Marie Adélaïde of Savoy

Chapter 16, The Duchess of Burgundy, Part 1 The court was all agog because a little girl of eleven years had just arrived in France.

This child was Marie Adelaide, future Duchess of Burgundy, daughter of Victor Amadeus II, Duke of Savoy.

On Sunday, November fourth, sixteen ninety-six, the town of Montargis was en fête.

The bells were ringing with all their might.

She stood this walk and the lights with grace and modesty.

She has the best grace and the most beautiful shape that I ever saw, dressed fit to be painted, and her hair also, very bright and beautiful eyes with admirable black lashes, complexion very smooth, white and red as one could wish, and a great quantity of the finest fair hair that one ever saw.

She has failed in nothing and has conducted herself as you might have done." Through her mother, Marie Adelaide was the granddaughter of that beautiful Henrietta of England, whose life and death have been immortalized by Bossuet in her funeral oration.

She was about to revive the charm of this greatly regretted princess, and her presence at Versailles renewed the joy and animation of happier days.

Charles Emmanuel lived to 71.

Maria Adelaide was 11 when she was sent to France to marry Louis XIV's grandson, Louis, Duke de Burgundy.

The lively princess was a breath of fresh air at Versailles and was also a keen political player who orchestrated the downfall of two enemies.

It was said that she was the only woman, aside from his own mother, that Louis XIV admired.

Zealous doctors bled and blistered them, increasing their suffering.

The couple and their second son died within days of each other.

Marie Adelaide was 26.

Her youngest son, the future Louis XV, survived because his nurse hid him from the doctors.