The marriage between Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette took years to consummate and it was not until the visit of Joseph, who would later become Emperor of Austria, the queen’s brother, that the monarchs proceeded to make their marriage effective in the realm of the carnal. Apparently there was no physical impediment, but rather a lack of interest on her part and his willingness to proceed. Encouraged by her brother-in-law and brother, after a short time, Marie Antoinette announced that she was pregnant. From then on an interesting story begins…
Find out what happened to the children of Marie Antoinette
The children of Marie Antoinette and Louis XVI were 4: Marie-Thérèse Charlotte, Louis Joseph Xavier François, Louis Charles and Sophie-Hélène-Béatrix. Today we will tell you part of the story of these children, born into royalty, in a France convulsive and complex.
Marie-Therese Charlotte
We tell you what happened to the children of Marie Antoinette for the first: Marie-Thérèse Charlotte, known as Madame Royale. She was born in versailles on December 19, 1778, when his parents had been married for seven years. He is the only person from the royal family who survived the Revolution. Pampered by her father, Marie Antoinette tried to make her pious and not as arrogant as her paternal aunts and would sometimes invite children from working families to have lunch with her.
In 1789 she was transferred together with her family to the Les Tuileries palace in Paris, but after the so-called “Flight from Varennes”, in 1791, in which the family tried to reach the border, being captured before achieving it, they were arrested and transferred to the Temple prison. In January 1793 Louis XVI was executed and she was separated from her brother, who was now Louis XVII of France. He remained in that prison with his mother and his aunt Élisabeth, his father’s little sister, until August 1793, when Marie Antoinette was taken to the Conciergerie.
The queen was condemned and executed in October 1793. Then the fate of what happened to the children of Marie Antoinette, for Marie-Thérèse became grim. She remained with her aunt until May 1794, when Élisabeth was taken away one night, tried and executed the next day. Since then, she has remained alone, confined to a cell for a year, without knowing what has become of her family. When the Reign of Terror fell, he was allowed to move to Vienna to the court of his cousin Emperor Francis II. She later traveled to Lithuania and married Louis Antoine d’Artois, Dauphin of France. The couple had no children, although they apparently had twin girls who had been abandoned in a church, their names were Helöise and Sabrina. Marie-Thérèse was widowed in 1844 and died of pneumonia in 1851.
Louis Joseph Xavier Francois
The next case of what happened to the children of Marie Antoinette is the one related to the fate of Louis Joseph Xavier François. According to correspondence at the time, in August 1779 Marie Antoinette suffered a miscarriage. She did not get pregnant again until 1781. The second of her children was a boy and was born on October 22 of that same year. The dauphin of France was named after Louis Joseph Xavier François, the name of Louis XVI’s older brother who died at the age of 10.
Louis Joseph was a child of great intelligence but fragile health. At the age of 5 he began to round his back due to a so-called “tuberculosis of the spinal cord.” The doctors at the time thought that he had caught it from his nurse Genevieve Potrine, although she fell ill with tuberculosis later than the dolphin. The first of Marie Antoinette’s sons died on June 4, 1789. while in France the States General were held.
louis charles
We advance in what happened to the children of Marie Antoinette, speaking on this occasion of her third son and second son, who saw the light on March 27, 1785. He was given the title of Duke of Normandy and when his older brother died he became the Dauphin of France. After the execution of his father, Louis XVI, he became Louis XVII. In 1792, Louis-Charles was imprisoned in the Temple together with his family and his aunt Élisabeth. After the death of his father, the royalists proclaimed him Louis XVII. Separated from his mother and sister, he was confined to a cell where his already fragile health suffered even more. He appointed a shoemaker named Simon as his guardian. He mistreated him physically and mentally.
The revolutionaries forced him to testify against his mother and aunt during the trial that took place in October 1793. He remained isolated in a filthy cell for more than six months without seeing anyone, until, after a visit from a commissioner, he their living conditions improved. The third of Marie Antoinette’s children died of “scrofula,” or tuberculous peritonitis, on June 8, 1795 at the age of 10. An autopsy was carried out on the corpse and the observations show that it had numerous tumors, suffered from scabies, was completely malnourished and had many scars, surely due to the ill-treatment received.
Sophie-Hélène-Béatrix
And we close the tour of what happened to the children of Marie Antoinette with the story of Sofia from France. Sophie was the fourth and last of the queen’s children. She was born in the Palace of Versailles on July 9, 1786. She was named after her in honor of her great-aunt Sophie, who had died a few months earlier. Although he was a large baby at birth, his health was always delicate.
Although it was said that she had died of tuberculosis or due to a head malformation, the one who would later become Louis-Charles’ first governess, Madame Touzel, recounted in one of her letters that she died suddenly. They were out for a carriage ride with the infanta when she unexpectedly passed away. They returned to the palace and realized that the girl had passed away. She was just 11 months old. It was June 19, 1787 and her death devastated her parents. She was buried in the royal necropolis of the Saint Denís church in Paris.
And you, Did you know what happened to the children of Marie Antoinette? Do you know any more information about them? Share it with us! And if you want to know more about this unique character, we invite you to read the post in which we tell you about the story of Axel de Fersen, who is said to have been the one true love of Marie Antoinette. Until next time!