Marie Leszczyńska
Maria Karolina Zofia Felicja Leszczyńska (Polish: [ˈmarja lɛʂˈt͡ʂɨj̃ska]; 23 June 1703 – 24 June 1768), also known as Marie Leczinska (French: [maʁi lɛɡzɛ̃ska]), was Queen of France as the wife of King Louis XV from their marriage on 4 September 1725 until her death in 1768. The daughter of Stanislaus I Leszczyński, the deposed King of Poland, and Catherine Opalińska, her 42-years and 9 months service was the longest of any queen in French history. A devout Catholic throughout her life, Marie was popular among the French people for her numerous charitable works and introduced many Polish customs to the royal court at Versailles. She was the grandmother of the French kings Louis XVI, Louis XVIII and Charles X.
Marie Leszczyńska
4 September 1725 – 24 June 1768
24 June 1768 (aged 65)
Palace of Versailles, Kingdom of France
Your Majesty
Early life[edit]
Born as a member of the House of Leszczyński, Maria Karolina Zofia Felicja Leszczyńska (Wieniawa)[1] was the second daughter of Stanislaus I Leszczyński and his wife, Countess Catherine Opalińska. She had an elder sister, Anna Leszczyńska, who died of pneumonia in 1717.[2]
Maria's early life was troubled by her father's political misfortune. Ironically, the hopeless political career of King Stanislaus was eventually the reason why his daughter Maria was chosen as the bride of King Louis XV of France. Devoid of political connections, his daughter was viewed by the French as being free from the burden of international alliances.
She was born in Trzebnica in Lower Silesia, the year before her father was made King of Poland by Charles XII of Sweden, who had invaded the country in 1704. In 1709, her father was deposed when the Swedish army lost the military upper hand in Poland, and the family was granted refuge by Charles XII in the Swedish city of Kristianstad in Scania.[3] During the escape, Marie was separated from the rest of her family; she was later found with her nurse hiding in a crib in a stable, although another version claims it was actually a cave in an old mineshaft.[3] In Sweden, the family was welcomed by the queen dowager Hedwig Eleonora of Holstein-Gottorp and became popular members of society life on the estates of the nobility around Kristianstad. In 1712, they made an official visit to Medevi, the spa of the Queen Dowager.[3] During this period in her life, Marie began speaking Swedish with a Scanian accent. As Queen of France, she was known to welcome Swedish ambassadors to France with the phrase "Welcome, Dearest Heart!" in Swedish.
In 1714, Charles XII gave them permission to live in his fiefdom of Zweibrücken in the Holy Roman Empire, where they were supported by the income of Zweibrücken: they lived there until the death of Charles XII in 1718.[3] Zweibrücken then passed to a cousin of his. These lands were parallel to the confiscated Polish properties of Stanislaus. Stanislaus appealed to the Regent of France, the Duke of Orléans, and the Duke of Lorraine for help, with the Queen of Sweden acting as his mediator.[4]
In 1718, with the support of the Duke of Lorraine, the family was allowed to settle in Wissembourg in the province of Alsace, which had been annexed by France, a place suggested by Philippe II, Duke of Orléans, a nephew of Louis XIV and Regent of the Kingdom of France during Louis XV's minority. The family lived a modest life in a large town house at the expense of the French Regent.
Their lifestyle in Wissembourg was regarded as very below standard for a royal at that time; they lived in a small house, and could not pay the salary of their small retinue from which a few "served as an apology for a guard of honour", and the jewels of the former Queen Catherine were reportedly held as security by a moneylender.[5]
While her mother Catherine and grandmother Anna Leszczyńska reportedly suffered from a certain degree of bitterness over their exile and loss of position which worsened their relationship with Stanislaus, whom they occasionally blamed for their exile, Marie was close to her father and spent a lot of time conversing with him, though she was evidently of a more rational nature as she "possessed the gift of suffering in silence and of never wearying others with her troubles" and was said to have developed "a profound and intense piety", which gave "to her youthful mind the maturity of a woman who no longer demands happiness".[5]
Queen of France[edit]
Political role[edit]
Queen Marie never managed to develop political influence and instead focused on numerous charitable activities such giving money, edible foods, medicines as well as sewing and making clothes to the poor which was appreciated by ordinary Frenchmen. After her marriage, her appointed court consisted of a great number of followers of the Duke of Bourbon, among them Madame de Prie, the Duchess de Béthune, and the Marquise de Matignon, who, among her twelve ladies-in-waiting or dame du palais, the Duke's own sister, Marie Anne de Bourbon, became her Surintendante de la Maison de la Reine and Paris de Verney was appointed as her secretary.[4] Cardinal de Fleury, who had been Louis's tutor, was appointed her grand almoner.[4]
Death and burial[edit]
Marie Leszczyńska died on 24 June 1768, one day after her birthday, at the age of 65. She had enjoyed great popularity among the public in her early and later years. She was buried at the Basilica of St Denis, and her heart was entombed at the Church of Notre-Dame-de-Bonsecours in Nancy.