applied to the princesses in their distress. They were highly respected by the Romans; not only by the higher orders, but by the common people, who had a horror of the French revolution, and no great partiality for that nation in general." When news came that Louis XVI and his family had left Paris on the Flight to Varennes in June, a misunderstanding first caused the impression that the escape had succeeded; at this news, "the whole of Rome shouted with joy; the crowd massed itself under the windows of the Princesses crying out: Long live the King!", and the Mesdames arranged a grand banquet for the nobility of Rome in celebration, which had to be interrupted when it was clarified that the escape had in fact failed. Upon the invasion of Italy by Revolutionary France in 1796, Adélaïde and Victoire left Rome for Naples, where Marie Antoinette's sister, Maria Carolina, was queen, and settled at the Neapolitan royal court in the Palace of Caserta. Queen Maria Carolina found their presence in Naples difficult: "I have the awful torment of harboring the two old Princesses of France with eighty persons in their retinue and every conceivable impertinence... The same ceremonies are observed in the interior of their apartments here as were formerly at Versailles." When Naples was invaded by France in 1799, they left in a Russian frigate for Corfu, and finally settled in Trieste, where Victoire died of breast cancer. Adélaïde died one year later. Their bodies were returned to France by Louis XVIII at the time of the Bourbon Restoration and buried at the Basilica of Saint-Denis. Gallery Ancestry See also Mesdames de France References Notes This article is based on a translation of the equivalent article of the French Wikipedia on 1 November 2006 Further reading Antoine, Michel, Louis XV, Librairie Arthème Fayard, Paris, 1989, (French). Castelot, André Charles X, Librairie Académique Perrin, Paris, 1988, (French). Lever, Évelyne, Louis XVI, Librairie Arthème Fayard, Paris, 1985, (French). Lever, Évelyne, Marie Antoinette, Librairie Arthème Fayard, Paris, 1991,(French). Lever, Évelyne, Louis XVIII, Librairie Arthème Fayard, Paris, 1988, (French). Zieliński, Ryszard, Polka na francuskim tronie, Czytelnik, 1978, (Polish). 1732 births 1800 deaths Peers created by Louis XVI 18th-century French women Princesses of France (Bourbon) French people of Polish descent French suo jure nobility French duchesses Burials at the Basilica of Saint-Denis Children of Louis XV Royal reburials Daughters of kings