Princess Louise-Élisabeth of France

Infobox Bourbon-Parma Royalty|duchess|consort
name =Princess Louise Elizabeth of France
title =Duchess consort of Parma


caption =Louise Élisabeth and her daughter, Isabella Maria of Parma
reign =1749 - 1759
spouse =Philip, Duke of Parma
issue =Archduchess Isabella Maria of Austria
Ferdinand, Duke of Parma
Maria Luisa, Queen of Spain
royal house =House of Bourbon
othertitles =
father =Louis XV of France
mother =Maria Leszczyńska
date of birth =birth date|1727|8|14|mf=y
place of birth =Palace of Versailles, France
date of death =death date and age|1759|12|6|1727|8|14|mf=y
place of death =Palace of Versailles, France|

Marie Louise Élisabeth de France (14 August 1727 – 6 December 1759) was the eldest daughter of King Louis XV of France and his Queen consort, Maria Leszczyńska, and the elder twin sister of Henriette-Anne. As the daughter of the king, she ranked as a fille de France. She married Infante Philip, younger son of Philip V of Spain, and was later Duchess of Parma.

Early life

Élisabeth and her twin sister Henriette were born at the Palace of Versailles on August 14 1727 to Louis XV and his wife, the Polish born queen, Maria Leszczyńska. With her younger twin, she was baptised at Versailles on April 27, 1737. She was given the name "Marie-Louise-Élisabeth" and known at court under various names. Primarily, she was referred to as "Madame Première". Her father, the king, called her "Babette". She was also known as "Madame Élisabeth", "Madame Royale" or just "Madame".

She was raised at Versailles with her two younger sisters, Henriette-Anne and Marie-Louise, and their brother, the dauphin, Louis.

She was known to be very intelligent as well as a quick learner. She was said to resemble her father. She was his favourite daughter. Along with her brother, she was the only one of her nine siblings to get married. Out of her siblings, only Adélaïde and Victoire would live to see the fall of the Ancien Régime under their nephew, Louis XVI. Unlike some of her younger sisters, Sophie and Victoire, who were sent off to be raised in a convent, Élisabeth grew up with a loving family surrounding her.

Engagement and marriage

Her prospective engagement to the Infante Philip of Spain was announced at court in February 1739, when she was twelve years old. Philip was the third son of Louis' uncle, King Philip V of Spain, and his second wife, Elizabeth Farnese, and was thus in line to the throne of Spain. He was the third oldest of the Spanish king's surviving sons.

This engagement followed a tradition of cementing military and political alliances between the Catholic powers of France and Spain with royal marriages.

The tradition went back to the marriage of King Philip II of Spain with the French princess, Élisabeth de Valois, the daughter of King Henry II of France, in 1559 as part of the Peace of Cateau-Cambrésis. Despite this and the fact that Philip was her father's first cousin, the match was not well received at the French court, as there was little chance that Philip would become King of Spain.

Nevertheless, the young Élisabeth was engaged by proxy on 26 August, 1739, without having met her future husband. Afterwards, she was known as "Madame Infante". After extravagant celebrations, she tearfully left her native France, Versailles and her beloved twin sister, for Spain on 30 August.

She finally met her nineteen year old husband at Alcalá de Henares, some 30 kilometers northeast of Madrid, and they were married on 25 October 1739.

Children

The marriage was not a happy one, but the couple had three children:

*Isabella of Parma (1741–1763)
**Married Marie Antoinettes brother Joseph of Austria
*Ferdinand of Parma (1751–1802)
**Next Duke of Parma
*Maria Louisa of Parma (1751–1819)
**Married her cousin Infante Carlos of Spain and was later Queen Consort of Spain

Through Élisabeth's daughter Maria Louisa, Louis XV is an ancestor of the Bourbons of Spain, the Bourbons of the Two Sicilies, and the House of Orleans.

Gallery of Children

pain

Court etiquette at the time of Élisabeth's arrival in Spain was much stricter than that in France. To make matters worse, Élisabeth discovered that her mother-in-law, Elizabeth Farnese, was domineering and controlling. As a result, she spent much of her time away from the Queen, playing with dolls and spoiling her daughter, Isabella, who was only fourteen years younger than her mother. Élisabeth wrote of her unhappiness to her father.

Felipe's younger sister, Maria-Teresa of Spain, was married to Élisabeth's brother, Louis de France, in 1745.

Duchess of Parma

Élisabeth was able to escape Spain in 1748. In the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle which ended the War of the Austrian Succession, Empress Maria Theresa of Austria was forced to cede the duchies of Parma, Piacenza and Guastalla to her enemy, Philip V of Spain. At Louis XV's instigation, Élisabeth and her husband became Duke and Duchess of Parma.

Élisabeth returned to Versailles on 11 December 1748, en route to Parma, to thank her father. She stayed for almost a year, during which time she grew to know and understand Madame de Pompadour, unlike her mother, brother and sisters, who hated the king's mistress.

During this first return visit to her native land, a courtier described Élisabeth as "charming" and as having "piercing eyes" that "express(ed) intelligence" while another, less sympathetic observer claimed she looked like a "well-endowed young woman, matured by motherhood" [Lévêque, Jean-Jacques. "Versailles: The Palace of the Monarchy, The Museum of the Nation." Trans. Kirk McElhearn and Ellen Krabbe. Paris: ACR PocheCouler, 2000. Page 113.] . She moved on to Parma in October 1749, importing French court manners and cuisine.

Later life and death

Élisabeth's twin sister Henriette died in 1752, and Élisabeth returned to France in September to visit her tomb at Saint-Denis. She was expected to stay for only a few weeks, but remained in Versailles for almost a year.

Élisabeth was bored when she returned to Parma, and sought a wider realm to rule. She allied herself with Empress Maria Theresa, who promised Élisabeth the throne of the Netherlands, which had been returned to Austrian rule under the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle. Élisabeth returned to France again in September 1757, hoping to marry her daughter Isabella to Archduke Joseph of Austria, the future Emperor Joseph II. They were married in 1760. Scandalous gossip linked Élisabeth to Bernis, an abbot she had known in Parma, but this receded when he fell out of favour and was banished.

King Ferdinand VI of Spain died without an heir in August 1759 and was succeeded by his younger (and Felipe's older) brother Charles, who became Charles III of Spain. Although Felipe and Élisabeth came one step closer to the throne of Spain, Charles' young family, including several sons, meant that there was still little chance of them reaching the Spanish throne.

Élisabeth fell ill while she was at Versailles, and she died of smallpox on 6 December 1759. She was buried on 27 March 1760 at Saint-Denis, beside her twin sister, Henriette. Their tombs were later desecrated during the French Revolution.

Gallery

Ancestry

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1= 1. Princess Louise-Élisabeth of France
2= 2. Louis XV of France
3= 3. Maria Leszczyńska
4= 4. Louis, Dauphin of France and Duke of Burgundy
5= 5. Princess Marie-Adélaïde of Savoy
6= 6. Stanisław Leszczyński, King of Poland
7= 7. Countess Katarzyna Opalińska
8= 8. Louis, Dauphin of France
9= 9. Maria Anna of Bavaria
10= 10. Victor Amadeus II of Sardinia
11= 11. Anne Marie of Orléans
12= 12. Rafał Leszczyński, Duke of Lesno
13= 13. Anna Jabłonowska
14= 14. Count Jan Karol Opaliński
15= 15. Countess Zofia Czarnkowska
16= 16. Louis XIV of France
17= 17. Infanta Maria Theresa of Spain
18= 18. Ferdinand Maria, Elector of Bavaria
19= 19. Henriette Adelaide of Savoy
20= 20. Charles Emmanuel II, Duke of Savoy
21= 21. Princess Marie Jeanne of Savoy-Nemours
22= 22. Philippe I, Duke of Orléans
23= 23. Princess Henrietta Anne of England
24= 24. Bogusław Leszczyński
25= 25. Countess Anna von Denhoff
26= 26. Prince Stanisław Jan Jabłonowski
27= 27. Countess Marianna Kazanowska
28= 28. Count Krzystof Opaliński
29= 29. Countess Teresa Konstancya Czarnkowska
30= 30. Count Adam-Uryel Czarnkowski
31= 31. Countess Teresa Zaleska

References

Notes

*"The majority of this article is based on a translation of the equivalent article of the French Wikipedia on 6 November 2006"

Titles

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