[5] Instead, the King of France and his mistress Madame de Pompadour wanted to open up diplomatic channels.

[8] France and Saxony had been on opposing sides in the recent War of the Austrian Succession and thus the marriage between the Saxon princess and the Dauphin would form a new alliance between the two nations.

[9] There was one problem with the suggested bride: Maria Josepha's father Augustus III of Poland had deposed Stanislaus I Leszczyński from the Polish throne.

Despite Maria Josepha being the patient wife, the Dauphin's grief worsened in April 1748 when his only child with the Infanta died at the age of two.

[16] The new Dauphine was very grateful to Madame de Pompadour for helping arrange her marriage,[17] and always maintained a good relationship with the royal mistress.

The couple's first child was a daughter, born in 1750 on the feast day of Saint Zephyrinus and named Marie Zéphyrine.

The Dauphin was at the center of the Dévots,[30] a group of religious-minded men who hoped to gain power when he succeeded to the throne.

Her father-in-law named his loving daughter-in-law la triste Pepa; in 1756, Frederick II of Prussia invaded her native Saxony and that started the Seven Years' War, which France later joined.

There, the king visited her more than he had in the past, paid her many kind attentions, and discussed with her the possible wedding of her son, the new dauphin.

[34] The marriage of her son, the future Louis XVl, with Maria Theresa's daughter Marie Antoinette was celebrated three years later.