Marie-Therese, Child of Terror: The Fate of Marie Antoinette's Daughter
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Also to: Mary Brown, Teresa Yip and Henry Blanke of the Marymount Manhattan College Shanahan Library; Carolyn Holmes at Ash Lawn-Highland in Charlottesville; Arik Bartelmus; Paul Anditsch of Frohsdorf Immobilien; Peter Berg of the Michigan State University Library Special Collections; Steven J. Herman at the Library of Congress, Washington D.C.; Katie McMahon at the Newberry Library in Chicago; and Antoine Treuille and the Bic Corporation.
And last but not least, a heartfelt thank you to my comrades in books: Tina Brown, Lenny Golay, Jeanette Watson Sanger and Vicky Ward, for understanding the long and winding road to publication and indulging me with their infinite empathy.
Chronology
1754 Louis-Auguste, the future Louis XVI of France born at Versailles on August 23
1755 Marie Antoinette, daughter of Empress Maria Theresa of Austria, born in Vienna on November 2; the Comte de Provence born on November 17
1757 Comte d’Artois born on October 9
1764 Madame Elisabeth born on May 3
1768 Marriage agreed between Marie Antoinette and the French Dauphin, Louis
1770 Marie Antoinette leaves for France on April 21; arrives and is married at Versailles on May 16
1774 King Louis XV dies on May 10
1775 Coronation of Louis XVI at Reims on June 11; Louis-Antoine, Duc d’Angoulême born on August 6
1778 Death of Voltaire and Rousseau; third child, Charles Ferdinand, Duc de Berry, born to the Comte and Comtesse d’Artois on January 24; Ernestine (Marie-Philippine) de Lambriquet born on July 31; Marie-Thérèse-Charlotte, Child of France, ‘Madame Royale’, born on December 19 at 11.30 a.m.
1781 Louis Joseph, Dauphin of France born on October 22
1785 Louis Charles, Duc de Normandie born on March 27
1786 Sophie Hélène Béatrice, Child of France born on July 9; dies 10 days later
1788 Philippine de Lambriquet dies on April 30; Queen Marie Antoinette adopts Marie-Philippine re-naming her ‘Ernestine’; King Louis XVI establishes pension of 12,000 livres for Ernestine on November 9
1789 Opening of the États Généraux on May 5; Louis Joseph, Dauphin of France dies at 1 a.m. on June 4, Louis Charles becomes Dauphin; Third Estate constitutes itself on June 17 as National Assembly; Oath at the Jeu de Paume on June 20; Necker dismissed on July 11; Bastille stormed July 14; Declaration of the Rights of Man on August 26; Versailles attacked on October 5; on October 6, royal family forced to flee to Paris
1790 Marie-Thérèse and Ernestine receive First Communion on Easter Sunday, April 4; Joseph II dies on February 20; Fête de la Fédération on July 14
1791 Royal family captured at Varennes on June 21, return to Paris on June 25
1792 France declares war on Hungary and Bohemia on April 20; mob attacks Tuileries Palace on June 20; Prussia declares war on France, Duke of Brunswick issues manifesto on July 25; mob slaughters Swiss Guard members on August 10, royal family incarcerated at the Temple Prison on August 13; Princesse de Lamballe murdered on September 3; monarchy abolished on September 21; trial of Louis XVI begins on December 11
1793 Execution of Louis XVI on January 21; France declares war on England and Holland on February 1; separation of the Dauphin and the Queen on July 3; Marie Antoinette guillotined on October 16; Philippe Égalité (d’Orléans) executed on November 6
1794 Madame Elisabeth guillotined on May 10; Robespierre executed on July 28
1795 Louis XVII dies on June 8; Renée de Chanterenne becomes companion to Madame Royale in the Temple Prison on June 20; royalist insurrection crushed by Barras and Napoleon on October 5 ending the Revolution; Marie-Thérèse leaves Temple Prison at midnight on December 19, and arrives in Basel on December 26
1796 Marie-Thérèse arrives at the Hofburg in Vienna on January 9
1797 Treaty of Campo Formio signed on October 17
1799 Madame Royale marries the Duc d’Angoulême in Mitau on June 10
1801 King Louis XVIII forced to leave Russia on January 22; Marie-Thérèse and Louis arrive in Warsaw on March 6
1803 A mysterious couple referred to as ‘the Dark Count and Countess’ arrive in Ingelfingen, Germany
1804 Napoleon declares himself ‘Hereditary Emperor of France’ on May 18
1805 Marie-Thérèse returns to Mitau in April; Napoleon victorious at Austerlitz on December 2
1806 Holy Roman Emperor Franz II abdicates on August 6
1807 Arrival of the Dark Count and Countess in Hildburghausen on February 7; Louis XVIII arrives in England on November 2
1808 Marie-Thérèse arrives at Gosfield Hall in England on August 24
1809 The French royal family in exile moves to Hartwell House in April
1810 Comte Fersen murdered on June 20; Queen Louise of Prussia dies on July 17; the Dark Count and Countess flee to Eishausen Castle in September
1814 Abdication of Napoleon on April 6; King Louis XVIII enters Paris on May 3
1815 Napoleon’s rule of ‘Hundred Days’, from March 20; Louis XVIII returns to Paris on July 8; Napoleon boards British man-of-war Bellerophon on July 15, reaches St Helena on October 15; Marie-Thérèse returns to Paris on July 27
1816 The Duc de Berry marries Princess Marie Caroline of Naples on June 17
1819 Princess Louise born on September 21
1820 Assassination of the Duc de Berry on February 13; birth of Henri, Duc de Bordeaux (later Comte de Chambord) on September 29
1824 King Louis XVIII dies on September 16; Comte d’Artois ascends the throne as Charles X
1825 Coronation of King Charles X at Reims on May 29; Il Viaggio a Reims by Rossini debuts on June 19
1830 Charles X abdicates on August 2; Duc d’Angoulême becomes King Louis XIX for twenty minutes and, until her husband’s abdication, Marie-Thérèse becomes the last Queen of France of the senior Bourbon line
1832 Duchesse de Berry attempts to regain the throne for her son
1836 Charles X dies on November 6
1837 The Dark Countess, ‘Sophie Botta’, dies on November 25
1844 The Duc d’Angoulême dies on June 3
1845 ‘Vavel de Versay’, real name Cornelius Van der Valck, dies on April 8; Louise d’Artois marries Charles de Bourbon, the future Duc de Parme on November 10
1846 Henri V marries Archduchess Marie-Thérèse d’Este of Modena on November 16
1851 Marie-Thérèse dies on October 19
Notes
PART I: SINNER
Chapter I: Sex and Politics
1. The members of the Austrian royal family corresponded with each other in French, the preferred language of the aristocracy.
2. According to Madame Campan, Marie Antoinette’s First Lady-in-Waiting, and eyewitness to the Emperor’s visit, Joseph II loved to gossip, especially about his brothers and sisters. Despite his counsel to Marie Antoinette to follow a sober path, he was, apparently, quite indiscreet. Madame Campan reported that the ‘Emperor was fond of describing the Italian Courts that he had visited. The jealous quarrels between the King and Queen of Naples amused him highly; he described the life, manner and speech of that sovereign, and the simplicity with which he used to go and solicit the First Chamberlain to obtain permission to return to the nuptial bed, when the angry Queen had banished him from it.’ (Memoirs of the Court of Marie Antoinette, Queen of France, p. 228).
3. In the 1780s, 24 livres was the equivalent of about one English pound sterling. After 1814, the livre was replaced by the franc, and in 1814, there were approximately 24 francs to one English pound sterling.
Chapter II: Child of France
1. In addition to the Princesse de Guémenée, others who had already been appointed included sous governess Comtesse de Mackau, religious instructors, a first doctor, a surgeon, medical specialists, a foot surgeon, and chambermaids including Mesdames Buot de Leschevin de Billy, Pollart Le Moine, and de Fréminville.
2. This was the same Cardinal de Rohan later implicated in the ‘diamond necklace scandal’.
Chapter IV: Once Upon a Tim
e
1. The Cordon Bleu and the Orders of Saint-Esprit, Saint-Louis, Saint-Michel and the Golden Fleece were the most prestigious.
2. When Chateaubriand, citing Guirlande de Julie, wrote ‘I have on the display of my birth’, he erred in his literary reference. Guirlande de Julie was actually a collection of poems written by a number of poets at the request of the Duc de Montausier in 1641 in honor of his fiancée. What Chateaubriand meant to draw on was the play called La Fleur d’Oranger.
3. Records concerning the expenditures made on behalf of Ernestine are in the Archives Nationales de France in Paris (Series O).
Chapter V: Storm Clouds Over the Palace
1. C. Hippeau, ‘Le Premier Dauphin, fils de Louis XVI’, Revue des Provinces, vol. 11, Paris: June 15, 1866, p. 494; Monsieur Lefèvre’s account.
2. Lord Glenbervie, The Diaries of Sylvester Douglas (Lord Glenbervie), ed. Francis Bickley, London: Constable, 1928, vol. I, p. 25, December 21, 1793.
3. Letter from Marie Antoinette, la Duchesse de Tourzel, Mémoires, Paris: E. Plon et Cie, 1883, July 25, 1789.
Chapter VII: A New Home
1. Cited in Baron Hüe, Souvenirs, Paris: Calmann-Lévy, 1903, pp. 21–23, and Comtesse Pauline de Béarn, Souvenirs de Quarante Ans 1789–1830, Paris: Jacques Lecoffre et Cie, 1861, pp. 56–58.
2. Cited in de Tourzel, op. cit., chapter III.
3. Cited in de Béarn, op. cit., p. 58.
4. Today, the Eiffel Tower faces the Champ de Mars.
Chapter X: Two Orphans
1. A series of bulletins in French went from English spies in Paris, to Francis Drake in Genoa, to Foreign Secretary Grenville in London as England had no ambassador to France in 1793. The collection, known as the Dropmore Papers (see bibliography entry for J. B. Fortescue), includes the reports on the treatment of Louis Charles in the Temple Prison. See Number 12, February 12, 1794. Lord Glenbervie, op. cit. (ed. Bickley, vol. I, p. 25), December 21, 1793.
2. Juror priests professed loyalty to the government rather than to the Church.
3. Cited in Joseph Turquan, La Dernière Dauphine, Madame duchesse d’Angoulême (1778–1851), Paris: Emile-Paul, 1909, pp. 58–59.
Chapter XI: Sole Survivor
1. Cited in Lord Glenbervie, op. cit. (ed. Bickley, vol. I, p. 73).
2. Archives Nationales de France, AF, II 300, 88.
3. Marie-Thérèse to Maria Carolina, letter dated January 10, 1796, Österreichisches Staatsarchiv, Vienna.
PART II: SAINT
Chapter XII: Every Inch a Princess
1. The Public Library of Basel has a complete list of the trousseau that Marie-Thérèse left behind. The two trunks included: four dozen blouses, two dozen toile handkerchiefs, two dozen batiste handkerchiefs, three muslin toile and embroidered peignoirs, three muslin and batiste embroidered peignoirs, two dozen napkins de toilette, six dozen wardrobe napkins, six cotton twill skirts, six English dimity muslin embroidered underskirts, twelve pairs of embroidered pockets, eighteen balls of wool for washing, twelve lace evening caps, twelve hair bands, twelve linen bonnets embroidered with lace, six linen handkerchiefs embroidered in lace, twelve double linen fichus, one linen needlepoint-embroidered lap cover, one English-style lap cover, two decorated lap covers made of linen, four dozen lace neckerchiefs, four dozen frottoirs muslin and cotton twill, two ajustements, one organdy dress with embroidery, one linen dress embroidered in white, four pieces of embroidered muslin, two pieces of linen batiste, two pieces of cotton percale for four morning dresses, one piece of English dimity for two dresses, one pink velour dress, one white satin dress with taffeta, one dress of satin moiré, two white taffeta skirts, one pink taffeta skirt, one piece of muslin for undergarments (camisoles), one piece of embroidered muslin to decorate the camisoles, English dimity for six corsets, twelve pairs of white silk stockings, two dozen pairs of lisle stockings, two dozen pairs of tricot slippers, twelve lengths of ribbon, one taffeta quilted redingote, one muff, and a hat. This inventory list was signed by Gomin, Lasne, who saw it in Paris, and Baron Hüe and the cook Meunier who saw it in Basel.
2. Archives Nationales, F42315.
Chapter XIV: The Émigrés
1. Cited in Duchesse d’Abrantès, At the Court of Napoleon: Memoirs of the Duchesse d’Abrantès, New York: Doubleday, 1989, p. 167.
2. Cited in A. C. Morris (ed.), The Diary and Letters of Gouverneur Morris, New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1888, vol. II, p. 212.
3. Ibid., pp. 238–39.
4. Ibid., pp. 226–27.
Chapter XVI: A Bride
1. Alfred H. Bill, Highroads of Peril, Boston: Little, Brown & Co., 1926, p. 169.
Chapter XVII: The New Antigone
1 British Library: Add. Mss 33793.
Chapter XVIII: Country Life
1. Gentleman’s Magazine, January–June 1797, vol. LXXXI, p. 587.
2. Lord Colchester, Diary and Correspondence, London: John Murray, 1861, pp. 336–38.
3. Cited in Baron André de Maricourt, Les Bourbons (1518–1830), Paris: émile-Paul Frères, 1937, pp. 241–42.
4. Archives Nationales, 34AP180.
Chapter XIX: The Only Man in the Family
1. Archives Nationales, 1309 f. 302sq.
2. In 1809, when Napoleon had asked the Magyars to find a new king to replace the Habsburgs, overtures were made to Esterhazy, whose family had presided over the area for hundreds of years, before and during the Habsburg era. Nicolas refused the honor, earning the esteem of many.
Chapter XX: Restoration
1. Although witnesses have stated that Ney, famous for his bravery, actually gave the signal to his own firing squad, controversy emerged regarding his death. In 1818 a man named Peter Stuart Ney arrived in South Carolina and on his deathbed claimed to be the famous soldier. Some handwriting experts have asserted that the handwriting of Peter Stuart Ney matches that of Napoleon’s General.
2. James Gallatin, The Diary of James Gallatin, London: William Heinemann, 1914, p. 107.
Chapter XXI: Birth, Death and a New Dauphine
1. James Gallatin recorded that the game ‘Boston’, which had been popular during the ancien régime, was still popular. He noted that he believed the game had been invented by French sailors while on duty in Boston Harbor during the American Revolutionary War.
2. François-René de Chateaubriand, Mémoires d’outre-tombe, Paris: Classiques Garnier, 1998, Livre XV, pp. 50–51.
3. Gallatin, op. cit., p. 158.
4. Some believe that Decazes was the model for Balzac’s ruthlessly ambitious character, Rastignac, in the Comédie humaine series of novels.
5. Gallatin, op. cit., p. 166.
6. Gallatin, ibid., p. 177.
7. Gallatin, ibid., pp. 210–11.
8. Gallatin, ibid., pp. 241–42.
9. Béarn, op. cit., pp. 299–300.
10. Cited in Armin Human, Der Dunkelgraf von Eishausen, Hildburghausen: Keffenbringsche Hofbuchhandlung, 1883, 1886, pp. 72–73.
Chapter XXII: Mending Fences
1. Cited in André Castelot, La Duchesse de Berry, Paris: Perrin, 1996, p. 194.
2. Cited in Philip Mansel, Paris Between Empires: Monarchy and Revolution 1814–1852, New York: St Martin’s Press, 2001, p. 218.
3. Chateaubriand, op. cit., Livre VI, pp. 179–80.
4. Ironically, it would later be that flag, the white banner of the ancien régime, which he would insist upon when offered the crown and which would turn out to be the ‘deal breaker’.
5. Cited in Comtesse de Boigne, Memoirs, New York: Helen Marx Books, 2003, p. 174. The Comtesse d’Agoult’s own marriage would prove to be miserable: she divorced her husband after eight years and lived with the composer Franz Liszt, with whom she would have two illegitimate daughters, one of whom, Cosima, would marry another musical giant, Richard Wagner. D’Agoult also went on to become a famous writer under her own name and under the pen name ‘Daniel Stern’.
5. Cited in Turquan, op. cit., p. 383.
Chapter XX
III: Suspicions Confirmed
1. Cited in Mary Frampton, The Journal of Mary Frampton from the Year 1779, Until the Year 1846, London: Sampson Low, Marston, Searle & Rivington, 1886, p. 356.
Chapter XXIV: Blackmail
1. Chateaubriand, op. cit., Livre XXXVIII, pp. 316–17.
2. There are nearly eighty letters that relate to the de Soucy/Dr Lavergne affair. See the Mackau files at the Archives Nationales: AN 156 AP I 11 dossier 1.
3. Dr Jean-Jacques Cassiman, whose DNA testing in 2000 resulted in indisputable proof that the boy who died in the Temple Prison was Louis Charles, also conducted DNA testing on a piece of a bone from Naundorff’s corpse. Although the DNA pattern from the bone from the Naundorff skeleton did not match that of Marie Antoinette, Naundorff’s descendants, who still go by the name ‘Bourbon’, insist that they are the rightful heirs to the Capetian dynasty.
Bibliography
Unpublished Sources
Archives du Ministère des Affaires Étrangères, Paris
Archives Nationales de France (Series AB, AF, AP, C, F, H, O), Paris
Département des Manuscrits de la Bibliothèque Nationale de France, Paris
Fonds Bourbon, Paris
Österreichisches Staatsarchiv (Haus-, Hof-, and Staatsarchiv), Vienna Private collection of HSH Charles-Henri de Lobkowicz (letters and diaries)
Published Sources
d’Abrantès, Duchesse, At the Court of Napoleon: Memoirs of the Duchesse d’Abrantès, New York: Doubleday, 1989.