Louisa Maria Teresa Stuart

by Susan Flantzer  © Unofficial Royalty 2016

Louisa Maria Teresa Stuart, circa 1705; Credit – Wikipedia

Louisa Maria Teresa Stuart was born June 28, 1692, at the Château of Saint-Germain-en-Laye in Saint-Germain-en-Laye, west of Paris, France.  Her parents were the deposed King James II of England and his second wife Maria Beatrice of Modena.  In 1688, her Catholic father was overthrown during the Glorious Revolution in favor of his Protestant daughter Queen Mary II and her husband and paternal first cousin Willem III, Prince of Orange who reigned jointly with his wife as King William III.  King Louis XIV of France, her father’s first cousin, provided the Chtâeau of Saint-Germain-en-Laye as a residence for exiled James II and his family.   The infant was baptized at the Chtâeau of Saint-Germain-en-Laye ‘s Sainte Chapelle.   Her godparents were her father’s first cousin King Louis XIV of France and Elisabeth Charlotte of the Palatine, Duchess of Orléans, the second wife of Louis XIV’s younger brother Philippe I, Duke of Orléans.

Château of Saint-Germain-en-Laye; Credit – Wikipedia

Louisa Maria Teresa had two surviving elder half-sisters from King James II’s first marriage to Lady Anne Hyde:

Between 1674 and 1684, James II’s second wife Maria Beatrice had 10 pregnancies and gave birth to five live children, all of whom died young. Maria Beatrice’s pregnancies:

      • Unnamed child (March 1674), miscarriage
      • Catherine Laura Stuart (born and died 1673), died of convulsions
      • Unnamed child (October 1675), stillborn
      • Isabel Stuart (1676 – 1681)
      • Charles, Duke of Cambridge (born and died 1677), died of smallpox
      • Elizabeth Stuart (born and died 1678) died immediately after birth
      • Unnamed child (February 1681), stillborn
      • Charlotte Maria Stuart  (born and died 1682), died of convulsions
      • Unnamed child (October 1683), stillborn
      • Unnamed child (May 1684), miscarriage
      • James Francis Edward Stuart (James III and VIII to the Jacobites) (1688 – 1766) married Maria Clementina Sobieska, had children, including Charles Edward Stuart, the Young Pretender
      • Louisa Maria Teresa Stuart (1692 – 1712), unmarried, died of smallpox

Louisa Maria Teresa with her brother James Francis Edward, 1695; Credit – Wikipedia

James II regarded his daughter as a consolation sent to him in his exile and Louisa Maria Teresa became known as “La Consolatrice“.  During the summer of 1701, James II was seriously ill and had been away from Saint Germain with his wife, seeking medical treatment.  James and Maria Beatrice returned to the Château of Saint-Germain-en-Laye in time for the June birthdays of their two children.   In early September, James II suffered a stroke but was still able to talk when his children visited him for the last time. His last words to nine-year-old Louisa were: “Adieu, my dear child. Serve your creator in the days of your youth. Consider virtue as the greatest ornament of your sex. Follow close the great pattern of it, your mother, who has been, no less than myself, over-clouded with calumny. But time, the mother of truth, will, I hope, at last make her virtues shine as bright as the sun.”  James II died on September 16, 1701, at St. Germain. His remains were buried at the Chapel of Saint Edmund in the Church of the English Benedictines in the Rue  St. Jacques in Paris.

Louisa was educated by an English Roman Catholic priest, Father Constable, who taught her Latin, history, and religion, and by her governess, the Countess of Middleton (born Lady Catherine Brudenell, daughter of Robert Brudenell, 2nd Earl of Cardigan), the wife of Charles Middleton, 2nd Earl of Middleton, Jacobite 1st Earl of Monmouth.  At the age of 13, Louisa was introduced at the court of Versailles where she enjoyed dancing and attending the opera and became quite popular. Soon she had some potential marriage candidates, including Louis XIV’s grandson Charles, Duke of Berry and the future King Karl XII of Sweden, but nothing happened with either possibility.

Louisa Maria Teresa Stuart, 1704; Credit – Wikipedia

In April 1712, Louisa and her brother James Francis Edward fell ill with smallpox.  Her brother recovered, but Louisa’s condition became steadily worse.  She died at the age of 19 on April 18, 1712, at the Château of Saint-Germain-en-Laye.  Louisa was buried with her father at the Chapel of Saint Edmund in the Church of the English Benedictines in the Rue  St. Jacques in Paris.  In October 1793, the Chapel of Saint Edmund and all the English Benedictines buildings were destroyed by a mob along with the remains of King James II and his daughter Louisa Maria Teresa. Some of their remains were discovered after the French Revolution and reburied in 1824 at the Parish Church of Saint-Germain-en-Laye.

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Works Cited
“Louisa Maria Stuart.” Wikipedia. N.p.: Wikimedia Foundation, 27 Aug. 2016. Web. 1 Oct. 2016.
“Louise Marie Thérèse Stuart.” Wikipedia. N.p.: Wikimedia Foundation, 28 June 1692. Web. 1 Oct. 2016.
Williamson, David. Brewer’s British Royalty. London: Cassell, 1996. Print.