"Zoë" Jeanne Louise Victoire

"Zoë" Jeanne Louise Victoire (born 1787) was the adopted daughter (foster child) of king Louis XVI of France and Marie Antoinette.[1]

She was the daughter of an usher and his wife, who belonged to the royal household, and had two older sisters. In 1790, she was orphaned upon the death of her sisters. Her parents were regarded to be loyal to the king and queen, so the queen took on the expenses of their orphaned children.

As Jeanne Louise Victoire was close in age to the Dauphin, Marie Antoinette decided to adopt her and keep her in the royal household so that she could function as a playmate of the Dauphin in the same manner as her elder foster daughter Ernestine Lambriquet functioned as a playmate of her daughter Marie Thérèse of France. As she had done with her previous adoptive children, the queen gave Jeanne Louise Victoire a new name: "Zoë". Her two elder sisters were, however, sent to a convent boarding school on the queen's expense.

She was the last child to be taken in as a foster child by the queen: she was preceded by Armand Gagné, Ernestine Lambriquet and Jean Amilcar.[1] She was, however, the only foster child of the queen apart from Armand and Ernestine to actually live with the royal family rather than just on the queen's expense.

Zoë was sent away by the queen to her sisters in a convent boarding school before the Flight to Varennes in 1791.[1] The expenses and fee of the girls stopped being paid when the queen was imprisoned the following year.