Princess Marie Adélaïde of France

Adélaide Marie de Bourbon, known as Madame Adélaïde ( born March 23, 1732 in Versailles, † February 27, 1800 in Trieste ) was Princess of France and Navarre.

Life

Marie Adélaide was the fourth daughter and sixth child of King Louis XV. of France and his Polish wife, Maria Leszczynska. She was the great-granddaughter of the Sun King Louis XIV. Originally known as " Madame Quatrième " to the death of her older sister Marie Louise ( 1728-1733 ). Then they were called " Madame Troisième " and later Madame Adélaide.

Adélaide proved since his early youth as a very self-confident and stubborn. When Louis XV. 1738 she and her younger sisters wanted on the advice of Cardinal Fleury educate cost reasons in the Fontevraud Abbey, broke the six- year-old princess into tears, threw her father in front of his knees and begged him not send her away. Deeply touched, she was allowed to stay in Versailles with her family, while her sisters Victoire, Sophie, Therese Felicity and Louise Marie to 1748 and 1750 grew up in Fontevraud. Adélaide had a strong patriotism, which should evolve more and more into a kind of nationalism. Their hatred against France's hereditary enemy Britain and Austria remained all her life limitless and she looked at their home as the largest and most beautiful nation in the world. So she was caught with eleven years in how they wanted to leave on a donkey at night Versailles with 13 louis in his pocket, which she had won at cards against her mother. When she was asked about her plans she replied: "I'm going to England to sleep with the Lords, which they will certainly take an honor and I suggest them off the heads to bring them to Daddy ."

It was regarded as so proud and vain, that she refused all offers of marriage, even the reigning Prince of dynasties, although according to a contemporary witness possessed all the qualities to make a man happy. But in her eyes she was not a prince of rank equal. They therefore lived as their unmarried sisters in Versailles. Your vanity but based on her great beauty. The reputation of being one of the most attractive women at court, was ahead of her, as her high intelligence. So they not only spoke fluent Italian and English, but was also an excellent mathematician and made himself at napkin rings and watches. They also had a special fondness for dogs. But her greatest passion was music. Like her other siblings had inherited the talent and love for it from her mother. They played almost all the instruments: from the violin, the cello, the organ, the harpsichord through to the Jew's harp and the French horn. To address this tendency, it could be set up just for this purpose in 1753 a private music room. Along with her ​​siblings, she also maintained a chamber orchestra, the important and famous concerts held at court.

Louis XV. loved his daughters more than anything. Through them, his passion was aroused to embroider and even he cooked them for coffee. In addition, he visited her every day, played cards with them or went with them on the hunt. His special love was Adélaide, of which he was almost deified. After the death of her older sisters Anne Henriette and Marie Louise Élisabeth 1752 and 1759 she was promoted to his favorite daughter. So she sat at public panel always on his right side and was keen entitled " Madame, eldest daughter of the King" to be addressed. The everyday life of Adelaide was shaped by representation tasks and their musical interests, but they soon began because of her unmarried state old-maidish and to be melancholy. In order to fill this emptiness inside, she began as her sisters excessively overeat. Your closets were stuffed with ham, cheese, sausage, bread, cake and wine. In addition, she hated the strictness of etiquette. So wore the king's daughters in their private chambers neither crinoline corset yet.

Life on the farm

Life at the court of Versailles was coined by the mistresses of the king, especially of Madame de Pompadour and Madame du Barry. Her mother and her siblings formed a conservative Christian party at the court of Versailles, which opposed the power of mistresses. Adélaide had not only inherited by Maria Leszczyńska their mental abilities, but also the deep piety and virtuous views of a decent life. So she called Madame Pompadour disparagingly as " Maman Putain " ( prostitute mother). Despite efforts by the mistress to build a friendly relationship with the daughters of the king, this remained tense.

Adélaide tried to influence the affairs of state. So they schemed against their greatest enemy, the Duke of Choiseul, France's foreign minister and favorite of Madame de Pompadour. But although she was the favorite daughter of the king, remained its political role meaningless.

Over the years, Adélaide and her sisters always sullen and sorrowful. From the former beauty an old matron had become and because of their arrogant and conservative nature the king's daughters were now very unpopular with the courtiers who mocked as old maids behind her back. Even her father is said to have Adélaide sometimes referred to as "old rag ". Her sisters Victoire and Sophie remained their only caregivers. Since these were not nearly as intelligent as Adélaide, it was her easy to impose this their will. She was the mastermind of this coterie. However, despite their negative characteristics it proved loving surrogate mother: After the death of her brother and his wife in 1765 and 1767, with whom she had cared for an ever friendly relationship, care she and her sisters selflessly to their orphaned nephews and nieces. These were allowed to play in the rooms of her aunts like normal children frolic wild and destroy things. Adélaide should build a particularly intense relationship with her ​​oldest nephew, the future King Louis XVI .. Their influence on these persisted for a long time and she tried to educate him according to their views of a morally perfect life.

1768 her mother died and Adélaïde now rose to the rank according to the first lady of France on. 1768 was also a portrait bust by Jean Antoine Houdon. This she reached the peak of its power, she had now to perform important tasks representation. But she was already in 1770 again forced into the second row, since Louis XVI. was married on May 16 this year with the Austrian Archduchess Marie Antoinette, to guarantee peace between former enemies France and Austria. Adélaide detested initially the young and innocent Dauphine because of their ancestry as Habsburg. They called this contemptuously " l' Autrichienne ", " the Austrian ". But she immediately recognized the childish naivety of the 14 -year-old and tried to make them for their intentions advantage. To note left her and her sisters to a friendship with her ​​and were her only caregivers on cold court of Versailles. They isolated the completely unsuspecting Dauphine from the rest of the court and threaded sent them to her web of intrigue against Madame du Barry, the mistress of her father, a. Adélaide hated because of their origin from the Paris red-light district and tried to remove them from the court. Therefore, they transferred this hatred on Marie Antoinette, with her ​​aunts constantly ridiculed about the mistress of the king and steadfastly refused to comply with them. The resulting rivalry between the Dauphine and Madame du Barry should now determine the life of the court for four years.

End of April 1774, Louis XV fell ill. of smallpox. Because of the high risk of infection was not allowed to the members of the royal family, to approach the sick-room of the King. Only Adélaide and her youngest sister, the Carmelite nun Marie Louise, were allowed to care for her dying father. Lovingly she tried to relieve her In Betenen of his pain, but he died on May 10, 1774th Adélaide and her sisters now retreated to the private atmosphere of their apartments after their influence on Louis XVI. and Marie Antoinette had subsided.

Revolution and escape

After the outbreak of the French Revolution and the transfer of the royal family to Paris in 1789 had Adélaide Palace of Versailles left, she took along with her sister Victoire, the Château de Bellevue, the former summer residence of Madame de Pompadour, as a residence. For safety reasons, saw the two forced to flee to Italy on 20 February 1791. There she visited her niece Marie Clothilde in Turin and settled in 1799 in Trieste, where she lived in poor financial circumstances. In the same year Victoire died and Adélaide now saw himself deprived of their only companion. A year later she too died as the last child of Louis XV. It was later in the reign of French King Louis XVIII. buried in the basilica of Saint- Denis.

Pedigree

Louis de Bourbon, dauphin de Viennois (1661-1711)

Maria Anna of Bavaria (1660-1690)

Victor Amadeus II (1666-1732)

Anne Marie d' Orléans (1669-1728)

January Opaliński Karol (1642-1695)

Zofia Czarnkowska Opalinska (1660-1701)

Rafał Leszczynski (1650-1703)

Anna Leszczyńska (1660-1727)

Louis of Burgundy

Maria Adelaide of Savoy (1685-1712)

Stanislaus Leszczynski (1677-1766)

Catherine Opalinska (1680-1747)

Louis XV. (1710-1774)

Maria Leszczynska (1703-1768)

Madame Marie Ad ѐ laїde de Bourbon (1732-1800)