Maria Adelaide of Savoy

Maria Adelaide was born in the Royal Palace in Turin in December 1685 and was the eldest child and eldest daughter of six children of the Duke of Savoy Victor Amadeus II ^[3] and his first wife, French Princess Anna Maria Orleans . The birth of a girl almost cost sixteen-year-old Anna Maria life ^[4] . On the maternal side, Maria Adelaide was the granddaughter of the French king Louis XIV and the granddaughter of Philip, Duke of Orleans and Henrietta Stewart . The girl was christened shortly after birth; the recipients were the mother of Victor Amadeus, Maria Giovanna of Savoy , and his cousin uncle and alleged heir ^{[to 1]} , Emmanuel Philibert, Prince Carignano ^[5] . The closest relationship with Maria Adelaide was with her grandmother Maria Giovanna and her mother, who, contrary to the protocol, was engaged in raising children herself ^[6] . As a child, Maria Adelaide and her younger sister Maria Louise spent a lot of time at in the vicinity of Turin and visited their grandmother in the Turin's Palazzo Madama weekly ^[5] .

The future marriage of Maria Adelaide was the result of the Treaty of Turin of August 29, 1696; the contract between Victor Amadeus II and Louis XIV obliged the girl’s father to support France in the Nine Years War ^[7] , which ruined the possessions of the Duke of Savoy.

Initially, Victor Amadeus II intended to marry his eldest daughter for the Austrian Archduke Joseph , but due to the fact that both the bride and groom were still too young, Emperor Leopold I rejected this offer ^[8] . The Turin Treaty was concluded under the influence of Marshal Tesse , who believed that Maria Adelaide should go to France to get an education there before she becomes the wife of a French prince ^[9] .

On October 15, 1696, a girl, without retinue escort, crossed the border with France, was met by the Duke de Brion and delivered to his carriage in Paris. Louis XIV, who wished to personally congratulate Maria Adelaide on his arrival, met her in Montargis on November 4, 1696 ^[10] and was very pleased with the “princess” ^[11] . Due to the extremely young age of Mary Adelaide, marriage was not concluded immediately; instead, three times a week, the girl attended classes at the Royal House of Saint Louis - the school for girls Madame Maintenon , opened in 1684 in Saint-Cyr-l'Ecolle in the vicinity of Versailles .

On December 6 of the following year, at Versailles, on her twelfth birthday, Princess Maria Adelaide of Savoy officially became the wife of the Duke of Burgundy . The celebrations took place after the signing of the Rijsweyk Peace Treaty , which marked the end of the nine-year war. The bride was dressed in a luxurious silver, ruby-strewn wedding dress, adorned with an eight-meter train. The husband of Maria Adelaide was the eldest son of the Great Dauphin and Maria Anna of Victoria of Bavaria, and thus ranked second in the line of inheritance of the French throne after her father ^[12] .

The new Duchess of Burgundy became the darling of the aging Louis XIV and his morganatic wife Madame Maintenon . Since Queen Maria Theresa , the first wife of Louis XIV, died in 1683, Maria Adelaide, despite her youth, received the right to replace her at ceremonial receptions and ceremonies. At Versailles, she received at her disposal the luxurious chambers of the queen and decorated them to her taste. Her stay in the palace was described as a “breath of fresh air” that revived a dull courtyard ^[13] . All this time, Maria Adelaide corresponded with her parents and Savoy's grandmother .

The princess turned out to be very smart and cunning: she used her influence on the king to get rid of her enemies and their wiles. A group of courtiers, known as the Cabal de Médon (the schemers of Médon) ^{[k 2]} , wanting to protect themselves during the future reign of the father-in-law of Maria Adelaide (which, however, never came), tried to find its location. Countess Louise Francoise , the legitimate daughter of the king from her relationship with Madame de Montespan, was the largest opponent and ill-wisher of the young duchess. Louise Francoise tried to arrange the marriage of her daughter Louise Elizabeth with the Duke of Berria , the youngest son of the Great Dauphin. However, Maria Adelaide was able to upset these plans by organizing the marriage of the Duke with the niece of Louise Francoise, Maria Louise Elizabeth of Orleans , the eldest daughter of the Duke of Orleans and Francoise Maria de Bourbon ^[14] . She also ensured that the French military commander, the Duke of Vendome , fell out of favor with the king ^[15] .

Seven years after the wedding, Maria Adelaide gave birth to her first child. The newborn boy received the title of Duke of Brittany ^[16] and died the following year. The Duchess gave birth to two more sons in 1707 and 1710. Her youngest son, the only child of the princess who survived infancy, later became King of France Louis XV .

At the beginning of April 1711, the Great Dauphin was infected with smallpox and died on April 14 at the ^[17] . Maria Adelaide and her husband became the Dauphin and Dauphin of France.

The funeral court went to the Fontainebleau Palace in early February 1712. Here, Maria Adelaide caught a fever, which turned out to be measles ^[18] . Poor treatment of bloodletting and the use of emetics did not give results, and on February 12, the princess died in Versailles at the age of 26. Louis XIV and Madame Maintenon were saddened by the death of the Duchess almost more than by the death of the Great Dauphin. Madame later said that Mary Adelaide was one of two persons whom Louis XIV truly loved in life ^[3] . After the death of the Dauphin, the royal family moved to Marley to avoid the spread of infection. In Marley, it became clear that the Dauphin had time to become infected by his wife. Louis, the Duke of Burgundy died six days after the death of Mary of Adelaide ^[19] .

February 23, 1712 in Saint-Denis held the funeral of the Dauphin and Dauphin. Their eldest son at that time, the Duke of Brittany , became the new Dauphin, but also died of measles on March 8, 1712. The only surviving child of the spouses, the Duke of Anjou , was rescued by his teacher Charlotte Vantadur , who locked herself with the prince in his chambers and did not allow the doctors to bleed him, which she believed had killed the boy’s older brother. The death of three members of the royal family at once became a grave loss for both the king himself and his entourage ^[20] .

In 1732, Louis XV named his fourth daughter in honor of his mother ^[20] .

In 1710, the French sculptor Antoine Quasevo sculpted a sculpture of Maria Adelaide in the form of the goddess Diana ^[21] . The sculpture is stored in the Louvre ^[22] .

Married Maria Adelaide and her husband, the Duke of Burgundy, had three children:

• Louis (June 25, 1704 - April 13, 1705) - Duke of Brittany ; died at the age of just over nine months during seizures.
• Louis (January 8, 1707 - March 8, 1712) - Duke of Brittany ; died at the age of just over five years from measles .
• Louis (February 15, 1710 - May 10, 1774) - Duke of Anjou (1710-1712), Dauphin of France (1712-1715), King of France (1715-1774); He was married to Maria Leshchinsky , daughter of the King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania Stanislav Leshchinsky and his wife Ekaterina Opalinsky . Ten children were born in the marriage (2 sons and 8 daughters), but his grandson Louis XVI succeeded Louis; in addition, Louis had several bastards from various mistresses. The king at Versailles died of smallpox ^[23] .

• Fraser, Antonia. Love and Louis XIV: The Women in the Life of the Sun King . - Phoenix, 2007 .-- P. 238-295. - 470 p. - ISBN 0753822938 , 9780753822937.
• Hopkins, Donald R. The Greatest Killer: Smallpox in History . - University of Chicago Press, 2002. - P. 70-73. - 380 p. - ISBN 0226351688 , 9780226351681.
• Mitford, Nancy. The Sun King . - Random House, 2011 .-- P. 192—231. - 272 p. - ISBN 1448103487 , 9781448103485.
• Symcox, Geoffrey. Victor Amadeus II: Absolutism in the Savoyard State, 1675-1730 . - University of California Press, 1983. - P. 79, 116. - 272 p. - ISBN 0520049748 , 9780520049741.
• Williams, Hugh Noel. A Rose of Savoy: Marie Adélaïde of Savoy, Duchesse de Bourgogne, Mother of Louis XV . - Charles Scribner's Sons, 1909. - P. 79, 116. - 478 p. - ISBN 0.