Louis XV and Marie Leszczynska had ten children. Twin girls were born less than two years after their marriage. Louis was 17. The following year another daughter was born. Finally the long awaited son and heir was born the following year. The new dauphin was named Louis after his father. The future was looking even brighter when a second son Philippe was born the following year.
Louis XV was 20 years old and already the father of five children.
Keeping up the rate of one child a year, Marie Leszczynska gave birth to three more daughters in the next three years. Philippe had died at the age of two so the preponderance of daughters was a problem. The queen gave birth to two more children, but once again they were daughters.
The birth of the tenth child — another daughter — was difficult for the Queen and the doctors advised her any further births could be fatal. It was the end of her intimate relations with the King.
The girls had not been officially named at birth. They were collectively known as “Mesdames” and called by numbers—the eldest was Madame Premier, followed by Madame Second, Madame Third and so on. They didn’t receive their actual names until they were baptised some years later.
When Louis XV was 23 years old, two of his children, Louise, who was 4 and Philippe, who was 2, died within weeks of each other. Madame Fourth (Adelaide) who had been born the previous year now became Madame Third.
With the birth of three more girls and no chance of another son Louis XV had moved on to his mistresses. His First Minister suggested that the cost involved in the large number of courtiers required as staff for each princess could be avoided. He suggested sending the five younger daughters to be brought up at the Abbey of Fontevraud. It was the most prestigious convent in France but it was also 270 kilometers from Versailles.
Adelaide was six years old. She had a strong personality, even then. She was determined not to leave Versailles. In tears, she threw herself at her father’s feet as he left the mass. It was too much for him and he allowed her to remain at the court with her older twin sisters who were eleven and her eight year old brother, the Dauphin.
The four youngest princesses headed off in a large horse drawn carriage for the thirteen day journey to Fontevraud. Victoire was five, Sophie almost four, Thérèse two and Louise 11 months old.
Thérèse, who was often ill, caught smallpox when she was eight. She died and was buried at Fontevraud. When she was fifteen, Victoire returned to Versailles. Sophie and Louise returned to Versailles two years after Victoire.
They had not seen their parents in twelve years. Ten years after they left Versailles, Louis XV sent Nattier to Fontevraud to paint their portraits (above) which he presented to the queen.
Only Louis XV’s eldest daughter Elisabeth married. His son, as heir to the throne, was an entirely different matter. His marriage, like his father’s, was arranged when he was fifteen.
