Armand Gagné

The story as to how the adoption came about became a well-known anecdote. One day in 1776, Marie Antoinette's carriage was close to run over a five-year-old little boy on the road. The carriage stopped, the boy was saved, and Marie Antoinette became so delighted with his appearance that she took him with her. The boy was not willing to go and did not wish to be taken away from his grandmother, but Marie Antoinette formally "adopted" him (that is, he became her foster child).

He was an orphan, and he and his three elder siblings were being taken care of by his poor grandmother, who was grateful to the queen for the financial assistance she was able to provide the poor family. The queen gave the boy a new name: Armand, which was the name of the son of her favorite, Madame de Polignac. His biological family also benefitted from the adoption: a musical education was financed for his brother Denis Gagné, who was employed as a cellist in the royal orchestra in 1787, and monetary gifts given to his sisters Louise Marie Gagné and Marie Madeleine Gagné until the 10 of August 1792.

Armand was the first child the king and queen adopted, but he was not to be the last: he was followed by Ernestine Lambriquet in 1778; Jean Amilcar (c. 1781 – 1793) in 1787; a Senegalese slave boy given to the queen as a present by Chevalier de Boufflers in 1787, but whom she instead had freed, baptized, adopted and placed in a pension; and "Zoë" Jeanne Louise Victoire (b. 1787), who was adopted in 1790 along with her two older sisters when her parents, an usher and his wife in service of the king, had died.[1] Armand, Ernestine and Zoë were, however, the only ones among the queen's foster children to actually live with the royal family rather than to just live on the expense.[1]

Armand was taken to live with the queen and was consequently raised at the royal court. As his foster sister Ernestine who followed a couple of years later, he was a constant part of the intimate private life of the royal family and was treated as them in private, but he was not a formal part of the royal court; he was not treated as a prince and his presence at court was an informal one.

Armand Gagné was described as very spoiled by the queen. and reportedly developed a fierce temper. He had been adopted against his will, was very unwilling to leave his grandmother, and appears to have developed a bad relationship to his adoptive parents.

On the outbreak of the French Revolution of 1789, Gagné, who came to have republican sympathies, left his foster family. He joined the revolutionary army, and was killed in the Battle of Jemappes in November 1792.