Élisabeth Charlotte d'Orléans
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| Princess Élisabeth Charlotte d'Orléans | |
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| Duchess Consort of Lorraine, Bar and of Teschen, Sovereign Princess of Commercy | |
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| Élisabeth Charlotte wearing the Bourbon Fleur-de-lis | |
| Spouse | Léopold, Duke of Lorraine |
| Issue | |
| Léopold of Lorraine Élisabeth Charlotte of Lorraine Louise Christine of Lorraine Marie of Lorraine Gabrièle Charlotte of Lorraine Louis of Lorraine Josepha Gabrièle of Lorraine Gabrièle Louise of Lorraine Léopold Clement Charles of Lorraine Francis I, Holy Roman Emperor Eléonore of Lorraine Elisabeth Teresa of Lorraine Charles Alexander Emmanuel of Lorraine |
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| Father | Philippe de France, Duke of Orléans |
| Mother | Elizabeth Charlotte of the Palatinate |
| Born | September 13, 1676 Château de Saint-Cloud, France |
| Died | December 23, 1744 (aged 68) Château de Commercy, Commercy, Lorraine, France |
Elisabeth Charlotte d'Orléans (Saint-Cloud, 13 September 1676 – Commercy, 23 December 1744), was a French princess by birth; and the Duchess Consort of Lorraine and Bar by marriage. She was a niece of Louis XIV of France and was an ancestor of the House of Habsburg-Lorraine. Her son, Prince Francis Stephen of Lorraine, later married Empress Maria Theresa of Austria and became Holy Roman Emperor; Francis and Maria Theresa were the parents of Queen Marie Antoinette of France.
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[edit] Life
Named after her mother, Élisabeth Charlotte d'Orléans was the third daughter of Philippe of France, "duc d'Orléans", known at the French court as Monsieur, younger brother of King Louis XIV of France. She was his only daughter by his second wife, Elizabeth Charlotte of the Palatinate, who was known as Madame. Her mother was a daughter of Charles I Louis, Elector Palatine. As a granddaughter of Louis XIII of France, Élisabeth Charlotte was a Petite-fille de France which entitled her to have the style of Her Royal Highness.
She was born at the Château de Saint-Cloud outside of Paris and was the last of the three children born to the Duke and his second wife. The other two were:
- Alexandre Louis d'Orléans, Duke of Valois. (2 June 1673 – 16 March 1676)
- Philippe Charles d'Orléans (2 August 1674 – 2 December 1723). Future Regent of France during Louis XV's childhood. Ancestor of Philippe Egalité, Louis Philippe I, King of the French, and of the modern Orléanist pretenders to the crown of France.
As was customary for unmarried young ladies at the French court, she was given an honorary style, Mademoiselle de Chartres, taken from the name of one of her father's appanages. After the marriage's of her older sisters, she was generally known as Madame Royale due to her status as the highest unmarried girl at the court. Her half siblings (including some stillborn children) by her father and his first wife, Princess Henrietta Anne of England were:
- Marie Louise d'Orléans (27 March 1662 – 12 February 1689); Queen of Spain as wife of Charles II of Spain)
- Philippe Charles d'Orléans, Duke of Valois (16 July 1664 – 8 December 1666)
- Anne Marie d'Orléans (27 August 1669 – 26 August 1728); maternal grandmother of Louis XV of France and ancestress of the Kings of Sardinia and Kings of Italy; the post-Stuart legitimist claim of the Jacobites to the English and Scottish thrones.
As a child, Élisabeth-Charlotte was described by her mother as 'so terribly wild' and 'rough as a boy'. [1]
[edit] Marriage
As her elder half-sisters had all married into prominent reigning families in Europe, her mother, Madame, had expected the same.[2] When her cousin's wife, Dauphine Victoire said she should marry one of her younger brothers, Élisabeth said:
I am not made, madame, for a younger son[3][unreliable source?]
As her mother despised the king's illegitimate children, the chances of such an alliance were remote. Although spared from the 'horror' of such a mismatch in rank, her brother, the duc de Chartres was not. He married Louis XIV's youngest illegitimate daughter, Françoise-Marie de Bourbon, in 1692.
Élisabeth's mother initially wanted her daughter to marry a cousin, William III of Orange, who was the widower of Mary II of England and King of England. The marriage did not materialize, however, due to religious differences. William was a Protestant.
Other candidates considered for her hand in marriage were:
- Holy Roman Emperor Joseph I
- Louis XIV's widowed heir, Monseigneur, or even Monseigneur 's son, Louis, duc de Bourgogne
- Her sister-in-law's brother, Louis-Auguste de Bourbon, duc du Maine, the eldest legitimated son of Louis XIV of France and his mistress, Madame de Montespan.
Élisabeth Charlotte finally was married on 13 October 1698 at the Palace of Fontainebleau to Leopold, Duke of Lorraine (1679–1729), son of Charles V, Duke of Lorraine and Eleonora Maria Josefa of Austria.This marriage was the result of the Treaty of Ryswick which had been partly organised by Élisabeth Charlotte's uncle; one of the conditions of the treaty was that the Duchy of Lorraine, which for many years had been in the possession of France, was restored to Leopold Joseph, a son of Charles IV, Duke of Lorraine. As such, Élisabeth Charlotte would marry the heir to Lorraine to cement the peace treaty. Her mother later said that her daughter, "was a victim of war".
[edit] Children
The ducal couple had thirteen children:
- Léopold (26 August 1699 – 2 April 1700)
- Elisabeth Charlotte (21 October 1700 – 4 May 1711)
- Louise Christine (13 November 1701 – 18 November 1701)
- Marie Gabrièle Charlotte (30 December 1702 – 11 May 1711)
- Louis (28 January 1704 – 10 May 1711)
- Josepha Gabrièle (16 February 1705 – 25 March 1708)
- Gabrièle Louise (4 March 1706 – 13 June 1710)
- Léopold Clement Charles (25 April 1707 – 4 June 1723)
- Francis Stephen (8 December 1708 – 18 August 1765)
- Eléonore (4 June 1710 – 28 July 1710)
- Elisabeth Therese (15 October 1711 – 3 July 1741), married in 1737 Charles Emmanuel III of Sardinia.
- Charles Alexander (12 December 1712 – 4 July 1780), governor of the Austrian Netherlands and army commander.
- Anne Charlotte (1714–1773), abbess at Essen.
 View of the Orléans Family circa 1679. Élisabeth leans on her mother and her brother is on the right]] |
As a surprise to all, what had been expected to be an unhappy union turned out to be marriage of love and happiness. After ten years, however, her husband turned his attentions to another, Anne-Marguerite de Lignéville, princesse de Beauvau-Craon. Embarrassed, Élisabeth Charlotte remained silent and continued to live in the Château de Lunéville, the main residence of the House of Lorraine. After her husband's liaison ended, the couple had five more children, one of whom would become the father of Marie Antoinette.
In 1701, her father died making her brother the new duc d'Orléans. Her mother was left at the mercy of Louis XIV who forbade her from visiting foreign soil. As a result, Élisabeth Charlotte was only able to see her mother when she went to Versailles. Despite this, Élisabeth Charlotte and her mother still saw each other and kept in contact through letters. Their correspondance was destroyed in a fire at the Château de Lunéville in 1719.
[edit] The Regency to 1737
On the death of her uncle Louis XIV in 1715, her elder brother, now the duc d'Orléans, became the Regent of France for the five year old King Louis XV. In 1718 during a brief visit to the French court in Paris, her niece, the duchesse de Berry, threw her a famous party at the Palais du Luxembourg which included 132 hors-d'oeuvrs, 32 soups, 60 entrées, 130 hot entremets, 60 cold entremets, 72 plats ronds, 82 pigeons, 370 partridges and pheasants and 126 sweetbreads. The dessert consisted of 100 baskets of fresh fruit, 94 baskets of dried fruit, 50 dishes of fruits glacées and 106 compotes. The event was considered one of the most lavish parties of the season[4]
Louis XV was crowned in October, 1722, two months before the death of her mother in December of the same year. Her brother died in December of the next year. Seven years later, in 1729 her husband died, leaving his wife Regent of Lorraine for her son, Francis Stephen of Lorraine. After being educated in Vienna, Francis Stephen returned to Lorraine in 1737, ending his mother's tenure as regent.
Unable to prevent her son from giving up the duchy of Lorraine to Stanisław Leszczyński when he married the Habsburg heiress, Maria Theresa of Austria, she moved into the Château d’Haroué in nearby Commercy, which was turned into a sovereign principality for her to enjoy during her dowager years. Initially, her son became the Grand Duke of Tuscany, a position that had been held by Élisabeth Charlotte's cousin Gian Gastone de' Medici until his death; Francis Stephen eventually became the Holy Roman Emperor due his marriage to Maria Theresa.
[edit] Later life
In the year 1737 her daughter, Elisabeth Teresa of Lorraine made a very prominent marriage with Charles Emmanuel III of Sardinia. He was the son of Élisabeth Charlotte's older half sister. Anne Marie of Orléans, and was the King of Sardinia and the Duke of Savoy. Elisabeth Teresa died in childbirth in 1741 after giving birth to Élisabeth Charlotte's grandson, Benedetto Maria Maurizio of Sardinia; the child was given the title of Duke of Chablais.
On 7 January 1744 her youngest son, Charles Alexander of Lorraine married Archduchess Maria Anna of Austria, the younger sisiter of Maria Theresa of Austria. The couple married for love. On 16 December 1744, Maria Anna died in childbirth after having had a daughter, who also died soon afterwards.
A week after her daughter-in-law's death, Élisabeth Charlotte also died. At the age of sixty-eight, Élisabeth Charlotte died of a stroke on 23 December 1744. She was the last of her siblings to die and had outlived ten of her thirteen children. Nine months after her death, her son Francis Stephen became Holy Roman Emperor.
[edit] Legacy
As the mother of the Holy Roman Emperor Francis I, she was an ancestor of the entire 18th and 19th century Habsburg family, as well as all those descended from Francis I and Maria Theresa. Among her descendents are Queen Marie Antoinette and Marie Louise of Austria, the wife of Napoleon Bonaparte. Élisabeth Charlotte also helped in the construction of a hospital in the town of Bruyères in Lorraine in honor of Saint Peter Fourier.
[edit] Ancestors
[edit] Notes
[edit] Titles
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Élisabeth Charlotte d'Orléans
Born: September 13 1676 Died: December 23 1744 |
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| French nobility | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by Marie Anne of Orléans daughter of Gaston, Duke of Orléans |
Mademoiselle de Chartres 1676–1698 |
Succeeded by Louise Adélaïde of Orléans |
| French royalty | ||
| Preceded by Archduchess Eleonora Maria Josefa of Austria |
Duchess of Lorraine and Bar 1698–1729 |
Succeeded by Maria Theresa of Austria |
| Preceded by New Creation |
Princess of Commercy 1737–1744 |
Succeeded by Extinct |
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