Birth of a Future Duchess of Parma on 14 August, 1727

It was on this day 292 years ago that Louise-Elisabeth of France was born to Louis XV and his consort, Marie Leczinska. Ten minutes after she appeared, her twin Henriette emerged.

The two infants were the eldest of seven surviving daughters and one son, and were dubbed Madame Première and Madame Seconde. Louise-Elisabeth was her father’s favourite. He called her ‘Babette.’ Her witty remarks could always make him laugh. Nonetheless, her arranged an early marriage for her. She would be the only one of the sisterhood to marry.

Louise-Elisabeth was married to one of her Spanish Bourbon cousins, the Infante Felipe, in 1739, when she was just 12 years old. The Infante was a younger son of King Felipe V, himself a grandson of Louis XIV, by his second wife, Isabel Farnese. Isabel was the heiress of the Farnese dukes of Parma, but the duchy had been conquered by the Austrians during the War of the Spanish Succession (1702-1713). Her claim passed to Felipe’s elder brother Carlos, who won the duchy back from the Austrians during the War of the Polish Succession (1733-1736), only to exchange it (understandably) for the Kingdom of Naples.

The new Infanta, stagnating in the dull court of Madrid, where she and her husband were minor figures outranked by Felipe’s older brothers and their wives, determined to secure Parma. Her biggest asset was of course her father’s support. She embarked on a letter-writing campaign to enlist it. After the next round of warfare, namely the War of the Austrian Succession (1740-1748), Louis XV saw to it that the duchy was assigned to the Infante Felipe at the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle.

The new duke and duchess triumphantly took possession of their duchy, or rather Felipe took possession of it while Louise Elisabeth journeyed to Versailles to thank her father for his support. She would now be known there as Madame de Parme. After a stay of 10 months, she finally made her way to Parma.

Once settled in her new capital, Louise-Elisabeth became bored. She made two further visits to Versailles, staying a year each time. The first was after the death of her twin Henriette, who succumbed to small pox in 1752. During the second visit, in 1759, Louise-Henriette herself contracted the disease and died on 6 December. She was buried next to her sister in the royal necropolis at St. Denis.

Louise-Elisabeth and Duke Felipe had 3 surviving children. The eldest, Isabel (1741-1763), married the future Holy Roman Emperor Joseph II, but died before his election. They had no children. The younger two were twins: Ferdinand (1751-1802) and Marie-Louise (1751-1819). It’s their descendants who have transmitted the blood of Louis XV to all the Catholic royal houses of Europe.

Further reading: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louise_Élisabeth_of_France .

Image: Louise-Elisabeth of France, Duchess of Parma, by an unknown artist after Nattier. Credit — WikiCommons.

Birth of a Portuguese Princess (Who Married Her Nephew) on 25 July, 1746

It was on this day 273 years ago that the Infanta Maria Francisca Benedita of Portugal was born in Lisbon. She was the last born of the children of the then heir to the Portuguese throne, the Infante José, Prince of Brazil, and his Spanish Bourbon wife.

Now pay attention, good reader, because the story might get confusing.

After José became king in 1750, his only surviving children were 4 daughters: Maria Francisca (b. 1734), Maria Ana (b. 1736), Maria Dorotea (b. 1739) and Maria Benedita herself. The middle 2 girls never married, but the eldest and youngest ended up contracting incestuous marriages. Maria Francisca, now heiress presumptive to the throne and titled Princess of Brazil, married her paternal uncle, the Infante Pedro, in 1760. They had 6 children, including 2 surviving sons. The elder of them was the Infante José, Prince of Beira. When he was 15, in 1777, he was married off to his 30-year-old youngest aunt, Maria Benedita. Three days later, King José died, Maria Francisca succeeded as Queen Maria I, and young José became heir to the throne as Prince of Brazil, thus making his wife/aunt Princess of Brazil.

Got that?

Unfortunately, there would never be any children. Maria Benedita miscarried twice, and then her much-younger husband died in 1791. The Queen, already mentally unstable, was completely undone by the death of her beloved eldest son. She was declared insane in 1792 and her younger son, the Infante João, became Prince Regent for the rest of her reign, which ended on her death in 1816.

Maria Benedita, now Dowager Princess of Brazil, was also much affected by her husband/nephew’s death. She lived quietly for the rest of her long life, devoting herself to good works. In 1808, when the court was evacuated to Rio de Janeiro in the midst of the Napoleonic wars, she went along and remained in Brazil until her brother, now King João VI, returned to Lisbon in 1821. In her final years, she founded a military hospital for veterans at Runa, which still exists and where there is a museum in her honour in her former rooms.

Maria Benedita died in Lisbon on 18 August, 1829.

Birth of the Artist and Architect Giuseppe Castiglione on 19 July, 1688

It was on this day 331 years ago that the Italian missionary, painter, composer, and architect Giuseppe Castiglione was born in Milan. He showed artistic promise in childhood and was given training in painting and music. Aged 19, he joined the Society of Jesus as a lay brother. Soon after, he set off to join the Jesuit missions in China, where artists had been requested.

Arriving in Beijing in 1715, Castiglione served the Kangxi (r. 1661-1722), Yongzheng (r. 1722-1735), and Qianlong (r. 1735-1796) emperors as a court artist for the rest of his life. He never saw his native Italy again.

Melding European painting techniques, such as perspective, with Chinese linear techniques, Castiglione pioneered a new, hybrid school of painting. In addition, he also designed a complex of Baroque-styled buildings and gardens for the Qianlong Emperor in one of the old Summer Palace gardens. He was assisted in this work by other Jesuits skilled in engineering and the arts. The Grand Trianon is said to have been one of the inspirations for the complex, which was named Xiyang Lou in Chinese. Sadly, little remains of the complex, which was burned by the invading Anglo-French forces in 1860 during the Second Opium War.

Castiglione, whose Chinese name was Láng Shìníng (郎世寧), died in Beijing in 1766. The Qianlong Emperor personally wrote his favourite artist’s obituary and commissioned his gravestone.

Much has been written about the vogue for Chinoiserie in the 18th century European courts, but the full story of the European vogue at the contemporary Chinese court remains to be told.

Further reading: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giuseppe_Castiglione_(Jesuit_painter)

Image: The Haiyantang pavilion designed by Castiglione for the Changchun Garden of the old Summer Palace in Beijing,1750s.

BIRTH OF MARIE LECZINSKA ON 23 JUNE, 1703

It was on this day 316 years ago that Maria Karolina Zofia Felicja Leszczynska, better known as Marie Leczinska, future consort of Louis XV, was born in Poland.

Her father, Stanislas Leszczynski, was a noble Polish landowner who was set up as King of Poland between 1704 and 1709 by the force of Charles XII of Sweden’s arms. When the latter was defeated by Peter the Great at Poltava, Stanislas and his family were forced to flee to Germany. They lived in Zweibrücken and later in Wissembourg, Alsace, where they were reduced to very unroyal circumstances.

By a stroke of unbelievable good fortune, Marie Leczinska was selected in 1725 as the bride of Europe’s richest and handsomest monarch, Louis XV. The youthful king’s chief minister, the Duc de Bourbon, influenced by his mistress Madame du Prie, reckoned that as an impoverished exile Marie Leczinska came with no political strings attached and was no threat to anyone at the French court, since she had no power base of her own. In other words, the duke and du Prie calculated that Marie would be beholden to them and under their control. She was indeed grateful to them, but Louis XV had no intention of allowing his wife any political influence and the plan backfired. Bourbon was soon dismissed from his post and exiled to his country estates, as was du Prie, who died soon after.

Marie Leczinska went on to be the longest-serving queen consort of France, giving her 7-years-younger husband 8 children and tolerating his numerous mistresses. Charitable, devout, and kind, she was popular and respected until her death in 1768.

The pictured portrait is an enlarged copy of the original one by Nattier, which he painted sometime in the 1750s. It can be seen at Versailles. I photographed this copy at the Musée Cognacq-Jay in Paris at Easter, 2018.

Marie-Antoinette Takes Possession of the Petit Trianon on 6 June, 1774

It was on this day 245 years ago that Marie-Antoinette, Queen of France for hardly a month, took possession of the Petit Trianon. It was a gift from her husband, the freshly proclaimed Louis XVI. She celebrated the event with a housewarming party, the guest list of which included the King, his brothers, the Counts of Provence and Artois, their wives, and his sister Madame Clothilde, soon to become Queen of Sardinia.

The acquisition of the Petit Trianon fulfilled the young queen’s wish to have a private country residence of her own. None of her predecessors had ever had such a thing except in widowhood. To mark the occasion, the King presented her with a symbolic key set with 531 diamonds. To complete her satisfaction, the king also gave her the authority to issue orders in her own name within the domain.

The little palace had been commissioned by Louis XV and Madame de Pompadour in 1763. The marquise didn’t live to see it finished, but Louis XV spent increasing amounts of time there in the final years of his reign, sometimes with Madame du Barry. In fact, it was while staying at the Petit Trianon in April of 1774 that he came down with the small pox that would kill him on 10 May.

It was on this day in the Versailles Century (1682-1789), 16 December 1740, that Frederick II of Prussia, not yet called ‘the Great,’ invaded the Austrian-held duchy of Silesia, thus launching the First Silesian War, which formed one theatre of the wider  War of the Austrian Succession.

Silesia, which bordered Prussia, Saxony, and Poland, had hitherto belonged to the crown of Bohemia, i.e. to the Habsburgs. On the death of the Holy Roman Emperor Charles VI in late October without a male heir, Frederick — himself only King of Prussia for less than half a year — saw his chance. Without a declaration of war, the invasion was a complete surprise and a complete success, blindsiding both the Austrians and the Saxons, who also had their eyes on the duchy. Within weeks, Frederick established complete control over the largely Protestant territory. Though a freethinker himself, he was not above posing as the protector of his nominal co-religionists, who welcomed his rule.

Meanwhile, the Habsburg heiress, Maria Theresa, was outraged by the highjacking of her duchy. Unfortunately, she was facing opposition on all fronts and could not properly respond to Frederick’s aggression. Gritting her teeth, she signed the Treaty of Breslau in 1742, recognizing Frederick’s sovereignty over most of Silesia in exchange for his support of her husband’s candidacy to the imperial throne and some financial considerations.

Needless to say, the story does not end here. It took 2 further wars to settle the matter. Maria Theresa started the Second Silesian War (1745-1748) in attempt to win the duchy back after she had gotten her consort, Francis Stephen of Lorraine, elected Holy Roman Emperor as Francis I, and established control over Bohemia.  The Third Silesian War (1756-1763), which was the local name for the global Seven Years War,  finally forced her to renounce her claim to Silesia forever. It seems she never got over it.

Wedding of the Future Charles X on 16 November, 1773

It was on this day 245 years ago that Charles-Philippe de France (b. 1757) married Marie-Thérèse de Savoie (b. 1756) in the royal chapel at Versailles.

The groom, styled Comte d’Artois, was the youngest grandson of Louis XV. The bride was a daughter of Victor Amadeus III, King of Sardinia and head of the house of Savoy. Two of the teenaged newlyweds’ elder siblings had already been joined in matrimony; Louis-Stanislas de France, Comte de Provence, the next elder brother of the Comte d’Artois, had married Marie-Thérèse’s elder sister, Marie-Joséphine, on 14 May, 1771. The eldest brother, the Dauphin Louis-Auguste, having married Marie-Antoinette d’Autriche-Lorraine in 1770, the set was now complete, so to speak.

Unlike her sisters-in-law, Marie-Thérèse started producing heirs very soon. The first 3 children of the Artois family appeared within 5 years: Louis-Antoine, Duc d’Angoulême, in 1775; a girl never baptized but referred to as Sophie, in 1776; and Charles-Ferdinand, Duc de Berri, in 1778. A fourth child, a baby girl who died in the cradle, was born in 1783. Since the Artois were said to have stopped living as man and wife after the birth of the Duc de Berri, it was rumoured that the last child’s father was one of the many guardsmen whose company Marie-Thérèse was reputed to enjoy. On hearing that Louis XVI had sent one particular guardsman off to service in a distant colony after the news of the Comtesse d’Artois’s final pregnancy broke, Madame Adélaïde, Louis XV’s favourite daughter, remarked, “Whole companies would have to be sent away.”

Marie-Thérèse survived the Revolution, escaping France with her husband in 1791. Their flight, however, marked the beginning of their true separation. Marie-Thérèse did not live to become queen, dying alone in Graz in 1805. The Comte d’Artois eventually succeeded as Charles X in 1824, but was driven off the throne in 1830.  The only grandson of Charles and Marie-Thérèse, who died in 1883 having never reigned, was the last Bourbon of the male line of Louis XV.

Birth of a Future (Neglected) Queen on 8 November, 1715

It was on this day 303 years ago that Elizabeth Christine of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel-Bevern was born. Her parents were Ferdinand Albert II, the reigning Duke of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel-Bevern, and his wife, Duchess Antoinette. Among her numerous siblings was another future queen, Juliana, who would grow up to marry Frederick V of Denmark.

Elizabeth Christine’s own queenship came about because one of her paternal aunts, also Elizabeth Christine, was the wife of the Holy Roman Emperor Charles VI. It was through Austrian influence that the younger Elizabeth Christine was selected as a bride for the then Crown Prince Frederick of Prussia. What the young woman probably didn’t know was that Frederick, desperate to get out from under his father’s roof, only wanted to marry as a way of getting his own household. The young couple were duly wedded in June of 1733, but lived separately for a time since Frederick’s regiment was stationed in Ruppin, some distance from Berlin. In 1736, husband and wife moved into the newly built palace at Rheinsberg near Ruppin, where they remained until Frederick’s accession in 1740. Elizabeth Christine later remembered these years as the happiest of her life, but there were no children. Frederick displayed little interest in women before he came to the throne, and none at all afterwards.

As soon as Frederick became king, he moved back to Berlin. After the completion of Sans Souci, his little palace in Potsdam, he spent most of the year there when he wasn’t at war. Elizabeth Christine was assigned the palace of Schönhausen as a summer residence. He never visited it, nor did he ever invite his wife to Sans Souci. Frederick also avoided court life in Berlin. After his mother’s death in 1757, Elizabeth Christine upheld ceremonial court life in Berlin on her own. It became Frederick’s custom to dine with his wife once a year. Often he didn’t speak to her during these dinners. Legend has it that one year he astonished everyone by going up to her and inquiring after her health.

Though he neglected her, Frederick saw to it that Elizabeth Christine was duly honoured as Queen of Prussia. Her good works — she gave away more than half her income in charity — won her popularity with the people, and she was popular with the other members of the royal family. Elizabeth Christine survived her husband by 11 years, dying in 1797.

It was on this day 327 years ago, on 25 October 1692, that a future queen of Spain was born.

The baby girl was Isabel Farnese, the only surviving child of Odoardo Farnese, himself the eldest son of the reigning Duke of Parma, Ranuccio II. Her mother was Dorothea Sophie, Princess Palatine. When Odoardo died, predeceasing his father, Dorothea Sophie married his younger brother, Francesco, who was the new heir to the throne. In other words, baby Isabel’s uncle was also her stepfather. When Ranuccio II died in 1694, Isabel’s uncle/stepfather and mother became the new Duke and Duchess of Parma. Since they had no children, and the youngest brother of the family, Antonio, also had only a daughter, it became accepted that Isabel would eventually inherit the duchy. To that end, she was carefully educated.

Unsurprisingly, she had many suitors. After the early death of Felipe V of Spain’s wife in 1714, Isabel was proposed as his new bride. The power behind the Spanish throne, the Princess des Ursins, backed Isabel because of reports that the young princess was easily led. Nothing could have been further from the truth. On her arrival in Spain, Isabel immediately sacked des Ursins and had her deported to France. Felipe V fell in love with Isabel at their first meeting and was soon completely dominated by her. In essence, it was Isabel who ruled Spain until Felipe’s death in 1746.

Frustratingly for Isabel, Felipe’s first wife had left 2 sons, both of whom came before her own sons in the line of succession. In compensation, Isabel fought to have her eldest son, Carlos, made Duke of Parma after the death of Duke Antonio and his only (unmarried and childless) daughter. In fact, Carlos did considerably better. After a good showing in the War of the Polish Succession (1733-1736), which was really about Italy, Carlos bagged the kingdoms of Naples and Sicily. Isabel finally managed to secure her ancestral inheritance when she manoeuvred her younger son, another Felipe, onto the throne of Parma in 1748.

Isabel lived long enough to see her childless stepson, Ferdinand VI, die in 1759, thus making Carlos of Naples and Sicily King of Spain as Carlos III. He duly abdicated his Italian thrones to his son in order to take up his new Spanish one. Isabel served as regent while waiting for him to arrive.

Isabel died, presumably satisfied by the achievement of her life’s ambitions, in 1766.

It was on this day 329 years ago, 22 October 1689, that the future John V, King of Portugal and the Algarves, was born in Lisbon.

John was the eldest surviving son of Peter II and Maria Sofia of Neuburg; their first-born son had died in the cradle. Maria Sofia died when John was only 10, plunging him into an extended period of melancholy. He revived only when his paternal aunt, Catherine of Braganza, the widow of Charles II, returned to Portugal from England and took charge of his upbringing. He experienced great grief again when Catherine died in 1705.

John V succeeded his father in 1706, aged only 17. It was his good fortune to come to the throne just as the great river of recently discovered Brazilian gold began to flow across the Atlantic into the royal coffers. John spent it lavishly, mostly on the church. Voltaire said of him that when he wanted to build, he built a convent, and when he wanted a mistress, he took a nun. The great philosophe did not exaggerate. John built the giant convent-palace of Mafra outside of Lisbon, and he fathered 3 illegitimate children by 3 different nuns. His great preoccupation was to increase Portugal’s standing as a Catholic power. To that end, he lobbied long, hard, and successfully, for Lisbon’s archbishopric to be raised to a patriarchate, and also for his own title to be changed, by papal decree, to “His Most Faithful Majesty, the King of Portugal and the Algarves.”

To his great credit, John V also built the Lisbon aqueduct, the largest one built since Roman times. It has assured Lisbon’s water supply ever since.

Among John V’s legitimate children by his wife, Maria Anna of Austria, sister of the emperors Joseph I and Charles VI, were the future kings Joseph I and Peter III, as well as Barbara, queen consort of Spain.