Les Filles du Roi, or The King’s Daughters, arrived in New France between 1663-1667 with the mission to repopulate the province.
King Louis XIV provided about 800-1000 young women mostly in their 20’s with dowries, clothes, supplies, and a place to live with the nuns.
These women boarded ships to the New World, leaving behind everything they knew in France. They suffered terrible conditions on these ships, from a lack of proper hygiene to the looming risk of sickness. If that weren’t enough, they also faced possible death on the very ship bringing them to new opportunities.
We today cannot imagine how uncomfortable these conditions must have been for months on end. Once onboard, these young women had no other choice but to tough it out on the dreadful, long voyage.
Boarding the ships into the unknown shows us their determination to leave their less fortunate lives in France. All for the chance of making a life in a land they never knew.
Through historical accounts, we can only get a glimpse of the challenging lives of these women. From history and current forms of storytelling, we can gather lessons from the past that can enlighten our modern times.
