Louise Marguerite Antoinette de France

Son Altesse Royale, Louise Marguerite Antoinette de France, Princesse de France et Madame Deuxième (c. 1725)

## Biography

### Born

6th June 1709, Château de Fontainebleau, Royaume de France

### Siblings

Louise Henriette, Madame Royale
Louis Joseph, Dauphin de France †

Jean IV, Roi de France

Charles Sébastien Xavier, Monsieur, Duc d'Angoulême

### Religion

Roman Catholicism

**Antoinette de France** (Louise Marguerite Antoinette d'Évreux, June 6th 1709 - Present) was the second daughter of *Charles XI* and the first of his wife, *Marie Louise de Savoie*. Because of this she would be addressed as *Madame Deuxième*. Notoriously nicknamed the *Madame d’Œil*, the Princess of France had suffered a damaged right eye in her youth and opted to cover this blemish with expensive silk patches. Her father would pass away in 1713, and her mother following soon after in 1714. Alongside the rest of her siblings, she would be governed and raised by her authoritative relative *Charles Auguste d'Évreux d'Alençon, Duc d'Alençon* and the caring yet strict *Charlotte de Lorraine-Armagnac, Duchesse de Saint-Simon*. The latter would later become her elder brother's lover and confidante when he ascended to the throne in 1722.

Being the only full sister to the king *Jean IV of France*, her chastity and virtues were guarded relentlessly by both the King himself and their governor and uncle, the Duc d'Alençon. And due to her childhood injury she sustained, this meant that Antoinette had little freedom to go outside of the *Château de Fontainebleau* until she passed the age of sixteen. Despite never openly rebelling against her restrictive caretakers, she held a resentment that spoke louder than words. Once she was granted permission to leave the château, she would take any chance she got to venture outside the gilded cage of court life including taking numerous trips to the Marais and Tulieries of Paris with her inner circle of friends which noteably included the *Marquise d'O* and the princess' dame the *Comtesse de Marsan*. Unlike her meek and moldable older brother Jean, she conveyed her feelings and negative emotions into her personal friendships and hobbies instead of submitting completely to her uncle and governess through out her life.

## Biography

### Birth

During the beginning of summer in 1709, the Madame de la Reine Marie Louise de Savoie would go into labor at the Château de Fontainebleau. With reportedly over 400 courtiers witnessing the event, the Queen-Consort of France produced her second child and only daughter. Titled as the Madame Deuxième, her birth was reportedly strenous as the Queen struggled for over six hours with her husband Charles XI at her side. As she was not the stronger male spare the couple had hoped and prayed for, celebrations were modest and quaint. However, the Queen-Consort was said to dote on Antoinette as soon as she was born calling her "*ma petite et belle fleurette*". The Princess, given the Christian name *Louise Marguerite Antoinette*, would be baptised at the Chapel of Fontainebleau on 15th June 1719 by *Armand Gaston Maximilien* *de Rohan, Cardinal de Rohan et Prince-évêque de Strasbourg.* Her godparents would be *Juan III Felipe de Borbón y Saboya* and his wife *Maria Anna Victoria di Bavière,* the King and Queen of Spain.

Through her father she was directly related to countless generations of French monarchs and the old Dukes of Brittany and Burgundy, and through her mother was related to the Princes of Savoy and Sardinia, Princes of Piedmont, and the Dukes of Montferrat.

### Adolescence

#### Early Life

After birth, Antoinette was placed into the care of the governess of the children of France, Charlotte de Lorraine-Armagnac, Duchesse de Saint-Simon.

## Titles & Styles

**6th June 1709 - Present:** *Son Altesse Royale, Princesse de France et Madame Deuxième*