Lot Essay
The daughter of Stanislaus Leczinski, Duc de Lorraine and former King of Poland, Maria Karolina Zofia Felicja Leszczynska was born June 23, 1703 in Trzebnica, Poland, and became Queen of France upon her marriage to Louis XV in Strasbourg on August 15, 1725. She bore the King ten children, endured his numerous adulteries with forebearance, and eventually withdrew to Versailles to lead a pious life dedicated to charitable works. She died at the Château de Versailles on June 24, 1768 and was buried at Saint-Denis.