18 September 1707
From the Letters of Madame de Maintenon and the Princesse des Ursins
On this day, the Princesse des Ursins writes from Madrid to Mme de Maintenon at Versailles. It is a long letter covering many topics. The happiest topic is the reaction in France to the birth of a son to the King and Queen of Spain:
“Your reply about the Queen’s delivery, Madame, only arrived yesterday. It shows me the joy that the birth of the Prince of Asturias gave to the whole court. Although I did not doubt that such would be the case, it did not fail to give me great pleasure, for I like very much that you are attentive to everything that regards Their Catholic Majesties, who are as much your own children as those you see everyday. The Duke of Alba has given a very good account to the Catholic King of the joy that he noted in all of the royal family, starting with the King and on to everyone else. He did not omit a circumstance by which the Queen was very touched, which was, Madame, that when the ambassador announced to the King that he was the great-grandfather of a Prince of Asturias, His Majesty’s first instinct was to ask after the Queen’s health. You would not believe how touched she was by this attention that came from the heart. Monseigneur did the same and Her Majesty was just as touched. It is not only you, Madame, you have done me the honour of writing to me about the transports of the Duke and Duchess of Alba. A thousand people have let me know how delighted both husband and wife were, throwing everything out of the windows, and not finding enough ways to show the public the extent of their satisfaction with this happy event…”
The letter continues in the same vein before moving on to other business related to the ongoing War of the Spanish Succession.
Commentary:
Mme des Ursins, the French widow of a Roman prince (Ursins = Orsini), is Louis XIV’s chief agent at the court of his grandson, Philip V, born Duc d’Anjou at Versailles. Mme des Ursins’ official position is camarera mayor, or chief lady-in-waiting, to Philip’s consort, Queen Marie-Louise. Unofficially, she is the power behind the throne since she has the Queen’s ear and the Queen has the King’s.
Pictured: Marie-Louise-Gabrielle de Savoie (1688-1714), Queen of Spain as the consort of Philip V. She is remembered in her adopted country as Doña Maria Luisa de Saboya. Her elder sister is married to Philip V’s elder brother, at this date the Duc de Bourgogne. The portrait is by Marìa Leuel.
Mme des Ursins refers to Philip V as the Catholic King and to the Spanish royal couple as Their Catholic Majesties because that has been the royal style since Ferdinand and Isabella completed the Christian reconquest of all of Spain in 1492, but also to distinguish grandfather and grandson. Louis XIV is simply ‘the King.’ She can refer to the Queen of Spain simply as ‘the Queen’ because there is no queen in France at this time. Mme de Maintenon is married to Louis XIV, but secretly.
Pictured: Louis I (1707-1724), Prince of Asturias from his birth until January, 1724, and then King of Spain until his death in August of the same year. This portrait is by Houasse.
The baby boy whose birth has caused such transports of joy at the French court is the future Louis I of Spain. He was born on 25 August. The heir(ess) to the throne of Spain is customarily titled Prince(ss) of Asturias. The present Princess of Asturias is the Infanta Leonor, the elder daughter of Philip VI, King of Spain since 2014.
The Duke of Alba mentioned here is Antonio Martín Álvarez de Toledo y Guzmán, the 9th Duke of Alba de Tormes (1669-1711). He is the Spanish ambassador to France at this date. The Duchess of Alba was born Isabel Zacarías Ponce de León, a daughter of the Duke of Arcos.
The translation from the French is my own, as it always is unless I credit someone else. If you have questions that I have not addressed in the commentary, please ask in the comments.
Those are both splendid renderings of the clothing...especially the dress!