17th Cent. Marie-Thérèse, Queen Consort of France and Navarre.

Marie-Thérèse of Spain

Château de Versailles

Maria Teresa of Spain was born on 10 September 1638, at the Royal Monastery of El Escorial, in Spain. She was the daughter of Élisabeth of France, Queen Consort of Spain and Portugal (22 November 1602 - 6 October 1644) and Felipe IV, King of Spain and Portugal (8 April 1605 - 17 September 1665). Her maternal grandparents were Marie de' Medici, Queen Consort of France and Navarre (26 April 1573 - 3 July 1642) and Henri IV, King of France and Navarre (13 December 1553 - 14 May 1610). Her paternal grandparents were Margaret of Austria and Felipe III, King of Spain. Maria Teresa's parents were married in 1615, at Burgos. Her siblings were: Infanta Maria Maria Margarita (1621-1621), Infanta Margarita Maria Catalina (1623-1623), Infanta Maria Eugenia (1625-1627), Infanta Isabel Maria Teresa (1627-), Baltasar Carlos, Prince of the Asturias (1629-1646) and Infanta Maria Anna Antonia (1636-1636). Her mother, Élisabeth died on 6 October 1644, at Royal Alcázar, in Madrid. Her brother, Prince Baltasar Carlos died on 9 October 1646, in Zaragoza. Maria Theresa became heir presumptive to the Throne. Her father, Felipe IV married Mariana of Austria (24 December 1634 - 16 May 1696) in 1649. She was the daughter of Infanta Maria Anna of Spain and Ferdinand III. They had five children: Infanta Margaret Theresa (1651-1673), Infanta Maria Abrosia de la Concepción (1655-), Infante Felipe Prospero (1657-1661), Infante Thomas Carlos (1658-1659) and Carlos II, King of Spain (1661-1700). Marie-Thérèse was painted several times by the artist, Diego Velázquez (1599-1660). In 1659, a Royal union between Spain and France was proposed to secure peace.

Marie-Thérèse of Spain, Queen Consort of France and Navarre

Detail by Charles Beaubrun

1660

Château de Versailles

Marie-Thérèse of Spain, Queen Consort of France and Navarre

by Charles Beaubrun

1660

Château de Versailles

The treaty of Pyrenees was sealed by the marriage between Maria Teresa and Louis XIV, King of France and Navarre (5 September 1638 - 1 September 1715) on 9 June 1660, in Saint Jean-Baptiste church. He was the son of her aunt, Anne of Austria, Queen Consort of France and Navarre (22 September 1601 - 20 January 1666) and Louis XIII, King of France and Navarre (27 September 1601 - 14 May 1643). Her father, Felipe IV, and the entire Spanish Court accompanied the bride to the Isle of Pheasants in the Bidassoa, where Louis and his Court met her. In France, her name was modified to "Marie-Thérèse d'Autriche". Under the terms of the pact, she agreed to renounce her claim to succession to the Spanish throne in return for a large dowry. According to The Memoirs of Madame de Montespan by Madame de Montespan, "On leaving Spain and the King, young princess was moved to tears. Next day she thought nothing of it at all. She was wholly engrossed by the possession of such a King, nor was she at any pains to hide her glee from us." Her brother-in-law, Philippe Duke of Orléans (1640-1701) married Henrietta Anne, Princess of England (1644-1670) on 31 March 1661, in the chapel of the Palais-Royal, in Paris. Days at Versailles were often spent in prayer or pilgrammage with her mother-in-law, Anne of Austria. In her free time she played cards and gambled. Madame Montespan wrote, "...speeches and actions are of the simplest, most commonplace kind. Were it not for the King, she would pass her life in a dressing-gown, night-cap, and slippers. At Court ceremonies and on gala-days, she never appears to be in a good humour; everything seems to weigh her down, notably her diamonds. However, she has no remarkable defect, and one may say that she is devoid of goodness, just as she is devoid of badness. When coming among us, she contrived to bring with her Molina, the daughter of her nurse, a sort of comedy confidante, who soon gave herself Court airs, and who managed to form a regular little Court of her own. Without her sanction nothing can be obtained of the Queen. My lady Molina is the great, the small, and the unique counsellor of the princess, and the King, like the others, remains submissive to her decisions and her inspection. French cookery, by common consent, is held to be well-nigh perfect in its excellence; yet the Infanta could never get used to our dishes. The Senora Molina, well furnished with silver kitchen utensils, has a sort of private kitchen or scullery reserved for her own use, and there it is that the manufacture takes place of clove-scented chocolate, brown soups and gravies, stews redolent with garlic, capsicums, and nutmeg, and all that nauseous pastry in which the young Infanta revels."
 

The Children of Marie-Thérèse of Spain and Louis XIV:

Louis, Dauphin de France (1 November 1661 - 14 April 1711)
Anne-Élisabeth de France (18 November 1662 - 30 December 1662)
Marie-Anne de France (16 November 1664 - 26 December 1664)
Marie-Thérèse de France (2 January 1667 - 1 March 1672)
Philippe-Charles de France, Duc d'Anjou (5 August 1668 - 10 July 1671)
Louis-François de France, Duc d'Anjou (14 June 1672 - 4 November 1672) 

Marie-Thérèse was very hurt when Louis XIV took his first official mistress, Louise Françoise de La Baume Le Blanc de La Vallière (6 August 1644 - 7 June 1710). According to Madame Montespan, "Ever since La Valliere's lasting triumph, the Queen seems to have got it into her head that she is despised; and at table I have often heard her say, "They will help themselves to everything, and won't leave me anything." Louise was the Maid of honour to Henrietta Anne, originally intended to divert attention away from the flirtation between Louis and his sister-in law, Henrietta Anne. The children Louise bore the King included: Charles de Bourbon (1663-1665), Philippe de Bourbon(1665-1666), Marie Anne de Bourbon (1666-1739) and Louis de Bourbon, Count of Vermandois (1667-1683). Her father, King Felipe IV died on 17 September 1665, in Madrid, Spain. By 1667, the King had a new mistress, Françoise-Athénaïs de Rochechouart de Mortemart, Marquise de Montespan (5 October 1641 - 27 May 1707). She also bore the King several children: Louise Françoise de Bourbon (March 1669 - 23 February 1672), Louis-Auguste de Bourbon, Duc du Maine (31 March 1670 - 14 May 1736), Louis-César de Bourbon, Comte de Vexin (20 June 1672 - 10 January 1683), Louise-Françoise de Bourbon, Mlle de Nantes, Duchesse de Bourbon, Princesse de Condé (1 June 1673 - 16 June 1743), Louise-Marie-Anne de Bourbon, Mlle de Tours (12 November 1674 - 15 September 1681), Françoise-Marie de Bourbon, Mlle de Blois, Duchesse d'Orléans (4 May 1677 - 1 February 1749) and Louis-Alexandre de Bourbon, Comte de Toulouse (6 June 1678 - 1 December 1737). Henrietta Anne died on 30 June 1670, at the Château de Saint-Cloud, in Saint-Cloud. Phillippe married his second wife, Elizabeth Charlotte of the Palatinate (1652-1722) by proxy on 16 November 1671, at Metz. Her daughter, Marie-Thérèse died on 1 March 1672, at Château de Saint-Germain-en-Laye. In 1674, the former mistress of the King, Louise was permitted to enter the Carmelite convent in the Faubourg Saint-Jacques in Paris, under the name of Sister Louise of Mercy. In 1672, Marie-Thérèse acted as Regent during Louis XIV's campaign in the Netherlands. In 1678, she also acted as Regent during Louis XIV's campaign on the frontier. According to Madame de Montespan, "...the envoys of the King of Arda, an African prince, gave to the Queen a nice little blackamoor, as a toy and pet. This Moor, aged about ten or twelve years, was only twenty-seven inches in height, and the King of Arda declared that, being quite unique, the boy would never grow to be taller than three feet. The Queen instantly took a great fancy to this black creature. Sometimes he gambolled about and turned somersaults on her carpet like a kitten, or frolicked about on the bureau, the sofa, and even on the Queen's lap. As she passed from one room to another, he used to hold up her train, and delighted to catch hold of it and so make the Queen stop short suddenly, or else to cover his head and face with it, for mischief, to make the courtiers laugh. He was arrayed in regular African costume, wearing handsome bracelets, armlets, a necklace ablaze with jewels, and a splendid turban. Wishing to show myself agreeable, I gave him a superb aigrette of rubies and diamonds; I was always sorry afterwards that I did so. The King could never put up with this little dwarf, albeit his features were comely enough. To begin with, he thought him too familiar, and never even answered him when the dwarf dared to address him. Following the fashion set by her Majesty, all the Court ladies wanted to have little blackamoors to follow them about, set off their white complexions, and hold up their cloaks or their trains. Thus it came that Mignard, Le Bourdon, and other painters of the aristocracy, used to introduce negro boys into all their large portraits. It was a mode, a mania; but so absurd a fashion soon had to disappear after the mishap of which I am about to tell. The Queen being pregnant, public prayers were offered up for her according to custom, and her Majesty was forever saying: "My pregnancy this time is different from preceding ones. I am a prey to nausea and strange whims; I have never felt like this before. If, for propriety's sake, I did not restrain myself, I should now dearly like to be turning somersaults on the carpet, like little Osmin. He eats green fruit and raw game; that is what I should like to do, too."

"Oh, madame, you frighten us!" exclaimed the King. "Don't let all those whimsies trouble you further, or you will give birth to some monstrosity, some freak of nature." His Majesty was a true prophet. The Queen was delivered of a fine little girl, black as ink from head to foot. They did not tell her this at once, fearing a catastrophe, but persuaded her to go to sleep, saying that the child had been taken away to be christened. The physicians met in one room, the bishops and chaplains in another. One prelate was opposed to baptising the infant; another only agreed to this upon certain conditions. The majority decided that it should be baptised without the name of father or mother, and such suppression was unanimously advocated. The little thing, despite its swarthy hue, was most beautifully made; its features bore none of those marks peculiar to people of colour. It was sent away to the Gisors district to be suckled as a negro's daughter, and the Gazette de France contained an announcement to the effect that the royal infant had died, after having been baptised by the chaplains. The little African was sent away, as may well be imagined; and the Queen admitted that, one day soon after she was pregnant, he had hidden himself behind a piece of furniture and suddenly jumped out upon her to give her a fright. In this he was but too successful. The Court ladies no longer dared come near the Queen attended by their little blackamoors. These, however, they kept for a while longer, as if they were mere nick-hacks or ornaments; in Paris they were still to be seen in public. But the ladies' husbands at last got wind of the tale, when all the little negroes disappeared." Their son, Louis, Dauphin de France married Duchess Maria Anna Christina Victoria of Bavaria (28 November 1660 - 20 April 1690) on 7 March 1680. She was the daughter of Henriette Adelaide of Savoy (6 November 1636 - 13 June 1676) and Ferdinand Maria, Elector of Bavaria (31 October 1636 - 26 May 1679). In 1682, the King and his Court moved permanently to Versailles. Marie-Thérèse of Spain died aged 44, on 30 July 1683, at Versailles. Louis XIV married his second wife, Françoise d'Aubigné, Marquise de Maintenon at midnight on 10 October 1683, in the Chapel at Versailles. Louis XIV died on 1 September 1715, at the Château de Versailles, in Versailles. He was interred in the Saint-Denis Basilica, Saint-Denis. He was succeeded by Louis XV, King of France and Navarre (1710-1774), with Philippe II, Duc de Orléans as Regent.

"How can I find other men in Spain attractive? There is no King there other than the King my father." Marie-Thérèse of Spain

Excerpts and Source: The Memoirs of Madame de Montespan by Madame de Montespan.