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Wednesday, March 11, 2026

Illness in the Temple

Both of Marie-Antoinette's children fell sick while in the Temple prison. From Vive la Reine:

Madame Royale treated by the physician Brunier on January 24th, 1793 by Jean-Baptiste Mallet Grasse (1759-1835). [source: Artcurial, via Auction.fr]
 
This painting depicts the physician who was allowed to come into the Temple and treat Madame Royale, who became ill in the days following her father’s execution.
But nothing was able to calm the anguish of my mother–we could make no hope of any sort enter her heart; she was indifferent whether she lived or died. She looked at us sometimes with a pity that made us shudder. Happily, grief increased my illness, and that occupied her. My own doctor, Brunier, and the surgeon La Caze were brought, and they cured me in a month.

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