Sophie Hélène Beatrix of France

Madame Sophie
Sophie Beatrix of France, drafted by Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun.
Born (1786-07-09)9 July 1786
Palace of Versailles, France
Died (1787-06-19)19 June 1787 (aged 11 months 10 days)
Palace of Versailles, France
Burial Basilica of St Denis, France
Full name
Sophie Hélène Béatrix de France
House Bourbon
Father Louis XVI of France
Mother Archduchess Maria Antonia of Austria

Sophie Hélène Béatrix of France (9 July 1786 – 19 June 1787) was a French princess, the daughter of Louis XVI of France and Marie Antoinette. She was styled as Madame Sophie at birth. As the daughter of a King of France, she was a Fille de France.

Biography

Sophie was born at the Palace of Versailles, the youngest of the four children of King Louis XVI and Queen Marie Antoinette. She was named after her great-aunt Sophie of France, Madame Sophie, Louis XV's fifth daughter, who had died four years earlier.

Baptismal act of Sophie Hélène Beatrix Archives départementales des Yvelines

Sophie was born a very large baby,[1] but her fragile health was undermined by tuberculosis. She died in Versailles after suffering five or six days of convulsions.[2] She was only eleven months old.

Her death was a cause for much sorrow on the part of her parents. When Marie Antoinette's foster-brother, Joseph Weber,[3] attempted to console her with the fact that given Sophie's tender age Marie Antoinette must not have grown overly attached to her, the bereaved mother is supposed to have said, "Don't forget that she would have been my friend." This was a reference to her words after the birth of Sophie's older sister in 1778.[4]

Sophie was buried in the necropolis of the Kings of France, the Royal Basilica of Saint Denis, five kilometers north of Paris.

The Royal Family of France, 1787
Queen Marie Antoinette with her children, 1787 at Versailles; (L-R); Marie Thérèse, known as Madame Royale at court; the Queen with the Duke of Normandy on her lap; the Dauphin is on the right pointing into an empty cradle; the cradle used to show Madame Sophie; she died later in the year and had to be painted out; by Élisabeth-Louise Vigée-Le Brun; the Fleur-de-lis of France and the Bourbons can be seen behind on the cabinet

Ancestry

References

  1. ↑ Lever, Evelyne, Marie-Antoinette, Fayard, Paris, 1991, p. 414, ISBN 2-213-02659-9,
  2. ↑ Fraser, Antonia, Marie Antoinette, The Journey, Anchor Books, USA, 2001, p. 257, ISBN 0-385-48949-8.
  3. ↑ Fraser, p. 4. Joseph Weber was the son of Marie-Antoinette's wet nurse, Constance Weber. His memoirs were published by Baudouin Frères, Imprimeurs-Libraires, in Paris, in 1822: https://archive.org/stream/mmoiresdeweberc03tolgoog/mmoiresdeweberc03tolgoog_djvu.txt
  4. ↑ Fraser, p. 257.
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