Princess Victoire of France

Victoire of France (Marie Louise Thérèse Victoire; 11 May 1733 – 7 June 1799) was a French princess, the daughter of King Louis XV and the popular Queen Marie Leszczyńska. She was named after her parents and Queen Maria Theresa, her great-great-grandmother and the consort of Louis XIV of France. Originally known as Madame Quatrième, signifying the fourth daughter of the King (an older sister, Marie Louise, had died in February 1733, before her birth), she was later known as Madame Victoire. She outlived eight of her nine siblings, and was survived by her older sister Madame Adélaïde by less than a year. The sisters were collectively known as Mesdames. Life Early years Princess Victoire was born at the Palace of Versailles on 11 May 1733. She was the seventh child and fifth daughter of King Louis XV of France and Queen Maria Leszczyńska. Unlike the older children of Louis XV, Madame Victoire was not raised at the Palace of Versailles. Rather, she was, in June 1738, sent to live at the Abbey of Fontevraud with her younger sisters, because the cost of raising them in Versailles with all the status they were entitled to was deemed too expensive by Cardinal Fleury, Louis XV's chief minister. She remained there until 1748, when she was aged 15.