Princess Louise Marie of France

Louise-Marie of France (15 July 1737 – 23 December 1787) was a French princess and Discalced Carmelite, the youngest of the ten children of King Louis XV and Queen Maria Leszczyńska who was nicknamed the "Good Queen". She entered the Carmelite convent at Saint-Denis in 1770 and took the religious name Thérèse of Saint Augustine. She served as prioress in 1773-1779 and 1785–1787. She was declared venerable by Pope John Paul II. Birth Louise-Marie of France was born at the Palace of Versailles on 15 July 1737 to the disappointment of Louis XV who was hoping for a "spare" as his only surviving son with his wife was the Dauphin. Her birth was particularly difficult for her mother, Queen Maria Leszczyńska as she suffered a painful fistula after, and thus was advised by her physicians that another birth could be fatal. However, Duke de Luynes mentioned in his memoirs that after her birth, in spite of being injured, the exhausted Marie Leczinska told her husband:"I am willing to suffer once again so as to give you another son another Duke of Anjou".The Duke of Anjou was their 2 year old second son that died in 1733. Moved by his wife's words Louis XV told her to calm down and pacified her. At this point the King was already in a 6 year secret affair with his wife's lady in waiting, the also married Comtesse de Mailly which caused deep pain on the Queen as she was deeply in love with her husband. The lawyer Barbier noted in his memoirs that Louis XV had resumed his sexual relationship with Marie Leczinska by December 1737 in the bath so as to increase their chances of conceiving another boy. Marie was afraid of losing her husband's love and thus continued sleeping with him till she became pregnant again and suffered a dangerous miscarriage in early 1738, which prompted the Queen to discontinue sexual relations with the king thereafter by refusing him entrance to her bedroom. Not long after this Louis XV, with approval of his minister Cardinal de Fleury, officially acknowledged his first favorite, Louise Julie de Mailly, and the private relationship between the king and queen was discontinued and they started to live separate lives. The king openly announced this after the birth of Louise when he called her Madame Dernière ('The Last Madame').