Louise of France

Louise-Marie de Bourbon, around 1760

Louise-Marie de Bourbon (* July 15, 1737 at Château de Versailles , † December 23, 1787 in Saint-Denis in the later Seine-Saint-Denis department ) was a French princess and Carmelite with the religious name Mère Thérèse de Saint-Augustin .

Life

Louise-Marie was the eighth daughter and the youngest child of King Louis XV. (1710–1774) and his Polish wife Princess Maria Leszczyńska (1703–1768). She was the great-great-granddaughter of the Sun King Louis XIV. Originally known as "Madame Dernière" and later as Madame Marie-Louise .

Princess Louise-Marie was brought up with her older sisters in Fontevrault Abbey and returned to the court of Versailles in 1750. At the same time her father thought about a marriage with the English Prince Charles Edward Stuart (1720–1788), called Bonnie Prince Charlie , the eldest son of the titular king James Francis Edward Stuart and the Polish princess Maria Clementina Sobieska . She is said to have pleaded with her father that she would rather go to the monastery than marry an unloved man. And after his affair with his cousin Marie Louise de La Tour d'Auvergne and later with Clementina Walkinshaw - the relationship resulted in a daughter - became known, the king refrained from the plan.

Princess Louise-Marie surprisingly left the royal court in the early morning hours of April 11, 1770, her destination was the Carmelite Convent in Saint-Denis. On September 12, 1771, she took the veil and was henceforth called Thérèse de Saint-Augustin . In the following years she tried to lead a withdrawn, pious and godly life in the monastery. As Mother Superior Thérèse de Saint-Augustin, she died at the age of 50 from stomach problems as a result of poisoning and was buried next to her parents in the Saint-Denis basilica . In 1873 Pope Pius IX declared. she to Venerable Mother Thérèse de Saint-Augustin ( French: Vénérable Mère Thérèse de Saint-Augustin ); Remembrance day is December 23rd.

painting

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  Jean-Marc Nattier : Princess Louise-Marie of France, oil on canvas, around 1752

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  After François-Hubert Drouais : Portrait of Louise-Marie, oil on canvas, second half of the 18th century

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  Maxime Le Boucher : The King's Visit to Madame Louise-Marie, oil on canvas, around 1770

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  Mère Thérèse de Saint-Augustin, oil on canvas, around 1771

Worth mentioning

• During the French Revolution , the basilica was desecrated and the bones of the members of the French ruling house buried there, including those of Louise-Marie, were either stolen or buried outside the church.

literature

• Geoffroy de Grandmaison: Madame Louise de France, la Vénérable Thérèse de Saint-Augustin (1737–1787). Lecoffre 1925.
• Monastero Carmelitano di Concenendo: Dalla Reggia al Carmelo - Luisa di Francia. Pessano 2002.

Web links

Commons : Louise-Marie de Bourbon  - Collection of images, videos and audio files