1761: Louis Joseph Xavier, Duc de Bourgogne, begins to recover from the injury which resulted in a fall from a toy-horse. Although he will walk with a slight (barely noticeable) limp for the rest of his life, he is otherwise unaffected. Te Deums are ordered across France for the boy’s recovery.
After nineteen years of marriage, the Electress Palatine gives birth to a long-awaited son, christened Franz Ludwig Josef in honor of his godfathers, the Holy Roman Emperor and the king of France.
1762: Louis XV’s granddaughter, Maria Isabella of Spain, Queen of the Romans, is brought and delivered of a healthy baby girl, Maria Theresia Elisabeth, named for her two grandmothers. Also in Vienna, the Queen of Hungary, wife of the Holy Roman Emperor, attempts to adjust the marriage treaty by which her late son, Karl (deceased the previous year) was to marry Infanta Maria Luisa of Spain, to now allow for the marriage to take place between her third son, Leopold and the Spanish infanta.
In St. Petersburg, the Empress Elizabeth dies, to be succeeded by her nephew, the Prussophile Pyotr Feodorovich. Pyotr realizes that Prussia would make a better ally than an enemy, especially for his planned assaults on Denmark for the duchy of Oldenburg. And he signs a ceasefire with Prussia.
Russia is flummoxed by the sudden change in policy which sees many of their recent gains handed back without much of a struggle. On this wave of discontent, Pyotr’s wife, Ekaterina Alexeïevna, attempts a palace coup. However, one of the conspirators loses his nerve, and confesses all to the emperor in exchange for a pardon. In his typical martinet fashion, Pyotr remarks “I have no use for a traitor. You nearly betrayed me once. Why would you not do so again?” and the man is summarily relieved of his tongue and exiled to Siberia.
Needless to say, Pyotr is ready and waiting for the guards’ regiments when Ekaterina makes her move. Pyotr’s German guards take down those who support his wife. The coup is unsuccessful, Ekaterina is placed under house-arrest. The guards’ regiments involved are roundly punished, with the ringleaders being hanged, broken on the wheel and drawn-and-quartered.
1763: The war which has been raging for the past few years is finally wrapped up in the treaties of Hubertusburg, between the continental powers, and that of Paris, between Britain and France. Needless to say, France and her allies can be regarded as the losing side.
Emperor Pyotr III’s marriage to Ekaterina is dissolved, and Ekaterina forced to take the veil in the Novodivichy Convent. At the same time, Pyotr realizes the necessity of marrying again, especially since he only has a single child, the nine-year-old Crown Prince Pavel. His attachment to Elizabeth Romanovna is ended, and ambassadors are sent into Germany to search for suitable princesses.
The young Queen of the Romans is delivered of a healthy baby boy, christened with great pomp and circumstance with the names of Franz Philipp Josef Karl Ludwig Stanislaus, with the Elector of Saxony (who’s also king of Poland) and his wife standing as godparents.
1764: The dauphine, Marie Josèphe de Saxe, formerly a princess of Poland, gives birth to her final child, Marie Élisabeth Philippine Hélène. Her husband starts to sicken from the tuberculosis which will kill him the following year.
The queen of the Romans gives birth to a daughter named Maria Christine (for her favorite sister-in-law), but dies shortly thereafter, leaving a grief-stricken husband with two small children. The marriage contract between Archduke Leopold and Infanta Maria Luisa is finalized. Meanwhile, the Savoyard prince, the duke of Chablais (nephew to the emperor) travels to Vienna.
1765: The Holy Roman Emperor, Franz I Stefan, formerly duc de Lorraine, dies in Innsbruck shortly after seeing the marriage of his son, Leopold, to the Infanta Maria Luisa. Much to her dismay, the Empress’ favorite daughter, Maria Christine ‘Mimi’, is married off to the duke of Chablais. Although the ceremony is rather sombre what with the court still being in mourning for her father. Her brother will later describe it as ‘a marriage that brought me another useless brother-in-law’.
In an attempt to strengthen the bonds between the courts in Paris and Warsaw, the king of Poland broaches the subject of betrothing his eldest son, Crown Prince Friedrich August, to the dauphin’s eldest daughter, Marie Adélaïde Clothilde Xavière. Formerly there was an unofficial engagement between the Crown Prince and Clothilde’s elder sister, Marie Zéphyrine but it was cancelled when Zéphyrine died in 1755.
Louis Ferdinand, Dauphin de Viennois dies at Fontainebleau, leaving behind a wife, four sons and two daughters. His eldest son, the duc de Bourgogne, automatically becomes the new dauphin.
The electress of Bavaria, one of the king of Poland’s sisters, takes ill and dies of a variety of smallpox.
1766: Marie Josèphe due to dislike of her eldest son’s betrothal to an Austrian archduchess (something which finds resonance at the anti-Austrian French court), she attempts in correspondence with her brother to betroth the dauphin to his cousin from Saxony, Marie Amalie. This move is ultimately unsuccessful.
At the same time, the Queen of Hungary puts her next two daughters, Maria Elisabeth ‘Liesl’ and Maria Amalie on the market. Elisabeth is a raving beauty. But her mother’s eye is on the widower king of Spain, Carlos III. The offer to marry Elisabeth off to him is declined, with thanks, and the queen is forced to start casting around for a new match for her daughter.
Elisabeth and Amalie’s younger sister, Maria Josefa ‘Pepa’, is finally married by proxy to Carlos III’s third son, the king of Naples. (His first son is an imbecile who must be kept under house-arrest, while his second is the current prince of the Asturias). She will leave for Naples in the New Year.
King James III of England, Scotland and Ireland dies, and his dissolute son, the Bonnie Prince Charlie of song, succeeds to a phantom crown in Rome. Naturally, Charles III, as he now is addressed by only the members of his court, since the pope refuses to acknowledge him as the king of England as he did the prince’s father. Famed lover Casanova will call him ‘the pretend pretender’. But, needless to say, this is a king in need of a wife, and no matter what his personal life might look like, his pedigree is spotless.
1767: The dauphine, who has never quite recovered from her husband’s death, passes away.
Archduke Leopold, who has succeeded to his father’s title of Grand Duke of Tuscany, welcomes his first child to the world, a little girl named Maria Teresa Giuseppina Carlotta.
Pepa – now Maria Giuseppina, Queen of Naples and Sicily, sets off to her new husband, escorted by her widower brother Josef.
The duchess of Chablais gives birth to her first child, a daughter, named Maria Teresa Benedetta.
The new ‘king of England’ is married to the youngest sister of the Elector of Bavaria, Maria Josefa. While this isn’t a prestigious match for the daughter of a one-time emperor, she is nearly thirty and when the attempted matches to the current Holy Roman Emperor and the late dauphin failed, she seemed destined for a nunnery.
1768: the death of the queen of France leads to the queen of Hungary offering her elder daughter, Elisabeth, as a replacement. While the French ministers think that this might be a way of calming the king, Paris’ answer is dithering, much to the dismay of the Hungarian queen, who begins to look elsewhere. And finally, the vacant position of Electress of Bavaria is filled by Liesl.
As for Amalie, she is engaged to the same Crown Prince of Saxony who had hoped to marry Madame Clothilde.
Her next sister, Maria Carolina ‘Charlotte’ has her betrothal finalized to her one-time brother-in-law, the duke of Parma. And she sets off soon after Josef’s return to Vienna from escorting Pepa south. The queen of Hungary has been busy in her son’s absence, arranging a second marriage for him. To the youngest daughter of the king of Portugal, Maria Benedita Francisca. Since the birth of the king’s eldest daughter and heiress presumptive’s son in 1761, the Portuguese Prime Minister, the Marques de Pombal, has been marrying the remaining three daughters of the king off to strengthen Portuguese alliances to the rest of Europe. Needless to say, the Queen, born a Spanish infanta, is not happy about this, but her influence over her husband is rather minimal of late.
Maria Josefa of Bavaria arrives in Rome to meet her new husband. Needless to say, the British royal family in London are rubbing their hands in glee at the prospect of the Stuart line finally dying out, what with an irresolute drunkard marrying a spinster.
1769: The new electress of Bavaria gives birth to a son, Maximilian Thomas Franz.
The marriage between Josef II, Holy Roman Emperor, and his new Portuguese wife takes place in Brussels. While Benedita is plain, she seems to exercise a calming influence on the emperor’s marriage. And even if he doesn’t take to her, he at least treats her with a sort of respect. Most notably after she endears herself to Josef’s two children, Maria Theresia ‘Titi’ and Franz ‘Franzl’ (Christine died at the age of a few months).
With the king of France wishing to secure the succession for the crown, finalizes the wedding arrangements for the dauphin (now eighteen) and the youngest of the Holy Roman Emperor’s sisters, Maria Antonia ‘Antoine’. To the now dismissed minister, the duc de Choiseul, this marriage is the crowning achievement of his rapprochement between the houses of Bourbon and Austria.
1770: After a long journey, Maria Antonia arrives at Compiègne. There is a distinct chill in the air of the court towards her, even after she becomes Marie Antoinette, dauphine de Viennois. However, her grandfather-in-law is charmed with her, so at least that counts for something. Her new husband, on the other hand, is, well, not. He’s a nineteen year old Bourbon prince, with a passion for the hunt and his mistress, the beautiful and witty Laure de Fitzjames, Princesse de Chimay, and like all nineteen-year-old boys, he absolutely abhors sweet little girls of fourteen.
However, the marriage goes ahead in a splendid affair in the Chapel Royal at Versailles. With the wife of the English ambassador noting that during almost the entire ceremony, the dauphin was stealing glances at the Princesse de Chimay. However, soldier on the dauphin will, and he at least does his duty by his new young wife.
The Crown Princess of Saxony gives birth to her first child, a daughter, named Auguste Maria Theresia. As does the queen of Naples – a daughter christened Maria Teresa Francesca Carolina.
1771: The Queen of England, France, Scotland and Ireland, Maria Josepha, gives birth to her first child (at the age of 32), a daughter. The baby is christened Maria Clementina Amalie ‘Mary’, and promptly named the Princess Royal, the first time that that title has been held since the death of Charles’ aunt, Louisa Maria, in 1712.
While everyone imagines Charles – most notably the British resident in Florence, Sir Horace Mann – will go into a drinking bout and probably start beating his wife as he did his mistress, Clementina Walkinshaw after they fell out, the king shows his glee at finally having legitimate heir(ess) by throwing a massive blow-out that his brother, Cardinal Henry Stuart, quietly covers with his income from his see of Frascati, in celebration.
Rather, it is Maria Josepha who struggles to contain her disappointment. She so much wanted to give her husband a son, and she unfortunately knows time is against her. You see, while Charles might’ve cleaned up for her sake, and perhaps been visibly shocked at her plainness, she is quite in love with him, even if he doesn’t necessarily feel the same way. But the courtiers don’t doubt that she has been a soothing influence on their king. Plus, the fact that she’s related to most of Europe’s Catholic royal families doesn’t hurt.
The king of France’s second grandson, Louis Auguste, duc de Berri, is wed to the princess of Poland originally proposed for his older brother, who becomes Marie Amélié, duchesse de Berri on her marriage.
The duke of Parma’s sister, Maria Luisa, princess of the Asturias (who during her mother’s lifetime had been considered as a possible bride for her cousin, the dauphin), gives birth to her first child, a son, christened Carlos Clemente.
The Holy Roman Emperor’s second youngest brother, Archduke Ferdinand, marries Maria Beatrice Ricciarda d’Este, heiress to the duke of Modena and Reggio, and his wife, the duchess of Massa. The duke and duchess of Modena’s marriage has been on the rocks for years, most notably after the duchess’ failure to produce a male heir. But for now, Ferdinand and Maria Beatrice will serve as the Austrian viceroys in Milan, while he patiently waits for his father-in-law to die.
1772: The dauphine gives birth to her first child. A son. Named Louis Robert Joseph Xavier and given the courtesy title of duc de Bourgogne. The birth of the king’s great-grandson (something that last happened with the current king’s birth) is cause for celebration at Versailles, even though the French economy has taken some bad knocks of late, and it can ill afford it.
The duchess of Parma gives birth to her first child, Maria Teresa Carlotta. And the Viennese court is surprised when the queen of the Romans announces a pregnancy.
1773: The two youngest brothers of the dauphin, the comtes de Provence and Artois, are both married to two Savoyard sisters, (Maria Teresa to the comte de Provence and Maria Anna to the comte d’Artois). Their older sister, Maria Giuseppina, was originally considered for Provence, but was married off the previous year to the Crown Prince of Saxony’s younger brother, Prince Karl Maximilian.
The Holy Roman Empress gives birth to a stillborn daughter.
Maria Josepha of Bavaria goes into labour during a visit to the Santa Rosalia Convent. It is here that she is delivered of the son that she and the Jacobites had prayed for – a perfectly healthy baby boy christened James Edward Charles Albert Francis Xavier. Needless to say, the Jacobites outside of England go wild, and those left in England go down into their cellars and drink a toast to the birth of a prince of Wales to the king over the water.
Charles’ reaction is even more exuberant than it was to his daughter’s birth. In fact, the celebrations make those for his daughter look like a comparison between Lent and Carnival.
“One more Stuart to cause misery to the world” writes George III when he hears the news.
1774: King Louis XV of France and Navarre dies. The electress of Bavaria gives birth to a second son, Karl Ludwig Emanuel.
The Holy Roman Emperor’s daughter is propelled onto the marriage market with great force by her grandmother who is eager to secure a grand match for her. One of the problems that arises is the scarcity of ‘good’ Catholic matches on the marriage market. There’s the Prince of Beira, the Holy Roman Empress’ nephew, but the Hungarian Queen dismisses one Portuguese match as one enough. While there had been desires by the French to exchange Marie Antoinette for her niece, or overtures made from Austria to France about a possible marriage between Titi and either the duc de Berri or comte de Provence, these met with firm refusal from the respective sides.
It is then that the duchess de Chablais proposes a match between her husband’s half-nephew, the Prince of Piedmont, and her niece – as a way of balancing French influence in Savoy. After all, the Savoyards have just married two of their princesses (the prince’s sisters) to French princes, and a third to a prince of Saxony.
And on the topic of Franco-Savoyard matches, the Comtesse d’Artois gives birth to a son, Louis Antoine, titled duc d’Angoulême.
1775: The dauphin’s second youngest sister, Madame Clothilde, is married by proxy to the Elector Palatine’s son. Her aunts, the Mesdames les Tantes whom a later historian will refer to ‘as that generation whose turn never came’, regard it as an inferior match. However, the new king reminds them that he is not their father, and the purpose of princesses is to be married off abroad to secure alliances, ‘not sit around as spinsters to decorate a home like so many useless ornaments’.
A threat is likewise made that if they continue in this manner, the king will send them back to a convent like where they came from, and where their youngest sister retired voluntarily.
While at first it is believed that the king will reverse his grandfather’s edict concerning the abolition of the parlements, the court is in for a rude awakening when Louis XVI does not. The triumvirat of the comte de Maupeou, the duc d’Aiguillon and the comte de Terray on the conseil du roi makes several of the noble families look at it with unease, given the three’s rather reformatory dismissal of the provincial parlements in the sunset years of Louis XV’s reign. The voice at court goes that the French king intends to abolish certain privileges of the nobles. He’s already started trimming the Bourbon family tree by issuing an edict limiting the style of ‘Royal Highness’ to male-line grandsons of the king. Their sons will be styled ‘Serene Highness’.
The princes of the blood who were formerly ‘Serene Highness’ have now been limited to bearing that style solely for their lifetime, and not passing it on to their children, unless granted by the king. Their children will be addressed solely as ‘Highness’.
This cleaves the royal family in two. The king and his good-hearted, dog-loyal, but weak-willed oldest brother, Monsieur, on the one side (surprisingly finding the Orléans heir amongst their number), and the opposition headed by the Comte de Provence, the Mesdames les Tantes and several of the more important families in the realm – Rohan, de la Trémoïlle, de la Tour d’Auvergne and branches of the house of Lorraine who all qualify for the rank of ‘Royal Highness’ and address by the king as ‘mon cousin’ and being addressed as ‘cousin du roi’.
The queen of France gives birth to her second child, a daughter named Marie Thérèse Charlotte and bestowed with the traditional honorific of the French king’s eldest daughter, Madame Royal. At the same time, in a means to spite his brother, Monsieur, the Comte de Provence announces the pregnancy of his wife.
Monsieur and Madame’s marriage has remained unconsummated, and this has led to all sorts of vicious rumors spreading around the court, namely that Madame is actually preferring entanglements with members of her own sex – like her friend and lady-in-waiting, Louise Charlotte de la Tour du Pin, marquise de la Charce. Madame will later write that was only the friendship of the queen which sustained her through this period.
In faraway Saxony, Princess Maria Giuseppina of Savoy dies mere months after her marriage to Prince Karl. She had reportedly been homesick for some time and many say that her death was as a result of extreme melancholy.
1776: The comtesse de Provence gives birth to a stillborn daughter. Her husband responds by spending more time with his mistress, the Comtesse de Balbi. After the ending of the king’s affair with the princesse de Chimay, he starts spending more time with the queen, and while it will never be a love match, it certainly becomes one of friendship. Needless to say, this extra time that he is spending with the queen results in her falling pregnant again.
And during her pregnancy, the king takes as mistress one of the queen’s ladies in waiting, Yolande Martine de Polastron, princesse de Polignac.
In Florence, the Stuart court is surprised at the news of a further pregnancy for their thirty-nine year old queen. Many thought her past the age for childbearing when she married the king, but even the queen herself regarded the birth of the prince of Wales as her last hope of childbearing.
The electress of Bavaria gives birth to a daughter, Maria Theresia Amalie Ludovika, with the king of France and the crown princess of Saxony standing as godparents.
Crown Prince Pavel of Russia marries to Princess Wilhelmine of Hesse-Darmstadt as a way of strengthening Russia’s ties to Prussia, since her sister is married to the Crown Prince of Prussia. His father doesn’t regard Wilhelmine (who takes the name Natalia Alexeïevna) as having the best of personalities, since she’s ambitious, arrogant and definitely a flirt, with Pyotr dismissing Pavel’s best friend, Count Andrei Razumofsky after Natalia is caught making lambent calf-eyes at him one too many times.
For Pyotr this is dangerous, as he is more than aware of the fact that there are rumors at court when Pavel was born, that it had been one of Ekaterina’s lovers who was his son’s father. And that it was most definitely her then lover, the Pole Prince Stanislaw Antoni Poniatowski who was the father of their daughter Anna who had died in infancy.
The last thing he needs is for any child of Pavel’s to suffer from the same rumors: even if since then the physical resemblance between the Emperor and his son has proved them wrong.
Pavel is upset at his father’s actions, and this leads to the first rift in their relationship.
In other news, Natalia’s brother, the Erblandgraf of Hesse-Darmstadt, marries Sophie Dorothea of Württemberg, niece of the current duke and great-niece of the king of Prussia.
The Erbprinz of the Palatinate and his wife, formerly Madame Clothilde, welcome their first child into the world, a boy named Karl August Ludwig Ferdinand. The Elector had previously worried about the possibility of the pudgy French princess being able to even conceive. And he stated this in private to the French ambassador. Not that the elector really has much room to talk, he and his wife were married for nineteen years before they had a child, with both entertaining their own lovers before and since. Clearly Klothilde has beaten her mother-in-law in that regard, overweight or no.
The Queen of France gives birth to a second son, Louis Alexandre Joseph Stanislas, duc d’Anjou.
1777: Natalia Alexeïevna gives birth to a healthy baby boy, named Aleksandr ‘Sasha’. While the queen of England gives birth to another son, named Charles Maximilian Francis Emanuel Albert and created duke of Gloucester and Kintyre by his father.
The pope finds himself placed in a damnably difficult position. While he has been willing to acknowledge George III as the rightful king of Great Britain, that was when it seemed as though Bonnie Prince Charlie would be the last of his line, followed by his cardinal brother. But now…now with the Count and Countess of Albany (their incognito title that fools no one) having three healthy children and their line to continue for another generation at least, it seems to be slightly more problematic. However, the pope has other matters weighing on his mind, most notably mounting pressure from the Holy Roman Empire, the kings of France, Spain and Portugal and several other sovereigns to dissolve the Jesuit order.
The comtesse d’Artois gives birth to a daughter, Marie Anne Sophie, styled Mademoiselle, as the highest ranked unmarried female at the court of Versailles.
King Louis XVI has been in negotiations for his youngest sister, Madame Élisabeth ‘Babette’, to marry the prince of Beira for the better part of the last year. While his wife doesn’t wish Babette to leave, and Babette herself would probably prefer to become a nun, like her aunt Louise, the marriage contract is finally signed and the girl leaves for the south of France, accompanied by the Mesdames les Tantes, who are journeying south officially to take the waters at Aix, and the comte de Provence, who is seeking to visit the estates of the dukedom of Vendome that he has been endowed with of late.
The real reason, of course, is that the king wants the more conservative faction far from Versailles for his next move.
Babette arrives in Lisbon (by way of Madrid), where her wedding takes place to the prince of Beira at the bedside of the dying king.
Finally when the king dies, and his eldest daughter ascends as Queen Maria, the Marques de Pombal (the king’s right hand man and for many years de facto ruler of Portugal) is sent into exile, and the court is exceedingly dominated by what the English ambassador calls ‘nobles thirsting for an impossible revenge, and a queen dominated by a religious devotion bordering on a mania’.
Needless to say, the court in Madrid (as well as Portugal’s now Queen-Mother (a Spanish infanta by birth, who was once the fiancée of Louis XV, and his spurning of her resulted in her hatred of all things French, including her newly-minted granddaughter-in-law, Isabel) are working to change Portugal’s foreign policy to a more pro-Spanish one. They propose that the younger son of the Queen, D. João, marry a Spanish infanta, and that the Queen’s only daughter, D. Mariana Vitoria, marry a Spanish infante. That the only infanta available is the Prince of the Asturias’ eldest daughter, D. Carlota (who’s all of two years old) is not considered a problem.
The Holy Roman Emperor’s daughter, Titi, is married by proxy to the Prince of Piedmont, shortly after the Emperor has travelled incognito to visit his family in Italy and the back through Paris. His opinions of his sisters are truly remarkable, but his sharp tongue spares none, since he describes the king and queen of England that he meets in Florence as ‘the most ill-suited pair one can imagine. He, the leader of the ’45 rebellion, but since so sunk in depravity and dissoluteness that he looks far older than his years; she is the plainest creature one can imagine, though she is certainly witty and graceful, but very concerned with her rank as Queen. But their three children are well-mannered and polite, thoroughly English, despite living in Italy, and charming…
Madame announces her first pregnancy at the end of the year.
The elector of Bavaria dies.
1778: Madame gives birth to her first child, a son, christened Louis Xavier François Auguste, and created duc de Normandie. The comte de Provence, newly returned from his estates, is further put out as he now moves still further back in the line of succession.
The king receives certain gentlemen representing the colonies of Great Britain in America. The colonies rose up in revolt against their British overlords the year before, after a string of new taxes were imposed on them. And now they are seeking French backing.
Louis is no fool. As much as he might like to stick it to Britain and take back colonies that his grandfather lost, he knows two things: 1) France’s finances will not support this. His finance minister, Anne Marie Turgot has told him this much, that the “first shot of this war will bankrupt France”. And 2) these men are seeking him to back them in overthrowing a crowned and anointed king. While some of his ministers argue for him to enter the war to regain French supremacy, he asks them how can he support them when he has not a livre to put in his pocket.
So, in the end, Mr. Franklin and his party, are turned away from Versailles without any promise of French support.
Sticking with French finances, Turgot unveils a new plan to get more money for the crown. Well, it’s not news per se, the great Sebastien Vauban proposed it to the Sun King more than a half century ago, but it’s definitely new for the French court. With the royal family being reduced in size and the branches of Condé and Conti for all intents and purposes being forced to live on the incomes from their estates, rather than pensions from the crown as previously, the minister now proposes to extract taxes from the percentage of the kingdom best suited to pay it: the first and second estates (i.e. the nobility and the clergy).
The electress of Bavaria, Regent for her still underage son, Maximilian IV Thomas, gives birth to the elector’s posthumous child, a daughter named Maria Karoline Antonia Maximiliane.
Marie Antoinette announces her fourth pregnancy.
Natalia Alexeïevna gives birth to her first daughter, named Anna ‘Annette’ for the emperor’s mother.
1779: Turgot’s plan unleashes a storm of discontent among the nobility. Why should they pay taxes. And they are spearheaded by the king’s brothers, his aunts, and his cousins, the princes de Condé and Conti. The latter two are already disgruntled about their demotion (since the king slashed them from the famille privé (the king, queen, their children, the king’s brothers and their families and the aunts) and including them only in the famille royal (the entire Bourbon royal family in France) when he reorganized the French royal family) to mere ‘Highness’. Turgot’s tax is simple, land tax should naturally be paid by those with the most land, including members of the royal family.
When a petition is brought to the king to withdraw the plan, he takes the wine-glass in his hand and crushes it. “Take this message to your masters, if any stand against me, I warn you, I will break them like glass.”
And he signs the so-called Edict of Compiègne into effect. No longer are the nobility exempted from taxes. The pope issues a protest at the taxation of the church by the state, but the king reminds the pope of the status quo in France.
The king’s third son, Charles Louis Raphaël Philippe, duc d’Aquitaine is born. The king is not the only one seeing an increasing family, as the Artois’ welcome a second son into the world, Charles Victor Amédée, duc de Mercoeur.
Klothilde, Erbprinzessin von der Pfalz, gives birth to her second child, a daughter, named Elisabeth Ludovika Auguste Josefa.
The newly-elected King of the Romans, 17-year-old Franzl, is betrothed to the fourteen-year-old Auguste Wilhelmine of Hesse-Darmstadt, cousin to the Russian and Prussian Crown Princesses.
1780: Madame gives birth to a stillborn child, while Mademoiselle dies a death blamed on teething.
In St. Petersburg, Natalia Alexeïevna gives birth to her third child and second son, Pyotr ‘Petrushka’.
The Princess of Brasil (formerly ‘of Beira’) gives birth to her first child, a son named João Luis José Pedro. Although the boy dies six months later.
The duke and duchess of Chablais are appointed to assume the position of Governor of the Austrian Netherlands after the death of Prince Charles Alexander of Lorraine. Lorraine, double brother-in-law to the Queen of Hungary, dies leaving a tidy pile of debts. The governor’s mistress and bastard son were dealt with via bequest before Charles died, so they are well taken care of. However, Josef II (his nephew) is eager to get out of paying the debts. So he simply has the late prince’s will cancelled, stating that as a member of the imperial family the governor was obliged to receive the emperor’s consent to a will, and since no such consent was given, the will is invalid.
The queen of Hungary dies, much aggrieved by her son’s behaviour, but she makes a proper Catholic death, blessing each of her children, even the estranged Crown Princess of Saxony.
Shortly after arriving in Brussels, the duke and duchess of Chablais’ daughter, Maria Teresa Benedetta takes ill, and although she will recover, she will suffer from severe pains in the head during cold weather.
Versailles goes into mourning for the death of one of the Aunts, Madame Sophie.
After nineteen years of marriage, the Electress Palatine gives birth to a long-awaited son, christened Franz Ludwig Josef in honor of his godfathers, the Holy Roman Emperor and the king of France.
1762: Louis XV’s granddaughter, Maria Isabella of Spain, Queen of the Romans, is brought and delivered of a healthy baby girl, Maria Theresia Elisabeth, named for her two grandmothers. Also in Vienna, the Queen of Hungary, wife of the Holy Roman Emperor, attempts to adjust the marriage treaty by which her late son, Karl (deceased the previous year) was to marry Infanta Maria Luisa of Spain, to now allow for the marriage to take place between her third son, Leopold and the Spanish infanta.
In St. Petersburg, the Empress Elizabeth dies, to be succeeded by her nephew, the Prussophile Pyotr Feodorovich. Pyotr realizes that Prussia would make a better ally than an enemy, especially for his planned assaults on Denmark for the duchy of Oldenburg. And he signs a ceasefire with Prussia.
Russia is flummoxed by the sudden change in policy which sees many of their recent gains handed back without much of a struggle. On this wave of discontent, Pyotr’s wife, Ekaterina Alexeïevna, attempts a palace coup. However, one of the conspirators loses his nerve, and confesses all to the emperor in exchange for a pardon. In his typical martinet fashion, Pyotr remarks “I have no use for a traitor. You nearly betrayed me once. Why would you not do so again?” and the man is summarily relieved of his tongue and exiled to Siberia.
Needless to say, Pyotr is ready and waiting for the guards’ regiments when Ekaterina makes her move. Pyotr’s German guards take down those who support his wife. The coup is unsuccessful, Ekaterina is placed under house-arrest. The guards’ regiments involved are roundly punished, with the ringleaders being hanged, broken on the wheel and drawn-and-quartered.
1763: The war which has been raging for the past few years is finally wrapped up in the treaties of Hubertusburg, between the continental powers, and that of Paris, between Britain and France. Needless to say, France and her allies can be regarded as the losing side.
Emperor Pyotr III’s marriage to Ekaterina is dissolved, and Ekaterina forced to take the veil in the Novodivichy Convent. At the same time, Pyotr realizes the necessity of marrying again, especially since he only has a single child, the nine-year-old Crown Prince Pavel. His attachment to Elizabeth Romanovna is ended, and ambassadors are sent into Germany to search for suitable princesses.
The young Queen of the Romans is delivered of a healthy baby boy, christened with great pomp and circumstance with the names of Franz Philipp Josef Karl Ludwig Stanislaus, with the Elector of Saxony (who’s also king of Poland) and his wife standing as godparents.
1764: The dauphine, Marie Josèphe de Saxe, formerly a princess of Poland, gives birth to her final child, Marie Élisabeth Philippine Hélène. Her husband starts to sicken from the tuberculosis which will kill him the following year.
The queen of the Romans gives birth to a daughter named Maria Christine (for her favorite sister-in-law), but dies shortly thereafter, leaving a grief-stricken husband with two small children. The marriage contract between Archduke Leopold and Infanta Maria Luisa is finalized. Meanwhile, the Savoyard prince, the duke of Chablais (nephew to the emperor) travels to Vienna.
1765: The Holy Roman Emperor, Franz I Stefan, formerly duc de Lorraine, dies in Innsbruck shortly after seeing the marriage of his son, Leopold, to the Infanta Maria Luisa. Much to her dismay, the Empress’ favorite daughter, Maria Christine ‘Mimi’, is married off to the duke of Chablais. Although the ceremony is rather sombre what with the court still being in mourning for her father. Her brother will later describe it as ‘a marriage that brought me another useless brother-in-law’.
In an attempt to strengthen the bonds between the courts in Paris and Warsaw, the king of Poland broaches the subject of betrothing his eldest son, Crown Prince Friedrich August, to the dauphin’s eldest daughter, Marie Adélaïde Clothilde Xavière. Formerly there was an unofficial engagement between the Crown Prince and Clothilde’s elder sister, Marie Zéphyrine but it was cancelled when Zéphyrine died in 1755.
Louis Ferdinand, Dauphin de Viennois dies at Fontainebleau, leaving behind a wife, four sons and two daughters. His eldest son, the duc de Bourgogne, automatically becomes the new dauphin.
The electress of Bavaria, one of the king of Poland’s sisters, takes ill and dies of a variety of smallpox.
1766: Marie Josèphe due to dislike of her eldest son’s betrothal to an Austrian archduchess (something which finds resonance at the anti-Austrian French court), she attempts in correspondence with her brother to betroth the dauphin to his cousin from Saxony, Marie Amalie. This move is ultimately unsuccessful.
At the same time, the Queen of Hungary puts her next two daughters, Maria Elisabeth ‘Liesl’ and Maria Amalie on the market. Elisabeth is a raving beauty. But her mother’s eye is on the widower king of Spain, Carlos III. The offer to marry Elisabeth off to him is declined, with thanks, and the queen is forced to start casting around for a new match for her daughter.
Elisabeth and Amalie’s younger sister, Maria Josefa ‘Pepa’, is finally married by proxy to Carlos III’s third son, the king of Naples. (His first son is an imbecile who must be kept under house-arrest, while his second is the current prince of the Asturias). She will leave for Naples in the New Year.
King James III of England, Scotland and Ireland dies, and his dissolute son, the Bonnie Prince Charlie of song, succeeds to a phantom crown in Rome. Naturally, Charles III, as he now is addressed by only the members of his court, since the pope refuses to acknowledge him as the king of England as he did the prince’s father. Famed lover Casanova will call him ‘the pretend pretender’. But, needless to say, this is a king in need of a wife, and no matter what his personal life might look like, his pedigree is spotless.
1767: The dauphine, who has never quite recovered from her husband’s death, passes away.
Archduke Leopold, who has succeeded to his father’s title of Grand Duke of Tuscany, welcomes his first child to the world, a little girl named Maria Teresa Giuseppina Carlotta.
Pepa – now Maria Giuseppina, Queen of Naples and Sicily, sets off to her new husband, escorted by her widower brother Josef.
The duchess of Chablais gives birth to her first child, a daughter, named Maria Teresa Benedetta.
The new ‘king of England’ is married to the youngest sister of the Elector of Bavaria, Maria Josefa. While this isn’t a prestigious match for the daughter of a one-time emperor, she is nearly thirty and when the attempted matches to the current Holy Roman Emperor and the late dauphin failed, she seemed destined for a nunnery.
1768: the death of the queen of France leads to the queen of Hungary offering her elder daughter, Elisabeth, as a replacement. While the French ministers think that this might be a way of calming the king, Paris’ answer is dithering, much to the dismay of the Hungarian queen, who begins to look elsewhere. And finally, the vacant position of Electress of Bavaria is filled by Liesl.
As for Amalie, she is engaged to the same Crown Prince of Saxony who had hoped to marry Madame Clothilde.
Her next sister, Maria Carolina ‘Charlotte’ has her betrothal finalized to her one-time brother-in-law, the duke of Parma. And she sets off soon after Josef’s return to Vienna from escorting Pepa south. The queen of Hungary has been busy in her son’s absence, arranging a second marriage for him. To the youngest daughter of the king of Portugal, Maria Benedita Francisca. Since the birth of the king’s eldest daughter and heiress presumptive’s son in 1761, the Portuguese Prime Minister, the Marques de Pombal, has been marrying the remaining three daughters of the king off to strengthen Portuguese alliances to the rest of Europe. Needless to say, the Queen, born a Spanish infanta, is not happy about this, but her influence over her husband is rather minimal of late.
Maria Josefa of Bavaria arrives in Rome to meet her new husband. Needless to say, the British royal family in London are rubbing their hands in glee at the prospect of the Stuart line finally dying out, what with an irresolute drunkard marrying a spinster.
1769: The new electress of Bavaria gives birth to a son, Maximilian Thomas Franz.
The marriage between Josef II, Holy Roman Emperor, and his new Portuguese wife takes place in Brussels. While Benedita is plain, she seems to exercise a calming influence on the emperor’s marriage. And even if he doesn’t take to her, he at least treats her with a sort of respect. Most notably after she endears herself to Josef’s two children, Maria Theresia ‘Titi’ and Franz ‘Franzl’ (Christine died at the age of a few months).
With the king of France wishing to secure the succession for the crown, finalizes the wedding arrangements for the dauphin (now eighteen) and the youngest of the Holy Roman Emperor’s sisters, Maria Antonia ‘Antoine’. To the now dismissed minister, the duc de Choiseul, this marriage is the crowning achievement of his rapprochement between the houses of Bourbon and Austria.
1770: After a long journey, Maria Antonia arrives at Compiègne. There is a distinct chill in the air of the court towards her, even after she becomes Marie Antoinette, dauphine de Viennois. However, her grandfather-in-law is charmed with her, so at least that counts for something. Her new husband, on the other hand, is, well, not. He’s a nineteen year old Bourbon prince, with a passion for the hunt and his mistress, the beautiful and witty Laure de Fitzjames, Princesse de Chimay, and like all nineteen-year-old boys, he absolutely abhors sweet little girls of fourteen.
However, the marriage goes ahead in a splendid affair in the Chapel Royal at Versailles. With the wife of the English ambassador noting that during almost the entire ceremony, the dauphin was stealing glances at the Princesse de Chimay. However, soldier on the dauphin will, and he at least does his duty by his new young wife.
The Crown Princess of Saxony gives birth to her first child, a daughter, named Auguste Maria Theresia. As does the queen of Naples – a daughter christened Maria Teresa Francesca Carolina.
1771: The Queen of England, France, Scotland and Ireland, Maria Josepha, gives birth to her first child (at the age of 32), a daughter. The baby is christened Maria Clementina Amalie ‘Mary’, and promptly named the Princess Royal, the first time that that title has been held since the death of Charles’ aunt, Louisa Maria, in 1712.
While everyone imagines Charles – most notably the British resident in Florence, Sir Horace Mann – will go into a drinking bout and probably start beating his wife as he did his mistress, Clementina Walkinshaw after they fell out, the king shows his glee at finally having legitimate heir(ess) by throwing a massive blow-out that his brother, Cardinal Henry Stuart, quietly covers with his income from his see of Frascati, in celebration.
Rather, it is Maria Josepha who struggles to contain her disappointment. She so much wanted to give her husband a son, and she unfortunately knows time is against her. You see, while Charles might’ve cleaned up for her sake, and perhaps been visibly shocked at her plainness, she is quite in love with him, even if he doesn’t necessarily feel the same way. But the courtiers don’t doubt that she has been a soothing influence on their king. Plus, the fact that she’s related to most of Europe’s Catholic royal families doesn’t hurt.
The king of France’s second grandson, Louis Auguste, duc de Berri, is wed to the princess of Poland originally proposed for his older brother, who becomes Marie Amélié, duchesse de Berri on her marriage.
The duke of Parma’s sister, Maria Luisa, princess of the Asturias (who during her mother’s lifetime had been considered as a possible bride for her cousin, the dauphin), gives birth to her first child, a son, christened Carlos Clemente.
The Holy Roman Emperor’s second youngest brother, Archduke Ferdinand, marries Maria Beatrice Ricciarda d’Este, heiress to the duke of Modena and Reggio, and his wife, the duchess of Massa. The duke and duchess of Modena’s marriage has been on the rocks for years, most notably after the duchess’ failure to produce a male heir. But for now, Ferdinand and Maria Beatrice will serve as the Austrian viceroys in Milan, while he patiently waits for his father-in-law to die.
1772: The dauphine gives birth to her first child. A son. Named Louis Robert Joseph Xavier and given the courtesy title of duc de Bourgogne. The birth of the king’s great-grandson (something that last happened with the current king’s birth) is cause for celebration at Versailles, even though the French economy has taken some bad knocks of late, and it can ill afford it.
The duchess of Parma gives birth to her first child, Maria Teresa Carlotta. And the Viennese court is surprised when the queen of the Romans announces a pregnancy.
1773: The two youngest brothers of the dauphin, the comtes de Provence and Artois, are both married to two Savoyard sisters, (Maria Teresa to the comte de Provence and Maria Anna to the comte d’Artois). Their older sister, Maria Giuseppina, was originally considered for Provence, but was married off the previous year to the Crown Prince of Saxony’s younger brother, Prince Karl Maximilian.
The Holy Roman Empress gives birth to a stillborn daughter.
Maria Josepha of Bavaria goes into labour during a visit to the Santa Rosalia Convent. It is here that she is delivered of the son that she and the Jacobites had prayed for – a perfectly healthy baby boy christened James Edward Charles Albert Francis Xavier. Needless to say, the Jacobites outside of England go wild, and those left in England go down into their cellars and drink a toast to the birth of a prince of Wales to the king over the water.
Charles’ reaction is even more exuberant than it was to his daughter’s birth. In fact, the celebrations make those for his daughter look like a comparison between Lent and Carnival.
“One more Stuart to cause misery to the world” writes George III when he hears the news.
1774: King Louis XV of France and Navarre dies. The electress of Bavaria gives birth to a second son, Karl Ludwig Emanuel.
The Holy Roman Emperor’s daughter is propelled onto the marriage market with great force by her grandmother who is eager to secure a grand match for her. One of the problems that arises is the scarcity of ‘good’ Catholic matches on the marriage market. There’s the Prince of Beira, the Holy Roman Empress’ nephew, but the Hungarian Queen dismisses one Portuguese match as one enough. While there had been desires by the French to exchange Marie Antoinette for her niece, or overtures made from Austria to France about a possible marriage between Titi and either the duc de Berri or comte de Provence, these met with firm refusal from the respective sides.
It is then that the duchess de Chablais proposes a match between her husband’s half-nephew, the Prince of Piedmont, and her niece – as a way of balancing French influence in Savoy. After all, the Savoyards have just married two of their princesses (the prince’s sisters) to French princes, and a third to a prince of Saxony.
And on the topic of Franco-Savoyard matches, the Comtesse d’Artois gives birth to a son, Louis Antoine, titled duc d’Angoulême.
1775: The dauphin’s second youngest sister, Madame Clothilde, is married by proxy to the Elector Palatine’s son. Her aunts, the Mesdames les Tantes whom a later historian will refer to ‘as that generation whose turn never came’, regard it as an inferior match. However, the new king reminds them that he is not their father, and the purpose of princesses is to be married off abroad to secure alliances, ‘not sit around as spinsters to decorate a home like so many useless ornaments’.
A threat is likewise made that if they continue in this manner, the king will send them back to a convent like where they came from, and where their youngest sister retired voluntarily.
While at first it is believed that the king will reverse his grandfather’s edict concerning the abolition of the parlements, the court is in for a rude awakening when Louis XVI does not. The triumvirat of the comte de Maupeou, the duc d’Aiguillon and the comte de Terray on the conseil du roi makes several of the noble families look at it with unease, given the three’s rather reformatory dismissal of the provincial parlements in the sunset years of Louis XV’s reign. The voice at court goes that the French king intends to abolish certain privileges of the nobles. He’s already started trimming the Bourbon family tree by issuing an edict limiting the style of ‘Royal Highness’ to male-line grandsons of the king. Their sons will be styled ‘Serene Highness’.
The princes of the blood who were formerly ‘Serene Highness’ have now been limited to bearing that style solely for their lifetime, and not passing it on to their children, unless granted by the king. Their children will be addressed solely as ‘Highness’.
This cleaves the royal family in two. The king and his good-hearted, dog-loyal, but weak-willed oldest brother, Monsieur, on the one side (surprisingly finding the Orléans heir amongst their number), and the opposition headed by the Comte de Provence, the Mesdames les Tantes and several of the more important families in the realm – Rohan, de la Trémoïlle, de la Tour d’Auvergne and branches of the house of Lorraine who all qualify for the rank of ‘Royal Highness’ and address by the king as ‘mon cousin’ and being addressed as ‘cousin du roi’.
The queen of France gives birth to her second child, a daughter named Marie Thérèse Charlotte and bestowed with the traditional honorific of the French king’s eldest daughter, Madame Royal. At the same time, in a means to spite his brother, Monsieur, the Comte de Provence announces the pregnancy of his wife.
Monsieur and Madame’s marriage has remained unconsummated, and this has led to all sorts of vicious rumors spreading around the court, namely that Madame is actually preferring entanglements with members of her own sex – like her friend and lady-in-waiting, Louise Charlotte de la Tour du Pin, marquise de la Charce. Madame will later write that was only the friendship of the queen which sustained her through this period.
In faraway Saxony, Princess Maria Giuseppina of Savoy dies mere months after her marriage to Prince Karl. She had reportedly been homesick for some time and many say that her death was as a result of extreme melancholy.
1776: The comtesse de Provence gives birth to a stillborn daughter. Her husband responds by spending more time with his mistress, the Comtesse de Balbi. After the ending of the king’s affair with the princesse de Chimay, he starts spending more time with the queen, and while it will never be a love match, it certainly becomes one of friendship. Needless to say, this extra time that he is spending with the queen results in her falling pregnant again.
And during her pregnancy, the king takes as mistress one of the queen’s ladies in waiting, Yolande Martine de Polastron, princesse de Polignac.
In Florence, the Stuart court is surprised at the news of a further pregnancy for their thirty-nine year old queen. Many thought her past the age for childbearing when she married the king, but even the queen herself regarded the birth of the prince of Wales as her last hope of childbearing.
The electress of Bavaria gives birth to a daughter, Maria Theresia Amalie Ludovika, with the king of France and the crown princess of Saxony standing as godparents.
Crown Prince Pavel of Russia marries to Princess Wilhelmine of Hesse-Darmstadt as a way of strengthening Russia’s ties to Prussia, since her sister is married to the Crown Prince of Prussia. His father doesn’t regard Wilhelmine (who takes the name Natalia Alexeïevna) as having the best of personalities, since she’s ambitious, arrogant and definitely a flirt, with Pyotr dismissing Pavel’s best friend, Count Andrei Razumofsky after Natalia is caught making lambent calf-eyes at him one too many times.
For Pyotr this is dangerous, as he is more than aware of the fact that there are rumors at court when Pavel was born, that it had been one of Ekaterina’s lovers who was his son’s father. And that it was most definitely her then lover, the Pole Prince Stanislaw Antoni Poniatowski who was the father of their daughter Anna who had died in infancy.
The last thing he needs is for any child of Pavel’s to suffer from the same rumors: even if since then the physical resemblance between the Emperor and his son has proved them wrong.
Pavel is upset at his father’s actions, and this leads to the first rift in their relationship.
In other news, Natalia’s brother, the Erblandgraf of Hesse-Darmstadt, marries Sophie Dorothea of Württemberg, niece of the current duke and great-niece of the king of Prussia.
The Erbprinz of the Palatinate and his wife, formerly Madame Clothilde, welcome their first child into the world, a boy named Karl August Ludwig Ferdinand. The Elector had previously worried about the possibility of the pudgy French princess being able to even conceive. And he stated this in private to the French ambassador. Not that the elector really has much room to talk, he and his wife were married for nineteen years before they had a child, with both entertaining their own lovers before and since. Clearly Klothilde has beaten her mother-in-law in that regard, overweight or no.
The Queen of France gives birth to a second son, Louis Alexandre Joseph Stanislas, duc d’Anjou.
1777: Natalia Alexeïevna gives birth to a healthy baby boy, named Aleksandr ‘Sasha’. While the queen of England gives birth to another son, named Charles Maximilian Francis Emanuel Albert and created duke of Gloucester and Kintyre by his father.
The pope finds himself placed in a damnably difficult position. While he has been willing to acknowledge George III as the rightful king of Great Britain, that was when it seemed as though Bonnie Prince Charlie would be the last of his line, followed by his cardinal brother. But now…now with the Count and Countess of Albany (their incognito title that fools no one) having three healthy children and their line to continue for another generation at least, it seems to be slightly more problematic. However, the pope has other matters weighing on his mind, most notably mounting pressure from the Holy Roman Empire, the kings of France, Spain and Portugal and several other sovereigns to dissolve the Jesuit order.
The comtesse d’Artois gives birth to a daughter, Marie Anne Sophie, styled Mademoiselle, as the highest ranked unmarried female at the court of Versailles.
King Louis XVI has been in negotiations for his youngest sister, Madame Élisabeth ‘Babette’, to marry the prince of Beira for the better part of the last year. While his wife doesn’t wish Babette to leave, and Babette herself would probably prefer to become a nun, like her aunt Louise, the marriage contract is finally signed and the girl leaves for the south of France, accompanied by the Mesdames les Tantes, who are journeying south officially to take the waters at Aix, and the comte de Provence, who is seeking to visit the estates of the dukedom of Vendome that he has been endowed with of late.
The real reason, of course, is that the king wants the more conservative faction far from Versailles for his next move.
Babette arrives in Lisbon (by way of Madrid), where her wedding takes place to the prince of Beira at the bedside of the dying king.
Finally when the king dies, and his eldest daughter ascends as Queen Maria, the Marques de Pombal (the king’s right hand man and for many years de facto ruler of Portugal) is sent into exile, and the court is exceedingly dominated by what the English ambassador calls ‘nobles thirsting for an impossible revenge, and a queen dominated by a religious devotion bordering on a mania’.
Needless to say, the court in Madrid (as well as Portugal’s now Queen-Mother (a Spanish infanta by birth, who was once the fiancée of Louis XV, and his spurning of her resulted in her hatred of all things French, including her newly-minted granddaughter-in-law, Isabel) are working to change Portugal’s foreign policy to a more pro-Spanish one. They propose that the younger son of the Queen, D. João, marry a Spanish infanta, and that the Queen’s only daughter, D. Mariana Vitoria, marry a Spanish infante. That the only infanta available is the Prince of the Asturias’ eldest daughter, D. Carlota (who’s all of two years old) is not considered a problem.
The Holy Roman Emperor’s daughter, Titi, is married by proxy to the Prince of Piedmont, shortly after the Emperor has travelled incognito to visit his family in Italy and the back through Paris. His opinions of his sisters are truly remarkable, but his sharp tongue spares none, since he describes the king and queen of England that he meets in Florence as ‘the most ill-suited pair one can imagine. He, the leader of the ’45 rebellion, but since so sunk in depravity and dissoluteness that he looks far older than his years; she is the plainest creature one can imagine, though she is certainly witty and graceful, but very concerned with her rank as Queen. But their three children are well-mannered and polite, thoroughly English, despite living in Italy, and charming…
Madame announces her first pregnancy at the end of the year.
The elector of Bavaria dies.
1778: Madame gives birth to her first child, a son, christened Louis Xavier François Auguste, and created duc de Normandie. The comte de Provence, newly returned from his estates, is further put out as he now moves still further back in the line of succession.
The king receives certain gentlemen representing the colonies of Great Britain in America. The colonies rose up in revolt against their British overlords the year before, after a string of new taxes were imposed on them. And now they are seeking French backing.
Louis is no fool. As much as he might like to stick it to Britain and take back colonies that his grandfather lost, he knows two things: 1) France’s finances will not support this. His finance minister, Anne Marie Turgot has told him this much, that the “first shot of this war will bankrupt France”. And 2) these men are seeking him to back them in overthrowing a crowned and anointed king. While some of his ministers argue for him to enter the war to regain French supremacy, he asks them how can he support them when he has not a livre to put in his pocket.
So, in the end, Mr. Franklin and his party, are turned away from Versailles without any promise of French support.
Sticking with French finances, Turgot unveils a new plan to get more money for the crown. Well, it’s not news per se, the great Sebastien Vauban proposed it to the Sun King more than a half century ago, but it’s definitely new for the French court. With the royal family being reduced in size and the branches of Condé and Conti for all intents and purposes being forced to live on the incomes from their estates, rather than pensions from the crown as previously, the minister now proposes to extract taxes from the percentage of the kingdom best suited to pay it: the first and second estates (i.e. the nobility and the clergy).
The electress of Bavaria, Regent for her still underage son, Maximilian IV Thomas, gives birth to the elector’s posthumous child, a daughter named Maria Karoline Antonia Maximiliane.
Marie Antoinette announces her fourth pregnancy.
Natalia Alexeïevna gives birth to her first daughter, named Anna ‘Annette’ for the emperor’s mother.
1779: Turgot’s plan unleashes a storm of discontent among the nobility. Why should they pay taxes. And they are spearheaded by the king’s brothers, his aunts, and his cousins, the princes de Condé and Conti. The latter two are already disgruntled about their demotion (since the king slashed them from the famille privé (the king, queen, their children, the king’s brothers and their families and the aunts) and including them only in the famille royal (the entire Bourbon royal family in France) when he reorganized the French royal family) to mere ‘Highness’. Turgot’s tax is simple, land tax should naturally be paid by those with the most land, including members of the royal family.
When a petition is brought to the king to withdraw the plan, he takes the wine-glass in his hand and crushes it. “Take this message to your masters, if any stand against me, I warn you, I will break them like glass.”
And he signs the so-called Edict of Compiègne into effect. No longer are the nobility exempted from taxes. The pope issues a protest at the taxation of the church by the state, but the king reminds the pope of the status quo in France.
The king’s third son, Charles Louis Raphaël Philippe, duc d’Aquitaine is born. The king is not the only one seeing an increasing family, as the Artois’ welcome a second son into the world, Charles Victor Amédée, duc de Mercoeur.
Klothilde, Erbprinzessin von der Pfalz, gives birth to her second child, a daughter, named Elisabeth Ludovika Auguste Josefa.
The newly-elected King of the Romans, 17-year-old Franzl, is betrothed to the fourteen-year-old Auguste Wilhelmine of Hesse-Darmstadt, cousin to the Russian and Prussian Crown Princesses.
1780: Madame gives birth to a stillborn child, while Mademoiselle dies a death blamed on teething.
In St. Petersburg, Natalia Alexeïevna gives birth to her third child and second son, Pyotr ‘Petrushka’.
The Princess of Brasil (formerly ‘of Beira’) gives birth to her first child, a son named João Luis José Pedro. Although the boy dies six months later.
The duke and duchess of Chablais are appointed to assume the position of Governor of the Austrian Netherlands after the death of Prince Charles Alexander of Lorraine. Lorraine, double brother-in-law to the Queen of Hungary, dies leaving a tidy pile of debts. The governor’s mistress and bastard son were dealt with via bequest before Charles died, so they are well taken care of. However, Josef II (his nephew) is eager to get out of paying the debts. So he simply has the late prince’s will cancelled, stating that as a member of the imperial family the governor was obliged to receive the emperor’s consent to a will, and since no such consent was given, the will is invalid.
The queen of Hungary dies, much aggrieved by her son’s behaviour, but she makes a proper Catholic death, blessing each of her children, even the estranged Crown Princess of Saxony.
Shortly after arriving in Brussels, the duke and duchess of Chablais’ daughter, Maria Teresa Benedetta takes ill, and although she will recover, she will suffer from severe pains in the head during cold weather.
Versailles goes into mourning for the death of one of the Aunts, Madame Sophie.