About

A princess of the Savoy-Carignan family, Marie-Thérèse-Louise de Savoie was widowed at eighteen and appointed superintendent of Marie Antoinette’s household in 1775. The duchesse de Polignac later replaced her as the queen’s closest companion, although Lamballe retained the office of superintendent. After the royal family’s attempted flight in June 1791, she left France and spent several months at Aix-la-Chapelle. She returned to Paris in November and resumed her duties at the Tuileries. On 10 August 1792, she accompanied the royal family to the Legislative Assembly and was confined with them in the Temple. Removed from the royal household on 19 August, she was imprisoned at La Force. During the September Massacres, she was brought before a prisoners’ committee and killed outside the prison on 3 September. Her severed head was placed on a pike and carried through Paris to the Temple. Later accounts embellished both the words attributed to her before her death and the treatment of her body.