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Draft:Marie Anne of France

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  • Comment: Apart from the technical definition of notability, which is not met, it is difficult to imagine what would make someone notable who barely lived a month, other than her royal status – and alas, notability is not inherited. DoubleGrazing (talk) 08:44, 14 December 2024 (UTC)


Marie Anne of France
Princess of France
Marie Anne and her older sister, Anne Élisabeth.
Born16 November 1664
Louvre Palace, Kingdom of France
Died26 December 1664
Louvre Palace, Kingdom of France
Burial30 December 1664
(1 month and 10 days old)
Basilica of Saint-Denis
Val-de-Grâce (heart)
Names
Marie Anne of France
HouseBourbon
FatherLouis XIV
MotherMaria Theresa of Spain

Marie Anne of France[1] (French: Marie-Anne de France; 16 November 1664 – 26 December 1664) was the third child and second daughter of King Louis XIV of France and Queen Maria Theresa of Spain. As the daughter of the reigning monarch and his queen consort, she held the rank of Fille de France, and through her mother, was also an Infanta of Spain. She died in infancy at just over one month old.

Birth

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Marie Anne was born prematurely on 16 November 1664 at the Palais du Louvre in Paris[2]. Her birth came during a time when royal childbirth was of great public interest, and immediate concern was raised regarding the infant's health. Contemporary observers described the newborn as physically frail, prompting her baptism on the day of her birth[3].

The Duke of Enghien noted in a letter that although Marie Anne showed signs of life and suckled well, expectations for her survival remained low due to her fragile condition[4]. Some accounts from the time remarked on her unusual complexion at birth, possibly caused by oxygen deprivation during delivery rather than any racial or hereditary factors. The Princesse Palatine later clarified that rumors suggesting the Queen had given birth to a black child were false and exaggerated[5].

The pregnancy and birth were reportedly difficult for Queen Maria Theresa. According to memoirs by La Grande Mademoiselle, there was speculation that visual fixation during pregnancy (a common belief of the time) had influenced the child's appearance[6]. However, modern historians generally regard such theories as unfounded and reflective of the era's limited medical understanding.

Death

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Marie Anne’s health continued to deteriorate following her birth. Some historians have suggested that inbreeding—as her parents were double first cousins may have played a role in her fragile constitution[7]. Additionally, royal records indicate that the infant was assigned three different nourrices (wet nurses) within her brief life, possibly destabilizing her care during a critical period of development[8].

She died at the Louvre Palace on 26 December 1664, aged 1 month and 10 days, reportedly from a pulmonary infection. Marie Anne was buried on 30 December in the Basilica of Saint-Denis, the royal necropolis of France. Her heart was interred separately at the Val-de-Grâce abbey in Paris, alongside that of her older sister, Anne Élisabeth, who had also died in infancy[9][10].

Though she lived only briefly, Marie Anne was posthumously included in a 1670 family portrait by Jean Nocret, which depicted Louis XIV, Queen Maria Theresa, and their children, including those who had died in early childhood.

Ancestry

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Marie-Anne's paternal grandparents were Louis XIII of France and Anne of Austria, he was descended, on his mother's side, from Philip IV of Spain and Élisabeth of France. Louis XIII and Élisabeth de Bourbon were siblings (the children of Henry IV of France and Marie de' Medici), as were Anne of Austria and Philip IV, who were the children of Philip III of Spain and Margaret of Austria. That means that he had only four great-grandparents instead of the usual eight, and that his double-cousin parents had the same coefficient of co-ancestry (1/4) as if they were half-siblings.

References

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  1. ^ Maxtone-Graham, Margaret Ethel Blair Oliphant (1915). Children of France. Internet Archive. New York, E.P. Dutton and Co.
  2. ^ Mormiche, Pascale. Donner vie au royaume: Grossesses et maternités à la cour de France (XVIe–XVIIIe siècle). Champ Vallon, 2018, p. 224.
  3. ^ Saint-Simon, Louis de Rouvroy. Mémoires, Vol. I.
  4. ^ Lettres du duc d’Enghien, Archives Nationales, Paris.
  5. ^ Elisabeth-Charlotte, Duchesse d’Orléans. Correspondance, 1700–1710.
  6. ^ Montpensier, Anne Marie Louise d’Orléans (La Grande Mademoiselle). Mémoires, 1690 edition, p. 174.
  7. ^ Fraser, Antonia. Love and Louis XIV: The Women in the Life of the Sun King. Anchor Books, 2006, p. 55.
  8. ^ Mormiche, Pascale. ibid, p. 225.
  9. ^ "Les coeurs et entrailles des reines, princes et princesses au Val-de-Grâce (avant 1793)". saintdenis-tombeaux.1fr1.net (in French). Retrieved 2025-05-05.
  10. ^ Basilica of Saint-Denis burial records, 1664; Val-de-Grâce Church Archives.

Sources

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Book

  • Maxtone-Graham, Margaret Ethel Blair Oliphant (1915). "Chapter X". Children of France. New York, E.P. Dutton and Co. p. 167.

Web page

Category:1664 births Category:1664 deaths Category:17th-century French people Category:17th-century French women Category:Children of Louis XIV Category:Royalty who died as children Category:Daughters of kings Category:Burials at the Basilica of Saint-Denis Category:Princesses of France (Bourbon)

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