Sophie-Béatrix was the 4th child of Marie Antoinette and Louis XVI, who died around her first year of life... but she hardly appears in family portraits and is not usually mentionned...

does everyone know why she is so little known other than her early death.?
there are many princes and princesses that died at a very young age and are at least mentioned as son or daughter of X, wereas in this case, talking about MA and L XVI is mentionned in a few biographies...

When Spohie died in 1787 she was too young (1 year), and nobody spoke about it unfortunately...

Yes, alas she was painted out of the maternal portrait:



The Dauphin points to the empty cradle.

I've read that her death was due to tubercolosis of the bones... This child of M.A. always had a poor health, and her conditions were probably linked to the stress suffered by the Queen during her pregnancy: infact that was the period of the necklace affair Not a very beautiful moment for the poor M.A.

A similar thought on Louis-Charles's death too.

Perhaps it was an hereditary disease...

I didn't know one could have tuberculosis in the bones... anyway, I guess the main reason why there's hardly any mention of her was because her death was so upsetting for Marie Antoinette, especially because she was such a loving mother who wanted the best of everything for her children....it makes me so sad to think of what happened to them at the end...

I read in Wikipedia that Sophie died due to convulsions from her baby teeth coming in. Something I've never heard of.

Also from Wikipedia...
"Instead, she turned to the care of the dying Dauphin, who finally passed at Meudon, with the queen at his side, on June 4, aged seven. His death, which would have normally been nationally mourned, was virtually ignored by the French people, who were instead preparing for the next meeting of the Estates General and the solution to the bread prices."

Even though Louis-Joseph's death occured two years after Sophie's birth, perhaps it is also the expaination to why there is little known about Sophie.

The one quote that I had read regarding baby Sophie was from Marie-Antoinette's brother, who basically said it was good she was so young, as she would hardly be missed..... OBVIOUSLY he was a real feeling kind of guy - as any Mother knows from the moment you feel your baby kick inside of you, you are bonded unbelievably. I adore my hubby, but have always contended that I never "really" knew how much I could love someone until I held my first baby in my arms. I have a 10 month old baby girl (and twin boys, who are four) and to lose ANY of them (even the baby, under a year) would be an unsurmountable loss. NO children are destined to die before their parents - bad health care in that time period, no doubt was the cause for many infant deaths. Sadly, I believe that's why so many families were large, as it was assumed all babies would not live to see adulthood.

Well, as sad as it must have been to MA as for any mother in any time to lose a child, in those days mothers where more accepting than nowadays as it was nothing of unusual that one or two children died young as they didn't enjoy the medical possibilities we do today. Of course it must have been terribly hard, but most mothers of that time had to pass through it sometime so it was kind of more expectable than nowadays.

it is very saddening to lose your children. I have good friends who had just recently lost their firstborn son and only child tragically in an accident that claimed his life at only 17 months old. His mother was unaware of this for she was also critically injured in multiple places and is still undergoing surgeries since early February. His father, a former neighbor and roommate of my husbands, was hurt too and was immediately given surgery same day, but was in stable condition, and found out a couple of days later about his son. She didn't find out til 2 1/2 months later that her son died. So tragic. It was pretty big news for many church ministries and Christians...
http://www.presstelegram.com/ci_8180634 ... rss_viewed
http://cbs4denver.com/local/Sward.Jorda ... 46682.html
http://cbs4denver.com/local/accident.cr ... 45533.html

so sad :[

I believe she is hardly mentioned b/c a) she was girl b) it was common for children to die young, therefore it was unsurprising and not as tragic as one might think today and c) she was too young to be of any use to the state (ie. used for political marriages) and so I think her death was best left to for only the Royal family to grieve over.

For someone who loved children so much, I'm sure MA was heartbroken over that, but life moves on.

Not necessarily. Time may move forward, but some who experience this kind of anguish and heartache are never able to move on.
There is nothing that can "prepare" a mother for the death of her child - it is a profoundly life altering experience. There are people who can never overcome their grief.
I think that Sophie is mentioned - but she was only alive for a short period of time, so not much to tell. And after she died and the dauphin's bad health, things really did start to spiral out of control. Marie Antoinette was probably not even over grieving for her baby Sophie - then the dauphin died. She must have still been almost crazy with grief when the Paris mob came to Versailles on October 5, 1789.