The Alcoholism of the Comtesse de Provence

Marie Joséphine of Savoy was married to Louis XVI's brother, Louis Stanislas Xavier, Comte de Provence, in 1771. When she arrived at the French court, she found herself as the second-highest ranking lady at court, immediately behind her sister-in-law, Marie Antoinette. Yet, over the years an increasing amount of people noticed that the young woman had a penchant for alcohol which seemed to go beyond the norm.

In the beginning, Marie Joséphine had a tendency to withdraw into her private apartment with her closest ladies and then proceed to drink copious amounts of alcohol. According to the Comtesse de Boigne, the Comtesse de Provence would drink so much that "the consequences were obvious in public". There is one particular aspect of the young lady's conduct which leads to the conclusion that she might already have had problems when she arrived at Versailles. Just four days after her wedding, she contacted the Piedmontese ambassador with a request for him to acquire a specific Piedmontese wine for her. Of course, this might just have been a preferred type of wine but considering the issues which she later exhibited it seems a tad more ominous. 

Some were pointing a finger at one of Marie Joséphine's closest friends, Madame de Gourbillon. This lady was accused of supplying Marie Joséphine with alcohol. One source relate the story of an incident which allegedly took place in 1789 when Louis XVI and the Comte de Provence surprised Madame de Gourbillon with a pot of unknown liquid. When asked what it was she claimed it was a broth for the Comtesse. That appeared to be the last straw and she was exiled from court. Yet, the removal of her close friend - and suspected mistress - did nothing to help the young woman with her addiction.

Marie Joséphine

The reasons for why Marie Joséphine turned to drink is naturally a matter which is difficult to discuss at the distance of several centuries. What is clear, though, is that she led a life of little fulfillment. She was an intelligent woman who had no way of pursuing any particular career; furthermore, she was said to be quite unattractive in a court which valued beauty. As the wife of the king's brother she had no influence at court and did not have a close relationship with her husband. Significantly, she fell pregnant twice but both pregnancies ended in a miscarriage - such losses would understandably add to the psychological toll. It was noticed that her drinking escalated after her husband began his affair with Madame de Balbi, one of her own ladies-in-waiting. Perhaps it was a way for her to escape?

Her addiction was not a closely guarded secret. Both the French public and her family in Turin were aware of her alcoholism; the pamphlets of the time typically mocked the royal family's failings (real and imagined). It says something about how well-known Marie Joséphine's addiction was that it was a prominent theme in the satires targeting her.

Marie Joséphine never overcame her addiction. Throughout her life - including her exile during the revolution - her alcoholism was a well-known secret. When she was reunited with her husband in Mitau (now Jelgava, Latvia) in 1799, she responded to her husband's refusal to recall Madame de Gourbillon by locking herself into her own rooms with no other company than a bottle of wine.