Sophie of France

Sophie of France (Sophie Philippine Élisabeth Justine; 27 July 1734 – 2 March 1782) was a French princess, a fille de France. She was the sixth daughter and eighth child of King Louis XV and his queen consort, Marie Leszczyńska. First known as Madame Cinquième (an older sister, Marie Louise, had died in 1733), she later became Madame Sophie. She and her sisters were collectively known as Mesdames. In 1777, Sophie and her elder sister Adélaïde were both given the title Duchess of Louvois.

Biography

Early life Sophie Philippine Élisabeth Justine was born on 27 July 1734 in France. She was the eighth child and sixth daughter of King Louis XV and his charitable wife, Marie Leszczyńska, who was nicknamed "The Good Queen" by the common people. Sophie is less well known than many of her sisters. Her birth at the Palace of Versailles was relatively unremarked. Her second name, Philippine, was given in honour of her older brother Philippe, who had died the previous year. Sophie and her sisters were collectively called the Mesdames.

Unlike the older children of Louis XV, she was not raised at Versailles but, in June 1738, sent to live at the Abbey of Fontevraud with her elder sister Madame Victoire and younger sisters Madame Thérèse (who died young) and Madame Louise, because the cost of raising the sisters in Versailles with all the status they were entitled to was deemed too expensive by Cardinal Fleury, Louis XV's chief minister. Their mother, Marie Leszczyńska, was forbidden from visiting them and thus frequently wrote to them and sent them gifts such as a toy horse for little Sophie. On 6 June, they officially left Versailles for Fontevraud in eight coaches and two chaises with twenty wagon loads of luggage. The journey took thirteen days.

Reign of Louis XV Princesse Sophie Philippine Élisabeth Justine de France (portrait by Jean-Étienne Liotard, ). Collection Rau for UNICEF Madame Sophie and her sister Louise were allowed to return to the court of Versailles in 1750, two years after Victoire. Madame de Pompadour, who witnessed the arrival of Sophie and her younger sister Louise from Fontevrault, described Sophie as "almost as tall as I" and "very attractive if rather plump, with a fine complexion …".

According to Madame Campan's memoirs, while their education had been neglected in the convent, they compensated for this and studied extensively, after their return to court, encouraged by their brother, Louis, with whom they immediately formed a close attachment. The Mesdames learned to write French correctly, while also learning Italian and English.

Madame Sophie never married, but became a member of the collective group of unmarried princesses known as Mesdames. Charles Philippe d'Albert, 4th Duke of Luynes noted that Sophie and her siblings would assist their mother Marie Leszczyńska on various charitable activities she initiated outside Versailles such as giving money and clothes to the poor on various parishes. Being described as of a shy and reserved nature, she did not attract much attention. She did not exercise any influence at the court, but let herself be directed by her older sister Madame Adélaïde, following her in her antipathy against her father's mistresses, Madame de Pompadour and then Madame du Barry. Madame Sophie enjoyed the Château de Bellevue in Meudon and the in Marne.

In 1761, when her sister, Victoire, in the company of Adélaïde, visited the waters in Lorraine for medical purposes, Sophie and Louise visited Paris for the first time.

Madame Sophie de France (portrait by François-Hubert Drouais, ). The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Madame Campan, who was employed as her reader in 1768, described her thusly:

"Madame Sophie was remarkably ugly; never did I behold a person with so unprepossessing an appearance; she walked with the greatest rapidity; and, in order to recognise the people who placed themselves along her path without looking at them, she acquired the habit of leering on one side, like a hare. This Princess was so exceedingly diffident that a person might be with her daily for years together without hearing her utter a single word. It was asserted, however, that she displayed talent, and even amiability, in the society of some favourite ladies. She taught herself a great deal, but she studied alone; the presence of a reader would have disconcerted her very much. There were, however, occasions on which the Princess, generally so intractable, became all at once affable and condescending, and manifested the most communicative good-nature; this would happen during a storm; so great was her alarm on such an occasion that she then approached the most humble, and would ask them a thousand obliging questions; a flash of lightning made her squeeze their hands; a peal of thunder would drive her to embrace them, but with the return of the calm, the Princess resumed her stiffness, her reserve, and her repellent air, and passed all by without taking the slightest notice of any one, until a fresh storm restored to her at once her dread and her affability." The close relationship between Marie Antoinette and Mesdames was, however, discontinued in 1772, after the attempt to entice Marie Antoinette to humiliate Madame du Barry was thwarted, a plan which had been led by Madame Adélaïde with support of Madame Victoire and Madame Sophie.

Reign of Louis XVI

From April 1774, Madame Sophie, along with her sisters Adélaïde, Victoire and Louise, attended their father, Louis XV, on his deathbed until his death from smallpox on 10 May. Despite the fact that the sisters had never had smallpox, the Mesdames were allowed to attend him, even while other male members of the royal family, as well as the Dauphine, Marie Antoinette, were kept away due to the serious risk of catching the illness. Since the Mesdames were female, and therefore of no political importance because of the Salic law, they were not prevented from doing so.

After the death of Louis XV, he was succeeded by his grandson, Louis-Auguste, as Louis XVI. Louis XVI referred to his aunts as Mesdames Tantes. The sisters did catch smallpox from their father's deathbed, and were kept in quarantine in a little house near the Château de Choisy, to which the court evacuated after the death of the King, until they eventually recovered.

Their nephew, the King, allowed them to keep their apartments in the Palace of Versailles, and they continued attending court at special occasions. Such as for the visit of Joseph II, Holy Roman Emperor, who reportedly charmed Madame Sophie's sister Adélaïde. However, they distanced themselves from court and often preferred to reside in their own Château de Bellevue in Meudon; they also traveled annually to Vichy, always with a retinue of at least three hundred people, and made the waters there fashionable. The Mesdames continued to be the confidants of Louis XVI, and they also maintained a good relationship with their niece, Princess Élisabeth of France, and often visited her in her retreat at the Domain of Montreuil.

In 1777, Sophie and her sister Adélaïde were both given the title of Duchess of Louvois by their nephew, the King, after having jointly acquired an estate of that name.

In popular culture In 2006, she was played by Scottish actress Shirley Henderson in the movie Marie Antoinette.

Ancestry