On November 1, 1661, a significant event took place - Queen Marie-Teresa, the shy wife of the French monarch Louis XIV, began fighting. The royal court was immediately notified of this, and the queen's chambers began to fill with dukes and countesses. The birth of a royal child was considered a very important event, therefore representatives of the most influential families should have been present. The crowd of courtiers ensured that no one would substitute a dead child for a living one, or a girl for a boy, the long-awaited heir. It is clear that such a large number of people did not ease the queen's suffering.
Dance and pandemonium
Outside the palace, a carnival-like atmosphere reigned. Spanish actors danced under the royal windows to the music of an orchestra of harps, guitars and castanets to remind Marie Teresa of her homeland. We hope these sounds distracted the queen from the painful process, although she kept repeating in her native language: "I don't want to give birth, I want to die."
And her desire is understandable. Childbirth was a terrible and deadly test for women and children themselves, because in that era, medicine was practically not developed. Deaths from infection were extremely common. One in three children in France died before the age of one. And Maria Teresa herself was under tremendous pressure, she needed to give birth to a living male child who would become the heir to the Bourbons.
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After 12 hours of incredible torment, the queen finally gave birth to a healthy, full-fledged boy, who was named Louis de France. The courtiers in the inner rooms signaled the sex of the child to those in the outer chambers by tossing their hats up. If a girl was born, they would have crossed their arms. King Louis XIV, "King of the Sun", shouted to his subjects, who filled the entire lower courtyard, out the window: "The Queen has given birth to a boy!"
Many queens began to feel pressure from their spouses and courtiers almost immediately after the wedding - from them, first of all, they expected the birth of an heir.
According to Randy Hutter Epstein, creator of Childbirth from the Garden of Eden to the Sperm Bank, the 16th century French queen Catherine de 'Medici wanted to get pregnant so badly that she even turned to traditional healers. And they gave very strange advice, for example, "Drink urine mixed with cow dung and ground deer antlers."
Marie antoinette
However, the most difficult thing began after a successful conception. Pregnant queens were monitored constantly. Probably no childbirth was as expected as the birth of a child of Queen Marie Antoinette in 1778. Despite the fact that her mother, Empress Marie-Teresa, abolished public childbirth in Austria, where the rules were, Marie-Antoinette was unable to change the ingrained customs of Versailles. In the early morning of December 19, the Queen rang the bell, signaling the start of labor.
After that, Versailles plunged into chaos, as numerous courtiers rushed towards the queen's chambers, as Fraser writes in Marie Antoinette: A Journey. Most of the crowd remained in the outer rooms, but due to the confusion, some were able to get into the interior. Some royal observers even managed to climb higher in order to better see everything that was happening.
The girls stayed with their mothers
With all this excitement, the queen herself faded into the background. After about 12 hours, the exhausted queen gave birth to a little girl named Maria Teresa, who received this name in honor of her grandmother. Of course, the child was not such a welcome boy, but the queen's chambers still heard incredible cries of congratulations, and a noise of jubilation began. The turmoil caused Marie Antoinette to have a seizure and fainted.
“The incredible number of people, the intense heat, and the lack of fresh air in the rooms, the windows of which were closed during the long winter months to prevent the cold, was all too much for a woman who suffered for 12 hours,” says Fraser. However, it took some time before they noticed that the queen had lost consciousness. In the end, those present simply opened the sealed windows, and a rush of fresh air revived the queen.
For the next 18 days, Marie Antoinette remained in bed. Since her child turned out to be a girl, the queen could spend a lot of time with her. “The son would belong to the state from the cradle. And you will be with me, take care of me, share happiness and sorrow with me,”- this is how she addressed her daughter.
Catherine the Great
The future Catherine the Great, who soon after would become the Russian empress, in 1754 was locked by Elizabeth for almost a month in two small rooms in the Summer Palace. These were completely isolated rooms, which could only be entered by attendants and servants.
Immediately after Catherine gave birth to her son Paul, Empress Elizabeth took her new heir from her. Peter, her husband, who suffered from a mental disorder, also left his wife.
The exhausted Catherine was left alone for more than three hours without water or help. Apparently, trying to get up, she fell out of bed and lay on the floor for several hours. She was rescued by a returning midwife. Catherine was put on a bed and then locked in the same room for several months. Separated from the child, Katerina all this time was preparing her revenge.
Relief of suffering
However, there have been attempts, albeit unsuccessful, to alleviate the suffering of women during childbirth.
The formidable Margaret Beaufort, who gave her husband an heir, and England, King Henry VII, experienced a terrible birth at a very young age - she was only 13 years old, and at that time she was on the run due to the ongoing War of the Roses. Perhaps it was because of this that this queen never had children. Childbirth caused her not only mental, but also physical trauma.
When her son became king, Margaret established a careful protocol to be followed for the birth of all of her grandchildren. According to this law, men were not allowed to enter a woman's chambers during childbirth. In addition, the room must have one window through which light will constantly penetrate. If a woman survives childbirth, then she will have 40 days to recover, and no one, except the servants, has the right to enter her.
Health care
Although maternal and infant mortality remained very high for all social strata of society, members of the royal family had access to the latest medical developments that ordinary mortals were denied. The midwife profession, precisely as a medical worker, originated in 17th century France, and queens tried to find the most experienced of them. The nobility also had access to a promising new development - the midwife forceps, invented in the 17th century. The Chamberlains, a French clan of Huguenot midwives renowned for their success in recovering babies trapped in the birth canal.
Premature birth
According to Epstein, a member of the Chamberlain family, Hugh, played a role in the most talked about royal births of the 17th century. In 1688, Mary Beatrice, the Catholic wife of the English king James II, began a premature birth - she was only six months old. Protestants in England - especially James' two heiresses from his first wife, Anna and Mary - were unhappy with the marriage and were very afraid of the birth of a boy heir, which would deprive women of the opportunity to inherit power.
There were many witnesses in the room where the woman gave birth.
Hugh, who was called in as an obstetrician, arrived too late. A child named James has already been born. Hugh asked those present to confirm that the Queen had given birth to this particular child. Those who gathered confirmed.
But many Protestants, including Anna and Mary, refused to believe that the heir had indeed survived. The swap rumor was one of the main reasons James II was overthrown.
Anastasia Khvostova