Princess Henriette-Anne of France

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Henriette-Anne de France
Madame Henriette playing the bass viol by Jean-Marc Nattier
Born	August 14, 1727(1727-08-14) Palace of Versailles, France
Died	February 10, 1752 Palace of Versailles, France
Parents	Louis XV of France and Maria Leszczyńska

Henriette-Anne de France (14 August 1727 at Versailles—-10 February 1752 at Versailles), was the twin sister of Louise Élisabeth de France, the eldest child of King Louis XV of France and his queen consort Maria Leszczyńska.

1 Youth
- 1.1 Marriage?
2 Versailles
3 Death
4 Ancestry
5 References
- 5.1 Notes

[edit] Youth

The twins were born at the Palace of Versailles on 14 August 1727. She was the younger of the twins and as a result was known at the court of her father as Madame Seconde. As the daughter of the king, she was a fille de France. In her later life she was known as Madame Henriette.

Despite being naturally reserved, Henriette-Anne was passionate about music, as Jean-Marc Nattier's portrait shows. She spent her childhood at Versailles with her sisters Louise-Élisabeth and Adélaïde of France and their younger brother, the Dauphin of France.

[edit] Marriage?

Her twin sister moved to Spain in 1739 to marry Philip of Bourbon, a younger son of Philip V of Spain. Henriette was despondent about being separated from her twin sister, and she withdrew further into her music. After the departure of Louise Élisabeth, the eyes of the court focused on the more reserved of the twins.^{[citation needed]} Henriette fell in love with her cousin, Louis Philippe I d'Orléans, the heir to the House of Orléans, and the two wished to marry.^{[citation needed]} However, her father was outraged by the idea of a marriage between a fille de France and a minor Bourbon prince with no hope of inheriting a throne.^{[citation needed]} Marriage was no longer an option. The couple drifted apart, and, like her all her younger sisters, she would remain unmarried until she died.

[edit] Versailles

Her sister-in-law, Maria Teresa Rafaela of Spain, the first wife of her brother, died in 1746 as result of childbirth.

Growing up at the Palace of Versailles, Henriette was in constant contact with her father's mistresses, the most famous of whom was Madame de Pompadour. The children of the king despised Mme. de Pompadour because she caused their father to neglect their mother, the queen. With her brother the dauphin, and her sister Adélaïde, she called the powerful mistress, Maman Putain (Mother Whore).^{[citation needed]} When Louise Élisabeth returned from Parma for a year long visit to Versailles in 1748, much to the horror of her siblings, she and Madame de Pompadour became close friends. This led to a temporary estrangement between the sisters.

[edit] Death

Henriette died of smallpox at the age of twenty-four. She was buried at Saint-Denis, where she was joined by Louise Élisabeth after her death in 1759. Her tomb, like other royal tombs at Saint-Denis, was desecrated during the French Revolution. On her death, all of her siblings were greatly impacted, especially Louise Élisabeth, Adélaïde and Louis.

Her nephews included Ferdinand, Duke of Parma, Louis XVI of France, Louis XVIII of France, Charles X of France. Her nieces included Madame Élisabeth and Queen Maria Louisa of Spain.