Father Louis XVI of France | Name Princess Helene | |
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Born 9 July 1786Palace of Versailles, France ( 1786-07-09 ) Died 19 June 1787(1787-06-19) (aged 11 months 10 days)Palace of Versailles, France | ||
Sophie Hélène Béatrix of France (9 July 1786 – 19 June 1787) was a French princess, the daughter of Louis XVI of France and Marie Antoinette. She was styled as Madame Sophie at birth. As the daughter of a King of France, she was a Fille de France.
Biography
Sophie was born at the Palace of Versailles, the youngest of the four children of king Louis XVI and queen Marie Antoinette. She was named after her great-aunt Sophie of France, Madame Sophie, Louis XV's fifth daughter, who had died four years earlier.
Sophie was born a very large baby, but her fragile health was undermined by tuberculosis. She died in Versailles after suffering five or six days of convulsions. She was only eleven months old.
Her death was a cause for much sorrow on the part of her parents. When Marie Antoinette's foster-brother, Joseph Weber, attempted to console her with the fact that given Sophie's tender age Marie Antoinette must not have grown overly attached to her, the bereaved mother is supposed to have said "Don't forget that she would have been my friend." This was a reference to her words after the birth of Sophie's older sister in 1778.
Sophie was interred in the necropolis reserved for the Kings of France, located at the Royal Basilica of Saint Denis, situated five kilometers north of Paris.
