LAMBALLE, MARIE THERESE LOUISE OF SAVOY-CARIGNANO, PRINCESSE DE (1749-1792), fourth daughter of Louis Victor of Carignano (d. was born at Turin on Sept. 8, 1749. In 1767 she was married to the prince de Lamballe, son of the duke of Penthievre. Her husband dying the following year, she retired with her father-in-law to Rambouillet until she returned to court on the marriage of the dauphin. Marie Antoinette singled her out for a companion and confidante, and after her accession, in spite of the king's opposition, had her appointed superintendent of the royal household. Between 1776 and 1785 the Comtesse de Polignac succeeded in supplanting her, but when the queen became tired of the avarice of the Polignacs she turned again to Madame de Lamballe. From 1785 to the Revolution she was Marie Antoinette's closest friend and the instrument of her caprices. She came with the queen to the Tuileries and as her salon served as a meeting-place for the queen and the members of the Assembly whom she wished to gain over, the people believed her to be the soul of all the intrigues. After a visit to England in 1791 to appeal for help for the royal family she returned to the Tuileries and shared the queen's imprisonment in the Temple on Aug. Io. On Aug. 19 she was transferred to
La Force, and having refused to take the oath against the mon archy, she was on Sept. 3 delivered over to the fury of the popu lace, after which her head was placed on a pike and carried before the windows of the queen.
See George Bertin, Madame de Lamballe (i888) ; Austin Dobson, Four Frenchwomen (189o) ; B. C. Hardy, Princesse de Lamballe (Igo8) ; Comte de Lescure, La Princesse de Lamballe . . . d'apres des documents inedits (1864) ; some letters of the princess published by Ch. Schmidt in La Revolution francaise (vol. xxxix., 'goo) ; L. Lambeau, Essais sur la mort de madame la princesse de Lamballe (1902) ; Sir F. Montefiore, The Princesse de Lamballe (1896). The Secret Memoirs of the Royal Family of France . . . now first pub lished from the Journal, Letters and Conversations of the Princesse de Lamballe (2 vols., 1826) appeared in various editions in English and in French. They are attributed to Catherine Hyde, Marchioness Govion-Broglio-Solari, and are apocryphal.