Geneviève Poitrine

Geneviève Poitrine, known as Madame Poitrine ( – after 1783), was a wet nurse of the Dauphin of France, Louis Joseph, son of King Louis XVI and Queen Marie Antoinette. Poitrine was retrospectively accused of transmitting tuberculosis to the infant prince, thus inadvertently causing his death, aged seven years; this meant that his younger brother Louis Charles became heir apparent. The word poitrine translates to "chest" or "bosom", and her married name of Madame Poitrine was remarked upon by contemporaries as being appropriate for her duties.

Biography Geneviève Barbier was born in about 1750 into a peasant family. She married a gardener from Sceaux, and taking his name was thereafter known as Madame Poitrine. Poitrine is French for "chest" or "bosom", and this purported example of nominative determinism was remarked on during her lifetime.

Poitrine was retrospectively accused of transmitting tuberculosis to the infant prince, thus inadvertently causing his death, aged seven years; this meant that his younger brother Louis Charles became heir apparent. |group=Note

Nursery rhyme / folk song populariser It is said that Poitrine was the serendipitous key to the popularisation of the nursery rhyme/folk song "Marlbrough s'en va-t-en guerre" ("Marlbrough has left for the war"). She had learnt the 70-year-old song in her village and when Marie-Antoinette heard her singing to the infant Louis Joseph, she too learnt it and played it on the harpsichord. The courtiers naturally followed suit and thus the song became popular around the Palace of Versailles and across France.