On 24 January, the bride crossed the bridge of Beauvoisin between Savoy and France, where she left her Italian entourage and was welcomed by her new French retinue, who escorted her to her groom and father-in-law at the Chateau de Nangis.

[4] She was introduced to the French royal court at the Palace of Versailles by Maria Fortunata, Countess de La Marche in February, where she made a favourable impression.

The marriage was initially described as very happy, as both parties were attracted to each other's beauty; after only a few months, though, Louis Alexandre was unfaithful with two actresses, which reportedly devastated Marie Thérèse.

[6] In 1768, at the age of 19, having been married for just a year, Marie Thérèse became a widow when her husband died of a venereal disease at the Château de Louveciennes,[citation needed] nursed by his spouse and sister.

[8] She comforted him in his grief, and joined him in his extensive charitable projects at Rambouillet, an activity which earned him the name "King of the Poor" and her the nickname "The Angel of Penthièvre".

[citation needed] She, reportedly, preferred a queen who was young and beautiful but lacked ambition; who could attract and distract her father from state affairs, leaving them to Madame Adélaïde herself.

[citation needed] On 4 January 1769, there was an announcement of the marriage of Marie Thérèse's sister-in-law Mademoiselle de Penthièvre to the young Philippe d'Orléans.

In March 1771 the Austrian ambassador reported: For some time past the Dauphine has shown a great affection for the Princesse de Lamballe.

This appointment was controversial: the office had been vacant for over thirty years because the position was expensive, superfluous, and gave far too much power and influence to the bearer, giving her rank and power over all other ladies-in-waiting and requiring all orders given by any other female office holder to be confirmed by her before it could be carried out, and Marie Thérèse, though of sufficient rank to be appointed, was regarded too young, which would offend those placed under her, but the queen regarded it as just a reward for her friend.

All the same, I have taken the precaution to point out to the Queen that her favour and goodness to the Princesse de Lamballe are somewhat excessive, in order to prevent abuse of them from that quarter.

[citation needed] This incident aroused much bad publicity, thus painting Marie Thérèse as a greedy royal favourite, and her famous fainting spells were widely mocked as manipulative simulations.

[20] She was openly talked about as the favourite of the queen and was greeted almost as visiting royalty when she travelled around the country during her free time, and had many poems dedicated to her.

I believe she will always be well treated by the Queen, but she no longer possesses her entire confidence", and continued in May by reporting of "constant quarrels, in which the Princesse seemed always to be in the wrong".

[10] However, in popular anti-monarchist propaganda of the time, she was regularly portrayed in pornographic pamphlets, showing her as the queen's lesbian lover to undermine the public image of the monarchy.

[28] During the Storming of the Bastille in July 1789 and the outbreak of the French Revolution, Marie Thérèse was on a leisurely visit to Switzerland with her favourite lady-in-waiting, the Countess de Lâge, and when she returned to France in September, she stayed with her father-in-law in the countryside to nurse him while he was ill, and thus was not present at court during the Women's March on Versailles, which took place on 5 October 1789, when she was with her father-in-law in Aumale.

[10] On 7 October 1789, she was informed of the events of the Revolution and immediately joined the royal family in the Tuileries Palace in Paris, where she reassumed the duties of her office.

[citation needed] She and Madame Élisabeth shared the apartments of the Pavillon de Flore in the Tuileries Palace, in level with the queen's, and except for brief visits to her father-in-law or her villa in Passy, she settled there permanently.

Marie Thérèse found her behaviour odd enough to remark about it to M. de Clermot, before leaving the Tuileries Palace to retire to her villa in Passy.

[10] However, in October 1791, the new provisions of the Constitution came into operation, and the queen was requested to set her household in order and dismissed all office holders not in service.

"[10] During her stay at a house that she had rented in the Royal Crescent in Bath,[30] Great Britain, the princess wrote her will, because she was convinced that she risked mortal danger should she return to Paris.

[10] According to a witness, Marie Thérèse stood leaning by the queen's armchair to support her through the entire scene:[31] "Madame de Lamballe displayed even greater courage.

She was brought before a hastily assembled tribunal which demanded she "take an oath to love liberty and equality and to swear hatred to the King and the Queen and to the monarchy".

She was in the company of Madame de Tourzel until she was called into the tribunal, and the exact wording of the summary trial is stated to have consisted of the following swift interrogation: "Who are you?"

"[10] She was then quickly escorted by two guards to the door of the yard where the massacre was taking place; on her way there, the agents of her father-in-law followed and again encouraged her to swear the oath, but she appeared not to hear them.

[10] It is confirmed by several witnesses that her head was paraded through the streets on a pike and her body dragged after by a crowd of people shrieking "La Lamballe!

[10] In Antonia Fraser's historical biography, Marie Antoinette: The Journey, Fraser claims Marie Antoinette did not actually see the head of her long-time friend, but was aware of what was occurring, stating, "...the municipal officers had had the decency to close the shutters and the commissioners kept them away from the windows...one of these officers told the king '...they are trying to show you the head of Madame de Lamballe'...Mercifully, the Queen then fainted away".

[40] After this, the head and the corpse were taken by the crowd to the Palais-Royal, where the Duke of Orléans and his lover Marguerite Françoise de Buffon were entertaining a party of Englishmen for supper.

"[10] The agents of her father-in-law, who had been tasked with acquiring her remains and having them temporarily buried until they could be interred in Dreux, reportedly mixed in with the crowd in order to be able to gain possession of it.

[39] Five citizens of the local section in Paris, Hervelin, Quervelle, Pouquet, Ferrie, and Roussel delivered her body (minus her head, which was still being displayed on a pike) to the authorities shortly after her death.

[39] Royalist accounts of the incident claimed her body was displayed on the street for a full day, but this is not likely, as the official protocols explicitly state that it was brought to the authorities immediately after her death.