Marie-Thérèse of Lotharingia

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Marie-Thérèse of Lotharingia
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Queen-Consort of Courland
Tenure: 1609 - 1615
Coronation: 30th of the Amber Cold, 1611
Predecessor: Lisette of Virdain
Successor: None
Born: 7th of the Sun's Smile, 1590
Metz, Kingdom of Lotharingia
Died: 29th of the Sun's Smile, 1650
Alba, Aeldin
Spouse: Joseph Staunton
House: d'Amaury
Father: John I of Lotharingia
Mother: Charlotte of Alstion

Marie-Thérèse of Lotharingia (7th of the Sun's Smile, 1590 - 29th of the Sun's Smile, 1650), also known as Marie d’Amaury, Marie of Lorraine, Madame Royale, and Maria Theresa, was a Lotharingian princess and a Queen-Consort of Courland.

She was the eldest of the “Lotharingian Sisters”, a set of three sisters from House d’Amaury that were all wed to prominent human monarchs in rapid succession.


Birth and upbringing

Marie-Thérèse was born alongside her twin brother, Lothar Augustus, on 7th of the Sun’s Smile, 1590, to John d’Amaury and Charlotte Sophia Horen. At the time of her birth, her father was but an archduke, seeing as he had not yet rebelled from Oren and created the Kingdom of Lotharingia. Nevertheless, her mother was the first Orenian princess imperial, and the d’Amaury family was arguably the wealthiest Savoyardic family of the time, so Marie still had a prestigious birth, and went on to receive an excellent education at the very exclusive and expensive finishing school for noblewomen, Brillantmont.

The Lotharingian Royal Family: l-r: 3 unnamed servants, Lothar, Hughes, Eleanor, John, Claude, Marie-Thérèse, Philip

For a very brief period of time, Marie-Thérèse was considered as a possible bride for the child king of Haense, Marius, mainly because her and her mother, Charlotte Horen, were favorites of Marius’ mother, Queen Reza Elizaveta. However, such plans were thwarted by Reza’s enemy at the Hansetian court, Prince-Regent Karl Barbanov.

Upon her father’s accession as King of Lotharingia, Marie-Thérèse was quickly recalled from Brillantmont, her Aeldinic finishing school, so that she may witness his coronation. While a young Marie-Thérèse was rather sorrowful that her favorite uncle, Emperor Philip, had to have such a horrendous death for her family to be elevated to royal status, she still found it in herself to rejoice and be merry in honor of her beloved father’s accomplishments. She, along with her mother and two sisters, organized “The Victory Ball” a couple of months after her father’s coronation, as to assemble all of the rebels of Oren so that they all may enjoy their victory together. It was at this event that her younger sister, Eleanor of Lotharingia, gave an iconic speech, and Marie-Thérèse was declared as the first Madame Royale of Lotharingia, and betrothed to the son of King Tobias of Courland, Crown-Prince Joseph.

Princess Eleanor, Princess Marie, Princess Claude, by Penelope Theodosia de Morvelyn, 1604

After her betrothal and promotion to Madame Royale, Marie-Thérèse hastily finished her schooling at Brillantmont, and even graduated as the valedictorian, in an attempt to return to Metz as soon as possible so that she may assume a full-time role at court. Immediately after her return to Lotharingian court, she quickly became a trusted advisor of her father, and the constant companion of her queenly mother. It was Marie-Thérèse, along with her mother, that personally imported court etiquette from Auvergnian courts such as those of Banardia to Lotharingia. Many of her contemporaries at court described Marie-Thérèse as being the perfect mixture of her two younger sisters: she had all of the domineering qualities of Eleanor, along with all of the gentleness of Claude. She was seemingly the perfect balance.

When her father died, Marie-Thérèse was forced to briefly assume all of the duties of a Lotharingian queen, seeing as her mother, Charlotte of Alstion, fell into a state of temporary depression after the death of the love of her life. Marie-Thérèse apparently performed her mother’s duties with ease, something that King Tobias took notice of, which eventually caused him to call for Marie to be brought to the Courlandic court to grow closer to her betrothed, his son. Immediately after Marie-Thérèse’s brief departure from Lotharingian court, Eleanor, her very own sister, instigated a plot that would see Marie’s betrothal to Crown-Prince Joseph broken. However, this plot would never come to fruition, supposedly because of Joseph’s great affection for Marie.

Days after her brother’s assassination by the hands of Anna Sophia, Marie-Thérèse immediately left Courlandic court, mustering as much support as she could along the way in the name of her brother, the young King Philip Owyn. While all other female courtiers had fled Metz to wait out the war in the Aeldinic duchy of Alba, Marie-Thérèse remained, working closely with those who supported her brother and wanted Anna Sophia dead. It was due to her great courage that her betrothed, who had now succeeded his father and became the Courlandic king, hastened marriage arrangements and quickly married Marie-Thérèse as to show his support for the House of d’Amaury in the Lotharingian civil war. It was her marriage, that came along with a great amount of Courlandic support for her brother, that tipped the war in her family’s favor, and led to the deposition of Anna Sophia.

Queen-Consort of Courland

A mere days after Anna Sophia’s defeat and the stabilization of Lotharingia with a d’Amaury at its head, Marie-Thérèse quickly made her way to the Courlandic capital of Aleksandria. On the way there, she controversially renounced her old religion, the Canonistic faith, and was baptized in the Courlandic faith. After Marie abandoned Canonism, she was welcomed by the masses of Aleksandria with great fanfare, and nearly every Aleksandrian peasant attempted to catch a glimpse of their new flaxen-haired queen. While she did enjoy great love and support from Courlandic commoners after her conversion, some nobles at the Aleksandrian court was skeptical of Marie-Thérèse’s sudden choice to embrace their religion, however, her husband made sure to dismiss any nobles who openly criticized his beloved queen. Meanwhile in Metz, her family was horrified at her denouncement of their Canonistic faith, and held several masses in her honor in an attempt to get her to convert back.

Unfortunately for Marie-Thérèse, the one person her husband could not stop from slighting her was his own sister, Princess Elizabeth Maria. The aforementioned princess refused to show Marie any kindness until she provided the kingdom with an heir. Until then, Elizabeth and her sister, Sophia Alexandra, did not address Marie-Thérèse as “Queen”, and simply referred to her as “the Lotharingian princess”, making them a group of the few in the Aleksandrian court to do so. However, Marie did not allow this to bother her, and she still assumed all of the duties of a queen, in all but name, with ease.

Thankfully, Marie-Thérèse was as fertile as her mother, and gifted her husband with child after child, including the much desired Courlandic heir, Henry Richard. After she had given birth to the aforementioned heir, her sister-in-law relented, and allowed Marie-Thérèse’s coronation as Queen-Consort of Courland.

Marie-Thérèse’s coronation was a grand affair: her hair was bound up in a great mass of intricate braids and pearls, she wore a light blue silk mantua dress that was heavily embroidered with gold thread, and her stomacher and underskirt was made of silver velvet and laced with diamonds. Upon her arrival, everyone in attendance gasped at the sight of her extremely decadent attire. It is believed that Marie said that “no matter how many jewels I adorn myself with, none compare to the one I possess above my shoulders” after she had been crowned. Many debate if she was referencing the literal crown of Courlandic queens that she had been crowned with, or perhaps, her brain.

After her brother, King Hughes Pierre, ignored the alliance between Lotharingia and Courland by aiding Courland’s enemies in The Greyspine Crisis, things in Aleksandria got terrifying for Marie-Thérèse. Even though the commoners had always adored Marie, they now they hated her for her brother’s traitorous actions, and some even openly claimed they would tear her to shreds if they ever seen her in public. For a very long time, Marie was confined to the palace, and after it was discovered that some members of the Courlandic nobility were starting to resent Marie for her brother’s betrayal, she was later kept solely in her and her husband’s apartments under a very strict guard that rotated weekly, as to avoid any guards being bribed. Regardless of the constant advice to repudiate his Lotharingian wife, King Joseph remained stalwart in his love for Marie-Thérèse, and refused to relinquish her.

When Marie-Thérèse gave birth to a set of twins during her confinement, and it became clear to the people of Courland that their king would not abandon his Lotharingian wife, the people directed their ire elsewhere, especially after Marie appeared on the palatial balcony completely alone, save for her very young five children, and bowed her head in distress to the Courlandic people.

Weeks after the Courlandic people accepted Marie back into their hearts, she went on a progress throughout the countryside with her mother-in-law, Queen-Dowager Lisette, that resulted in their capture by enemy forces. For a whole month, both Marie and Lisette were held prisoner in an iron cage that hung right in the middle of a war camp. The two queens had to endure starvation, constant taunting, and on a few occasions, the soldiers hurled feces at them. They would only be liberated after Prince Peter Sigismund Horen personally freed them and escorted them to the Courlandic border, where they would be retrieved by agents of King Joseph.

Widowhood and death

After the return of the Holy Orenian Empire, King Joseph had come to terms with the fact that his allies were few and he had lost the war. He eventually dismantled the kingdom, and created the Principality of Evreux under Oren, only for him to commit suicide shortly after. He and Marie-Thérèse’s young son, Henry Richard, succeeded him as Prince of Evreux, and Marie had decided to remain vigilant beside her son. Even though she had loved her departed husband dearly, she knew that it was not the time for widow’s tears, and she had to be strong for her son, simply because they had now found themselves in a chaotic time.

Once a rebellion broke out within her son’s newfound principality only two years into his reign, Marie-Thérèse fled alongside him and the rest of their family to safety. For a long time, Marie lived in exile, raising five children all on her own. She supported them all to the very best of her ability, going so far as to sell all her jewels, and also relying on the charity of her many relations.

Long after all of her children had matured and taken their own paths in life, Marie-Thérèse took up residence in a familiar place, the Auvergnian court of Banardia in Aeldin, where she allegedly was greeted by King Henri IV of Banardia with the cruel words “Je parie que tu veux me marier avec moi maintenant, pauvre veuve?” - a phrase that directly referenced a young Marie-Thérèse’s denial of Henri’s marriage proposal. After Marie discovered that Henri’s consort, Queen Renée-Olympe, intended to make her stay in Banardian court utterly miserable, Marie decided to simply leave Banardia and go live with her Horen relations in the Duchy of Alba, where she was forced to join the Canonistic faith once more and live out her days in an abbey amongst nuns. She died in her sleep of an unknown illness on the 29th of the Sun’s Smile, 1650.

Issue

Name Birth Death Marriage Notes
Charlotte I 18th of the Amber Cold, 1609 Alive Unwed Princess Royal, firstborn of Joseph and Marie, Queen of Courland
Prince Henry Richard 13th of the Suns Smile, 1611 Alive Unwed Prince of Everux
Alexander II 3rd of the Grand Harvest, 1613 Unknown Unwed King of Courland, Declared Missing, then Dead
Princess Alexandra Theresa 12th of the Grand Harvest, 1615 Unknown Unwed Twin to Humphrey
Prince Humphrey Godwin 12th of the Grand Harvest, 1615 Unknown Unwed Twin to Alexandra