Louise of Orleans (1812-1850)

Louise Marie Therese Charlotte Isabelle of Orleans , born with Palermo the April 3rd 1812 and died with Ostend the October 11th 1850, was the first queen of the Belgians .

Family

The Louise princess is the oldest daughter of the king of the French Louis-Philippe I {{er}} and of his wife the queen Marie-Amélie de Bourbon, princess of Deux-Siciles.

August 9th, 1832, the princess marries the king Léopold Ier of Belgium (1790-1865), prince of Saxony-Cobourg and widower of the princess Charlotte of Great Britain (1796-1817). The couple has 4 children:

Biography

Louise receives a pious and middle-class education on behalf of her mother and of her aunt, Madam Adélaïde of Orleans. The Guillon abbot teaches the religion to him, Michelet initiates it with the history and Redouté teaches him art to paint flowers and landscapes. Without being as gifted as his Marie sister, sculptor of talent, Louise leaves some drawings which Horace Vernet appreciated.

When the negotiations for its marriage with Léopold I precipitate {{er}}, the princess does not hide her loathing in front of what it then calls " a sacrifice of reason, a sacrifice for the future very pénible". The king of the Belgians is widowed and older than it twenty-two years. Child, it saw it dining with Twickenham or Neuilly, and it had of him the memory of a cold and morose man. Like she writes it with her friend Antonine Those, her been engaged him " is as indifferent as the man who passes in the rue".

The marriage is celebrated with Compiegne, the August 9th 1832. Monseigneur Gallard, bishop of Meaux, bless the royal couple according to the catholic rite, then Pasteur Goepp, of the confession of Augsburg, renews the blessing according to the rite Lutheran. For dynastic reasons, the children of the couple will be however high in the religion of their mother and their subjects.

To raise the glare of the ceremony of the civil wedding, king Louis-Philippe chooses for the princess of the prestigious witnesses. They are eight only for Louise: the duke of Choiseul, one of its assistance-of-camp; Bored-Marbois, First president of the Court of Auditors; Portalis, First president of the Court of appeal; the duke of Bassano; the marshal Gerard; and three deputies, Alphonse Bérenger, Andre Dupin and Benjamin Delessert. On the other hand, it had to wipe the humiliation of a refusal, that of the duke of Mortemart, which agreed to be named, in 1830, ambassador with Saint-Pétersbourg, but which, of heart, remains faithful to legitimate monarchy.

Louise-Marie is very quickly allured by the delicacy of heart of her husband. She had believed to marry a hard man for itself and the others; she discovers romantic which cries when she has sorrow… " All that I then to say of him , entrust it to Antonine Those, it is that the king returns to me perfectly happy, it is of a kindness for me which touches me highly. I estimate it deeply and I found in him qualities solid and attaching which could only satisfy my heart. "

The young queen has much more sorrow to be accustomed to the mentality of her new Belgian subjects. She observes them with a prickly irony and communicates readily her impressions with her many corresponding. That causes some incidents which oblige Louis-Philippe to invite his daughter with more prudence. " I do not disparage the Belgians nor Belgium , Louise-Marie counterpart; I never make fun of them, publicly at least. If they were not so likely and so conceited, I would like them really much, because are very good people ".

King Léopold Ier regularly passes the evening in the living rooms of the queen, with the Château of Laeken; Louise-Marie then reads aloud the recent works. In the course of the day, it deals with her children: Louis-Philippe-Léopold, that it with the pain to lose at the nine months age, Léopold, Philippe and Charlotte. Moreover, each morning, the countess of Merode announces to the queen the distress of some needy families. She then goes personally to the residence these unhappy ones to bring to them the comfort of her financial aid and her kindness. Its private cassette is not enough with charity and often, it borrows without daring to acknowledge it with her husband.

In a few years, by its seduction and its generosity, Louise-Marie conquers the heart of the Belgians. The latter call it the " beloved " and do not hide their respectful sympathy to him, at the time of the event of February 1848 which puts an end, in Paris, with the reign of his/her father. The anguishes of these revolutionary days however carry a terrible blow to the health of the queen. In the month of August 1850, at the time of the service celebrated with Holy-Gudule, with the memory of king Louis-Philippe who has just died in exile with Claremont (Great Britain), Louise-Marie staggers by making the turn of the catafalque. Léopold I {{er}} must then support it so that it does not fall. One month later, feeling increasingly low, it settles in Ostend, the palate of the Long street. Surrounded by her mother, her husband and his children, it dies out there the October 11th 1850. " Its death is holy like its life " , murmur then Léopold I {{er}} which forgotten Charlotte forever, but regards his second wife as a very expensive friend. In accordance with the wishes of late, the funeral takes place in the church of the village of Laeken.

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