A Cyclopaedia of Female Biography/Angoulême, Marie Theresa Charlotte

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ANGOULEME, MARIE THERESA CHARLOTTE,

Duchess d', dauphiness, daughter of Louis the Sixteenth and Marie Antoinette, born December 19th., 1778, at Versailles; displayed in early youth a penetrating understanding, an energetic will, and the tenderest feelings of compassion. She was about eleven years old when the revolution commenced; its horrors, and the sufferings her royal parents underwent, stamped their impress upon her soul, and tinged her character with a melancholy never to be effaced in this life. The indignities to which her mother was subjected never could be forgotten by the daughter. The whole family were imprisoned, August 10th., 1792, in the Temple. In December, 1795, the princess was exchanged for the deputies whom Dumourier had surrendered to the Austrians. Her income at this time was the interest of 400,000 francs, bequeathed to her by the archduchess Christina of Austria. During her residence at Vienna, she was married by Louis the Eighteenth to her cousin, the duke of Angoulême, June 10th., 1799, at Mittau. The emperor of Russia signed the contract. In 1801, the political situation of Russia obliged all the Bourbons to escape to Warsaw. In 1805, they returned, by permission of the Emperor Alexander, to Mittau. Towards the end of 1812, the successes of Napoleon obliged them to flee to England. Here the princess lived a very retired life at Hartwell, till 1814, when, on the restoration of the Bourbons, she made her entrance May 4th., into Paris with the king. On the return of Napoleon from Elba, she was at Bordeaux with her husband. Her endeavours to preserve this city for the king being ineffectual, she embarked for England, went to Ghent, and on Napoleon's final expulsion, returned again to Paris. From this city she was driven by the revolution of 1830, which placed Louis Philippe on the throne of the French. She fled with her husband, the unfortunate Charles the Tenth, first to England; from thence the royal fugitives went to Germany, where she lately resided. She had realized almost every turn of fortune's wheel, and endured sorrows and agonies such as very seldom are the lot of humanity. In every situation she has exhibited courage and composure, the indubitable evidence of a strong mind. And she also displayed the true nobility of soul which forgives injuries and does good whenever an opportunity presents. Napoleon once remarked that the "Duchess d'Angoulême was the only man of her family," and certainly she was in every respect superior to her husband, whose qualities were rather sound than brilliant; he had good sense, was of a generous disposition, had studied the spirit of the age, and understood the concessions which were due; but he cherished the doctrine that the heir of the throne should be the first to evince the most implicit obedience to the king; and thus sanctioned the adoption of measures he wanted the courage to oppose.