Marie Thérèse: the Diary of Madame Royale

Entry I

December 23rd, 1787,

Dear Diary,

You and I are gonna be good friends. I could start by telling you a lot about myself. My name is Marie Thérèse Charlotte and my parents are the Queen and King of France. You may think that it's an honor being Royalty and that I would have a huge future ahead of me, but you think wrong. There are some ups and downs to it but it is pressuring how everyone expects me to be perfect but I'm just a little girl and sometimes I wish they would see that.

I have two brothers, Louis Joseph and Louis Charles. I love them both dearly and as their older sister, I will forever protect them and love them forevermore, even if we are separated from each other

It has just been my 9th birthday but everything doesn't feel the same. My baby sister, Sophie Beatrice had just died four months ago and even if she barely got to live, I still miss her. Mother and father have been mourning but I could see that they are trying to hide it.

For one of my birthday presents, mother has given me this empty book I'm writing in. It has many pages and at first I was confused but I suppose I could use this as some sort of book for me to keep.

Life as princess of France isn't all what one is expected to know. Many of those may see it as one of the best positions to be in, but the truth is way far from what they may think. I've almost never wonder who I'm gonna marry, or even the thought of leaving my parents and brothers. I've grown up with them and I don't wanna see them once I get married, especially to a foreign prince. Maybe I shall marry for love? Mother always loves a good play about lovers. One of her most favorites was Romeo and Juliet, which she told me she knew as a child.

Sometimes my mother would take me and my brothers, Louis Joseph and Louis Charles to her small palace on the Palace of Versailles named Petit Trianon. I liked the place and I would play around with Louis Joseph. I've seen some people in court calling it Little Schönbrunn(Little Vienna) because mother wasn't from France and grew up in Austria. Although I heard it from time to time, I didn't paid too much attention to it. They would never know what true peace felt like without a lot of people watching you or following you everywhere

Yours Sincerely, Marie Thèrése