The Duchess of Angouleme and the Two Restorations

<p>The "Famous Women of the French Court" series covers notable women -- many of them wives of Napoleon Bonaparte or associated with him -- and their lives before during and after Napoleon's reign. This volume concerns Marie-Therese Charlotte of France (1778-1851) Madame Royale who was the eldest child of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette (and the only one of their children to reach adulthood; her siblings all died before the age of 20). She married to Louis Antoine Duke of Angouleme the eldest son of the future Charles X Louis XVI’s brother. After her marriage she was known as the Duchess of Angouleme. She became the Dauphine of France upon the accession of her father-in-law to the throne of France in 1824. Technically she was Queen of France for twenty minutes on 2 August 1830 between the time her father-in-law signed the instrument of abdication and the time her husband reluctantly signed the same document.</p>