Louise Marie-Thérèse, also known as The Black Nun of Moret (c. 1658 – 1730), was a French nun and the subject of accounts from the 18th century in which she was dubiously claimed to be the daughter of the Queen of France, Maria Theresa of Spain. Her existence is mentioned in several different sources.
Louise Marie-Thérèse | |
|---|---|
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| Born | 1664 |
| Died | 1732 (aged 67–68) |
Louise Marie Thérèse (1664–1732), known as the Black Nun of Moret, was a Benedictine nun of French royal descent.[1] She was also called the "Mauresse de Moret" ("Mooress of Moret"), and a portrait of her exists in the Bibliothèque Sainte Geneviève in Paris.[1]
Her birth was the result of an affair between Queen Marie-Thérèse and a little person named Nabo, who was enslaved by the Queen.[1] As an enslaved man and a little person, Louise Marie Thérèse's father was often paraded around and objectified for the amusement of the Queen and the ladies of the court.[1]
As an adult Louise Marie-Thérèse joined a convent at the abbey of Notre-Dame of the Nativity Catholic Church in Moret-sur-Loing.[1] While her existence was concealed in an attempt to recover the reputation of Queen Marie-Thérèse, she maintained a close relationship to the royal family. [1]
Her existence is mentioned in the Memoirs of Mademoiselle de Montpensier, Memoirs of Madame de Montespan, and Memoirs of the duc de Saint-Simon.[2][3][4]
History
Her Birth
Queen Marie-Therese was deeply troubled by her relationship with King Louis XIV, who was a known philanderer.[1] Historians say it is perhaps because of this that she engaged in sexual intercourse with a little person named Nabo, who was enslaved to her.[1] Since the late middle ages enslaved people of African descent were regally meant to be free if they were in France.[5] However, in practice slavery was still present in France and through other means legalized.[5]
Upon giving birth to her daughter, who was visibly of African descent, the Queen created many excuses for why her daughter did not look white.[1] Among those excuses were her diet while pregnant, negative thoughts during pregnancy, and claims that lustful looks from Nabo could change the skin color of her child.[1]
Because people within the court were able to discern that Nabo was the true father of Louise Marie-Thérèse he was murdered and his presence was erased from the court.[1] In order to punish the Queen for her affair, King Louis XIV forbid her from seeing her father.[1]
Childhood
While Louise Marie-Thérèse originally spent some time with her mother after being born, she was later send to the suburbs of Paris to be raised by another family. [1] She lived there for twenty years under the financial support of the royal family.[1]
Adulthood and Life in the Convent
In 1695 Louise Marie-Therese entered the convent at the abbey of Notre-Dame of the Nativity Catholic Church in Moret-sur-Loing.[1] Therefore, where she lived remained relatively close to Paris. Entrance to the Benedictine order was highly selective, favoring those of high status and often blocking the entrance of those of low status.[6] The royal family attended the ceremony for taking her vows into the convent.[1]
At the convent she was treated well, and even given special attention. In convent life, your status outside of the Church was important, having great influence on the well being of their life inside the convent.[7] It was both known and made known to the other nuns, including the Mother Superior, that she was the daughter of the Queen through the interventions of both the royal family and the boasting of Louise Marie-Thérèse.[1]
During this time period women of African descent were not allowed to be nuns, and if they did enter a convent it was usually to conduct work as a domestic servant.[8] However, Louise Marie-Thérèse enjoyed a privileged life within the abbey as a nun.[1] She got along well with the other nuns, besides some who became irritated with her boasts about her royal heritage and close relationship with her half-brother.[1] There are no official accounts of her having tried to leave the convent or expressing dissatisfaction with the convent life.[1]
Her Relationship with the Royal Family
Entering a child into the convent was typically a means to avoid paying larger dowries for daughters,[7] yet Louise Marie-Thérèse was sent to the convent to obscure her existence.[1] However, joining the convent did not mark the end of Louise Marie-Thérèse's relationship with the royal family. King Louis XIV, though not her father, sent a letter to the Mother Superior of the abbey sending and promising a 300 pound dowry for Louise Marie-Therese.[1] This practice of giving dowries when women entered convents had been banned but continued on.[6] King Louis XIV also visited her once while her brother, Louis Dauphin, was a regular visitor to her at the convent.[1] Furthermore, she was sometimes visited by other dignitaries.[1]
Her Portrait
Research conducted by the Société de l'histoire de Paris et d'Ile-de-France, published in 1924 by Honoré Champion éditions, concluded that this pastel portrait was painted around 1680 by the same hand which painted the series of 22 pastel portraits of Kings of France, from Louis IX to Louis XIV, between 1681 and 1683 on the initiative of Father Claude Du Molinet (1620–1687), librarian of Sainte Geneviève abbey.[9]
False Rumors of her Parentage
There are many false beliefs surrounding the parentage of Louise Marie-Therese. Voltaire suggested, in 1751, that Louise was likely one of many illegitimate children of King Louis XIV.[10] Others at the time suggested that Louise fabricated the story.[10] There are further claims by some historians that the actual daughter of Queen Marie Therese was a Marie-Anne who died in childbirth.[10] Different accounts of her birth origin, such as birth complications resulting in a purple child (meaning deceased), were a result of officials trying to conceal the truth of the affair.[1]
The duc de Luynes claimed that she was the daughter of two black gardeners, too poor to educate her, who applied to Mme. de Maintenon for patronage.[11]
Legacy and impact
In 1978, French writer Pierre-Marie Dijol published the book Nabo, ou le Masque de Fer, in which he claimed that the nun's father was Nabo, Queen Maria Theresa's dwarf black page, who was removed from court by order of the king soon after Louise Marie-Thérèse's birth, and incarcerated as the Man in the Iron Mask, under the pseudonym of "Eustache Dauger".[12]
The circumstances surrounding Louise Marie-Thérèse's birth are portrayed in the first three episodes of the TV drama series Versailles, which premiered in France on 16 November 2015. In the programme she is the illegitimate daughter of Queen Maria Theresa and Prince Annaba from Assinia.[13] In the show, Nabo the dwarf was blamed and was later found dead in the fountain in front of the palace, implying he was the father and either killed to keep the secret or out of Louis' vengeance for cuckolding him under his own roof. Later the child was used as a bargaining chip to gain trade routes in Assinia, and was taken by the Prince (now King) to Assinia.[13]
References
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y Touré, Diala (2015). "Portrait of Louise Marie-Therese". Galerie Myrtis Fine Art & Advisory.
- ^ d'Orléans, Anne Marie Louise (1848). Memoirs of Mademoiselle de Montpensier, grand-daughter of Henri Quatre, and niece of Queen Henrietta-Maria. New York Public Library: London, H. Colburn. LCCN 04008152. Retrieved March 29, 2025.
- ^ de Rochechouart de Mortemart, Françoise-Athénaïs (1899). Memoirs of Madame de Montespan. The Internet Archive: L.C. Page and Company. Retrieved March 29, 2025.
- ^ de Rouvroy, Louis (1964). Memoirs of the duc de Saint-Simon. New York Public Library: London B.T. Batsford. Retrieved March 29, 2025.
- ^ a b Sarti, Raffaella (2021). "From Slaves and Servants to Citizens? Regulating Dependency, Race, and Gender in Revolutionary France and the French West Indies". International Review of Social History. 67 (1): 65–95. doi:10.1017/S0020859021000432. ISSN 0020-8590.
- ^ a b Clark, James G. (2011). The Benedictines in the Middle Ages. Boydell Press. ISBN 978-1-84383-623-0.
- ^ a b Rapley, Elizabeth (1994). "Women and the Religious Vocation in Seventeenth-Century France". French Historical Studies. 18 (3): 613–631. doi:10.2307/286686. ISSN 0016-1071.
- ^ Williams, Shannen Dee (2016). "Forgotten Habits, Lost Vocations: Black Nuns, Contested Memories, and the 19th Century Struggle to Desegregate U.S. Catholic Religious Life". The Journal of African American History. 101 (3): 231–260. doi:10.5323/jafriamerhist.101.3.0231. ISSN 1548-1867.
- ^ Honoré Champion, ed. (1924). Mémoires de la Société de l'histoire de Paris et de l'Île-de-France (in French). Vol. 47. Société de l'histoire de Paris et de l'Ile-de-France (France).
- ^ a b c Hall, Lucy B.; Weissman, Anna L.; Shepherd, Laura J. (2020). Troubling Motherhood: Maternality in Global Politics. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-093918-2.
- ^ La Roche, concierge de la Ménagerie, avait un couple de Maures qui avaient une petite fille et qu'embarrassé, le couple en parla à Madame de Maintenon qui la plaça dans le couvent de Moret, par charité, et en la recommandant vivement.
- ^ Dijol, Pierre-Marie (1978). Nabo, ou le Masque de Fer (hardcover) (in French). Paris: France Empire.
- ^ a b "BBC2 Versailles".