Marie Louise Élisabeth de Bourbon

Louise Elisabeth of France

Marie Louise Élisabeth de Bourbon , called Madame Infante or Madame Première , (* August 14, 1727 in Versailles ; † December 6, 1759 ibid) was Princess of France and Navarre and through marriage to Duke Philip of Parma , a son of King Philip V ., Infanta of Spain and Duchess of Parma , Piacenza and Guastalla.

Princess Elisabeth's childhood ended in 1739 when, at the age of 12, she was married to her second uncle, the Spanish Infante Philip , and had to live at the Spanish court. In 1748 her husband was married to Louis XV. raised by France to Duke of Parma. In Parma, Elisabeth suffered from depression and thus had a major influence on the life of her children.

Life

Life at the French court

Louise Elisabeth and her twin sister Anne Henriette of France were born on August 14, 1727 as the first children of King Louis XV. Born in Versailles by France and his Polish wife Maria Leszczynska , and grew up at the French court.

The wedding by procurationem in Versailles

Louis XV was very jealous and, with one exception, was supposed to prevent all his daughters from marrying so that they could not leave the French court and would always be near him. Elisabeth in particular became her father's special favorite, as she and her father shared many interests. King Louis XV affectionately called his favorite daughter Babette. She was the only daughter the king sacrificed to politics. At the age of only 12, he promised Princess Elisabeth to the Spanish Infante Philip, a son of King Philip V of Spain , in order to strengthen relations between the French and Spanish Bourbons. At the end of February 1739, the French king officially announced the engagement between his daughter and the Spanish Infante. On August 26, 1739, the wedding took place by procurationem in Versailles and the young French princess now officially became " Madame Infante ". As part of this marriage, the king organized lavish celebrations in the days that followed and had his daughter's departure for Spain prepared. On August 30, the girl had to say goodbye to her family and familiar surroundings. Particularly painful for Louise Elisabeth was the separation from her twin sister Anne Henriette, whom she believed she would never see again. The two twelve-year-old girls hugged each other again and again and Elisabeth sighed several times: "It's forever, my God, it's forever!" .

Life at the Spanish court

Louise Elisabeth and her daughter Isabella von Bourbon-Parma

The wedding of the young French princess and the Spanish Infante took place on October 25, 1739 in Alcalá de Henares , a place 30 km from Madrid . Compared to the French court, there was a stricter court ceremony in Spain, which included numerous regulations and rules of conduct. Elisabeth did not feel at home in Spain and compared the conditions at the Spanish court to a puppet theater and to herself as a marionette who had to submit to the orders of her father-in-law Philip V of Spain. In addition, the French princess suffered from the dominant behavior of her mother-in-law Elisabetta Farnese , who felt responsible for bringing up the girl. The relationship between Princess Elisabeth and her husband was doomed from the start, as the young princess could not develop feelings for her Spanish husband. She described the relationship between the two in the following words:

"I freeze to ice every time I lie in his arms."

The Spanish court took no account of the princess's childlike feelings and interests, and so the 12-year-old girl had to fulfill her marital duties towards her seven-year-old husband against her will. On December 31, 1741, the 14-year-old mother gave birth to her first child, Isabella von Bourbon-Parma , in Buen Retiro near Madrid . Louise Elisabeth, who, as a lonely outsider at the Spanish court, had always preferred puppet shows to married camps, now fully concentrated on her little daughter and this close relationship between mother and daughter was to have a significant influence on Isabella's development and later behavior. Elisabeth was the only caregiver of the little princess and years later Isabella would remember the hours she had spent together with her mother in Spain. Isabella also witnessed the broken marriage of her parents and the unhappiness her mother felt when her husband demanded the fulfillment of conjugal duties.

Duchess of Parma

Louise Elisabeth of France, Duchess of Bourbon-Parma

Louise Elisabeth became more and more lonely at the Spanish court and expressed her despair in several letters to her father Louis XV. from France. The princess, who had a tendency to melancholy from an early age, suffered more and more often from depression and mood swings. The Spanish Infanta therefore pulled out all the stops to be able to leave Spain. Louis XV was at war with Austria during this time with the aim of regaining some Italian territories. In the Treaty of Aachen on October 18, 1748, the Bourbons were awarded the regions of Parma , Piacenza and Guastalla . As part of these peace negotiations, Princess Elisabeth was able to persuade her father to raise her husband Philip to Duke of Parma and Piacenza in 1748 , and saw the solution to her problems in moving from Spain to Parma. On December 11, 1748, the Duchess of Parma visited her father at Versailles to thank him for raising her husband to Duke of Parma. In the course of this visit she made friends with her father's mistress, Madame de Pompadour , and this act attracted the disapproval of the other family members and especially her mother. On July 1, 1749, Louise Elisabeth and Philipp officially assumed power in Parma.

With the help of the French Minister Du Tillot, Duchess Elisabeth tried to introduce the French way of life and culture that she missed so much in her new domain. She was also interested in the politics of her small country and tried to encourage its expansion. As a result of this targeted funding, Parma developed into an important cultural city and was called " Athens of Italy". In addition to the government business, she passed the time with hunting, theater visits and masked balls. In Parma, the Duchess' mental state improved briefly and Elisabeth and her young daughter visited their family in France in 1750. In Fontainebleau , Louis XV met. from France the first time to his little granddaughter. In the company of her sisters and father, Elisabeth was happy for the first time in a long time.

The Duchess knew, however, that it was her duty as Duchess of Parma to give birth to a male heir to the throne who would one day succeed his father Philip I of Bourbon-Parma . Although she avoided being with her husband and feared intimacy, she gave birth to two children in 1751, a boy named Ferdinand in January and a girl named Marie Louise in December of that year. The relationship with these children was never to be as close as the relationship with their first daughter, who had inherited the tendency towards melancholy from Elisabeth and who showed similar behavior during her marriage to Joseph II of Austria . In contrast to her mother and older sister Isabella, whose lives were overshadowed by depression and self-doubt, Marie Louise of Bourbon-Parma developed into a self-confident and headstrong girl who did not obey any rules and who later, as Queen of Spain, kept changing lovers and ran the affairs of state of Spain with her favorites.

In 1752 Princess Anne Henriette of France, to whom Louise Elisabeth was very close, died. Elisabeth, shocked by the sudden death of her beloved twin sister, immediately set off for France and spent hours at the grave of her dead sister. The Duchess of Parma would suffer from this loss for the rest of her life.

Duchess Elisabeth of Parma with her family

In the years that followed, up to her death, the duchess's body was weakened by numerous diseases. As a result of the grief over her sister, the young woman's psychological condition deteriorated and she began to feel increasingly uncomfortable in Parma. She tried to escape the cramped and boring court in Parma by seeking a more advantageous throne for her husband. As a result, she allied herself with Empress Maria Theresa , who promised her the Austrian Netherlands as a new domain. As part of this alliance, the marriage of Duchess Elisabeth's eldest daughter Isabella to the Austrian heir to the throne Joseph was decided. Another glimmer of hope was the death of the childless Spanish King Ferdinand VI. who brought the ducal couple of Parma closer to the Spanish throne. The illusions of a better future all vanished when Charles III. ascended the Spanish throne.

Duchess Elisabeth spent more and more time in France during the last years of her life and fell seriously ill during a visit. Her mother described her daughter's illness in the following words:

"My poor child has a severe fever. I am very concerned."

At the beginning of December Elisabeth fell ill with smallpox and passed away on December 6, 1759 with her family in Versailles . As requested, the Duchess of Parma was buried on March 27, 1760 at the side of her beloved twin sister in the Cathedral of Saint-Denis .

progeny

• Isabella, Princess of Bourbon-Parma (1741–1763) ∞ German-Roman. Emperor Joseph II, Archduke of Austria
• Ferdinand I., Duke of Parma (1751–1802) ∞ Archduchess Maria Amalia of Austria (1746–1804), daughter of Maria Theresia
• Marie Louise, Princess of Bourbon-Parma (1751–1819) ∞ King Charles IV of Spain

Pedigree

Pedigree of Marie Louise Élisabeth of France
Great grandparents	Louis de Bourbon, dauphin de Viennois (1661–1711) Maria Anna Victoria of Bavaria (1660–1690)		Viktor Amadeus II. (1666-1732) Anne Marie d'Orléans (1669–1728)		Jan Karol Opaliński (1642–1695) Zofia Czarnkowska Opalińska (1660–1701)		Rafał Leszczyński (1650–1703) Anna Leszczyńska (1660-1727)
Grandparents	Louis de Bourbon, duc de Bourgogne Maria Adelaide of Savoy (1685-1712)				Stanislaus Leszczyński (1677–1766) Katharina Opalińska (1680–1747)
parents	Louis XV (1710–1774) Maria Leszczyńska (1703–1768)
Marie Louise Élisabeth of France (1727-1759)

Web links

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

• Biography and portraits on The Bourbons of France