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Élisabeth Philippine Marie Hélène of France, painted by Elisabeth Vigée-Lebrun.

'Élisabeth Philippine Marie Hélène of France' (May 3, 1764 – May 10, 1794), commonly called 'Madame Élisabeth', 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.

Contents

Life

Assessment

Ancestors

External links

Primary source

Life

Élisabeth was born on May 3, 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. 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.
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. Élisabeth and her brother, Charles-Philippe, Count of 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; she was confined in the Tuileries Palace with the King and his family. She accompanied them on their ill-fated escape attempt of June 20 1791, was arrested at Varennes and returned to Paris with them.
Madame Élisabeth was present at the Legislative Assembly meeting when Louis was suspended. She was imprisoned in the Temple with the royal family. With the execution of the king (January 21, 1793) and the removal of her nephew, the young dauphin (July 3), Élisabeth was left alone with the Queen, Marie Antoinette, and the King and Queen's daughter, Princess Marie-Thérèse-Charlotte, in the tower. The Queen was taken to the Conciergerie on August 2, 1793, and was executed on October 16. 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.
On May 9, 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 August 10, 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 torture, 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 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 heads 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 "For the sake of decency, Monsieur, cover me up", just as she was guillotined.

Assessment

Élisabeth, who had just turned 30 at the time of 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. Elisabeth 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 presents her as a Catholic martyr, while left-wing history severely criticise her for extreme conservatism, which seemed excessive even to Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette. Several biographies have been published of her in the French language, 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.

Ancestors

External links

Primary source

★ Duchess of Angoulême's Memoirs on the Captivity in the Temple (from the autograph manuscript; see in particular Part 3)

★ ★ class=wikiexternal target=_blank>.html Duchess of Angoulême's Memoirs on the Captivity in the Temple, (1823 English translation of a slightly redacted French edition; see in particular Part 3)