Marie Thérèse de Bourbon (1 February 1666 – 22 February 1732) was the titular
Queen consort of Poland in 1697. She was the daughter of the
Prince of Condé
A prince is a male ruler (ranked below a king, grand prince, and grand duke) or a male member of a monarch's or former monarch's family. ''Prince'' is also a title of nobility (often highest), often hereditary, in some European states. The ...
. As a member of France's reigning
House of Bourbon, she was a ''
princesse du sang''.
Biography
Marie Thérèse de Bourbon, was born at the
Hôtel de Condé
The Hôtel de Condé was the main Paris seat of the princes of Condé, a cadet branch of the Bourbons, from 1612 to 1764/70.
The hôtel gave its name to the present ''rue de Condé'', on which its forecourt faced. The Théâtre de l'Odéon was ...
in Paris on 1 February 1666 to
Henri-Jules de Bourbon, prince de Condé, the then
Duke of Bourbon, and Princess
Anne Henriette of the Palatinate. Known from birth as ''Mademoiselle de Bourbon'', she was named after the queen,
Maria Theresa of Spain
Maria Theresa of Spain ( es, María Teresa de Austria; french: Marie-Thérèse d'Autriche; 10 September 1638 – 30 July 1683) was Queen of France from 1660 to 1683 as the wife of King Louis XIV. She was born an Infanta of Spain and Portugal a ...
(wife of King
Louis XIV of France
, house = Bourbon
, father = Louis XIII
, mother = Anne of Austria
, birth_date =
, birth_place = Château de Saint-Germain-en-Laye, Saint-Germain-en-Laye, France
, death_date =
, death_place = Palace of ...
).
On her father's side she belonged to a
cadet branch
In history and heraldry, a cadet branch consists of the male-line descendants of a monarch's or patriarch's younger sons ( cadets). In the ruling dynasties and noble families of much of Europe and Asia, the family's major assets— realm, tit ...
of the French royal
House of Bourbon, and on her mother's side, from English royalty and the
House of Nassau
The House of Nassau is a diversified aristocratic dynasty in Europe. It is named after the lordship associated with Nassau Castle, located in present-day Nassau, Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. The lords of Nassau were originally titled "Count ...
.
It was planned for her to marry the Italian
Emmanuel Philibert of Savoy, Prince de Carignan, but on 22 January 1688, Marie-Thérèse married
, ''le Grand Conti'', head of the
Conti cadet branch
In history and heraldry, a cadet branch consists of the male-line descendants of a monarch's or patriarch's younger sons ( cadets). In the ruling dynasties and noble families of much of Europe and Asia, the family's major assets— realm, tit ...
of the
House of Bourbon, in the
chapel of Versailles.
The bride was passionately in love with her husband, but his attentions were elsewhere. It was well known at court that he had an affair with his wife's sister-in-law, the
Duchess of Bourbon
Lady of Bourbon
House of Bourbon, 950–1218
House of Dampierre, 1228–1288
House of Burgundy, 1288–1310
:Beatrix of Burgundy, Dame de Bourbon, None
Capetian House of Clermont, 1310–1327
Duchess of Bourbon
First Creati ...
; it was also said that he had homosexual tendencies and did not pay his wife much attention.
Marie Thérèse had a difficult relationship with her children and, as a result, lived quietly at the various Conti residences, mainly at the ''
Château de L'Isle-Adam
The Château de L'Isle-Adam, now destroyed, could be found in the town of L'Isle-Adam in the department of Val-d'Oise; it was built on an island called the ''Île du Prieuré'' The building was connected with many illustrious families; the Lor ...
''. The family later reconciled after the death of the Prince de Conti. Marie Thérèse was known for her quiet personality and her piety, much praised by many at court.
Elizabeth Charlotte of the Palatinate, Dowager Duchess of Orléans and mother of the
Regent Philippe d'Orléans, wrote of the widowed Marie Thérèse:
Queen of Poland
In 1697, Marie Thérèse's husband was offered the
Crown of Poland
The Crown of the Kingdom of Poland ( pl, Korona Królestwa Polskiego; Latin: ''Corona Regni Poloniae''), known also as the Polish Crown, is the common name for the historic Late Middle Ages territorial possessions of the King of Poland, includi ...
by Louis XIV. The Prince de Conti went to Poland to inspect his potential new kingdom, while Marie Thérèse stayed in France. During this time, she was considered the titular Queen of Poland and her husband the king.
[''Journal historique du règne de Louis XIV par le ]Marquis de Dangeau
A marquess (; french: marquis ), es, marqués, pt, marquês. is a nobleman of high hereditary rank in various European peerages and in those of some of their former colonies. The German language equivalent is Markgraf (margrave). A woman wi ...
'' Based on votes that cast by the
Polish nobility, her husband was the more popular candidate, but when he arrived in
Gdańsk, he found that
Augustus II the Strong
Augustus II; german: August der Starke; lt, Augustas II; in Saxony also known as Frederick Augustus I – Friedrich August I (12 May 16701 February 1733), most commonly known as Augustus the Strong, was Elector of Saxony from 1694 as well as K ...
had taken his place on the throne, and so he returned to France.
Dowager princess
In 1709, her husband died in Paris. In order to tell the widows apart after the death of their respective husbands, the
dowager
A dowager is a widow or widower who holds a title or property—a " dower"—derived from her or his deceased spouse. As an adjective, ''dowager'' usually appears in association with monarchical and aristocratic titles.
In popular usage, the noun ...
Princesses of Conti were each accorded the title of ''Douairière'' preceded by the number corresponding to the order in which they had been consort to the head of the Bourbon-Contis, e.g., ''Madame la Princesse de Conti première douairière''. In 1727 the two dowager ''Princesses de Conti'' were joined by a third,
Louise Élisabeth de Bourbon.
After the death of her husband, she started to renovate the Parisian home of the Conti family, the
Hôtel de Conti on the Quai de Conti on the left bank of the
Seine.
In 1713, her daughter Marie Anne married
Louis Henri, Duke of Bourbon, known as ''
Monsieur le Duc'', the son of her husband's former mistress
Louise-Françoise de Bourbon, Princess de Condé On the same day, in a double wedding ceremony at Versailles, her son, the new ''Prince de Conti'', married another child of the Princess de Condé,
Louise Élisabeth de Bourbon, who then took the title that Marie Thérèse had had for almost thirty years.
On 30 May 1716, Marie Thérèse purchased empty land to the west of the on the rue de Bourbon (now rue de Lille) and commissioned the architect
Robert de Cotte to design a new ''
hôtel particulier
An ''hôtel particulier'' () is a grand townhouse, comparable to the British townhouse or mansion. Whereas an ordinary ''maison'' (house) was built as part of a row, sharing party walls with the houses on either side and directly fronting on a s ...
''. On 27 December 1718, when the building was still incomplete and unoccupied, she sold it to her brother-in-law and sister (
Louis Auguste, Duke of Maine
Louis-Auguste de Bourbon, duc du Maine (31 March 1670 – 14 May 1736) was an illegitimate son of Louis XIV and his official mistress, Madame de Montespan. The king's favourite son, he was the founder of the semi-royal House of Bourbon-Maine name ...
and
Louise Bénédicte de Bourbon), who hired a new architect,
Armand-Claude Mollet, to redesign and complete it, after which it became known as the
Hôtel du Maine (destroyed 1838).
[Robert Neuman (1994) ''Robert de Cotte and the Perfection of Architecture in Eighteenth-Century France'', Chicago/London: The University of Chicago Press, , pp. 142–143; Alexandre Gady (2008) ''Les Hôtels particuliers de Paris du Moyen Âge à la Belle Époque'', Paris: Parigramme, , pp. 313, 316. The site of the former Hôtel du Maine is at 84–86 rue de Lille.]
Marie Thérèse died on 22 February 1732 at the Hôtel de Conti, probably due to the
syphilis she had contracted from her husband. She was buried at the ''Église Saint-André des Arcs'', in ''
L'Isle d'Adam''.
Through her granddaughter
Louise Henriette de Bourbon-Conti, Duchess d'Orléans, grandmother of
Louis Philippe, King of the French, Marie Thérèse is an ancestor of several of Europe's 19th and 20th century monarchs.
Issue
*
Marie Anne de Bourbon (18 April 1689 - 21 March 1720) married
Louis Henri, Duke of Bourbon but had no issue.
*Unknown name (18 November 1693 - 22 November 1693), died in infancy.
*''Prince de La Roche-sur-Yon'' (1 December 1694 - 25 April 1698), died in childhood.
*
Louis Armand de Bourbon, Prince de Conti (10 November 1695 - 4 May 1727) married
Louise Élisabeth de Bourbon-Condé and had issue.
*
Louise Adélaïde de Bourbon (2 November 1696 – 20 November 1750) died unmarried.
*''Mademoiselle d'Alais'' (19 November 1697 - 13 August 1699), died in childhood.
*Louis François de Bourbon, Count d'Alais (27 July 1703 - 21 January 1704), died in infancy.
Ancestry
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Marie Therese De Bourbon
1666 births
1733 deaths
Nobility from Paris
Princesses of Conti
House of Bourbon-Condé
17th-century French nobility
18th-century French nobility
Princesses of the Blood