The Daughter of Marie Antoinette: Marie-Thérèse Charlotte, Madame Royale

The surviving daughter of Marie Antoinette, Marie-Thérèse Charlotte, is a little-known woman from history who led an extraordinary life. From a perfect early childhood to the brutality of the Revolution, she was an iconic figure in her day. The trauma of imprisonment and becoming an orphan made Marie Therese deeply damaged and complex. She was dramatically released from prison and went into exile, travelling around Europe, from palace to country house, until the Bourbons were called back to France in 1814\. She supported the Kings of France, then became Dauphine and, for the briefest moment, even Queen of France. With backdrops of Versailles, Napoleon, the British Regency and the Austrian Habsburg dynasty, her life is colourful, dramatic and deeply tragic. Marie-Thérèse Charlotte is a subject worthy of attention who may well have been the best of the Bourbon monarchs.