Marie-Antoinette's first laying-in
or, as Holly puts it, Childbirth as a Spectator Sport. Many thanks to her for offering me a guest spot on her great medical history blog, Wonders and Marvels.———————————————————
At Versailles, not only the Queen, but princesses of the royal blood were required to give birth in public. Why? To prevent any substitution of the infant in case he was destined to reign. I say “he” by design, because France’s unwritten constitution prevented women to step unto the throne in their own right, though they could, and often did govern the Kingdom as Regents.
In the case of Marie-Antoinette, her first laying-in was all the more eagerly awaited that she had been married for eight years without presenting her husband with an heir. For a Queen, this was a glaring failure.
Her sister-in-law, the Comtesse d’Artois, married to the King’s youngest brother, had already been delivered of two healthy little boys. Marie-Antoinette had attended the deliveries, as required by the etiquette, and deeply felt the political and personal humiliation of her own childlessness.
Now at long last she herself was pregnant. The stakes could not be higher: if the child were stillborn, or a girl, the heir to the throne would remain the Comte de Provence, another brother of Louis XVI... (read more.)
Posted by Catherine Delors at 3/16/2009 3:41 AM 
Categories: Princess de Lamballe,childbirth,Madame Campan,Louis XVI,Marie Antoinette
Tags: Princess de Lamballe childbirth Madame Campan Louis XVI Marie Antoinette
Categories: Princess de Lamballe,childbirth,Madame Campan,Louis XVI,Marie Antoinette
Tags: Princess de Lamballe childbirth Madame Campan Louis XVI Marie Antoinette
Quelle horreur!
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Certainly a delivery to remember, Ingrid!
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Humm... interesting,
so this was all incase the child was switched, what about in the next few days the child could be switched then
Thanks for writing about it
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