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1755-1774 1775-1784 1785-1793 Family and friends

s_xvi.jpg Louis XVI
Louis August, the future Louis XVI (1754-1793), was the third son of the dauphin Louis (died on 1765) and Marie Josephine (died on 1767) and succeeded to the throne from his grandfather Louis XV on 1774. Louis August married on 1770 Marie Antoinette of Austria. Louis was a simple and honest man, but he was also weak, in fact in spite of the hope that he caused with his accession to the throne, he didn't prove himself to be able to be master of the bad situation there was the France and the monarchy. His indecision about political matters and his weakness to the Queen and the nobles, his religious scruples and his fear of damaging the high clergy, pushed the French to the Revolution. On 5th October 1789 the King and the royal family were moved from Versailles to the Tuileries palace under the Parisian's watch. The royal family tried to escape from Paris, but they were captured at Varennes only a day after on 21th June 1792. On September Louis XVI swore by the Constitution. The royal family was shut in the Temple's tower and on 21th January 1793 at 10:20 Louis XVI was guillotine: the Knig faced the gallows with dignity and he paid it for his mistakes and for his predecessors, too.
s_mariet7.jpg Marie-Th�r�se, Adolf Ulrich Wertm�ller, L�fstad Castle, Sweden
Marie-Th�r�se Charlotte, called Madame Royale (1778-1851), was the first daughter of Marie Antoinette and Louis XVI and she was born between the 19 and the 20 December in front of an enormous courtier's crowd. During the French Revolutions, the brave "Mousseline", as her mother used to called her, was shut in the Temple with her family (1792) then, thanks to an exchange of hostages, she was exiled on 1795 and she went to Vienna. She married her cousin, the Duke of Angouleme, son of Charles X, about in 1880 in Milan. Madame Royale came back in France under Louis XVIII reign, but she became unpopular for her support to the reactionary measures about religion. Her husband died on 1844 and Marie Therese died in 1851.
s_dauphin.jpg Louis XVII
Louis Charles de France, future Louis XVII (1785-1795?), Duke of Normandy, was the second son of Marie Antoinette and Louis XVI and he became dauphin when his older brother Louis Joseph (1781-1789) died. Called by his mother with love "Chou d' amour", he was shut with the royal family in the Temple's tower and he was entrusted to Simon, a parisian shoemaker. Louis Charles maybe died on 1795, but the real date is today unknow yet, than many adventurers pass themself off as Louis XVII discendants.
s_fersen5.jpg Axel Fersen, Carl Fredrik von Breda, L�fstad Castle, Sweden
The Sweden Count Hans Axel von Fersen (1755-1810), went very young in France as student and diplomatic under the service of the King Gustav III of Sweden. On 30th January 1774 he met the Dauphine Marie Antoinette, during a masked ball in Paris where Antoinette went as incognito. Fersen became early one of the most close friends of Marie Antoinette and he was always near the Queen in a discreet and trustworthy way. He gets the coach where the King and the Queen flight to Varennes and just in that occasion he met for the last time Marie Antoinette. It was the 20th June 1791. During the French Revolution, Fersen came back in Sweden, but on 1810 the King Gustav III was murdered and, during the obsequies of him, the people belived the Fersen was one of the guiltyes; for that reason Fersen was captured and killed by the crowd.
s_mteresa1.jpg Marie Therese
Marie Therese, Empress of Austria and Queen of Hungary and Bohemia (1717-1780), was the older daughter of Charles VI; after the death of her brother Leopold (1716) and thanks to the Pragmatic Sanction (1713) she became heir to the throne. At the age of 19 she married the Duke Francis Stephen of Lorraine and from this wedding born 16 sons. Marie Therese succeeded to the throne from her father on 1740, but she raised many objections: born the Austrian Succession War (1741-1748) which involved a lot of European Nations and it ended with the Aachen Peace (1748) when Francis I was recognized as Emperor. But with the war were lost many territories such as the Slesia: Marie Therese wanted to reconquer it and from her conflict with Frederick II started the Seven years war (1756-1763). The war ended with the Peace of Hubertusburg (1763), but the Slesia remained to the Prussians. When Marie Therese's sweetheart husband died, she withdrew herself the political life entrusting it to her older son and successor Joseph II.
s_fs.jpg Francis Stephen of Lorraine
Francis Stephen, Duke of Lorraine (1708-1765), was the sweetheart hausband of the Empress Marie Therese of Austria. He was crowned Emperor as Francis I on 1745 and started the Hapsburg-Lorraine field. He was a bad soldier and he had very little interest in political life, than he left to govern his wife, and he dedicate himself to the hunting and to many amusements.
s_xv.jpg Louis XV
Louis XV (1710-1774), son of the Duke Louis of Burgunday and Marie Adelaide of Savoia, Louis XIV's great-grandson, succeeded to him on 1715 under the regency of his cousin the Duke Philip of Orleans. At the age of 13, Louis XV appointed as first minister the Duke Louis Henry of Bourbon who concluded Louis XV's marriage with Marie Leszcynska. The King, who had very little interest in political life, was addicted to the amusements and to the love affaires, left full liberty to his ministers. To the negligence of the King, of his mistresses (as Madame Mally, Madame Vintimille, Madame Chateauroux, Madame de Pompaduor or Madame du Barry), and of the court, they are due the ruinous France interventions to the Polish succession war (1733-1738), the Austrian succession war (1741-1748) and the Seven years war. Louis XV died for smallpox and he was buried by night for the fear of popular demonstration.
s_barry2.jpg Madame Du Barry
Janne B�cu, Comtesse of Barry (1743-1793), was Louis XV's mistress and thanks to her large influence to the King, she formed a fearful plot's center into Versailles. The cohabitation with the Dauphine Marie Antoinette was always very cool and contentious. When Louis XV died on 1774, the Comtesse was banished by Marie Antoinette. Madame Du Barry went to Louveciennes, at the pavilion presented to her by the King, but during the French Revolution she was arrested and guillotined.
s_vlb1.jpg Elisabeth Vig�e Le Brun
Marie Elisabeth Louise Vig�e Le Brun was born on 16th April 1755 in Paris, son of the painter Louise Vige�, and the hairdresser Jeanne Maissin. Elisabeth was very affectionate to her father and when he died on 1768, she mourned because her father was been her first teacher too. Thanks to her talent and her love for the art, she made much improvements and on 1774 she became a memeber of the Saint-Luc's Academy. One year later she met Jeanne Baptiste Pierre Lebrun, a dealer in paintings who would become Elisabeth's hausband, because she could not stand her stepfather, then she wanted to go uot from her house. On 1778 Elisabeth was invited to Versailles to made some portraits of Marie Antoinette and very early all of nobles will paid homage to her talent and her beauty. On 12th February 1780 was born Jeanne Julie Louise, her only child. Thanks to the sovereign's personal intervention, Elisabeth came in the "Royal Acad�mie de peinture et de sculpture". On 1784 her younger brother, Etienne Vig�e, was married, but this is also the year when Elisabeth painted the portrait of Calonne and which the slanders to the young paintress accused to have many love relations with Calonne and other lovers. On 1789, while the parisians went to Versailles to capture the King and the Queen, Elisabeth decided to escape from the France to Italy. Here she visited the most important city and she made many portraits of herself, her daughter or the Italians sovereigns. On 1792 she went to Vienna and stayed there three years. On 1795 she went to Saint Petersburg and she lived there six years (she considered Russia as her second fatherland). On 1800 she decided to came back in France, but during her travel she stop for six month in Berlin: when she arrived in Paris, she was welcomed with great warmth by everyone, but all was changed and Elisabeth, caught by the discouragement, went to England for three years. When she came back in her motherland, she visited Switzerland, but on 1809 she stay once and for all in Louveciennes. Her terms with Napoleon were always strained, in fact, when Louis XVIII ascended the France throne, Elisabeth was very happy. On 8th December her daughter Julie died, and only one year after her brother Etienne died, also. On 1829 the paintress wrote her "Souvenir" helped by her niece. Elisabeth Vig�e Le Brun died on 29th May 1842 in Paris and she was buried in Louveciennes.
s_elisabeth3.jpg Madame Elisabeth
Elisabeth Philippine Marie-Helene (1764-1794), was the younger sister of Louis XVI (the eldest was Maria Chlotilde who married on 1775 Carlo Emanuele of Savoia). She was very close with her brother and Marie Antoinette, in fact she was with them during the escape to Varennes and during the Revolution till the end. She was guillotined on 10th Maj 1794.
s_lamballe1.jpg Madame Lamballe
Marie Therese Louise di Savoia Carignano, Princesse of Lamballe (1749-1792), married Louis Stanislas, Prince of Lamballe (1747-68) and brother of Louise Marie Ad�la�de de Penthi�vre (the future Duchess of Chartres) on 1767: she was left widow only a year after her wedding, at the age of 19 became a close friend of Marie Antoinette. She had been appointed Superintendent to the Queen's House and she was always devoted to the sovereign. On 3rd September 1792 she returned to France from England to stay near to the Royal family, but she was killed; her body was lacerated and her head stuck on a spike, was shown to Marie Antoinette from the Temple's window where the Queen was incarcerated.
s_polignac.jpg Madame Polignac
Yolande Martine Gabrielle de Polastron, Countess and after Duchess of Polignac (1749-1793), married the Duke Jules de Polignac, but she was never faithful to her husband, and she betrayed him with the Duke de Vaudreuil. After her first steps in court life, she became the most close friend of Marie Antoinette. The charming and ambitious Countess received many favours for her and her family and she was appointed Governess of the Queen's children. With her influence she contributed to the Queen's unpopularity and left Paris when the France Revolution started. She died in Vienna on 1793.
s_campan.jpg M.me Campan (1752-1822)
She was carefully educated under the direction of her father, a head-clerk in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. At the age of fifteen she spoke English and Italian, and read so well that she was appointed reader to the young princesses, Victoire, Sophie, and Louise, the daughters of Louis XV. Soon afterwards she married M. Campan, whose father was secretary to the queen's cabinet. She then entered the service of Marie Antoinette, as first lady of the bed-chamber (1770), and retained that position till 20 June, 1792. When the unfortunate queen was sent to prison, Mme Campan courageously asked to be allowed to share her sad lot. Her request was denied, and she retired to Coubertin, a small village in the Chevreuse valley. She found herself in straitened circumstances, having to provide for her young son and for her husband who was heavily in debt and in poor health. With a nun as associate, she established a boarding-school for girls at Saint-Germain, which soon achieved success and counted among its pupils Hortense de Beauharnais, the daughter of Jos�phine. Napoleon was so much pleased with the order, elegance, and distinction of the school that he appointed Mme Campan superintendent of the Imperial Academy of Ecouen, founded for the education of the daughters of members of the Legion of Honour (1807). She adopted the programme of the old Saint-Cyr house, modifying it to suit the new conditions. Her chief aim was to train girls to be useful women and good mothers. In 1814 the school was abolished and Mme Campan bitterly denounced as a traitor by the Royalists, because she accepted the favours of the "usurper". She retired to Mantes and spent her time in writing didactic and historical essays.
s_giusii.jpg Joseph II
Joseph II (1741-1790) was the older son of the Empress Marie Therese of Autria and he was crowned Emperor on 1765 after the death of his father Francis I. He married the beautiful Isabel of Spain on 1760 and he was madly in love with her. Isabel died of smallpox two years after, and left her hausband and her daughter Therese. After her death, Marie Christine confessed to her brother that Isabel was falling in love with her, not with Jospeh. Joseph II was a great admirer of Catherina II and Federick II: he was an enlightened Emperor, with a strong progressive thought, but often he was at variance with his mother for the wars and religious aims.
s_cristina.jpg Marie Christine
Marie Christine (called Mim�), daughter of Marie Therese, was born on 1742. She married the Hungary palatine Albert of Sassonia-Teschen and she lived in Presburg. She died on 1798.
s_carolina.jpg Marie Caroline , Queen of Naples
Marie Caroline of Apsburg-Lorraine (1752-1814), daughter of Marie Therese and wife of Ferdinando IV, King of Naples, from 1768.
With her strong temperament, she sent away the enlightened Minister Tanucci and appointed John Fracis Actonprese which took the guide of the knigdom delivering that by the Spanish influence. Marie Caroline was in opposition of the Revolutionary France: when the Parthenopean Republic fell (1799) she cruelty on the patriots. When Napoleon declared the Bourbon decline on 1805, Marie Caroline took shelter in Sicily and then she went to Austria where she died in 1814.
s_svl.jpg Royal Princess , daughters of Louis XV
Mesdames, as were called the daughters of Louis XV, were Madame Adelaide, Madame Victoire, Madame Sophie and Madame Louise (the fourth daughter of Louis XV who entered in convent). They were all spinsters and they formed a faction against the incredible power of Madame du Barry. They watched over the Dauphine Marie Antoinette involving her into their plots and opposing her accession to the throne: in fact Madame Adelaide called Marie Antoinette the "Autrichienne".

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