The French Revolution was a shocking and brutal
time in which thousands of people lost their heads on the guillotine.
Each day dozens of people were being executed to the point where inside of Paris the cobbled
streets ran red with the blood of the victims.
It was a time of Terror and where anyone who was considered a sympathiser with the former
King and Queen Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette would be liable to a date with the executuoner.
But there was one French Princess who would be executed also, and she was a close confidante
of Marie Antoinette.
Marie Therese Louise of Savoy was also the heiress to the greatest fortune in France,
but following her execution her remains would be subjected to a harrowing ordeal that encapsulated
the brutality and barbarism of the French Revolution.
Marie-Therese was a close companion of Queen Marie Antoinette in France.
It was dangerous as there would be a great degree of hatred throughout the country towards
the King and Queen.
Across France people were starving and were suffering heavily with the price of bread
rising sharply and the Queen in particular became a subject of ridicule and animosity.
She and her royal court were spending large sums of the treasury on jewellery clothes
and furniture to decorate their palaces and because of this the French people turned on
them.
They were desperate and then the outbreak of revolution would occur and eventually the
King and Queen would be overthrow.
Marie-Therese was a Princess and she was as mentioned a very rich lady, but she would
be known as the Princess de Lamballe, and she spent a lot of time with the Queen.
Her friendship with the Queen was well known, and one ambassador stated, ‘Her Majesty
continually sees the Princesse de Lamballe in her rooms [...] This lady joins to much
sweetness a very sincere character, far from intrigue and all such worries.
The Queen has conceived for some time a real friendship for this young Princess, and the
choice is excellent, for although a Piedmontese, Madame de Lamballe is not at all identified
with the interests of Mesdames de Provence and d'Artois.
All the same, I have taken the precaution to point out to the Queen that her favour
and goodness to the Princesse de Lamballe are somewhat excessive, in order to prevent
abuse of them from that quarter.’
The pair were close friends, however during the French Revolution Marie Therese joined
the royal family in a palace in Paris, and she tried to support them where she could.
But still the frivolities of court occurred and dances and entertainment went on whilst
people outside were incredibly angry.
She remained by the Queen’s side, but Marie Therese would then flee and she would come
to Britain where she wrote a will and she knew that if she went back to France she would
be liable to punishment and even execution.
She knew it was dangerous, but she nethertheless went back to Paris and resumed working for
the Queen, and she would try to get support for Marie.
The palace eventually was attacked, and with this she was arrested and was then transferred
to the La Force prison.
She was then sent to the Temple, and Princess Marie Therese had a harsh imprisonment.
But during the September Massacres, the prison was attacked by mobs and rioters and the inmates
were hastily brought in front of tribunals where judges ordered their executions.
Each prisoner was asked some questions before they were then either allowed to leave or
were sentenced to death.
Massacres continued of the prisoners, but Marie Therese was too well known and famous
to be smuggled out of the prison.
All the women prisoners almost who were tried before tribunals at La Force prison were freed,
but others who were close to the royal household were not.
However on the 3rd September 1792, Marie Therese was taken out to a courtyard with other prisoners
awaiting being taken to a tribunal.
She was brought before this hastily gathered court and she was ordered to ‘take an oath
to love liberty and equality, and to swear hatred to the King and Queen and to the monarchy.’
She agreed to support the principles of the revolution, but refused to denounce the King
and Queen.
She was then ordered to be taken away, and her trial was said to have gone like this.
"Who are you?"
"Marie Thérèse Louise, Princess of Savoy."
"Your employment?"
"Superintendent of the Household to the Queen."
"Had you any knowledge of the plots of the court on the 10th August?'"
"I know not whether there were any plots on the 10th August; but I know that I had no
knowledge of them."
"Swear to Liberty and Equality, and hatred of the King and Queen."
"Readily to the former; but I cannot to the latter: it is not in my heart."
[Reportedly, agents of her father-in-law whispered to her to swear the oath to save her life,
upon which she added:] "I have nothing more to say; it is indifferent
to me if I die a little earlier or later; I have made the sacrifice of my life."
"Let Madame be set at liberty.
She was then taken by two guards to the doors where massacre was taking place,.
When the door was opened she saw the corpses all in the prison yard and she screamed ‘I
am lost.’
A killer described her as ‘a little lady dressed in white,’ but then she was struck
by a man who was armed with a pike who hit her on the head.
This caused her hair to fall to her shoulders and in her hair was a hidden letter from Marie
Antoinette.
Marie Therese was then wounded on the forehead and she was bleeding before the crowd then
stabbed her to death.
But the treatment of her remains after her death were shocking.
It was claimed by many witnesses that her corpse was undressed, eviscerated and was
beheaded and that Marie Therese the Princess of Lamballe had her head then paraded throughout
the streets of Pair son a pike.
Her body was then dragged after by a crowd of people who screamed her name.
People also purchased bits of her hair, and some reports say that her head was taken to
a nearby cafe where it was placed in front of the customers who were asked to drink in
celebrations of her death.
After this it was then taken to the Temple where the head of Marie was paraded beneath
the window of Marie Antoinette the Queen, and the Princess’ great friend.
Marie was not present in the room at the time and did not see it.
But many claimed that she did scream when she heard about this.
Those that carried the head of the Princess wanted the Queen to kiss the lips of her former
favourite, and they wanted to be given access to show the Queen the head of Marie Therese
Louise of Savoy.
It was said, ‘the municipal officers had had the decency to close the shutters and
the commissioners kept them away from the windows...one of these officers told the king
'...they are trying to show you the head of Madame de Lamballe'...Mercifully, the Queen
then fainted away.”
Following this the head and corpse was then taken to the Palais-Royal where a party was
taking place, and the Duke of Orleans when seeing this said, ‘Oh it is Lamballe’s
Head, I know it by the long hair.’
But the crowd then continued to parade her remains.
Men loyal to her father in law tried to get hold of the remains, and they infiltrated
the mob to get these to be displayed before the home of Marie Therese.
The carrier of the Head then entered an alehouse and left the head outside, where one man then
stole the head and had it buried in a nearby cemetery.
Some accounts claim that her body was delivered much quicker to the authorities for burial,
but the procession of the head of the French Princess was not disputed and it showed the
brutality and anger of the crowd.
At some point, Madame Tussaud would make a death mask of her head, but the body of Marie
Therese of Savoy would not be found.
But the treatment of her remains in death was shocking as her head was paraded throughout
the streets of Paris.
She was seen as a symbol of the Queen as she was great friends of her and because of this
she was in the eyes of the revolutionaries liable for execution.
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