King Charles X and his family

[Prince_Lieven]

The Comtesse d'Artois was the sister of the Comtesse of Provence, born as Princess Maria-Teresa of Savoy on 13 Januray 1756. She married Charles, Comte d'Artois on 16 November 1773. The marriage produced:

    * Louis-Antoine, Duc d'Angouleme 1775-1844
    * Sophie 1776-1776
    * Charles-Ferdinand, Duc de Berry 1778-1820
    * An unnamed child 1783-1783

Maria Teresa died on 2 June 1805.

[bell_the_cat]

I think the daughter lived longer than this. I've seen a picture with the three children together. I'll have to look it up though!

[bell_the_cat]

Yes, Sophie 1776-1783, poor thing.

[umigon]

The last baby was actually named, she was called Marie-Thérèse and was born in Versailles on January 6th 1783. She died in Choisy-le-Roi on June 22nd, 1783.

[Marc]

[elena_maria_vidal]

What a great topic for discussion. Marie-Antoinette's infamous sisters-in-law are always left out of every movie, but they really were interesting and eccentric  characters, and no discussion of the ancien-regime is complete without them. The Comtesse d'Artois had many descendants, including the Empress Zita. Both women, two sisters married to two brothers, had difficult marriages, which fell apart while in exile. Of course, Madame d'Artois cannot really be blamed for the separation; her husband ran off to Scotland with poor Mme. de Polastron. As for the Comtesse de Provence, she had other problems, including alcoholism, but was eventually reunited with her husband in what is now Latvia. Provence was at her side when she died in England in 1810, I believe.

There is a story about the old days at Versailles, when they were all teenagers together. Marie-Antoinette, who loved theatre even then, used to organize them into putting on plays in the attic of the chateau, with her husband Louis as the audience (everyone knew he was hopeless as an actor). Even Mme Elisabeth (who was quite small at the time) and Mme Colthilde (who had not yet married) would participate. The Comtesse d'Artois complained that it was not worthy of princesses of the House of Savoy to engage in play-acting. Her husband Artois rebuked her, feeling that she had just insulted his little sisters, saying, "What is good enough for a princess of France is good enough for a princess of Savoy," or something to that effect.

[Christopher]

I thank everyone for thier comments, I agree with elena that the sisters were interesting characters, they both  deserve their own biographies. I have always wanted to know more about them but all I get is little bits and pieces in biographies of Marie Antoinette and Louis XVI .

[Christopher]

Charles X is another one of the French Bourbons that has not had much wriitten about him. Anyone have any knowledge of him to share.

[elena_maria_vidal]

The Comtesse d'Artois, mother of Louis-Antoine, Duc d'Angouleme, gave him over to the servants to raise and he had many health problems. He was painfully shy, awkward, unattractive, impotent, unsocialized - all the qualities usually and unfairly attributed to his uncle Louis XVI. He was betrothed as a child to his first cousin Madame Royale, Marie-Therese de France. After her release from prison and temporary stay in Vienna (where she almost married Archduke Karl), Marie-Therese married Louis-Antoine in Mitau in Courland (Latvia) in 1799. Their uncle, Louis XVIII, wrote love letters in Louis-Antoine's name to Marie-Therese in order to get her to marry her cousin because he needed her with him in order to further his goal of gaining the Throne of France. Marie-Therese discovered too late that Louis-Antoine did not write the love letters. They had a marriage in name only but Marie-Therese never sought an annulment or took lovers.

Louis-Antoine loved the military and actually distinguished himself as a soldier and even as a commander on several occasions. It was his courage that won Bordeaux to the side of the Bourbons in 1814. He was known to be a very devout and kindly man to those of his household, as was his wife, although they both had tempers and quarrelled with each other. He was closer to his uncle Louis XVIII than he was to his father Charles X (Artois). However, he and his father made the terrible blunders which lead to the final collapse of the Bourbons and the rise of the House of Orleans to the throne in 1830. Louis-Antoine is often known as Louis XIX because he was king for about 10 minutes after his father abdicated; then he himself signed the abdication as well. An eccentric and pathetic character but a frustrating one....His wife, Marie-Therese, stayed with him to the end of his life (1844); they had become tender companions and best friends over the years in spite of everything.

[Daniela]

Maria Teresa di Savoia, The Comtesse d'Artois

[elena_maria_vidal]

What GREAT pictures, Daniela! Thank you!!

Louis-Antoine's brother Charles-Ferdinand, Duc de Berry was the exact opposite of L-A - very roguish, attractive, charming and a ladies' man. He had several children with his morganatic wife Amy Brown, who was annulled so he could marry Caroline of Naples (above.) Berry and Caroline were the parents of the pretender Comte de Chambord and Louise d'Artois (Duchess of Parma and grandmother of Empress Zita). Caroline was not a beauty but  was considered very attractive because of her vivacity and sparkle. She was VERY like her great-aunt, Marie-Antoinette. After Berry was assassinated on the steps of the Opera house in Paris, Caroline married an Italian nobleman, Count Hector Luchesi-Palli. She married him without telling anyone.  While trying to reclaim the throne for her son, she was hiding incognito in Brittany when she was captured by her uncle Louis-Phillippe. It was discovered that she was pregnant, and there was a BIG scandal; Caroline lost her "HRH." She had left her two children by Berry with Louis-Antoine and Marie-Therese, who raised them as their own.

[Christopher]

Thank you to everyone for all your knowledge  about these two sisters I have learned so much. Do any biographie of them exist in English or other languages?

[Marc]

[frohsdorf]

Louis Antoine was impotent and never consumated his marriage to Marie Therese Charlotte (which she tried to disguise by forbidding an autopsy on her body.  This was expressly stated in her July, 1851, testament).   Marie Antoinette's lover, Comte Axel de Fersen, met Louis Antoine in 1797 and declared him to be "pitiful morally as well as physically".  What this could mean is anyone's guess (what did Fersen mean by morally pitiful?).   Louis Antoine did distinguish himself during the Bourbon Restoration, especially in 1823 when Ferdinand VII was restored to the Spanish throne.   He took an active role in the education of his nephew and heir, the Comte de Chambord.   He spent his last years in Gorizia, Italy, and is one of the six Bourbons interred in the crypt of Castagnavizza just outside Gorizia.  He was nothing like his father, Charles X, and seems to have inherited his looks and personality from his mother, Marie Therese of Sardinia.

[elena_maria_vidal]

Count Fersen (BTW, there is no solid proof the he was Marie-Antoinette's lover in the physical sense) may have meant, when referring to Louis-Antoine as "morally pitiful," that he did not have great strength of character. But I have always wondered myself exactly what he meant by that phrase.