Was The Black Nun Of Moret Queen Maria Theresa's Illegitimate Daughter?
- Photo:
- Charles Beaubrun and Henri Beaubrun the Younger
- Wikimedia Commons
- Public Domain
The Queen's Daughter Reportedly Died, But Some Say She Was Hidden In A Convent
After four years of marriage to King Louis XIV, Maria Theresa bore a premature daughter named Marie-Anne in 1664. It's alleged the baby entered the world with dark purple skin, perhaps from being deprived of oxygen during labor. Others, however, believed the queen's African servant to be the child's father.
The queen nearly died from the difficult birth, which took place at the Louvre and was attended by many members of the court. Maria Theresa was very pious, and some think it would have been unlikely for her to have an extramarital affair, yet rumors swirled that the child survived and was hidden away in a convent.
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- Photo:
- Paolo Veronese
- Wikimedia Commons
- Public Domain
Louise Marie-Thérèse's Father Was Reportedly An African Servant Named Nabo - Or The King Himself
The true identity of Louise Marie-Thérèse's parents remains a bit mysterious, to say the least. There are those who believe the queen had an affair with her servant, an African dwarf named Nabo. During that period of time, it was fashionable and glamorous to have a dwarf as a servant. The queen and Nabo reportedly had a very close relationship, one that was perhaps also sexual in nature.
Others think Louis XIV was Louise Marie-Thérèse's father, and her mother was one of his concubines. Philosopher Voltaire believed that Sister Louise Marie-Thérèse was probably the king's illegitimate daughter, even though no evidence exists that Louis XIV had a Black mistress.
Greg Jenner, co-presenter of Inside Versailles and consultant to the BBC's Horrible Histories noted in 2016:
Perhaps Louis has had a romp with one of his servants? There were a few Black servants. There’s quite a lot of trading with North Africa, he sets up the Senegal Company. Certainly, exotic animals would have arrived for his menagerie and the women from Africa were also considered exotic and beautiful – he may have slept with them and produced a black child. So we certainly know that there is a Black baby born, probably to Louis XIV himself, who ends up in a nunnery.
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- William Paine/Library of Congress
- Wikimedia Commons
- Public Domain
Nabo Was Treated As Both A Pet And Servant To The Queen
When Nabo was between 10 and 12, the King of Arda gifted the enslaved African boy to Marie Theresa, who treated him as a plaything, jester, and later, a servant. Louis XIV's mistress Madame de Montespan wrote in her memoirs that the queen was delighted by Nabo. He wore stunning African garments, a turban, jewels, and he was often spotted under the queen's skirt.
The king reportedly did not like Nabo and mostly ignored him. Other ladies of the court were entranced by him, however, and wanted an enslaved African dwarf of their own.
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Sister Louise Marie-Thérèse Was Convinced Of Her Royal Birth
Sister Louise Marie-Thérèse picked her name when she made her vows as a nun. Her moniker combines the names of her "parents" - the Queen of France, Maria Theresa of Spain, and King Louis XIV. When Louis's second wife, Madame de Maintenon, visited the nun at the convent to confront her about her parentage, Louise Marie-Thérèse rebuked:
Madame, the fact that a lady of your rank has taken the trouble to come here with the express purpose of telling me that I am not the king’s daughter convinces me that I am.
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- Charles Le Brun/Jean de La Varende
- Wikimedia Commons
- Public Domain
King Louis XIV Sent The Nun A Regular Allowance
In 1685, Louis XIV gave instructions to provide Louise Marie-Thérèse with a regular payment of 300 pounds “to be paid to her all her life in this convent or everywhere she could be, by the guards of the Royal treasure present and to come."
Three-hundred pounds is the rough equivalent of $60,000 today, and it begs the question: why would a king care to give a Black nun a regular allowance, unless they shared some connection?
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A Gossip Writer Alleged That Members Of The Royal Family Visited The Nun
Louis de Rouvroy, duc de Saint-Simon, was a French writer and society figure, essentially a gossip columnist of his day. Saint-Simon wrote in his memoirs that several members of the royal family, including the queen and Madame de Maintenon, visited the convent at Moret on numerous occasions. The writer, however, never actually say the nun - either at her birth or during adulthood. Still, he reported that the royals visited a "Moorish woman" - Moor was used as a broad term for those of North African descent. During these visits, it was reported that the women in question was doing quite well for herself.
These visits were very mysterious, and led many to wonder about the source of the relationship between the royal family and the dark-skinned nun.
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- Pierre Mignard/Unknown
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- Public Domain
Louise Marie-Thérèse Reportedly Referred To The Prince As 'My Brother'
Sister Louise Marie-Thérèse truly believed she was the child of royalty. Saint-Simon wrote that, at one point, she referred to the prince as “my brother.” Marie-Thérèse strongly believed the two were siblings, though it's not known if they ever met.
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- Photo:
- Gilbert de Sève
- Wikimedia Commons
- Public Domain
La Grande Mademoiselle Offered The Best Evidence Of Her Heritage
Anne-Marie-Louise d’Orléans, duchess de Montpensier - AKA La Grande Mademoiselle - provided the most direct reference to the birth of Maria Theresa's mysterious child and its potential connection to Nabo. Though she was not present at the birth, her cousin - the king's brother - was, and allegedly told her of the event.
In her memoirs, she wrote:
When it was remarked that her baby resembled [the Moor], he was removed; that the little girl was horrible; that she would not live; that I must take care not to say so to the queen, nor that [the baby] would die.
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Her Portrait Was Allegedly Painted By A Royal Artist
There is a portrait of a Black nun - beleived to be Louise Marie-Thérèse - in the Bibliothèque Sainte Geneviève in Paris, France. It is believed that the artist who made the portrait was the same who made 22 pastel portraits of various kings of France, from Louis IX to Louis XIV, during the years 1681 to 1683.
Why would a king's painter take the time to memorialize a seemingly non-royal nun?
- Photo:
- Robert Frank Gabriel
- Wikimedia Commons
- CC BY 2.0
Louise Marie-Thérèse Was Reportedly Beautiful But Melancholy
Madame de Montespan wrote in her memoirs that Louise Marie-Thérèse was initially kept in the dark about her heritage to protect her from the truth. She was whisked away from court and hidden away from others. It was reportedly the king's idea to send her to a convent.
According to the memoirs, one of Madame de Monstespan's maids wrote to her sister about Louise Marie-Thérèse:
Her carriage is exactly that of the King; her body is built to perfection, and were it not for her color, the Black of which diminishes day by day, she would be one of the loveliest persons in France; she is sad and melancholy by temperament, but as I have succeeded in attracting her confidence, and diverting her as much as one can do in a purgatory like this, we dance sometimes in secret, and then you would think you saw Mademoiselle de Nantes dance and pirouette.
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- Photo:
- Hyacinthe Rigaud
- Wikimedia Commons
- Public Domain
Marie-Thérèse And Saint-Simon May Have Made Up The Whole Story
During Louise Marie-Thérèse' time, it was exceptionally rare for nuns to have dark skin. Some have theorized that Louise Marie-Thérèse made up the story of her heritage to gain even more attention. Courtiers may have heard about her tall tale and spread the gossip among themselves and others. This, in turn, may have led Saint-Simon to put the rumors in writing, because he too loved gossip. He could have even embellished things himself, as he was rarely present for the events on which he reported.
We may never know for sure whether the nun was the child of royalty, but evidence from sources both reputable and unreliable certainly hint at the possibility.
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- Photo:
- Jean Nocret
- Wikimedia Commons
- Public Domain
The Queen Passionately Loved The King, So An Affair Seems Unlikely
By all accounts, Queen Maria Theresa was in love with her husband. Some members of the court allegedly made fun of her blind devotion, because it was common knowledge that the king slept with numerous women during their marriage. The queen was also quite religious; as a devout Catholic, she would have shunned adultery, even though the king had extramarital affairs.
While it is possible loneliness may have caused the queen to seek affection elsewhere, there is stronger evidence that the child she birthed did in fact die and was not the result of an affair. The infant was born a month early, and with the rudimentary medical treatments of the time, its odds of survival seem slim.
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- Photo:
- Edwin Lord Weeks
- Wikimedia Commons
- Public Domain
She May Have Been The Daughter Of The King's Page
Another theory is that Louise Marie-Thérèse was the daughter of one of the King's Moorish servants and his wife, who was a very attractive woman. The couple and the queen both had daughters in similar time periods. Unfortunately, the Moorish couple died shortly after their infant's birth, but had made Louis XIV and Maria Theresa her godparents. They subsequently sent her to a convent and looked after her.
As an adult, Louise Marie-Thérèse was welcomed at Versailles, something that likely wouldn't have happened had she been an illegitimate child of either the king or queen. Between the seeming royal connection and the existence of this other couple, this heritage appears more likely than the oft-believed story.
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