Henriette of France
| Henriette of France | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Basilica of Saint Denis, France | |||||
| |||||
| House | Bourbon | ||||
| Father | Louis XV | ||||
| Mother | Marie Leszczyńska | ||||
| Signature |  | ||||
.svg) Coat of arms of a princess of France | |||||
Anne Henriette of France
Life
Early life
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Anne Henriette and her older twin sister
Along with her twin, she was baptised at Versailles in 1727. Henriette was named after her paternal great-great grandmother
The eldest children of Louis XV, the twins Élisabeth and Henriette,
In 1739, Élisabeth left France to marry the Infante Philip, a younger son of King Philip V of Spain. Henriette was reportedly despondent about being separated from her twin.[3]
Adult life
Royal French children were allowed to participate in court life as well as arrange their own festivities even in childhood; those kept at court participated in court life from the age of twelve.[3] From 1744 onward, Henriette and Adélaïde accompanied their father to the Opera in Paris, and from 1746, they hunted with him five days a week.[3] In 1744, Henriette and Adelaide were officially transferred from the royal nursery and the King created their own household, the Household of the Mesdames aînées ('Elder Mesdames') and appointed two ladies-in-waiting (dame pour accompagner Mesdames); two years later, they were given their own dame d'honneur.[4]
Henriette was considered to be prettier than her elder twin. She was described as gentle and melancholic, reserved but intensely loyal, and gifted in music.[3] She was evidently the favorite child of her father, and it was said that she had no enemies at court.[3] Duke de Luynes commented several times in his memoirs that her mother Queen Marie Leczinska was also close to her, and that she frequently consoled her daughter whenever she was ill and when her visiting married twin sister Elisabeth had to depart again for Parma in 1749.
Despite her beauty, no serious marriage negotiations were ever made for Henriette. In 1740, Louis François, Prince of Conti, suggested a marriage between himself and Henriette to her father when he was alone with the king during a hunt. He explained that he believed he could make Henriette happy, and that such a marriage would mean she would never have to leave her father and France. The king, however, did not react favorably to the proposal.[5]
Henriette reportedly fell mutually in love with her cousin, Louis Philippe, heir to the House of Orléans, and wished to marry him.[6] The King initially approved, but changed his mind, not wanting the House of Orléans too close to the throne. The plans were discontinued in 1743, when the duke married someone else.
Her twin Élisabeth, who was described as ambitious, was not satisfied as the spouse of a prince without a throne. She kept in contact with the French court, and by 1740 had established a network of contacts there to assist her in her ambitions. Henriette was one of her most fervent champions in this issue; the powerful Noailles and Maurepas allied with the queen to achieve the same, and the French ambassador at Madrid, Monseigneur Vaurdal, Archbishop of Rheims.
Henriette, as well as her siblings, was deeply hurt by their father's extramarital liaisons, as they caused their father to neglect their beloved mother. Their discontent with their father's adultery was directed toward his mistresses, most notably Madame de Mailly who was their father's mistress during their childhood, and then Madame de Pompadour in their adult years, who from 1745 onward was the influential maîtresse-en-titre. With her brother, the Dauphin Louis, and her sister, Madame Adélaïde, she called the powerful mistress Maman Putain ("Mother Whore").[7] When Louise Élisabeth returned from Parma for a year-long visit to Versailles in 1748, she and Madame de Pompadour became close friends, which led to a temporary estrangement between the sisters.[citation needed]
In 1747, her brother Louis was forced to marry Maria Josepha of Saxony, shortly after the death of his beloved first spouse, Maria Teresa Rafaela, in childbirth. Louis was initially hostile toward his new wife, even more so when his only child with the Spanish Infanta died, but she eventually managed to win his affection with the help of advice from Henriette.
Death
Henriette died of smallpox in 1752 at the age of twenty-four. In February of that year, she had felt somewhat unwell and tired, but when the king asked her to accompany him on a sledge ride, she gave no signs of her discomfort, and accepted the invitation anyway. She was badly affected by the chilly weather, and died after just three days of illness. Duke de Luynes commented that her mother Marie Leczinska nursed her during her fatal illness. Her family was described as being in a "state of stupefaction over the rapidity of the illness." While her mother Marie Leczinska was insonsolable. [3]
Louis XV reacted with "violent" despair upon her death and gave orders for the highest honors around her funeral; in order to enhance public mourning, her remains were placed at the Tuileries instead of Versailles prior to the funeral, dressed in one of her finest dresses and made up so to appear alive.[3] But the public funeral reception was not to the king's taste, as the people "drank, laughed and amused themselves", which was taken as a sign of the diminishing reputation of the monarchy,[3] as the public interpreted the death of Henriette to be a sign of divine disapproval of the king's lifestyle.
Her heart was interred in the Abbey of Val-de-Grace, while her remains were buried at the
Ancestry
| Ancestors of Henriette of France Anne Marie of Orléans | |||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. Henriette of France | |||||||||||||||
| 12. Rafał Leszczyński | |||||||||||||||
| 6. Stanisław I Leszczyński | |||||||||||||||
| 13. Anna Jabłonowska | |||||||||||||||
| 3. Marie Leszczyńska | |||||||||||||||
| 14. Jan Karol Opaliński | |||||||||||||||
| 7. Katarzyna Opalińska | |||||||||||||||
| 15. Zofia Czarnkowska | |||||||||||||||
References
 | This article cites its page references. (June 2019) ) |
- ^ Achaintre, Nicolas Louis, Histoire généalogique et chronologique de la maison royale de Bourbon, Vol. 2, (Publisher Mansut Fils, 4 Rue de l'École de Médecine, Paris, 1825), 154.
- ISBN 2-213-02277-1
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j Latour, Louis Therese (1927). Princesses Ladies and Salonnières of the Reign of Louis XV. Translated by Clegg, Ivy E. Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner & Co.
- ^ Luynes (Charles-Philippe d’Albert, duc de), Mémoires du duc de Luynes sur la cour de Louis XV (1735-1758), publiés sous le patronage de M. le duc de Luynes par Louis Dussieux et Eudore Soulié, Paris, Firmin Didot, 1860-1865, 17 vol.
- ^ Jules Soury: Les six Filles de Louis XV.Revue des Deux Mondes, 3e période, tome 3, 1874 (pp. 750-98).
- ^ Jules Soury: Les six Filles de Louis XV.Revue des Deux Mondes, 3e période, tome 3, 1874 (p. 750-798).
- ISBN 0-312-31050-1.
- ^ Madame Campan, Memoirs of the Court of Marie Antoinette, Queen of France, Project Gutenberg, retrieved 2-05-17
- ^ Genealogie ascendante jusqu'au quatrieme degre inclusivement de tous les Rois et Princes de maisons souveraines de l'Europe actuellement vivans [Genealogy up to the fourth degree inclusive of all the Kings and Princes of sovereign houses of Europe currently living] (in French). Bourdeaux: Frederic Guillaume Birnstiel. 1768. p. 12.
- ^ Żychliński, Teodor (1882). Złota księga szlachty polskiéj: Rocznik IVty (in Polish). Jarosław Leitgeber. p. 1.
Notes
- The majority of this article is based on a translation of the equivalent article of the French Wikipedia
Further reading
- Zieliński, Ryszard (1978). Polka na francuskim tronie. Czytelnik.