Jump to content

Marie Elisabeth of France

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by Iamthecheese44 (talk | contribs) at 03:24, 14 April 2016. The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

Marie Elisabeth of France
Portrait placed ca. 1577/78.[1]
Born(1572-10-27)27 October 1572
Louvre Palace, Paris
Died2 April 1578(1578-04-02) (aged 5)
Hôtel d’Anjou, Paris
Burial
Basilica of St Denis
HouseValois-Angoulême
FatherCharles IX of France
MotherElisabeth of Austria
ReligionRoman Catholicism

Marie Elisabeth of France (27 October 1572 – 2 April 1578), was a French princess member of the House of Valois.

She was the only child of King Charles IX of France and Elisabeth of Austria. Her maternal grandparents were Maximilian II, Holy Roman Emperor and Maria of Spain, her paternal grandparents were Henry II of France and Catherine de' Medici.

Life

Born at the Louvre Palace, despite her gender she was loved by her parents. Her baptism took place almost four months later, on 2 February 1573 in Saint-Germain l'Auxerrois. Despite the religion issues, her godmother was Queen Elizabeth I of England,[2] who sent William Somerset, 3rd Earl of Worcester as her proxy in the ceremony.

Her father had times of madness, so her grandmother Catherine served as regent. The Saint Bartholomew's Day Massacre occurred only two months before Marie Elisabeth's birth. When Marie Elisabeth was less than two years of age her father, King Charles IX died and her uncle became Henry III of France. Her mother then returned to Vienna after Maximilian II repaid her dowry, leaving Marie Elisabeth on 25 November 1575, never to see her again.

Marie Elisabeth resided firstly in Amboise and Blois, but later she was moved to Paris, where she died on 2 April 1578 at the Hôtel d’Anjou, apparently of frail health, at the age of six,[3][4][5][6] deeply mourned by the court for her kindness, grace and softness, despite her young age. Eight days later, on 10 April, she was buried in a vault of the Basilica of Saint Denis, next to her father.

On 17 October 1793 her tomb was desecrated by the revolutionaries and the remains were thrown into a common grave. In 1817 she was reinterred in the Basilica's Ossuary.

Ancestry

Family of Marie Elisabeth of France
16. Charles, Count of Angoulême
8. Francis I of France[7]
17. Louise of Savoy
4. Henry II of France
18. Louis XII of France
9. Claude of France[7]
19. Anne, Duchess of Brittany
2. Charles IX of France
20. Piero the Unfortunate
10. Lorenzo II de Medici, Duke of Urbino[7]
21. Alfonsina Orsini
5. Catherine De Medici
22. John III, Count of Auvergne
11. Madeleine de la Tour d'Auvergne
23. Jeanne de Bourbon-Vendôme
1. Marie Elisabeth of valois
24. Philip I of Castile (=28)
12. Ferdinand I, Holy Roman Emperor[7]
25. Joanna of Castile (=29)
6. Maximilian II, Holy Roman Emperor
26. Vladislaus II of Bohemia and Hungary
13. Anna of Bohemia and Hungary[7]
27. Anne de Foix
3. Elizabeth of Austria
28. Philip I of Castile (=24)
14. Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor[8]
29. Joanna of Castile (=25)
7. Maria of Spain
30. Manuel I of Portugal
15. Isabella of Portugal[8]
31. Maria of Aragon and Castile

Footnotes

  1. ^ Les princesses de France- Les Derniers Valois. Previously was believed that this portrait belonged to her aunt Margaret of Valois, the later Queen of Navarre, but this was disputed in modern times. The authory of the portrait is also controversial, because the traditional author mentioned in several sources, François Clouet died on 22 December 1572, when Marie Elisabeth was only two months old.
  2. ^ [1]
  3. ^ L’Estoile, Journal, o. c., p. 180.
  4. ^ Pierre de L’Estoile, Registre-Journal du règne de Henri III, vol. II (1576-1578), Genève: Droz, 1996, p. 180.
  5. ^ Brantôme, Œuvres complètes, o. c., vol. VIII, p. 248.
  6. ^ Brantôme, Vie des dames illustres, o. c., II, article XIII, pp. 313-315.
  7. ^ a b c d e Weir, pp. 272–275.
  8. ^ a b Haag et al., pp. 347–349.

Additional bibliography

  • Jacqueline Boucher, Deux épouses et reines à la fin du XVIe siècle : Louise de Lorraine et Marguerite de France, Saint-Étienne, Publications of the University of Saint-Étienne, 1995, p. 60. In 1580, Queen Margaret of Navarre sold the Hôtel to her Chancellor Guy Du Faur, Seigneur de Pibrac.
  • Oraison funebre de treshaute et vertueuse princesse Marie Isabeau de France fille de Treshaut et Treschrestien Roy Charles IX, amateur de toute vertu, et protecteur de la Foy. Pronounced in Notre-Dame of Paris on 11 April 1578, by Arnaud Sorbia, Royal Chaplain. This prayer was published in Lyon in 1578 by Rigaud Benoit, and is preceded by a dedicatory letter to Margaret de Valois, dated 16 April 1578. See Jacqueline Vons (éd.),Dédicace à l’Oraison funèbre et Tombeau de Marie-Élisabeth de France (1572-1578). Documents posted on Cour de France.fr on 3 May 2010 as part of the research project "La médecine à la cour de France". (Cour-de-france.fr: Article 1417).
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Marie_Elisabeth_of_France&oldid=715167041"