Unable to celebrate his actual birthday – and more confident of the Royalists’ victory over Bonaparte – King Louis XVII opted to celebrate his birthday publicly on 14 July 1815. 25 years earlier, Republicans celebrated on this day to commemorate the Revolution; now, l’anniversaire du Roi would become an annual tradition. Over the century, the annual tradition of celebrating the king’s birthday would include a thanksgiving service at Notre Dame and, beginning in 1893, a military parade down the renovated Champs-Elysees. Celebrating his thirtieth birthday four months later, Louis looked a bit more relaxed. Cheered on from his carriage, with Marie Ludovica and their three eldest children, Louis looked dignified and confident as onlookers cheered him on. Or, perhaps, it was the rather large escort of soldiers to protect him against any assassination attempt. Those present included the King’s sister, Marie-Thérèse.
As the eldest daughter of the late Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette, Marie-Thérèse Charlotte was accorded the customary title of Madame Royale. She was with her brother when they learned of their parents’ death in 1793; tearing up, Thérèse was second after her uncle to kiss the hand of Louis XVII. Growing up, Madame Royale became religious, reserved and stoic. She would have been suited for a convent if not the intervention of Provence. He initially offered Thérèse's hand to Artois’s son, the duke of Angouleme. But the duke’s father refused; she instead married Archduke Joseph, the seventh son of her maternal uncle Leopold II, in 1799. The marriage was a happy one despite any children.
Marie-Thérèse wrote to her brother upon the restoration of the Bourbon throne in 1814. A year later, she was aghast to hear of Napoleon’s attempt to restore his power. “What they have done to them [Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette], God willing, will not happen to you.” The Archduke Joseph raised the first regiment from the Ludovica Academy and joined Austrian forces at the Battle of Lyon, while Madame Royale herself was escorted to Belgium to await news from the battlefront. Following the events on 18 June, Thérèse was escorted to the French capital where she embraced her brother for the first time in nearly two decades. Despite physical signs of ailment, Thérèse was present to see Napoleon brought before the King.
Despite her declining health, Thérèse remained dignified in the last weeks of her life. Very thin and 'ghostly' white, she nevertheless smiled and waved to the public who cheered her brother on at his (official) birthday. This would be one of her last public occasions. With permission, Marie-Thérèse retired to Fontainebleau where she died there on 19 August 1815. Mourned in France and Hungary, the 36-year-old was interred with her parents at Saint-Denis Basilica.
As the eldest daughter of the late Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette, Marie-Thérèse Charlotte was accorded the customary title of Madame Royale. She was with her brother when they learned of their parents’ death in 1793; tearing up, Thérèse was second after her uncle to kiss the hand of Louis XVII. Growing up, Madame Royale became religious, reserved and stoic. She would have been suited for a convent if not the intervention of Provence. He initially offered Thérèse's hand to Artois’s son, the duke of Angouleme. But the duke’s father refused; she instead married Archduke Joseph, the seventh son of her maternal uncle Leopold II, in 1799. The marriage was a happy one despite any children.
Marie-Thérèse wrote to her brother upon the restoration of the Bourbon throne in 1814. A year later, she was aghast to hear of Napoleon’s attempt to restore his power. “What they have done to them [Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette], God willing, will not happen to you.” The Archduke Joseph raised the first regiment from the Ludovica Academy and joined Austrian forces at the Battle of Lyon, while Madame Royale herself was escorted to Belgium to await news from the battlefront. Following the events on 18 June, Thérèse was escorted to the French capital where she embraced her brother for the first time in nearly two decades. Despite physical signs of ailment, Thérèse was present to see Napoleon brought before the King.
Despite her declining health, Thérèse remained dignified in the last weeks of her life. Very thin and 'ghostly' white, she nevertheless smiled and waved to the public who cheered her brother on at his (official) birthday. This would be one of her last public occasions. With permission, Marie-Thérèse retired to Fontainebleau where she died there on 19 August 1815. Mourned in France and Hungary, the 36-year-old was interred with her parents at Saint-Denis Basilica.
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