1756, Marie-Sophie died at the age of just 42. It is unclear exactly what caused her death at this rather early age.

The Macabre End of the Marquise de Vintimille

Pauline Félicité de Mailly-Nesle, Marquise de Vintimille's greatest claim-to-fame was that she was one of four sisters that Louis XV took as his mistresses. She occupied that particular place in the late 1730's; at this point she had taken up residence at court with Madame de Mailly, her sister and the king's maitresse-en-titre.

At court, she was not a popular figure. Unlike her sister, the Comtesse de Mailly, she was anything but mild and disinterested. Rather, she was remarked for her avarice as well as her ambition and sharp wit; naturally, this made her a threat to the other courtiers who grew to resent her. Despite this opposition, her royal favour was as high as ever in 1741 when she announced that she was expecting a child.

No one doubted that the king was the father of the child. Louis XV had arranged for her to marry the Marquis de Vintimille who had been obliging enough to retire to his country estate after their wedding. As the summer and her pregnancy advanced, the marquise's health suddenly deteriorated. On 11 August, she fell ill at Choisy with what was termed rather vaguely as a fever. Already two days later, her life was  widely despaired of - the Comte d'Argenson, for instance, wrote with certainty that she was dying at Choisy.

Pauline Félicité

While Pauline was lingering between life and death at Choisy, she found herself constantly attended to by the king himself. When he was not there personally, he sent four-five couriers per day. Finally, by 28 August, the sick lady was transferred - with the king - back to Versailles. She was still very ill and had to be carried on a litter. Once she arrived at the palace, she was lodged in the apartment belonging to the Cardinal de Rohan.

At last, on September 5, Pauline gave birth to a boy. She remained in the Cardinal's apartment were she received her royal visitor - and her sister - who came up to five times per day. However, it soon became clear that she was not recovering her health. Instead, she was ceased by so-called miliary fever. 

Miliary fever was not common in France but had ravaged both the southern-European countries and England in the previous centuries. In England, it had been a particular problem during the Tudors where it was known by another name - the sweating sickness.

Louis XV, portrayed 7 years after the
death of Madame de Vintimille

As that name suggests, the patient would sweat copiously while the skin would be covered by tiny, liquid-filled vesicles or blisters. Over the next five days Pauline's condition worsened and she experienced severe compulsions. On the night between 9-10 September, she died. 

The king was distraught at her death and even requested that her face be moulded in wax. This caused some problems as the convulsions had left her face in a rather unpleasant, contorted state. Nevertheless, with two strong persons holding the jaw shot, it was managed. Her body was removed to the Hôtel de Villeroy and subjected to an autopsy. Poison was suspected due to the rather suddenness of her death but nothing was found to suggest that her death had been unnatural. The only thing noted by the doctors was that the body was rapidly decomposing - which might have had something to do with the temperatures. As the body's state gave off unpleasant odors it was placed in a shed near the Hôtel de Villeroy in Versailles. Once they had taken it there, her attendants left it unprotected - to go drinking, apparently.

Shortly after, the people of Versailles found out that the king's late mistress was lying in their very centre and they descended on the shed. Madame de Vintimille had been just as unpopular with the people as she had with the court. The people - especially the villagers of Versailles - blamed her for keeping the king at Choisy and other royal residences which meant that he did not spend as much time at Versailles - and that cost them money.

Once the mob had located the body of Pauline, they began to desecrate it. Covered only by a shroud, the body was quickly uncovered. Some reported that it had served as a "play-thing" for the villagers, some of whom threw firecrackers on it. Again according to d'Argenson, they committed "all sorts of insults" to it - one can only imagine what that entailed precisely.

When the mob had finally sated their curiosities, they left. What remained of Pauline Félicité was buried in the chapel of Saint-Louis on the 10 September.

The Exchange of Princesses

The kings and dauphins were not the only ones who were apt to marry foreign princesses. Their cousins, the so-called Princes du Sang (princes of the blood) and the dukes, were equally inclined to fetch their wives from across the border. Some foreigners, like Elizabeth-Charlotte of the Palatinate or Marie Leszczynska of Poland, were bound to make a mark on history due to the postions they held at court. However, there were quite a few more foreign princesses at court who had been married into the finest, French families. 

This post looks at which connections were made between the primary families of France and their foreign counterparts - as well as some of the underlying thoughts behind the matches.

Queens & Dauphines

Marie Thérèse 

Birth place: Spain

Marie Thérèse and Louis XIV were first-cousins; their parents, Anne of Austria and Philip IV of Spain, were siblings. These two sought to further unite their respective countries by the marriage of their children; due to their close family ties, a papal dispensation was necessary. However, being two of the most powerful, Catholic monarchs in the world, this was not an issue. The two young people were married  in 1660. Of their 6 children, just one would live to adulthood - even in an age with rampant infant mortality, this was low and it cannot be ruled out that their children's health were weakened by the inter-marrying of both their parents and grand-parents.

Marie Thérèse

Marie Leszczyńska

Birth place: Poland

Marie Leszczyńska was chosen over the Spanish Infanta due to her rather anonymous status on the marriage market. As the daughter of a dispossessed monarch, she could not have expected to have made a particularly good match - let alone such a one as she did. But her father's misfortune happened to be the very thing that tipped the scales in her favour. Having already angered Spain by sending the young Infanta back across the border, France could not afford to further agitate her neighbour. Therefore, it was necessary to find a princess with impeccable pedigree - but from a country that Spain could not object to. Consequently, the choice of Marie Leszsczynska ticked all the boxes: she was Catholic, she was of a child-bearing age, she was the daughter of a king and her family did not pose a threat to Spain.

Unlike her predecessor, Marie Leszczyńska was not closely related to Louis XV. She would turn out to be unusually fertile and would give her husband 10 children over little more than a decade. "Unfortunately" (in the eyes of their times), eight of these were females.

Marie Leszczyńska as a child

Marie Antoinette

Birth place: Austria

The choice of an Austrian arch-duchess was an immensely controversial one. Austria and France had clashed on the battlefield numerous times and their recent history was not much better. It was largely due to the alliance between France and Austria, that France was dragged into the Seven Years' War - a war that ended with French defeat at the hands of the British and Prussians. To the public, the new 14-year old dauphine was a symbol of both the defeat and the domestic consequences of it. Over the years, she would become a scapegoat for the dire situation France found herself in.

The portrait of Marie Antoinette
sent to Louis XVI to show him
what his fiancée looked like

Marie Anne Victoire

Birth place: Bavaria

When the Bavarian dauphine arrived in France, she was the first dauphine in 122 years - the last had been Mary, Queen of Scots. The marriage between her and the Grand Dauphin had been a long time in the making. Already in 1668 had the two been betrothed which meant that the bride had been brought up with the prospect of becoming Dauphine of France since she was 8 years old. Genetically, her and Louis were second-cousins.

Marie Anne Victoire

Marie Adélaide 

Birth place: Savoy

Whereas other matches on this list had been the result of familial considerations, the union between the Duc de Bourgogne and the Princess of Savoy had a far more martial background. Their marriage was a condition written into the Treaty of Turin which stipulated Savoyard support if France went to war - in exchange, the house of Savoy would enjoy French protection and have a daughter of theirs in the French royal family. Marie Adélaide was just 11 years old when she arrived in France. This meant that she was considered too young to marry, so the wedding itself was postponed until the following year - apparently, 12 was an acceptable age to marry... 

Marie Adélaide

Marie Thérèse Raphaëlle

Birth place: Spain

The marriage between Louis-Ferdinand and the Spanish Infanta was one of two matches brought about to reconcile Spain to France. The two nations had been on very poor terms since the French Prime Minister had sent Mariana Victoria back to Spain and married Louis XV to Marie Leszczynska instead. In an attempt to make up for previous slights, the dauphin was married to Marie Thérèse Raphaëlle and Madame Élisabeth (eldest daughter of Louis XV) was married to the Duke of Parma, a Spanish Infante. The marriage was a very happy one; both bride and groom were quickly on very good terms but their happiness was short-lived. The new dauphine died a year after her marriage following complications after a childbirth. 

Marie Thérèse Raphaëlle

Marie Josèphe

Birth place: Saxony

The replacement for Marie Thérèse Raphaëlle was found in the Saxon princess, Marie Josèphe. In the War of the Austrian Succession, France and Saxony had been on opposite sides. Therefore, the marriage was thought to be an ideal way to seal a new alliance. It was also considered a great advantage that Saxon princesses were reputed to be extraordinarily fertile - this proved to be quite true of the new dauphine who bore her husband 7 children, of which "just" two died in childhood (quite impressive for the times). The match was not met with unbridled joy, though. Marie Leszczynska's father, Stanislaw Leszczynski, had been dethroned by Marie Josèphe's grand-father, Augustus II. Thus, the queen were initially skeptical about receiving her new daughter-in-law. However, the two were able to mend their differences.

Marie Josèphe

Princesses & Duchesses

Henriette, Duchesse d'Orléans

Birth place: England

Henriette had been uprooted from her native England by the Civil War which resulted in her father being executed. Meanwhile, her and her mother lived in France where they were received well by their relations - her mother was by birth a French princess. Her marriage to Philippe d'Orléans tied the family even further together. Henriette had been considered as a bride for Louis XIV but was passed over in favour of the queen-mother's niece, Marie Thérèse. While a marriage to a young man known for his sexual scandals was not ideal on a personal level, it had many advantages. Her rank would be high and she would be provided for - the latter was particularly important as other eligible matches (to the duke of Savoy and grand-duke of Tuscany) had been disrupted due to her being exiled. On the French side, she had become a very attractive match once her brother had been restored to the throne of England.

Henriette

Elizabeth-Charlotte of the Palatinate, Duchesse d'Orléans

Birth place: the Palatinate 

Elizabeth-Charlotte was recommended as a bride for Philippe by one of his friend, Anne Gonzaga. In one way, she was different from the other ladies on this list: she was a Protestant. Even her predecessor, Henriette, had been brought up as a Catholic despite having been born into the Church of England. Therefore, Elizabeth-Charlotte - reluctantly - converted and - equally reluctantly - married the Duc d'Orléans. Her country of origin was later ravaged by the troops of Louis XIV which naturally caused her great distress.

In the 1770's a series of alliances between France and Savoy resulted in no less than four marriages between the two houses. This would see one French princess go to Savoy and three Savoyard princesses enter France - and Versailles.

Elizabeth-Charlotte

Marie Joséphine, Comtesse de Provence

Birth place: Savoy

As the eldest (living) daughter of the Duke of Savoy, Marie Joséphine was a very eligible match. Initially, she had been considered for the position of dauphine but that particular place went to Marie Antoinette instead. One of the greatest supporters of the match was a very unlikely source. Madame Du Barry, the king's mistress, realised that she would never augur favour with the new dauphine and instead sought to place another ally in the royal family. Thus, she heartily supported the match and was even given permission to put together the princess' household.

Marie Joséphine

Marie Thérèse, Comtesse d'Artois

Birth place: Savoy

Marie Thérèse joined her sister at the court of Versailles just two years after the latter had departed from Turin. In this, the two were a very fortunate - most princesses never saw their biological families again once they had departed their homeland. As the wife of the youngest royal brother, Marie Thérèse would rank the lowest amongst the three couples that made up the nuclear royal family.

Marie Thérèse

Caroline of Hesse-Rheinfels-Rotenburg, Princesse de Condé

Birth place: Hesse

Caroline was the daughter of the Landgrave Ernst-Leopold of Hesse- Rotenburg. She is said to have been included on the list of princesses proposed as potential wives of Louis XV but was allegedly discarded because of her temper. Nevertheless, she was admitted into the rank of princesses of the blood when she was married to Louis Henri de Bourbon-Condé in 1728. Caroline does not appear to have been the first choice of Louis Henri. Instead, he had initially wanted to marry her sister, Philippine, but was discouraged by the French envoy François Blondel. He had been dispatched to Hesse to literally take a look at the princesses and apparently found Philippine to be neither pretty nor slender enough.

Caroline of Hesse-Rheinfels-Rotenburg

Auguste of Baden-Baden, Duchesse d'Orléans

Birth place: Bavaria

When Auguste became of age, she was presented with two possible bridegrooms: Alexander Ferdinand of Thurn and Taxis or Louis d'Orléans. Her mother, the regent of Baden-Baden, pushed for the French match as this would secure the principality from further assaults from France - which they had recently endured. Consequently, Auguste was bound to obey although she had personally preferred the German prince. She would not live long at Versailles, dying at the age of 21 after childbirth.

Auguste

Marie Thérèse Félicité d'Este, Duchesse de Penthièvre

Birth place: Modena 

Due to the unhappy marriage of her parents, Marie Thérèse Félicité grew up in the Palais de Luxembourg in Paris. As such, she might be considered to have been more French than Italian, but according to the laws of the time, she was still the property of her Italian father. If her mother had not been a French princess herself, the match between Marie and the Duc de Penthièvre would likely not have happened. As it was, the marriage took place in 1744. She would also die in childbirth, at the age of 27.

Marie Thérèse Félicité

Anne Henriette of Bavaria, Princesse de Condé

Birth place: Paris

Despite being born in Paris, Anne Henriette was half-Bavarian, as her father was the Elector of the Palatinate. Anne was the "original" Madame Palatine at the court of Louis XIV; she was the first cousin of Elizabeth-Charlotte. As a bride, Anne brought with her important connections. Besides her father's Bavarian roots, her aunt was the Queen of Poland and her grandmother was a member of the house of Lorraine. Her marriage to the Prince de Condé was a tragic one. Her husband was very violent and would even beat her in public.

Anne Henriette

Marie Caroline de Sobieska, Princesse de Turenne

Birth place: Silesia

Marie Caroline was not an obvious addition to the French court. Having spent her childhood in modern-day Poland, she had been hopelessly in love Michal Kazimierz, a Lithuanian Grandee, but had been refused to marry him by her father. Devastated, she had then wished to retire to a nunnery but that was not to be either. Her uncle, the Holy Roman Emperor, wanted to marry her off and decided upon Frédéric Casimir de La Tour d'Auvergne, Prince de Turenne. In France, she was "foreign" in another manner too: her husband had the rank of Prince Étrangère - or Foreign Prince.

Marie Caroline

Marie Maximilienne of Salm-Kyrburg, Duchesse de Thouars

Birth place: Salm-Kyrburg

Little is known about this Duchesse de Thouars, other than she was married to Charles Godefroy de La Trémoille, Duc de Thouars. She was the daughter of Philip Joseph of Salm-Kyrburg which was a smaller, German state in the Holy Roman Empire.

Anne Thérèse of Savoy, Princesse de Soubise

Birth place: Paris

Another Parisian-born foreigner, Anne Thérèse was Savoyard but her parents had been driven from their native country by their incredibly large debts. She would be married to the Prince Étrangère, the Prince de Soubise. She would also die in childbirth, at the age of 27.

Anne Thérèse

Victoire of Hesse-Rheinfels-Rotenburg, Princesse de Soubise

Birth place: Hesse

A niece to Caroline of Hesse-Rheinfels-Rotenburg, Victoire was the eldest of daughter of the prince of Hesse-Rotenburg. She married the Prince de Soubise, a member of the house of Rohan which held the title of Prince Étrangère at court. She happened to be the third wife of the Prince de Soubise; the second had been Anne Thérèse of Savoy.

Victoire

Marie-Thérèse-Louise of Savoy, Princesse de Lamballe

Birth place: Savoy

This marriage was the first in the Franco-Savoyard alliances and took place in 1767. The match was well-founded both in dynastic terms and personal ones. Both the bride and groom were of a royal line and as such were considered to be equally ranked. Initially, the two seemed to be a happy couple but the marriage was soon disrupted when Louis Alexandre, Prince de Penthièvre had affairs with two actresses which allegedly devastated his young wife. Their union would be very brief. Just a year after their wedding, Louis Alexandre died. The princesse de Lamballe chose to remain unmarried and would shortly after enjoy the perks of being the first close friend of the new dauphine, Marie Antoinette.

Marie-Thérèse-Louise

Likewise, the French royal family "exported" numerous princesses to other countries during the Ancien Regime. However, it is interesting to note that just a single one of Louis XV's numerous daughters were married - if the rest had followed suit, this list would undoubtedly be a great deal longer. Amongst the princesses who had to leave France behind were the following:

Marie Louise d'Orléans

Destination: Spain

Marie Louise was the (favourite) daughter of Philippe d'Orléans. Her marriage to Charles II of Spain was arranged by her uncle, Louis XIV, much to her distress. Not only was she in love with her cousin, the Grand Dauphin, but the Spanish king was infamous for his debilitating disabilities caused by an obscene amount of inbreeding. Once she was informed of the arranged marriage, Marie Louise wept continuously and begged both her father and uncle to be let off. However, that was not to be. One particular instance was captured by the memoirs of the time: Louis XIV was again confronted by his teary-eyed niece when he remarked to her that he could not have done more for his own daughter (referring to making her queen of Spain). To this, she allegedly responded: "No, but you could have done more for your niece". The courtiers remarked that she was still crying when her carriage was ordered "To Madrid!". In an eerie twist of fate, she would die in the exact same manner as her mother, Henriette had. At the age of 26 (like her mother) she died following violent spasms in the abdomen which was feared to be from poison.

Marie Louise

Anne Marie d'Orléans

Destination: Savoy

France wished to obtain a greater degree of control in the Italian states in the 1680's which led Louis XIV to arrange the marriage between his niece and the Duke of Savoy. She would later become the Queen of Sicily and later of Sardinia, when her husband ascended to those two thrones. As it happens, it was her daughter, Marie Adélaide, who would marry the Duc de Bourgogne. During her marriage, she would bear nine children, although for a while it seemed unlikely. She almost died while giving birth to Marie Adélaide and cannot have been looking forward to the following eight deliveries...

Anne Marie

Marie Louise Élisabeth

Destination: Parma

The only daughter of Louis XV to marry, Marie Louise Élisabeth's marriage was the first act in the series of Franco-Spanish marriages to atone for the insult offered to Spain by the rejection of Mariana Victoria. She was 12 years old when she married. Louis XV found it very hard to part with her and even rode the carriage with her for a few miles before leaving her. While her fiancé was a Spanish Infante, he was not likely to inherit the throne. As such, the marriage was considered to be somewhat beneath her, as the eldest daughter of the French king. Even the bride herself admitted that she thought her "destiny less glorious than she had a right to expect".

Marie Louise Élisabeth

Marie Clotilde de France

Destination: Sardinia 

Clotilde had not originally wished to marry. Instead, she wanted to become a nun but in 1775 a marriage was arranged for her by her brother, Louis XVI. She submitted to the arrangement with good grace and even learnt Italian so that she could better fulfil her duties as Queen of Sardinia. As it happens, her marriage with Charles Emmanuel turned out to be a rather happy one. Clotilde was a large women - even by Bourbon standard - and when she first met her husband, people were eagerly watching him to see how he would take it. Instead of snickering (as some of her own countrymen did) he graciously replied that he only had all the more to love. Their marriage in 1775 was the final union in the Franco-Savoyard alliances of the 1770's.

It is rather ironic to think that the marriage, that Clotilde only entered into reluctantly, probably saved her life. If she had remained in France, then it is likely that she would have been guillotined like her sister and brother.

Marie Clotilde