The King's Daughters (French: filles du roi, or filles du roy in the spelling of the era) is a term used to refer to the approximately 800 young French women who immigrated to New France between 1663 and 1673 as part of a program sponsored by King Louis XIV. The program was designed to boost New France's population both by encouraging Frenchmen to move to the New World, and by promoting marriage, family formation, and the birth of French children in the colony. The term refers to those women and girls who were recruited by the government and whose travel to the colony was paid for by the king.[1][2] They were also occasionally known as the King's Wards.
- ^ Lanctot 1952, pp. 9, 102.
- ^ Gagné, Peter J. (2002). Before the King's Daughters The Filles à Marier, 1634-1662. Quintin Publications.