Category Archives: French Royals

Madeleine of Valois, Queen of Scots

by Susan Flantzer  © Unofficial Royalty 2013

Madeleine of Valois, Queen of Scots; Credit – Wikipedia

Madeleine of Valois was born on August 10, 1520, at the Château de Saint-Germain-en-Laye in France.  Her parents were King François I of France and Claude, Duchess of Brittany.  King François I had inherited the throne from his cousin King Louis XII, who had no surviving sons despite three marriages (his last marriage was to Mary Tudor, the younger sister of King Henry VIII of England).  King Louis XII had two surviving daughters, Claude and Renée, from his marriage to Anne, Duchess of Brittany.  Because France followed the Salic Law which dictated that the crown should pass to and through the male line, Louis XII’s cousin François succeeded him as King of France.  However, Brittany allowed the duchy to be passed to and through the female line, so when Anne, Duchess of Brittany died, the duchy passed to her elder daughter Claude.  French nobles urged Claude’s father to marry her to his cousin François as he was French and the heir presumptive to the French throne.  Shortly after she became Duchess of Brittany, thirteen-year-old Claude married François and in the following year (1515), Claude’s father died and her husband became King of France.  Claude died in 1524 when she was 24 and her daughter Madeleine was only three years old.  During her ten years of marriage, Claude was almost constantly pregnant, bearing King François I seven children, the siblings of Madeleine of Valois.

Madeleine’s siblings:

Madeleine (back right) with her mother and sisters, from the Book of Hours of Catherine de’Medici; Credit – Wikipedia

After the death of her mother, Madeleine and her younger sister Margaret were raised by their paternal aunt Margaret of Navarre.  In 1530, King François I married Eleanor of Austria, the sister of the powerful Holy Roman Emperor Charles V, and Madeleine and Margaret were then placed in their stepmother’s household.  Madeleine, who was sickly since her birth, developed tuberculosis by the time she was sixteen.

After the Battle of Flodden in 1514, where King James IV of Scotland led an invading army into England, was defeated, and died in the battle, Scotland wanted to strengthen their alliance with France.  The Treaty of Rouen was signed in 1517 and one of the provisions was for King James V of Scotland to marry a French princess. King James V was the son of King James IV of Scotland and Margaret Tudor, the daughter of King Henry VII of England and the sister of King Henry VIII of England. When King James V reached a marriageable age, talks began regarding a marriage with Madeleine.  However, Madeleine had tuberculosis and her ill health was an issue and another French bride, Mary of Bourbon, was offered as a substitute.  When James V came to France to meet Mary of Bourbon, he met Madeleine and decided to marry her.  Because of his daughter’s health issues, François I was reluctant to agree to the marriage, but eventually, he did so.  Madeleine and King James V of Scotland were married on January 1, 1537, at Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris.

After months of celebrations in France, the couple arrived in Scotland on May 19, 1537, but Madeleine’s health had further deteriorated.  Madeleine wrote a letter to her father on June 8, 1537, saying that she was feeling better and that her symptoms had subsided.  Despite this, on July 7, 1537, Madeleine died from tuberculosis in her husband’s arms, a month short of her seventeenth birthday.  Less than a year later, still wanting a French bride, King James V of Scotland married Mary of Guise.  The couple had three children, two sons who died in infancy, and a daughter Mary, Queen of Scots, who succeeded her father at the age of six days when he died five years into the marriage.

Madeleine was buried at Holyrood Abbey in Edinburgh, Scotland which now lies in ruins.  A sign near tomb says: This simple vault was built after the eastern part of this Abbey Church was destroyed by the English army in 1544. Here were placed the coffins of James V, Madeleine his first Queen, and his infant sons by his second marriage to Mary of Guise.  In 1688 the tomb was violated during the riots at the end of James VII’s reign and its contents were left in disorder.  In 1898 Queen Victoria ordained a repair of the vault and the remains of those previously interred here were re-buried in one coffin.  The vault also contains the coffin of Mary of Gueldres, Queen of James II, which was moved in 1848 from Trinity Church, Edinburgh.

james-v_tomb_1

The burial vault at the ruins  of Holyrood Abbey; Credit – Susan Flantzer

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King Henri II of France

by Susan Flantzer © Unofficial Royalty 2013

King Henri II of France, Credit – Wikipedia

“The young lion will overcome the older one,
On the field of combat in a single battle;
He will pierce his eyes through a golden cage,
Two wounds made one, then he dies a cruel death.”

The above quatrain by Nostradamus, a French apothecary and reputed seer, is often interpreted as predicting the death of King Henri II of France. The interpretation usually goes something like this:  King Henri II of France (older one) jousted Gabriel de Lorges, Comte de Montgomery, captain of his Scotch Guard (young lion), who was eleven years younger, during a tournament (field of combat).  Both had lions on their shields. In their final pass, Montgomery’s lance tilted up, and went through Henri’s visor, splintering into pieces. Two shards, one through the eye (pierce his eyes through a golden cage), and one through the temple, lodged in Henri’s head (two wounds made one).  Henri suffered for eleven days (then he dies a cruel death) before dying.

King Henri II of France was born on March 31, 1519, at the Château de Saint-Germain-en-Laye, near Paris, France.  He was the second son of King François I of France and Claude, Duchess of Brittany, a daughter of King Louis XII of France and Anne, Duchess of Brittany.

Henri had six siblings:

Catherine de Medici, Queen of France; Credit – Wikipedia

Due to her wealth, Catherine de Medici, the daughter of Lorenzo II de Medici, Duke of Urbino and Madeleine de La Tour d’Auvergne, had several potential bridegrooms. Both her parents had died before she was one month old and she was raised by various members of the wealthy banking family and political dynasty, the House of Medici. The Medici family jumped at the offer of François I, King of France to marry her to his second son Henri, the Duke of Orléans.

At this time, Henri’s elder brother François III, Duke of Brittany, Dauphin of France was the heir to the throne and there was little prospect of Henri becoming King of France. Henri and Catherine, both fourteen years old, were married at the Église Saint-Ferréol les Augustins in Marseille, France on October 28, 1533. Henri paid little attention to Catherine during the first ten years of their marriage, preferring mistresses, particularly Diane de Poitiers who became Henri’s mistress when he was fifteen and she was 35 years old. She remained Henri’s mistress for the rest of his life. Henri and his wife Catherine did not have any children until they had been married for nearly eleven years.

Henri, Catherine, and their children; Credit – Wikipedia

Eventually, they had ten children, seven surviving to adulthood.

In 1536, Henri’s elder brother François, the Dauphin (the title of heir to the French throne) and Duke of Brittany died at the age of 18.  There were suspicions that he was poisoned, but he probably died from natural causes, most likely from tuberculosis. Henri became the heir to the throne and succeeded his father on March 31, 1547, his 28th birthday. He was crowned King of France on July 25, 1547, at Reims Cathedral. Henri’s reign was marked by the Italian Wars against the House of Habsburg and the suppression of the Protestant Reformation, particularly the persecution of the Protestant French Huguenots, who were becoming a large minority.

On June 30, 1559, a great celebration and tournament were held in Paris at the Hôtel des Tournelles (now the site of the Place des Vosges) in honor of the Peace of Cateau-Cambrésis with France’s longtime enemies, the Habsburgs and the two marriages that occurred as a result of the Peace: Emmanuel Philibert, Duke of Savoy marrying Henri’s sister Marguerite of France, Duchess of Berry and King Felipe II of Spain marrying Elisabeth, the eldest daughter of Catherine and Henri II.

King Henri II, at age 40, still liked to participate in tournaments even though he had been advised not to participate because of dizziness after physical exertion.  Henri and Gabriel de Lorges, Comte de Montgomery, captain of the Scotch Guard jousted and Henri had been almost unseated from his horse.  He insisted upon a rematch despite the urgings of his wife, the Duke of Savoy, and other friends to stop.  The Comte de Montgomery reluctantly agreed to participate.  de Montgomery’s lance struck the king’s helmet, splintered, and went through the visor going through the king’s right eye and his temple into the brain.  The king, bleeding profusely and nearly unconscious, was carried into the Hôtel des Tournelles.

Tournament between Henri II and Lorges,  Credit – Wikipedia

Henri received immediate treatment from the court physicians and renowned surgeon Ambroise Paré.  The splinter from the king’s eye was removed and he was bled as that was the medical practice at the time.  It was hoped that losing an eye would be the worst thing to happen. King Felipe II of Spain arranged for one of his physicians, the great Belgian anatomist Andreas Vesalius, to go to Paris from Brussels for a consultation. Vesalius arrived on July 3, 1559, and determined that the king would not recover. Queen Catherine, desperate to find a way to cure her husband, had four criminals beheaded and then had splintered lances poked through the eyes at the same angle the lance had gone through Henry’s eye. Henri’s condition continued to worsen. On July 9, he was given the last rites and he died on July 10, 1559, at the age of 40, probably from a subdural hematoma and sepsis.

Deathbed of King Henri II of France, Credit – Wikipedia

King Henri II of France was buried at the Basilica of Saint-Denis near Paris, the traditional burial place of French royalty.  During the French Revolution, Henry’s coffin was removed and thrown into a mass grave with the remains of other French royals.  However, the tomb of Henri II and Catherine de Medici can still be seen at the Basilica of Saint-Denis.  In 1817, the mass graves containing the royal remains were opened and the remains were then placed in the crypt of the basilica.  Nearby are several large metal plates bearing the names of those royals whose graves had been desecrated during the French Revolution.

Tomb of Henri II of France and Catherine de Medici, Credit – Susan Flantzer

France Resources at Unofficial Royalty

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Louis XII, King of France

by Emily McMahon and Susan Flantzer 
© Unofficial Royalty 2013

Louis XII, King of France; Credit – Wikipedia

King Louis XII of France was born on June 27, 1462, at the Chateau de Blois in Touraine, France, the only son and the second of the three children of Charles, Duke of Orléans and his third wife Marie of Cleves.  King Louis XII was the great-grandson of King Charles V of France through his second surviving son Louis I, Duke of Orléans after the line of Charles V’s eldest son and successor King Charles VI of France died out.

Louis had one half-sister from his father’s first marriage to Isabella of Valois, daughter of King Charles VI of France and widow of King Richard II of England.  Isabella died in childbirth at the age of 19.

Louis had one full elder sister and one full younger sister:

Louis succeeded his father as Duke of Orléans at the age of three. Although his descent from the French ruling line was somewhat distant, Louis was aware of his proximity to the throne should the main Valois line become extinct.

On September 8, 1476, 14-year-old Louis married 12-year-old Jeanne of France, daughter of King Louis XI of France. This was a political union arranged by King Louis XI, possibly to secure the succession due to the ill health of his heir, the future King Charles VIII of France. The marriage was unhappy, the couple lived apart, and there were no children.

King Louis XI died in 1483, leaving his 13-year-old son Charles VIII as king. Louis of Orléans was eager to dissolve his marriage with Jeanne as it now lacked importance due to the presumption that Charles would provide his own heirs. Nevertheless, Louis unsuccessfully attempted to join Charles’ sister Anne de Beaujeu as regent in 1484, ending in Anne’s arrest of Louis. Louis’ request to divorce Jeanne (Anne de Beaujeu’s sister) and marry Anne of Brittany, the heiress of the Duchy of Brittany, was declined by the Pope.

Louis escaped and joined several nobles against royal forces. His comrades included Francis II, Duke of Brittany (his intended fiancee’s father), Prince Jean of Orange, and Rene, Duke of Lorraine. The nobles held on for three years, after which Francis died and Louis was captured. During Louis’ captivity, Charles VIII married Francis’ daughter Anne, the new Duchess of Brittany, by force. Louis was pardoned by Charles in 1491 and joined the King on his failed Italian campaigns.

King Charles VIII died unexpectedly in 1498. Although he and Anne had had several children, none survived him, allowing Louis’ succession as King Louis XII of France. Eager to gain control of Anne’s funds and territories, Louis again attempted to annul his marriage to Jeanne. Unable to prove with any documented evidence his close relation to Jeanne (they were distant cousins) or his young age at the time of their marriage, Louis claimed that the marriage was unconsummated due to witchcraft and a deformity on Jeanne’s part. Although Jeanne fought admirably to save her reputation, Pope Alexander VI ruled in favor of Louis and granted the annulment.  After her marriage was annulled, Jeanne founded the monastic Order of the Sisters of the Annunciation of Mary and was canonized as a saint in 1950.

Anne of Brittany, Queen of France; Credit – Wikipedia

Louis XII married Anne, Duchess of Brittany on January 7, 1499, in Nantes, France. They had four stillborn sons and three miscarriages.  They did have two daughters who survived to adulthood:

Louis proved an able ruler, repairing the French treasury left in shambles by his predecessor through a more efficient tax collection. He also pursued a claim to the Duchy of Milan (which he claimed through his Italian grandmother, Valentina Visconti), holding the territory for twelve years. Louis also worked successfully with the French nobility, possibly because he understood the importance of their cooperation after his past as a rebel.

Louis XII and Anne of Brittany; Credit – Wikipedia

Although Queen Anne bore Louis several children, only daughters Claude and Renee were alive at the time of her death in 1514. Eager to provide himself a male heir, 52-year-old Louis quickly arranged a third marriage to Mary Tudor, the beautiful eighteen-year-old younger sister of King Henry VIII of England. There was a proxy marriage on August 19, 1514, at Greenwich Palace with Claude d’Orléans, Duke of Longueville standing in for Louis XII. Mary left for France on October 2, 1514.  They married in person at Abbeville on October 9, 1514. However, the marriage did not last long. Louis XII died on January 1, 1515, at the Hôtel des Tournelles in Paris, France, just three months after the wedding. As he had no sons, he was succeeded by his son-in-law François d’Angoulême from the House of Valois-Angoulême as King François I of France.

Louis did become the ancestor of the new line of French rulers. Although his daughter Claude could not succeed him due to the Salic Law of the Kingdom, she was married to his successor. Their second son became King of France in 1547 as Henri II. King Louis XII is buried with his second wife Anne of Brittany in the Basilica of St. Denis, the traditional burial place for French monarchs.  Their tomb has survived although it was desecrated in October 1793 and their bodies were thrown into a mass grave. However, the archaeologist Alexandre Lenoir saved much of the tomb and preserved it at the Museum of French Monuments. During the Second Bourbon Restoration (1815 – 1830), the tomb was returned to the Basilica of Saint-Denis. Read more about it at Wikipedia: Tomb of Louis XII and Anne of Brittany.

Tomb of Louis XII and Anne of Brittany; Photo Credit – By Photo: Myrabella / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=18611160

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France Resources at Unofficial Royalty

Maria Clotilde of Savoy, Princess Napoleon

by Emily McMahon  © Unofficial Royalty 2013

Maria Clotilde of Savoy, Princess Napoleon;  Credit – Wikipedia

Born on March 2, 1843, at the Royal Palace of Turin in Savoy, now part of Italy, Ludovica Teresa Maria Clotilde was the eldest of the eight children of Vittorio Emanuele II, Duke of Savoy, the future first King of Italy, and Archduchess Adelheid of Austria. The princess was known from birth by her last two names, Maria Clotilde.

Maria Clotilde had seven younger siblings:

Maria Clotilde’s parents and siblings; Credit – Wikipedia

Just days after giving birth to her last child, Maria Clotilde’s mother Adelheid fell ill after attending the funeral of her mother-in-law. Adelheid died four days later, on January 20, 1855, leaving 11-year-old Maria Clotilde, the eldest of her six surviving children.

Despite her early death, Adelheid’s actions and character had a great deal of influence on her eldest daughter. Dutiful and deeply religious, Maria Clotilde tried to serve as a second mother to her brothers and sister. Vittorio Emanuele became King of Sardinia in 1849, a few weeks after his eldest daughter’s sixth birthday. He had only occasional contact with his children in the years that followed due to his work toward the unification of Italy and the attention he paid to his numerous mistresses.

Vittorio Emanuele was eager to gain the support of the United Kingdom and France against Austria during the Wars of Italian Independence. To seal a French-Italian alliance, a marriage between Maria Clotilde and a Bonaparte prince was arranged in 1858. Emperor Napoleon III’s only son was a toddler so his cousin Napoléon-Jérôme was selected as the Bonaparte groom. Napoléon-Jérôme Bonaparte  was the son of Jérôme Bonaparte, the brother of Emperor Napoleon I, and Princess Catherine of Württemberg.  Maria Clotilde was fifteen at the time and Napoléon-Jérôme was 37.

Maria Clotilde was not impressed by her portly, anti-clerical liberal fiancé. Her innocence, piety, and sense of duty clashed with Napoléon-Jérôme’s love of wine, women, and food. Nevertheless, the two were married at Turin on January 30, 1859. The differences between the bride and groom did not go without notice. The wedding was described as being between an elephant (Napoléon-Jérôme) and a gazelle (Maria Clotilde). The couple settled in Paris.

Maria Clotilde and her husband in 1859; Credit – Wikipedia

The couple had two sons and one daughter:

Maria Clotilda with one of her children, probably Napoléon Victor; Photo Credit – Wikipedia

Maria Clotilde devoted her life to prayer, charity, and her family. She was well-respected in France for her sense of duty and grace, while her husband had long been disliked for his devotion to pleasure and his supposed avoidance of service during the Crimean War. Napoléon-Jérôme was a notorious womanizer both before and after his marriage.

Maria Clotilde was urged by her father to leave Paris just before the fall of the Second French Empire in 1870. At first, she refused to leave, sending her father a cold letter about her duties to the Houses of Savoy and Bonaparte. As the dangers increased and the remaining members of the Bonaparte family fled, Maria Clotilde and her husband eventually abandoned Paris for Switzerland. After a few years, Maria Clotilde and her husband quietly separated and she returned to Turin with her daughter.

Maria Clotilde continued her life of devotion and charity after she returned to Italy. She spent her final years at the traditional summer residence of the Savoy family, the Castle of Moncalieri in Montcalieri, a town located just outside of Turin. Maria Clotilde died there on June 25, 1911, at the age of 68, surviving her husband by twenty years.  She was buried at the Basilica of Superga near Turin, the traditional burial site of the House of Savoy.

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Princess Henrietta of England, Duchess of Orléans

by Susan Flantzer  © Unofficial Royalty 2013

Princess Henrietta of England, Duchess of Orléans; Credit – Wikipedia

Known as Henrietta-Anne during her years at the French court, she is an ancestor of the royal families of Belgium, Luxembourg, and Spain.  When the line of Henriette-Anne’s brother King James II of England died out, the Jacobite claims to the British throne descended from her daughter Anne Marie d’Orléans, Queen of Sardinia. The Orléanist pretenders to the French throne and the Savoy pretenders to the Italian throne descend from Henrietta-Anne.

Princess Henrietta was born on June 16, 1644, amid the English Civil War, at Bedford House in Exeter, England, the home of William Russell, 5th Earl of Bedford, where her mother had fled from Oxford, England to safety.  It was in Oxford shortly before her birth that Henrietta’s parents, King Charles I and Henrietta Maria of France, last saw each other.  Henrietta Maria’s parents were King Henri IV of France, who had been assassinated when she was a year old, and Marie de Medici from the famous House of Medici.

Princess Henrietta, drawing by Anthony Van Dyck; Credit – Wikipedia

Henrietta’s siblings who survived infancy:

Henrietta on the right with her brother James and Charles, circa 1660; Credit – Wikipedia

Henrietta was well connected to European royalty through her maternal aunts and uncles: Louis XIII, King of France; Elisabeth, Queen of Spain, wife of Philip IV, King of Spain; Christine Marie, Duchess of Savoy, wife of Vittorio Amedeo I, Duke of Savoy; and Gaston, Duke of Orléans.  Her only surviving paternal aunt or uncle was Elizabeth Stuart who married Frederick V, Elector Palatine.  It was through Elizabeth’s daughter Sophia that the Protestant Hanovers came to the British throne in 1714 through the 1701 Act of Settlement.

About a month after Henrietta’s birth, her mother went to France to ask her nephew, King Louis XIV, for assistance for the Royalist side in the English Civil War.  Henrietta was left in the care of Lady Dalkeith (born Anne Villiers, the daughter of Sir Edward Villiers).  While in Lady Dalkeith’s care, King Charles I saw his daughter for the first time and ordered her baptized with the Church of England rites.  In 1646, Lady Dalkeith disguised herself and the princess as peasants and fled to France, reuniting the princess with her mother.  Lady Dalkeith was Princess Henrietta’s governess in France until 1651.

At the French court, Henrietta was given the additional name of Anne, in honor of Anne of Austria, widow of King Louis XIII and mother of King Louis XIV. Thereafter, the princess was known as Henriette-Anne, but she was called Minette by her family and friends.  Mother and daughter were given apartments at the Louvre Palace, the use of the Château de Saint-Germain-en-Laye, and a pension, much of which was given to King Charles I in England and to royalist exiles in France.  In January 1649, King Charles I was beheaded and Henriette-Anne and her mother moved to the Palais Royal with her cousins King Louis XIV and Philippe, Duke of Orléans and their mother Anne of Austria, Dowager Queen of France.  At this time Henrietta Maria decided to have her daughter brought up as a Roman Catholic.

Henrietta Maria wanted her daughter to marry her cousin King Louis XIV, but his mother was against the marriage.  Instead, Louis married Maria Theresa of Spain, another first cousin, in 1660.  Also in 1660, the monarchy was restored in England and Henriette-Anne’s oldest brother became King Charles II.  Now that Henriette-Anne was the sister of the English king, her cousin Philippe became interested in marrying her.  Philippe had homosexual affairs, but apparently, he was intent on fulfilling his dynastic responsibility of having children.  The cousins married on April 1, 1661, and moved into the Palais des Tuileries.  Philippe was styled Monsieur and so Henrietta was then styled as Madame.  Henriette-Anne and Philippe had four children.  Some members of the French court doubted their children’s paternity. Henriette-Anne had affairs, including an affair with her husband’s lover Guy Armand de Gramont, Comte de Guiche.

Henrietta with her daughter Marie Louise by Jean Nocret, 1670; Credit – Wikipedia

Henriette-Anne regularly corresponded with the playwrights Molière and Racine, and the fabulist La Fontaine.  She was interested in gardening and created the water gardens at the Palais Royal. She also had a large art collection focusing on the Flemish artist Van Dyck and the Italian artist Correggio.  In 1669, Henriette-Anne’s mother Henrietta Maria died after mistakenly taking too many opiates as a painkiller.

The Death of the Duchess of Orléans; Credit – Wikipedia

Beginning in 1667, Henriette-Anne’s health started to suffer.  She had pains in her side and her digestive problems became so severe that she could only drink milk.  On June 29, 1670, Henriette-Anne drank a glass of iced chicory water and immediately felt severe pain in her side.  She thought she had been poisoned and asked to be given an antidote.  The last rites were administered and Henriette-Anne died on June 30, 1670, at the age of 26, at the Château de Saint-Cloud in Hauts-de-Seine, France.  There were rumors that her husband’s lover Philippe, Chevalier de Lorraine had poisoned her.

An autopsy was conducted by 17 French doctors and two English doctors and attended by the British ambassador and an audience of 100.  The official report stated that Henriette-Anne died from “cholera morbus caused by heated bile” which was a medical diagnosis at the time for acute gastroenteritis occurring in summer and autumn with severe cramps, diarrhea, and vomiting.  Many of the autopsy observers disagreed with this diagnosis.  Henriette-Anne was buried at the Basilica of St. Denis near Paris, the burial site of the Kings of France and their families.

Henrietta’s funeral; Credit – Wikipedia

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Madame Élisabeth of France, sister of King Louis XVI of France

by Susan Flantzer  © Unofficial Royalty 2013

Madame Élisabeth of France, Credit – Wikipedia

Élisabeth Philippine Marie Hélène, the youngest of the eight children of Louis, Dauphin of France and his second wife Maria Josepha of Saxony, was born on May 3, 1764, at the Palace of Versailles.  Her father was the only surviving son of King Louis XV of France and his wife Marie Leszczyńska, but he predeceased his father.  Upon King Louis XV’s death, his grandson (Elisabeth’s brother) succeeded him as King Louis XVI.  When Elisabeth was just two years old, her mother died of tuberculosis.  Elisabeth was raised by her governess Marie Louise de Rohan.

Elisabeth as a child; Credit – Wikipedia

Elisabeth had seven siblings:

Elisabeth was devoted to her brother King Louis XVI, and with his permission, declined all marriage offers so that she could remain in France.  Several times during the French Revolution, Elisabeth refused to leave France when she had the opportunity, choosing to remain with her brother and his family.  She accompanied her brother and his family on their unsuccessful attempt to flee Paris.  Elisabeth was present during the siege of the Tuileries Palace and accompanied her brother and his family to imprisonment in the notorious Temple. After the execution of Louis XVI on January 21, 1793, Elisabeth remained imprisoned in the Temple with her sister-in-law Marie Antoinette and niece Marie-Thérèse Charlotte.  In August 1793, Marie Antoinette was taken to the Conciergerie where she was tried and then taken to her execution on October 16, 1793.  On the day of her execution, Marie Antoinette wrote her last letter, addressed to Elisabeth, but it was never delivered.

On May 9, 1794, Elisabeth was transferred to the Conciergerie where she was tried and condemned to be executed the next day.  She was executed by the guillotine at the Place de la Révolution in Paris (now called Place de la Concorde) with 23 other people on May 10, 1794.  A very religious person, Elisabeth comforted and prayed with several others awaiting execution.  She was originally buried in a common grave at the Errancis Cemetery in Paris.  At a later date, Elisabeth’s remains along with the remains of other guillotine victims were buried in the Catacombs of Paris.  The Roman Catholic Church views Elisabeth as a martyr and a Servant of God. The Cause of Beatification of Élisabeth was introduced in 1924 but has not yet been completed.

The photo below is a memorial to Madame Elisabeth at the Conciergerie, a former palace and prison in Paris where hundreds of guillotine victims including Madame Elisabeth and Marie Antoinette were tried and imprisoned before their executions.

Memorial to Madame Elisabeth at the Conciergerie; Photo Credit – Susan Flantzer

This article is the intellectual property of Unofficial Royalty and is NOT TO BE COPIED, EDITED, OR POSTED IN ANY FORM ON ANOTHER WEBSITE under any circumstances. It is permissible to use a link that directs to Unofficial Royalty.