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Élisabeth Philippine Marie Hélène de France,
Daughter of France, known as
Madame Élisabeth, (3 May 1764 – 10 May 1794), was the youngest sister of King
Louis XVI of France.
Having lived through the
French Revolution beside the king and his family, she was executed during the
Reign of Terror in
Paris.
Life
Early life
Élisabeth was born on 3 May 1764 in the
Palace of Versailles in France, the youngest child of
Louis, Dauphin of France, and his wife,
Marie-Josèphe of Saxony. Her paternal grandparents were King
Louis XV of France and his consort, Queen
Maria Leszczyńska. As the granddaughter of the king, she was a
Petite-Fille de France.
Her maternal grandparents were King
Augustus III of Poland, also the
Elector of Saxony, and his wife, the Archduchess
Maria Josepha, daughter of the Holy Roman Emperor
Joseph I.
Upbringing
Orphaned at the age of three, she was brought up by Madame de Mackau and resided in
Montreuil, where she is said to have given many proofs of a benevolent character. Élisabeth was deeply religious and extremely devoted to her brother the king, refusing all offers of marriage so that she might remain by his side. Her siblings were:
- Clotilde de France, Madame Clotilde, (23 September 1759 – 7 March 1802), future Queen of Sardinia.
Marie-Thérèse was a half sister by her father's first marriage to
Maria Teresa Rafaela of Spain.
Revolution
Élisabeth and her brother,
Charles-Philippe, comte d'Artois, were the staunchest conservatives in the royal family.
Unlike Artois, however, Élisabeth refused to emigrate when the gravity of the events set forth by the
French Revolution became clear. After the
march of women to Versailles on 5 October 1789, and the transfer of the royal family to Paris, she was confined in the
Tuileries Palace with the king and his family. She accompanied them on their ill-fated
escape attempt of 20 June 1791, was arrested at
Varennes and returned to Paris with them.
Madame Élisabeth was present at the
Legislative Assembly session when Louis XVI was suspended. She was imprisoned in the
Temple Tower with the royal family. With the execution of the king (21 January 1793), and the removal of her nephew, the young
Louis XVII (3 July), Élisabeth was left alone with the queen,
Marie Antoinette, and the king and queen's daughter, Princess
Marie-Thérèse Charlotte,
Madame Royale, in the tower. The queen was taken to the
Conciergerie on 2 August, 1793, and was executed the following 16 October. Marie Antoinette's last letter, written in the early hours of her execution day, was addressed to Élisabeth, but never reached her; the two princesses were kept in ignorance of the queen's death.
Death
On 9 May, 1794, Élisabeth was transferred to the Conciergerie and hauled before the
Revolutionary Tribunal. She was accused of assisting the king's flight, of supplying
émigrés with funds, and of encouraging the resistance of the royal troops during the
events of 10 August 1792. Furthermore, she was also accused of the outrageous crime of molesting her nephew, the dauphin. This false charge, supposedly extracted from the child under duress, actually helped invoke sympathy for Élisabeth from the people. Nonetheless, she was condemned to death and
guillotined the following day.
All the men and women to be executed with
Madame Élisabeth bowed to her and kissed her; she in turn blessed them. She was made to sit closest to the guillotine but was executed last and thus had to hear the blade fall on the necks of all the people before her. It is said that when she was strapped to the board, her shawl fell off, exposing her shoulders, and she cried to the executioner "In the name of decency, Monsieur, cover my bosom!", just as she was guillotined.
Her body was buried in a common grave at the "Errancis" cemetery (
cimetière des Errancis) in Paris. After the Revolution, her remains, with that of other victims, were placed in the
Catacombs of Paris. A medallion represents her at the
Basilica of Saint Denis.
Assessment
Élisabeth, who had turned thirty one week before her death, was executed essentially because she was a sister of the king. However, the general consensus of the French revolutionaries was that she was a supporter of the ultra-right royalist faction. There is much evidence to suggest that she actively supported the intrigues of her brother, the comte d'Artois, to bring foreign armies into France to crush the Revolution. In monarchist circles, her exemplary private life elicited much admiration. Élisabeth was much praised for her charitable nature, familial devotion and devout Catholic faith. There can be no question that she saw the Revolution as the incarnation of evil on earth and viewed
civil war as the only means to drive it from the land.
Royalist literature often represents her as a Catholic martyr, while left-wing historians severely criticise her for extreme conservatism, which seemed excessive even to
Louis XVI and
Marie Antoinette. Several biographies have been published of her in French, while extensive treatment of her life is given in
Antonia Fraser's biography of Marie Antoinette and Deborah Cadbury's investigative biography of
Louis XVII.
