Marie Thérèse was born in Paris on 1 February 1666 and was the eldest daughter of Henri-Jules de Bourbon, Prince of Condé, and Anne Henriette of Bavaria.
As a member of the reigning House of Bourbon, Marie Thérèse was a princesse du sang and was known as Mademoiselle de Bourbon from birth. Marie Thérèse was raised at the Hôtel de Condé with her siblings and they were often at the mercy of their father who was mentally ill and abusive to his wife and household staff. Marie Thérèse was particularly close to her sister, Louise Bénédicte and both girls were considered to be the prettiest of the Condé daughters.
On 22 January 1688, Marie Thérèse married François Louis de Bourbon, head of the Conti cadet branch of the House of Bourbon, in the chapel of Versailles. Although Marie Thérèse was said to have been madly in love with François Louis, her feelings were not reciprocated as he was involved in a scandalous affair with Louise Françoise de Bourbon and was also said to have had affairs with men.
Despite the lack of attention from her husband, Marie Thérèse had seven children, four of whom died in infancy, but the pious Marie Thérèse would have a difficult relationship with her surviving children, mainly due to her husband’s proclivities. When François Louis died in 1709, Marie Thérèse turned her attentions to renovating the Conti residences and renewing her bond with her children.
On 9 July 1713, two of Marie Thérèse’s children were married in a double wedding ceremony at Versailles to two of the children of Louise-Françoise de Bourbon, the former mistress of François Louis. Marie Thérèse’s eldest daughter, Marie Anne, married Louis Henri, Duke of Bourbon, and her son, Louis Armand, Prince de Conti, married Louise Élisabeth de Bourbon. As a result of her son’s marriage, Marie Thérèse lost her title as Princess of Conti.
In a sad twist of fate, Marie Thérèse died of syphilis, contracted from her husband, on 22 February 1732 at the Hôtel de Conti.
Name: Marie Thérèse
House: House of Bourbon
Father: Henri Jules de Bourbon, Prince of Condé
Mother: Anne Henriette of Bavaria
Born: 01 Febr 1666
Died: 23 Jan 1753
Spouse: François Louis de Bourbon, Prince of Conti
Name: Marie Anne
Born: 18 Apr 1689
Died: 21 Mar 1720
Spouse: Louis Henri, Duke of Bourbon
Born: 18 Nov 1693
Died: 22 Nov 1693
Name: Prince de La Roche-sur-Yon
Born: 01 Dec 1694
Died: 25 Apr 1698
Name: Louis Armand II
Born: 10 Nov 1695
Died: 04 May 1727
Spouse: Louise Élisabeth de Bourbon
Name: Louise Adélaïde
Born: 02 Nov 1696
Died: 20 Nov 1750
Name: Mademoiselle d’Alais
Born: 09 Nov 1697
Died: 13 Aug 1699
Name: Louis François
Born: 27 Jul 1703
Died: 21 Jan 1704