Mesdames de France

French word meaning literally, "My Ladies," and used as a form of address for several adult females. In the 18th century, "Mesdames" or "Mesdames de France" was used to designate the daughters of Louis XV, most of whom lived at the royal court and never married.

The title "Daughter of France"

Unlike other unmarried daughters of the nobility who were born "demoiselles," the princesses who were the daughters of the kings of France were born with the rank and title of "dame."

A Daughter of France (Fille de France) was thus addressed as "Madame," followed by her first name or her title if she had one. The treatment was the same with the sole exception that with the eldest, it was not necessary to add the first name, and the simple appellation "Madame" sufficed to designate her.

The sister-in-law of the king was similarly treated. When one existed (this was the case for Louis XIV and Louis XVI but not for Louis XV, who was the sole surviving sibling), the first of the Filles de France was given the title of "Madame Royale."

A particular group

The appellation of "Mesdames" remained in history because of particular genealogical, political, and strategic circumstances that caused many of the eight daughters that Louis XV had with Marie Leszczynska to remain at the French court, including:

Louise-Elisabeth de France (1727 - 1759), Madame

Henriette-Anne of France (1727 - 1752), her twin, entitled Madame Seconde, then Madame after the marriage of her twin sister

Marie-Louise of France (1728 - 1733), Madame Troisième, then Madame Louise

Marie Adélaïde of France (1732 - 1800), Madame Quatrième, then Madame Troisième, then Madame Adélaïde and finally Madame, after the death of Madame Henriette

Victoire of France (1733 - 1799), Madame Quatrième, then Madame Victoire

Sophie of France (1734 - 1782), Madame Cinquième then Madame Sophie

Thérèse-Félicité of France (1736 - 1744), Madame Sixième, then Madame Thérèse

Louise of France (1737 - 1787), Madame Septième or Dernière, then Madame Louise

A particular fate

To economize on their maintenance at court, and to prevent the queen (to whom a large, allied brood would give comfort) from having too much influence, the last four of the princesses were raised far from the court, at Poitou in the Fontevraud Abbey from 1738 to 1750, where they passed their formative years before returning to Versailles. Madame Thérèse did not return to Versailles, and Madame Louise came back, but was very strongly influenced by the monastic life, to which she later returned at Carmel de Saint-Denis.

The king kept the eldest one at his side; he was attached to her and separation made him very sad. Madame Adélaïde owed her maintenance at Versailles to her wishes and her successful request to remain near the king, whom she knew how to influence.

Mesdames, together with the Dauphin, sustained a long battle against the successive mistresses of their father, particularly Madame de Pompadour, who they called amongst themselves "Maman putain" (Mama Whore). Their support of the cause of the devout was permanent, and the reason, for their entire tenure at court, for their difficult relation with the king, who only consented very late to let them occupy apartments on the ground floor of the main building at Versailles, the apartments which today bear their name.

Among them, Madame Adélaïde was the who exercised the most political role at the court, managing the group of her sisters after the death of Madame Henriette in 1752, and intriguing unceasingly in favor of her brother and for the reestablishment of moral order at court.

Upon the accession to the throne of her nephew, she cherished the hope of exercising an influence over him but was soon forced to realize that he would not give her the role she wished. Pushed away from power bit by bit, and representing the old court against the new generation, she increasingly retired with her sisters to the Château de Bellevue, which had been constructed for Madame de Pompadour. They finally obtained it and passed most of the last decade of the ancien régime there.

After the days of October 1789, Adélaïde and Victoire retired to Bellevue, from whence they fled, ending up, after much wandering, in Italy, where they spent the remainder of their days.

References

This article is a translation of the article Mesdames in the French-language Wikipedia. It includes a large bibliography, with the following caveat: "This subject has been the object of a fairly large bibliography, but it is mostly constructed of the work of erudite amateur historians, collectors of anecdotes, and hagiographies. Some works written by historians, such as Simone Piognant and Bernard Hours among the most recent, put forward analysis and developments more worthy of interest.