Louise de Bourbon, princesse de France

• Princess Louise Marie of France

Louise Marie de France[1] (15 July 1737 - 23 December 1787) was the youngest of the ten children of King Louis XV of France and his wife, Queen Maria Leszczyńska. As a daughter of the king, she held the rank of a fille de France, and was known as Madame Louise. She outlived her father, mother, and all of her siblings except for her two older sisters, Madame Adélaïde and Madame Victoire.

Biography

Louise Marie de France was born at Versailles on 15 July 1737, and was known as "Madame Septième"[2] (one of her seven older sisters died before her birth) or "Madame Dernière", later "Madame Louise".[3] She was brought up at the Abbey of Fontevraud with Louis' three other youngest daughters, Madame Victoire, Madame Sophie and Madame Thérèse (who died at Fontevraud at the age of eight). At the convent, she is known to have reminded a nun that she was the daughter of the King, and was given the reply: "And I am the daughter of God".

None of her father's projects for her marriage came to fruition, and she sought sanctuary from the world in her religion. In 1748, there were rumours that Louis would have her engaged to Charles Edward Stuart (also known as Bonnie Prince Charlie, the Young Pretender to the throne of England). She said:

N'ai-je pas sujet d'être bien inquiète puisqu'on me destine un époux, moi qui n'en veux d'autre que Jésus-Christ?" ("Shouldn't I be anxious when I am destined for a husband, when I don't want any other than Jesus Christ?).

She returned to the court of Versailles in 1750, where she stayed for another twenty years, experiencing there the death of her older sister, Madame Henriette, in 1752; the births of her nieces and nephews; the assassination attempt on her father in 1757; the introduction of Madame du Barry; the construction of the Petit Trianon; the death of her older sister, Madame Infante, and, finally, the death of her mother, Queen Maria Leszczyńska.

In 1770, to general amazement, Louise asked her father to allow her to become a Carmelite nun.[4][5] She believed that becoming a nun would compensate for her father's lax morals.[citation needed] The year she left (1770), she saw the marriage of her nephew Louis-Auguste to Archduchess Marie Antoinette of Austria.

She joined the convent at Saint-Denis,[6] where the order's rule was obeyed strictly, taking the name Thérèse of Saint Augustine. A year later, in 1771, she gave her vows and was fully accepted in to the order.

She was Mother Superior of the convent,[7] from 1773 to 1779, and a second term from 1785 and interceded with her father to allow Austrian Carmelites persecuted by the Emperor Joseph II to enter France. While at the convent, she tried her best to make sure that the other nuns treated her as an equal rather than the daughter of a king.[citation needed] As a child, she had had an accident which had affected her knee. As a result, she found it difficult to kneel and when offered assistance, she refused.

She died at Saint-Denis, suffering from a stomach complaint. Her last words were:

   Au paradis! Vite! Au grand galop!" ("To heaven! Quickly! At the gallop!)

Along with other royal tombs at Saint-Denis, her remains were desecrated during the French Revolution. Pope Pius IX declared her Venerable on 19 June 1873. Her life is celebrated on 23 December.