Background
Marie Anne Éléonore was born at the Palace of Versailles to the Duke and Duchess of Bourbon. In her early years she was close to her mother but was later replaced by her sister Louise Élisabeth de Bourbon.
Marie Anne Éléonore was born at the Palace of Versailles to the Duke and Duchess of Bourbon. In her early years she was close to her mother but was later replaced by her sister Louise Élisabeth de Bourbon.
She was the Abbess of Saint-Antoine-des-Champs, an abbey in the Villejuif suburb of Paris. Her father was the grandson of le Grand Condé and her mother, Louise-Françoise de Bourbon was the eldest surviving daughter of Louis XIV of France and his Maîtresse-en-titre, Madame de Montespan. On 6 May 1706 at the age of 16, she was made a nun at the Royal Abbey of Fontevraud in Anjou.
She was later made the Abbess of Saint-Antoine-des-Champs in 1723 and was known as Madame de Bourbon.
Saint-Antoine-des-Champs had been an abbey since the 13th century. Dying in the Parisian suburb of Villejuif, she was buried at the Abbey of Saint-Antoine-des-Champs.
The Abbey at Saint-Antoine is now the home of the Hôpital Saint-Antoine outside Paris. Titles and styles
22 December 1690 – 6 May 1706 Her Serene Highness Mademoiselle de Bourbon
1723 – 30 August 1760 Her Serene Highness Madame de Bourbon.
As a member of the reigning House of Bourbon, she was a princesse du sang ("princess of the blood") and was allowed the style of Serene Highness.