Marie Antoinette, the last Queen of France before the French Revolution, had four children, but their fates were tragically affected by the turmoil of the time.
Her first child, Marie Thérèse, was born in 1778 and survived the Revolution. She was imprisoned during the Reign of Terror but eventually released. In 1795, she was married off to the Duke of Angoulême and lived a relatively quiet life until her death in 1851.
Her second child, Louis Joseph, the heir apparent, was born in 1781 but died young at the age of 7 in 1789, likely due to tuberculosis.
Marie Antoinette’s third child, Louis Charles, was born in 1785. After the arrest of the royal family in 1791, he was taken from his mother and placed in a revolutionary orphanage. He died in 1795 at the age of 10, reportedly from neglect and illness, although his exact cause of death remains a subject of speculation.
The youngest, Sophie, was born in 1786 but tragically died at just 11 months old in 1787 due to a natural illness.
In summary, Marie Antoinette’s children faced an array of misfortunes, with only Marie Thérèse surviving the turbulent years following their mother’s execution in 1793.