Élisabeth Charlotte of Orléans

Infobox Monarch|royal|consort
name =Élisabeth Charlotte d'Orléans
title =Duchess Consort of Lorraine, Bar and of Teschen, Sovereign Princess of Commercy


caption =Élisabeth Charlotte d'Orléans
consortreign =October 13 1698 - March 1729
spouse =Léopold I, Duke of Lorraine
issue =Léopold
Elisabeth Charlotte
Louise Christine
Marie
Gabrièle Charlotte
Louis
Josepha Gabrièle
Gabrièle Louise
Léopold Clement Charles
Francis Stephen
Eléonore
Elisabeth Therese

Charles Alexander Emmanuel
Anne Charlotte
royal house =House of Orléans
othertitles =
father =Philippe de France, duc d'Orléans
mother =Elizabeth Charlotte, Princess Palatine
date of birth =birth date|1676|9|13|mf=y
place of birth =Château de Saint-Cloud, France
date of death =death date and age|1744|12|23|1676|9|13|mf=y
place of death =Commercy, Lorraine, France|

Elisabeth Charlotte of Orléans or in its french form Élisabeth Charlotte d'Orléans, styled "Mademoiselle de Chartres" (Saint-Cloud, September 13 1676 - Commercy, December 23 1744), was a French princess and regent of the sovereign duchy of Lorraine.

Early life

Élisabeth Charlotte was the third daughter of Philippe de France, duc d'Orléans, (1640-1701), younger brother of King Louis XIV. However, this was the only daughter by his second wife, Elizabeth Charlotte, Princess Palatine (1652-1722). Her mother was a daughter of Charles I Louis, Elector Palatine. As a granddaughter of Louis XIII of France, she was a "petite-fille de France". She was born at the Château de Saint-Cloud outside of Paris on September 13, 1676. She was the last of the three children of Duc and his second wife. The other two were:

*Alexandre Louis d'Orléans, duc de Valois. (2 June 1673 – 16 March 1676)
**Died before Élisabeth was born.
*Philippe II d'Orléans (August 2 1674 – 2 December 1723).
**He would become the Regent of France during Louis XV's childhood.
**Male-line ancestor of Philippe Egalité, Louis Philippe I, King of the French, and of the modern Orléanist pretenders to the crown of France.

"Mademoiselle de Chartres"

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. Her half siblings by her father and his first wife, Princess Henrietta-Anne of England, were:

*Marie Louise d'Orléans (March 27 1662 – 12 February 1689), known as "Mademoiselle" before her marriage to Charles II of Spain.
* Philippe Charles, duc de Valois (July 16 1664 – 8 December 1666)
*A daughter born July 9 1665 ; died after.
*Anne Marie d'Orléans (August 27 1669 – 26 August 1728), known as Madame Royale before her marriage to Victor Amadeus II of Savoy, first King of Sardinia, in 1684.
**maternal grandmother of Louis XV of France
**ancestress of the Kings of Sardinia and Kings of Italy
**through her derives 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'. [Antonia Fraser: "Love and Louis XIV", p.189 ]
Her mother hoped to marry her daughter to her first cousin, the widowed "Monseigneur" or even to his son Louis Duke de Bourgogne, but neither marriage was to be.

Possible marriages

As her elder half-sisters had all married into prominent reigning families in Europe, her mother, Liselotte, had expected the same. [Antonia Fraser, Love and Louis XIV, page 247] 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" [je ne suis pas faite, madame, pour un cadet [http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%89lisabeth_Charlotte_d%27Orl%C3%A9ans] ] Verify credibility|date=May 2008

It was also suggested by some that she should marry her first cousin, Louis-Auguste de Bourbon, duc du Maine, the eldest legitimated son of Louis XIV and his mistress, Madame de Montespan. 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 the duc du Maine's younger sister, Françoise-Marie de Bourbon, in 1692. Élisabeth Charlotte married six years after her elder brother.

Marriage and children

She married on October 13 1698 at Fontainebleau Leopold, Duke of Lorraine (1679-1729), son of Charles V, Duke of Lorraine and Eleonora Maria Josefa of Austria.

The ducal couple had thirteen children:

* Léopold (26 Aug 1699 - 2 April 1700)
* Elisabeth Charlotte (21 Oct 1700 - 4 May 1711)
* Louise Christine (13 Nov 1701 - 18 Nov 1701)
* Marie Gabrièle Charlotte (30 Dec 1702 - 11 May 1711)
* Louis (28 Jan 1704 - 10 May 1711)
* Josepha Gabrièle (16 Feb 1705 - 25 Mar 1708)
* Gabrièle Louise (4 Mar 1706 - 13 June 1710)
* Léopold Clement Charles (25 April 1707 - 4 June 1723)
* Francis Stephen (8 Dec 1708 - 18 Aug 1765)
**The heir to the House of Lorraine who later married Empress Maria Theresa of Austria and became Holy Roman Emperor. They were the parents of Queen Marie Antoinette of France.
* Eléonore (4 June 1710 - 28 July 1710)
* Elisabeth Therese (15 Oct 1711 - 3 July 1741), married in 1737 Charles Emmanuel III of Sardinia.
* Prince Charles Alexander of Lorraine (12 Dec 1712 - 4 July 1780), governor of the Austrian Netherlands and army commander.
* Anne Charlotte (1714 - 1773), abbess at Essen.

As a surprise to all, what had been expected to be an unhappy union turned out to be marriage of love and happiness.Fact|date=May 2008 After ten years, however, her husband turned his attentions to another, Anne-Marguerite de Lignéville, princesse de Beauvau-Craon. Embarrassed, the duchess 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.

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, and the era of his rule is known as the Regency. 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, François Stephen of Lorraine. After being educated in Vienna, he 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 erected into a sovereign principality for her to enjoy during her dowager years.

Later life

Élisabeth Charlotte died, at the age of 68, following a stroke on December 23, 1744. She was the last of her siblings to die and outlived ten of her thirteen children. Nine months after her death, her son François-Stephen became the Holy Roman Emperor.

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 they all descended from Francis I and Maria Theresa. Amongst them are Queen Marie Antoinette and Marie-Louise of Austria, the wife of Napoleon Bonaparte.

Ancestors

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1= 1. Élisabeth Charlotte of Orléans
2= 2. Philippe I, Duke of Orléans
3= 3. Elizabeth Charlotte, Princess Palatine
4= 4. Louis XIII of France
5= 5. Anne of Austria
6= 6. Charles I Louis, Elector Palatine
7= 7. Charlotte of Hesse-Kassel (or Hesse-Cassel)
8= 8. Henry IV of France
9= 9. Marie de' Medici
10= 10. Philip III of Spain
11= 11. Margaret of Austria
12= 12. Frederick V, Elector Palatine
13= 13. Elizabeth Stuart
14= 14. William V, Landgrave of Hesse-Kassel (or Hesse-Cassel)
15= 15. Amalie Elisabeth of Hanau-Münzenberg
16= 16. Antoine de Bourbon, Duke of Vendôme
17= 17. Jeanne III of Navarre
18= 18. Francesco I de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany
19= 19. Johanna of Austria
20= 20. Philip II of Spain
21= 21. Anna of Austria
22= 22. Charles II of Austria
23= 23. Maria Anna of Bavaria
24= 24. Frederick IV, Elector Palatine
25= 25. Louise Juliana of Nassau
26= 26. James I of England
27= 27. Anne of Denmark
28= 28. Maurice, Landgrave of Hesse-Kassel (or Hesse-Cassel)
29= 29. Agnes of Solms-Laubach
30= 30. Philip Louis II, Count of Hanau-Münzenberg
31= 31. Catharina Belgica of Nassau

Notes

Titles