| Élisabeth Charlotte d'Orléans | |
|---|---|
| Princess of Commercy | |
 Portrait by the workshop ofPierre Gobert | |
| Duchess consort of Lorraine | |
| Tenure | 13 October 1698 – 27 March 1729 |
| Born | (1676-09-13)13 September 1676 Château de Saint-Cloud,Kingdom of France |
| Died | 23 December 1744(1744-12-23) (aged 68) Château de Commercy,Duchy of Lorraine,Holy Roman Empire |
| Burial | |
| Spouse | |
| Issue Detail | |
| House | Orléans |
| Father | Philippe I, Duke of Orléans |
| Mother | Elisabeth Charlotte of the Palatinate |
Élisabeth Charlotte d'Orléans (13 September 1676 – 23 December 1744) was apetite-fille de France andduchess of Lorraine and Bar by her marriage to DukeLeopold. She was regent of the duchy during the minority (1729–1730) and absence (1730–1737) of her son andsuo jure princess ofCommercy from 1737–1744. Among her children wasFrancis I, Holy Roman Emperor, the co-founder of theHouse of Habsburg-Lorraine.
Élisabeth Charlotte was born on 13 September 1676 at theChâteau de Saint-Cloud, located outside ofParis,France. She was the third child and first daughter ofPhilippe I, Duke of Orléans,Monsieur, and his second wife,Elizabeth Charlotte, Madame Palatine, the daughter ofCharles I Louis, Elector Palatine. Her father was the only sibling of KingLouis XIV. As apetite-fille de France, she was entitled to the style ofHer Royal Highness, as well as the right to an armchair in the presence of the king.[1] At birth, she was given the style of mademoiselle de Chartres, taken from the name of one of her father'sappanages. After the marriage of her two older half-sisters,Marie Louise andAnne Marie (born of the first marriage of their father toHenrietta of England), she was known as Madame Royale, according to her status as the highest-ranking unmarried princess in France.
As a child, Élisabeth Charlotte was described by her mother as 'so terribly wild' and 'rough as a boy'.[2] To her father's displeasure, she shared the frank opinions of her mother.[citation needed]
Her mother wanted her to marry as prestigiously as her sisters had. When her cousin's wife,Maria Anna, the dauphine, suggested she should marry her younger brotherJoseph Clemens of Bavaria, Élisabeth Charlotte reportedly said, 'I am not made, madam, for a younger son'.[3] Élisabeth's mother initially wanted her to marry KingWilliam III of England but him being aProtestant prevented the marriage.[citation needed]
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Joseph I, Holy Roman Emperor was also considered.[4] He was highly regarded, and the union would have been a way of reconciling the Bourbons and their traditional rivals, theHabsburgs. Her widowed cousin,Louis, Grand Dauphin was considered,[citation needed] as well as his son,Louis, Duke of Burgundy,[citation needed] and another cousin, the legitimisedLouis Auguste, Duke of Maine,[citation needed] eldest son of Louis XIV and Madame de Montespan. Élisabeth Charlotte's mother opposed any match between her children and the legitimised offspring of the king.[citation needed]
Élisabeth Charlotte was finally married on 13 October 1698 at thePalace of Fontainebleau[citation needed] toLeopold, Duke of Lorraine, son ofCharles V, Duke of Lorraine, and ArchduchessEleonora of Austria. The marriage was the result of thePeace of Ryswick, one of its conditions being that the Duchy of Lorraine, which had been the possession of France for many years, be restored to theHouse of Lorraine. Élisabeth Charlotte was an instrument to cement the peace treaty; her mother later said that her daughter 'was a victim of war'.
| House of Orléans |
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The marriage was seen as a brilliant match by the House of Lorraine, but some[clarification needed] regarded it as unworthy of apetite-fille de France.[citation needed] The bride brought adowry of 900,000livres. Because of these conflicts, some ladies of the royal family[clarification needed] used the death of a small son of the duke of Maine to attend the wedding inmourning clothes.
To everyone's surprise, what had been expected to be an unhappy union[clarification needed] turned out to be a marriage full of love and happiness; it produced fourteen children in just sixteen years. After the birth of her children, Élisabeth Charlotte showed great maternal instinct and a naturally caring character.[citation needed] Unfortunately, most of the children died young; only four survived into mature adulthood. Three of them died within a week in May 1711 due to asmallpox outbreak. The duchess, pregnant for the eleventh time, was devastated: of the ten children she had given birth to, only two were left. She would give birth to four more children, three of whom would survive to adulthood.
Élisabeth Charlotte was religiously intolerant and supported the persecution of non-Catholics. She persuaded her husband to issue many oppressive laws against Protestants andJews. During this time, over 280 religious dissenters were burned at the stake.[citation needed]
In June 1701, her father died after having a heated argument with Louis XIV at Versailles[5] about the duke of Chartres. Her brother thus became the new duke of Orléans and head of theHouse of Orléans. Her mother was left at the mercy of Louis XIV, who forbade her from going abroad.[citation needed] As a result, Élisabeth Charlotte was only able to see her mother if she went to Versailles; they maintained a correspondence, which was destroyed in a 1719 fire at theChâteau de Lunéville.
In 1708, after ten years of marriage, her husband took amistress,Anne-Marguerite de Ligniville,Princess of Beauveau-Craon. Embarrassed, Élisabeth Charlotte took her mother's advice, remained silent and lived with her husband and his mistress. Around this time, she was also ill, suffering from heavy coughing, fainting, and fevers. Ligniville remained the favourite of the duke until his death in 1729.[6]
On the death of Louis XIV in 1715, her brother became theregent of France for the five-year-old king,Louis XV. In 1718, when she briefly visited the French court, her niece,Marie Louise, Dowager Duchess of Berry gave a lavish reception in her honour atLuxembourg Palace. More than a hundredhors d'œuvres, thirty-twosoups, sixtyentrées, a hundred and thirty hot and sixty coldentremets, and many other courses were served. Almost four hundredpartridges andpheasants, eighty-twopigeons, and more than a hundredsweetbreads were used. Then, asdessert, a hundred baskets of fresh fruit, almost as muchdried fruit, fifty dishes of iced fruit and more than a hundred kinds ofcompote was given.[citation needed] Upon leaving France, her husband was accorded the style ofRoyal Highness, usually reserved for members of foreign dynasties headed by a king.[citation needed]
Her husband died in 1729, leaving his wife regent of Lorraine for their son,Francis Stephen who had been raised in Vienna. He returned home in 1730 for the investiture of his mother as regent, but then continued to live in Austria.[citation needed] During this time, Élisabeth Charlotte tried to engage her daughter,Anne Charlotte to Louis XV; this project failed due to the intrigues ofLouis Henri, Duke of Bourbon[citation needed]. She then tried to arrange a marriage for Anne Charlotte to her nephew,Louis, Duke of Orléans, who had been recently widowed, but the devout duke chose not to remarry.[citation needed]
Unable to prevent her son from giving up the duchy of Lorraine toStanisław Leszczyński when he married theHabsburg heiress,Maria Theresa, Élisabeth Charlotte moved into theChâteau de Commercy in nearbyCommercy. This commune was then made into a sovereign principality for herdowager years.[citation needed]
In 1737, her daughter,Elisabeth Therese marriedCharles Emmanuel III of Sardinia. She died in 1741, giving birth toPrince Benedetto, Duke of Chablais. On 7 January 1744 her youngest son,Prince Charles Alexander of Lorraine, marriedArchduchess Maria Anna of Austria, who died in childbirth on 16 December 1744.
Élisabeth Charlotte died of astroke at the age of sixty-eight on 23 December 1744, one week after her daughter-in-law and grandchild.[citation needed] She was the last of her siblings to die and had outlived all but three of her children. Nine months after her death, her son Francis Stephen becameHoly Roman emperor. She was buried in the funerary chapel of the dukes of Lorraine in theChurch of Saint-François-des-Cordeliers church inNancy.[citation needed]
In 1696,Charles Perrault dedicated hisLes Contes de ma mère l'Oye, (known in English as Mother Goose Tales) to her. Élisabeth Charlotte authorised the construction of a hospital inBruyères. In 1730, she offered to the church ofMattaincourt a gilded woodenshrine for the relics ofPierre Fourier, a former parish priest who had beenbeatified on 29 January 1730. The modernBasilica of Saint Pierre Fourier of Mattaincourt [fr] was built in 1853 on the site of this former church.
Élisabeth Charlotte was constantly pregnant during much of her marriage, giving birth almost once a year:
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Élisabeth Charlotte d'Orléans Cadet branch of theHouse of Bourbon Born: 13 September 1676 Died: 23 December 1744 | ||
| French nobility | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by | Mademoiselle de Chartres 1676–1698 | Succeeded by |
| French royalty | ||
| Vacant Title last held by Eleonore of Austria | Duchess consort of Lorraine and Bar 1698–1729 | Vacant Title next held by Maria Theresa of Austria |
| Preceded by New creation | Princess of Commercy 1737–1744 | Succeeded by |
