Elizabeth Charlotte of the Palatinate
Encyclopedia
Elizabeth Charlotte, Princess Palatine ( b. Heidelberg, 27 May 1652 – Saint-Cloud, 8 December 1722) was a German princess and the wife of Philippe I, Duke of Orléans
, younger brother of Louis XIV of France
. Her vast correspondence provides a detailed account of the personalities and activities at the court of her brother-in-law, Louis XIV
. She and her husband, the Duke of Orléans, were the founders of the modern House of Orléans
- their only surviving son, Philippe II, Duke of Orléans
, being the Regent
of France during the minority of Louis XV of France
. She was also an ancestress of Emperor Francis I
and King Louis Philippe I and thus many royal houses in Europe such as the Spanish, Italian, Bulgarian, Austrian, Tuscan, and Neapolitan royal families are descended from her.
, to Charles I Louis, Elector Palatine
of the Simmern branch of the House of Wittelsbach, and Landgravine Charlotte of Hesse-Kassel.
In childhood she became known as Liselotte - a mixture of her names. Her parents were in an unhappy dynastic
marriage and in 1653 her father began an affair with Marie Luise von Degenfeld
, one of his wife's attendants. He purported to marry her without benefit of a judicial divorce
, and claimed to have done so to legitimise the bastard children. Their daughter was five years old when she was sent to live with her father's sister, Sophia
, wife of Ernest Augustus, Elector of Hanover.
She always remembered her time with her aunt as the happiest of her life, although she became close enough to her younger half-sisters to correspond with them at least weekly after she married. In 1663, Liselotte had to move back to Heidelberg where she lived with her stepmother, fifteen half-siblings, and brother, the future Charles II, Elector Palatine
.
She had purportedly desired to marry her cousin William III of Orange
, who would later become King of England, though her family believed that sacrifices needed to be made in order to make a more beneficial marriage with the recently widowed brother of the King of France, formerly married to her father's first cousin, Princess Henrietta Anne of England.
. By prearrangement, after leaving her father's realm but prior to arriving in France, she formally converted to Roman Catholicism. At the French court, her husband Philippe
was known by the traditional honorific of Monsieur
. As his wife, Elizabeth Charlotte assumed the style of Madame
.
Elizabeth Charlotte was very close to her two stepdaughters Marie Louise and Anne Marie. When Marie Louise left France to marry Charles II of Spain
in 1679, Liselotte accompanied her to Orléans.
The homosexual proclivities of her husband were well known at court. Elisabeth Charlotte even confided that he needed "rosaries and holy medals draped in the appropriate places to perform the necessary act" with her.
Elizabeth Charlotte objected to money spent on his favourites and the exercise of their influence with him to enrich themselves. She said on the subject:
Elizabeth Charlotte had apartments at Versailles, use of the Palais-Royal in Paris, and her favourite residence, the beautiful Château de Saint-Cloud
on the outskirts of Paris
, which was the couple's main residence when not at the Palace of Versailles
. Liselotte also had an apartment at the King's private residence, the Château de Marly
. In her dowager years she would stay at the Grand Trianon
built by her brother in law.
The marriage at first proved to be happy, with the birth of two male heirs. After the death of the couple's first son, the Duke of Valois, she experienced depression
and worried about her third pregnancy (with Élisabeth Charlotte d'Orléans). After this birth, the relationship between husband and wife was never as close as it had been. The couple had three children;
After the birth of their daughter Élisabeth Charlotte, the couple mutually agreed to cease conjugal relations
. Philippe turned to his minions, and Elizabeth Charlotte to writing.
Her letters to her aunt Sophia
and others created not only a vivid picture of life during the reign of Louis XIV, but also of the Regency
era of her son, Philippe. They reflect her alienation from her husband and other family members, as well as her warm relations with the king, and with her son, daughter and her two stepdaughters.
, where her husband's rank as a fils de France
ensured her precedence before all save the queen, and the wives of the king's son and grandsons — and his current maîtresse-en-titre
. This last position rankled her, and she disliked the king's illegitimate children, especially Louis-Auguste, Duke of Maine
.
Madame de Montespan's youngest daughter, Françoise Marie de Bourbon, would eventually marry her son. No inducements ever reconciled Elizabeth Charlotte to the marriage. When she discovered that her son had agreed to it at the king's insistence, she slapped his face in front of the whole court, and turned her back on the king as he greeted her with a bow. Later, writing on the subject she put:
After the king transferred his affections from La Montespan to La Maintenon, Elizabeth Charlotte became obsessively resentful toward and suspicious of the latter. In her correspondence, Elisabeth Charlotte refers to her as the "King's old drab", the "old witch", and the "old whore".
In addition to letters to her aunt Sophia and her morganatic
half-sisters the Raugravine
s, she also corresponded with the former's courtier Gottfried Leibniz
, although they never met. After he died, she insisted that the Académie des Sciences
, of which he had been a member, honour his passing. The resulting eulogy
to Leibniz, by Fontenelle
, was the only one ever delivered anywhere.
When the Simmern
branch of the Wittelsbach
dynasty became extinct in the male line with the death of her brother Karl II in 1685, Louis XIV sent troops to claim the Palatinate in his sister-in-law's name, launching the War of the Grand Alliance
(1688–1697).
On 9 June 1701, her husband of just under sixty years died of a stroke
at the château de Saint-Cloud. Earlier, he had a heated argument with his brother at the Château de Marly
about the conduct of his son — who was also the king's son-in-law.
After her husband's death, Elizabeth Charlotte feared that the king would send her to a convent
, as stipulated in her marriage contract. Instead she was confronted with secretly-made excerpts of her all-too-candid letters to correspondents abroad. She was warned to change her attitude toward Madame de Maintenon.
She remained welcome at court. She was allowed to keep her apartments at all the royal residences and retained her rank. From her husband, she inherited 40,000 livres a year. Louis XIV added 250,000 livres, and her son promised her another 200,000. Some time after Philippe's death, she wrote:
In 1715, Louis XIV died aged seventy-seven at the Palace of Versailles. In his will, he divided the regnal
prerogatives among relatives and courtiers, allocating to his legitimised son, the Duke of Maine, guardian
ship of the new king, Louis XV
, who was five years old. The Parlement of Paris overturned the will's provisions at the request of Elizabeth Charlotte's son, who thus became regent.
In her memoirs, Elizabeth Charlotte describes the new era of the Regency. Although no longer outranked by any woman at court and freed from the imagined persecutions of Madame de Maintenon, she did not cease daily complaints to her correspondents about the antics of what she regarded as an increasingly decadent
court, about which she wrote:
Elizabeth Charlotte died at the age of seventy on 8 December 1722, at the château de Saint-Cloud.
Her descendants by her son form the House of Orléans
, which came to the French throne in the person of Louis-Philippe in 1830. Through her daughter, she was ancestress of the House of Habsburg-Lorraine
, and the great-grandmother of Marie Antoinette
.
. She possessed the stamina to hunt all day, refusing to wear the mask that Frenchwomen were accustomed to use to protect their skin while watching their men hunt. Her face developed a ruddy and weather-beaten look.
She walked too rapidly for most courtiers to keep up, save the king. She had a "no-nonsense" attitude, and was not given to gallantry, but lacked the prudery to prevent her ladies-in-waiting from flirting with courtiers or royalty. Her hearty appetite caused her to gain weight as the years went by, and when describing herself she once commented that she would be as good to eat as a roasted suckling pig. Raised a Protestant
, she was not fond of lengthy Latin mass
es.
She remained virtuous and at times outraged by the open infidelity
practiced by the aristocracy. Her views were frequently the opposite of those prevalent at the French court.
She is known by different names and styles in different languages with:
At any rate, the dynastic titles she was entitled to were Countess Palatine of the Rhine and Duchess of Bavaria.
Philippe I, Duke of Orléans
Philippe of France was the youngest son of Louis XIII of France and his queen consort Anne of Austria. His older brother was the famous Louis XIV, le roi soleil. Styled Duke of Anjou from birth, Philippe became Duke of Orléans upon the death of his uncle Gaston, Duke of Orléans...
, younger brother of Louis XIV of France
Louis XIV of France
Louis XIV , known as Louis the Great or the Sun King , was a Bourbon monarch who ruled as King of France and Navarre. His reign, from 1643 to his death in 1715, began at the age of four and lasted seventy-two years, three months, and eighteen days...
. Her vast correspondence provides a detailed account of the personalities and activities at the court of her brother-in-law, Louis XIV
Louis XIV of France
Louis XIV , known as Louis the Great or the Sun King , was a Bourbon monarch who ruled as King of France and Navarre. His reign, from 1643 to his death in 1715, began at the age of four and lasted seventy-two years, three months, and eighteen days...
. She and her husband, the Duke of Orléans, were the founders of the modern House of Orléans
House of Orleans
Orléans is the name used by several branches of the Royal House of France, all descended in the legitimate male line from the dynasty's founder, Hugh Capet. It became a tradition during France's ancien régime for the duchy of Orléans to be granted as an appanage to a younger son of the king...
- their only surviving son, Philippe II, Duke of Orléans
Philippe II, Duke of Orléans
Philippe d'Orléans was a member of the royal family of France and served as Regent of the Kingdom from 1715 to 1723. Born at his father's palace at Saint-Cloud, he was known from birth under the title of Duke of Chartres...
, being the Regent
Regent
A regent, from the Latin regens "one who reigns", is a person selected to act as head of state because the ruler is a minor, not present, or debilitated. Currently there are only two ruling Regencies in the world, sovereign Liechtenstein and the Malaysian constitutive state of Terengganu...
of France during the minority of Louis XV of France
Louis XV of France
Louis XV was a Bourbon monarch who ruled as King of France and of Navarre from 1 September 1715 until his death. He succeeded his great-grandfather at the age of five, his first cousin Philippe II, Duke of Orléans, served as Regent of the kingdom until Louis's majority in 1723...
. She was also an ancestress of Emperor Francis I
Francis I, Holy Roman Emperor
Francis I was Holy Roman Emperor and Grand Duke of Tuscany, though his wife effectively executed the real power of those positions. With his wife, Maria Theresa, he was the founder of the Habsburg-Lorraine dynasty...
and King Louis Philippe I and thus many royal houses in Europe such as the Spanish, Italian, Bulgarian, Austrian, Tuscan, and Neapolitan royal families are descended from her.
Biography
Princess Elisabeth was born on 27 May 1652 in the Heidelberg CastleHeidelberg Castle
The Heidelberg Castle is a famous ruin in Germany and landmark of Heidelberg. The castle ruins are among the most important Renaissance structures north of the Alps....
, to Charles I Louis, Elector Palatine
Charles I Louis, Elector Palatine
Charles Louis, , Elector Palatine KG was the second son of Frederick V of the Palatinate, the "Winter King" of Bohemia, and his wife, Princess Elizabeth, daughter of King James I of England ....
of the Simmern branch of the House of Wittelsbach, and Landgravine Charlotte of Hesse-Kassel.
In childhood she became known as Liselotte - a mixture of her names. Her parents were in an unhappy dynastic
Dynasty
A dynasty is a sequence of rulers considered members of the same family. Historians traditionally consider many sovereign states' history within a framework of successive dynasties, e.g., China, Ancient Egypt and the Persian Empire...
marriage and in 1653 her father began an affair with Marie Luise von Degenfeld
Marie Luise von Degenfeld
Luise von Degenfeld was the morganatic second wife of Charles I Louis, Elector Palatine. Created Raugräfin von der Pfalz in 1667, she had thirteen children with Charles Louis, all of whom were known as the "Raugraves" of the Palatinate.Born Maria Susanne Luise von Degenfeld in Strasbourg,...
, one of his wife's attendants. He purported to marry her without benefit of a judicial divorce
Divorce
Divorce is the final termination of a marital union, canceling the legal duties and responsibilities of marriage and dissolving the bonds of matrimony between the parties...
, and claimed to have done so to legitimise the bastard children. Their daughter was five years old when she was sent to live with her father's sister, Sophia
Sophia of Hanover
Sophia of the Palatinate was an heiress to the crowns of England and Ireland and later the crown of Great Britain. She was declared heiress presumptive by the Act of Settlement 1701...
, wife of Ernest Augustus, Elector of Hanover.
She always remembered her time with her aunt as the happiest of her life, although she became close enough to her younger half-sisters to correspond with them at least weekly after she married. In 1663, Liselotte had to move back to Heidelberg where she lived with her stepmother, fifteen half-siblings, and brother, the future Charles II, Elector Palatine
Charles II, Elector Palatine
Charles II was Elector Palatine from 1680 to 1685. He was the son of Charles I Louis, Elector Palatine and Charlotte of Hesse-Kassel.Charles was a strict Calvinist. In 1671, his aunt Electress Sophia of Hanover arranged his marriage to Princess Wilhelmina Ernestina, daughter of King Frederick III...
.
She had purportedly desired to marry her cousin William III of Orange
William III of England
William III & II was a sovereign Prince of Orange of the House of Orange-Nassau by birth. From 1672 he governed as Stadtholder William III of Orange over Holland, Zeeland, Utrecht, Guelders, and Overijssel of the Dutch Republic. From 1689 he reigned as William III over England and Ireland...
, who would later become King of England, though her family believed that sacrifices needed to be made in order to make a more beneficial marriage with the recently widowed brother of the King of France, formerly married to her father's first cousin, Princess Henrietta Anne of England.
Marriage
On 16 November 1671, she was married by proxy at MetzMetz
Metz is a city in the northeast of France located at the confluence of the Moselle and the Seille rivers.Metz is the capital of the Lorraine region and prefecture of the Moselle department. Located near the tripoint along the junction of France, Germany, and Luxembourg, Metz forms a central place...
. By prearrangement, after leaving her father's realm but prior to arriving in France, she formally converted to Roman Catholicism. At the French court, her husband Philippe
Philippe I, Duke of Orléans
Philippe of France was the youngest son of Louis XIII of France and his queen consort Anne of Austria. His older brother was the famous Louis XIV, le roi soleil. Styled Duke of Anjou from birth, Philippe became Duke of Orléans upon the death of his uncle Gaston, Duke of Orléans...
was known by the traditional honorific of Monsieur
Monsieur
' is an honorific title that used to refer to or address the eldest living brother of the king in the French royal court. It is also a customary French title of respect and term of address for a French-speaking man, corresponding to such English titles as Mr...
. As his wife, Elizabeth Charlotte assumed the style of Madame
Fils de France
Fils de France was the style and rank held by the sons of the kings and dauphins of France. A daughter was known as a fille de France .The children of the dauphin, who was the king's heir apparent, were accorded the same style and status as if they were the king's children instead of his...
.
Elizabeth Charlotte was very close to her two stepdaughters Marie Louise and Anne Marie. When Marie Louise left France to marry Charles II of Spain
Charles II of Spain
Charles II was the last Habsburg King of Spain and the ruler of large parts of Italy, the Spanish territories in the Southern Low Countries, and Spain's overseas Empire, stretching from the Americas to the Spanish East Indies...
in 1679, Liselotte accompanied her to Orléans.
The homosexual proclivities of her husband were well known at court. Elisabeth Charlotte even confided that he needed "rosaries and holy medals draped in the appropriate places to perform the necessary act" with her.
Elizabeth Charlotte objected to money spent on his favourites and the exercise of their influence with him to enrich themselves. She said on the subject:
I could put up with it if Monsieur only squandered his money in gaming, but sometimes he gives away as much as 100,000 francs at one swoop, and all the economies fall upon me and the children. That is not at all pleasant, besides putting me in a position where, as God is my witness, we would have to live entirely on the King's charity, which is a miserable thing.
Elizabeth Charlotte had apartments at Versailles, use of the Palais-Royal in Paris, and her favourite residence, the beautiful Château de Saint-Cloud
Château de Saint-Cloud
The Château de Saint-Cloud was a Palace in France, built on a magnificent site overlooking the Seine at Saint-Cloud in Hauts-de-Seine, about 10 kilometres west of Paris. Today it is a large park on the outskirts of the capital and is owned by the state, but the area as a whole has had a large...
on the outskirts of Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
, which was the couple's main residence when not at the Palace of Versailles
Palace of Versailles
The Palace of Versailles , or simply Versailles, is a royal château in Versailles in the Île-de-France region of France. In French it is the Château de Versailles....
. Liselotte also had an apartment at the King's private residence, the Château de Marly
Château de Marly
The Château de Marly was a relatively small French royal residence located in what has become Marly-le-Roi, the commune that existed at the edge of the royal park. The town that originally grew up to service the château is now a dormitory community for Paris....
. In her dowager years she would stay at the Grand Trianon
Grand Trianon
The Grand Trianon was built in the northwestern part of the Domain of Versailles at the request of Louis XIV, as a retreat for the King and his maîtresse en titre of the time, the marquise de Montespan, and as a place where the King and invited guests could take light meals away from the strict...
built by her brother in law.
The marriage at first proved to be happy, with the birth of two male heirs. After the death of the couple's first son, the Duke of Valois, she experienced depression
Depression (mood)
Depression is a state of low mood and aversion to activity that can affect a person's thoughts, behaviour, feelings and physical well-being. Depressed people may feel sad, anxious, empty, hopeless, helpless, worthless, guilty, irritable, or restless...
and worried about her third pregnancy (with Élisabeth Charlotte d'Orléans). After this birth, the relationship between husband and wife was never as close as it had been. The couple had three children;
After the birth of their daughter Élisabeth Charlotte, the couple mutually agreed to cease conjugal relations
Sexual intercourse
Sexual intercourse, also known as copulation or coitus, commonly refers to the act in which a male's penis enters a female's vagina for the purposes of sexual pleasure or reproduction. The entities may be of opposite sexes, or they may be hermaphroditic, as is the case with snails...
. Philippe turned to his minions, and Elizabeth Charlotte to writing.
Her letters to her aunt Sophia
Sophia of Hanover
Sophia of the Palatinate was an heiress to the crowns of England and Ireland and later the crown of Great Britain. She was declared heiress presumptive by the Act of Settlement 1701...
and others created not only a vivid picture of life during the reign of Louis XIV, but also of the Regency
Régence
The Régence is the period in French history between 1715 and 1723, when King Louis XV was a minor and the land was governed by a Regent, Philippe d'Orléans, the nephew of Louis XIV of France....
era of her son, Philippe. They reflect her alienation from her husband and other family members, as well as her warm relations with the king, and with her son, daughter and her two stepdaughters.
Court Life
As the king's only brother and sister-in-law, the couple were expected to be in usual attendance at courtNoble court
The court of a monarch, or at some periods an important nobleman, is a term for the extended household and all those who regularly attended on the ruler or central figure...
, where her husband's rank as a fils de France
Fils de France
Fils de France was the style and rank held by the sons of the kings and dauphins of France. A daughter was known as a fille de France .The children of the dauphin, who was the king's heir apparent, were accorded the same style and status as if they were the king's children instead of his...
ensured her precedence before all save the queen, and the wives of the king's son and grandsons — and his current maîtresse-en-titre
Maîtresse-en-titre
The maîtresse-en-titre was the chief mistress of the king of France. It was a semi-official position which came with its own apartments. The title really came into use during the reign of Henry IV and continued until the reign of Louis XV....
. This last position rankled her, and she disliked the king's illegitimate children, especially Louis-Auguste, Duke of Maine
Louis-Auguste de Bourbon, duc du Maine
Louis Auguste de Bourbon, Legitimé de France was the eldest legitimised son of the Louis XIV of France and his maîtresse-en-titre, Madame de Montespan...
.
Madame de Montespan's youngest daughter, Françoise Marie de Bourbon, would eventually marry her son. No inducements ever reconciled Elizabeth Charlotte to the marriage. When she discovered that her son had agreed to it at the king's insistence, she slapped his face in front of the whole court, and turned her back on the king as he greeted her with a bow. Later, writing on the subject she put:
If, by shedding my own blood, I could have prevented my son's marriage, I would willingly have done so; but since the thing was done, I have had no other wish than to preserve harmony
After the king transferred his affections from La Montespan to La Maintenon, Elizabeth Charlotte became obsessively resentful toward and suspicious of the latter. In her correspondence, Elisabeth Charlotte refers to her as the "King's old drab", the "old witch", and the "old whore".
In addition to letters to her aunt Sophia and her morganatic
Morganatic marriage
In the context of European royalty, a morganatic marriage is a marriage between people of unequal social rank, which prevents the passage of the husband's titles and privileges to the wife and any children born of the marriage...
half-sisters the Raugravine
Graf
Graf is a historical German noble title equal in rank to a count or a British earl...
s, she also corresponded with the former's courtier Gottfried Leibniz
Gottfried Leibniz
Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz was a German philosopher and mathematician. He wrote in different languages, primarily in Latin , French and German ....
, although they never met. After he died, she insisted that the Académie des Sciences
French Academy of Sciences
The French Academy of Sciences is a learned society, founded in 1666 by Louis XIV at the suggestion of Jean-Baptiste Colbert, to encourage and protect the spirit of French scientific research...
, of which he had been a member, honour his passing. The resulting eulogy
Eulogy
A eulogy is a speech or writing in praise of a person or thing, especially one recently deceased or retired. Eulogies may be given as part of funeral services. However, some denominations either discourage or do not permit eulogies at services to maintain respect for traditions...
to Leibniz, by Fontenelle
Bernard le Bovier de Fontenelle
Bernard Le Bovier de Fontenelle , also called Bernard Le Bouyer de Fontenelle, was a French author.Fontenelle was born in Rouen, France and died in Paris just one month before his 100th birthday. His mother was the sister of great French dramatists Pierre and Thomas Corneille...
, was the only one ever delivered anywhere.
When the Simmern
Palatinate-Simmern
Palatinate-Simmern was one of the collateral lines of the Palatinate line of the House of Wittelsbach.The Palatinate line of the House of Wittelsbach was divided into four lines after the death of Rupert III in 1410, including the line of Palatinate-Simmern with its capital in Simmern. This line...
branch of the Wittelsbach
Wittelsbach
The Wittelsbach family is a European royal family and a German dynasty from Bavaria.Members of the family served as Dukes, Electors and Kings of Bavaria , Counts Palatine of the Rhine , Margraves of Brandenburg , Counts of Holland, Hainaut and Zeeland , Elector-Archbishops of Cologne , Dukes of...
dynasty became extinct in the male line with the death of her brother Karl II in 1685, Louis XIV sent troops to claim the Palatinate in his sister-in-law's name, launching the War of the Grand Alliance
War of the Grand Alliance
The Nine Years' War – often called the War of the Grand Alliance, the War of the Palatine Succession, or the War of the League of Augsburg – was a major war of the late 17th century fought between King Louis XIV of France, and a European-wide coalition, the Grand Alliance, led by the Anglo-Dutch...
(1688–1697).
On 9 June 1701, her husband of just under sixty years died of a stroke
Stroke
A stroke, previously known medically as a cerebrovascular accident , is the rapidly developing loss of brain function due to disturbance in the blood supply to the brain. This can be due to ischemia caused by blockage , or a hemorrhage...
at the château de Saint-Cloud. Earlier, he had a heated argument with his brother at the Château de Marly
Château de Marly
The Château de Marly was a relatively small French royal residence located in what has become Marly-le-Roi, the commune that existed at the edge of the royal park. The town that originally grew up to service the château is now a dormitory community for Paris....
about the conduct of his son — who was also the king's son-in-law.
After her husband's death, Elizabeth Charlotte feared that the king would send her to a convent
Convent
A convent is either a community of priests, religious brothers, religious sisters, or nuns, or the building used by the community, particularly in the Roman Catholic Church and in the Anglican Communion...
, as stipulated in her marriage contract. Instead she was confronted with secretly-made excerpts of her all-too-candid letters to correspondents abroad. She was warned to change her attitude toward Madame de Maintenon.
She remained welcome at court. She was allowed to keep her apartments at all the royal residences and retained her rank. From her husband, she inherited 40,000 livres a year. Louis XIV added 250,000 livres, and her son promised her another 200,000. Some time after Philippe's death, she wrote:
If those who are in the next world could know what was happening in this one, I think His Grace, the late Monsieur, would be most pleased with me, for I have gone through his boxes to find all the letters written to him by his boyfriends and have burnt them unread, so that they will not fall into other people's hands...then...I receive great comfort from the King, otherwise I could not endure my position. When the King speaks about Monsieur he is quite moved
In 1715, Louis XIV died aged seventy-seven at the Palace of Versailles. In his will, he divided the regnal
King
- Centers of population :* King, Ontario, CanadaIn USA:* King, Indiana* King, North Carolina* King, Lincoln County, Wisconsin* King, Waupaca County, Wisconsin* King County, Washington- Moving-image works :Television:...
prerogatives among relatives and courtiers, allocating to his legitimised son, the Duke of Maine, guardian
Legal guardian
A legal guardian is a person who has the legal authority to care for the personal and property interests of another person, called a ward. Usually, a person has the status of guardian because the ward is incapable of caring for his or her own interests due to infancy, incapacity, or disability...
ship of the new king, Louis XV
Louis XV of France
Louis XV was a Bourbon monarch who ruled as King of France and of Navarre from 1 September 1715 until his death. He succeeded his great-grandfather at the age of five, his first cousin Philippe II, Duke of Orléans, served as Regent of the kingdom until Louis's majority in 1723...
, who was five years old. The Parlement of Paris overturned the will's provisions at the request of Elizabeth Charlotte's son, who thus became regent.
In her memoirs, Elizabeth Charlotte describes the new era of the Regency. Although no longer outranked by any woman at court and freed from the imagined persecutions of Madame de Maintenon, she did not cease daily complaints to her correspondents about the antics of what she regarded as an increasingly decadent
Decadence
Decadence can refer to a personal trait, or to the state of a society . Used to describe a person's lifestyle. Concise Oxford Dictionary: "a luxurious self-indulgence"...
court, about which she wrote:
I believe that the histories that will be written about this court after we are gone will be better and more entertaining than any novel, and I am afraid that those who come after us will not be able to believe them and think they are just fairy tales.
Elizabeth Charlotte died at the age of seventy on 8 December 1722, at the château de Saint-Cloud.
Her descendants by her son form the House of Orléans
House of Orleans
Orléans is the name used by several branches of the Royal House of France, all descended in the legitimate male line from the dynasty's founder, Hugh Capet. It became a tradition during France's ancien régime for the duchy of Orléans to be granted as an appanage to a younger son of the king...
, which came to the French throne in the person of Louis-Philippe in 1830. Through her daughter, she was ancestress of the House of Habsburg-Lorraine
Habsburg Monarchy
The Habsburg Monarchy covered the territories ruled by the junior Austrian branch of the House of Habsburg , and then by the successor House of Habsburg-Lorraine , between 1526 and 1867/1918. The Imperial capital was Vienna, except from 1583 to 1611, when it was moved to Prague...
, and the great-grandmother of Marie Antoinette
Marie Antoinette
Marie Antoinette ; 2 November 1755 – 16 October 1793) was an Archduchess of Austria and the Queen of France and of Navarre. She was the fifteenth and penultimate child of Holy Roman Empress Maria Theresa and Holy Roman Emperor Francis I....
.
Issue
| Name | | Portrait | Lifespan | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Alexandre Louis d'Orléans Duke of Valois |
.svg.png) |
2 July 1673 – 16 March 1676 |
Born at the Château de Saint-Cloud Château de Saint-Cloud The Château de Saint-Cloud was a Palace in France, built on a magnificent site overlooking the Seine at Saint-Cloud in Hauts-de-Seine, about 10 kilometres west of Paris. Today it is a large park on the outskirts of the capital and is owned by the state, but the area as a whole has had a large... and died at the Palais-Royal before his third birthday, his death being attributed to the bloodletting by the Orléans family's doctors; last person to carry the title Duke of Valois; |
|
| Philippe Charles d'Orléans Philippe II, Duke of Orléans Philippe d'Orléans was a member of the royal family of France and served as Regent of the Kingdom from 1715 to 1723. Born at his father's palace at Saint-Cloud, he was known from birth under the title of Duke of Chartres... Duke of Orléans |
.jpg) |
2 August 1674 - 2 December 1723 |
Born at the Château de Saint-Cloud Château de Saint-Cloud The Château de Saint-Cloud was a Palace in France, built on a magnificent site overlooking the Seine at Saint-Cloud in Hauts-de-Seine, about 10 kilometres west of Paris. Today it is a large park on the outskirts of the capital and is owned by the state, but the area as a whole has had a large... he was titled the Duke of Chartres from birth becoming Duke of Orléans in 1701; Married his first cousin Françoise Marie de Bourbon and had issue; died at the Palace of Versailles Palace of Versailles The Palace of Versailles , or simply Versailles, is a royal château in Versailles in the Île-de-France region of France. In French it is the Château de Versailles.... ; Regent of France and Navarre during the minority of Louis XV of France Louis XV of France Louis XV was a Bourbon monarch who ruled as King of France and of Navarre from 1 September 1715 until his death. He succeeded his great-grandfather at the age of five, his first cousin Philippe II, Duke of Orléans, served as Regent of the kingdom until Louis's majority in 1723... - the era was known as la Régence Régence The Régence is the period in French history between 1715 and 1723, when King Louis XV was a minor and the land was governed by a Regent, Philippe d'Orléans, the nephew of Louis XIV of France.... ; |
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| Élisabeth Charlotte d'Orléans Duchess of Lorraine and Bar Princess of Commercy |
13 September 1676 – 23 December 1744 |
Born at the Château de Saint-Cloud Château de Saint-Cloud The Château de Saint-Cloud was a Palace in France, built on a magnificent site overlooking the Seine at Saint-Cloud in Hauts-de-Seine, about 10 kilometres west of Paris. Today it is a large park on the outskirts of the capital and is owned by the state, but the area as a whole has had a large... and married Leopold de Lorraine Leopold, Duke of Lorraine Leopold , surnamed the Good, was Duke of Lorraine and Bar from 1690 to his death.-Early life:Leopold Joseph Charles Dominique Agapet Hyacinthe was the son of Charles V, Duke of Lorraine, and his wife Eleonora Maria Josefa of Austria, a half-sister of Leopold I, Holy Roman Emperor.At the time of... , Duke of Lorraine in 1698 and had issue; became the Sovereign Princess of Commercy 1737; she died at Commercy; known as Mademoiselle de Chartres; |
Nature and Appearance
She was earthy, even vulgar at times, quoting folksy sayings such as "The snow falls as easily on a cowpat as it does a rose petal." She spoke with a noticeable German accent and disliked dancing, which put her at odds with the French fashion. Compared to her predecessor, Henrietta Anne Stuart, who was pretty and graceful, Elisabeth Charlotte was stolid, mannish and AmazonianAmazons
The Amazons are a nation of all-female warriors in Greek mythology and Classical antiquity. Herodotus placed them in a region bordering Scythia in Sarmatia...
. She possessed the stamina to hunt all day, refusing to wear the mask that Frenchwomen were accustomed to use to protect their skin while watching their men hunt. Her face developed a ruddy and weather-beaten look.
She walked too rapidly for most courtiers to keep up, save the king. She had a "no-nonsense" attitude, and was not given to gallantry, but lacked the prudery to prevent her ladies-in-waiting from flirting with courtiers or royalty. Her hearty appetite caused her to gain weight as the years went by, and when describing herself she once commented that she would be as good to eat as a roasted suckling pig. Raised a Protestant
Protestantism
Protestantism is one of the three major groupings within Christianity. It is a movement that began in Germany in the early 16th century as a reaction against medieval Roman Catholic doctrines and practices, especially in regards to salvation, justification, and ecclesiology.The doctrines of the...
, she was not fond of lengthy Latin mass
Mass (liturgy)
"Mass" is one of the names by which the sacrament of the Eucharist is called in the Roman Catholic Church: others are "Eucharist", the "Lord's Supper", the "Breaking of Bread", the "Eucharistic assembly ", the "memorial of the Lord's Passion and Resurrection", the "Holy Sacrifice", the "Holy and...
es.
She remained virtuous and at times outraged by the open infidelity
Infidelity
In many intimate relationships in many cultures there is usually an express or implied expectation of exclusivity, especially in sexual matters. Infidelity most commonly refers to a breach of the expectation of sexual exclusivity.Infidelity can occur in relation to physical intimacy and/or...
practiced by the aristocracy. Her views were frequently the opposite of those prevalent at the French court.
She is known by different names and styles in different languages with:
- Variations of her given names, such as Charlotte Elisabeth, Elisabeth Charlotte and Liselotte von der Pfalz
- Variations of her titles and territorial designations, such as Electoral Princess, Princess Palatine, of the Palatinate, of the Rhine, etc. (also in respective forms in French and German)
At any rate, the dynastic titles she was entitled to were Countess Palatine of the Rhine and Duchess of Bavaria.
Ancestry
Titles and Styles
- 27 May 1652 – 16 November 1671 Her Serene HighnessSerene HighnessHis/Her Serene Highness is a style used today by the reigning families of Liechtenstein and Monaco. It also preceded the princely titles of members of some German ruling and mediatised dynasties as well as some non-ruling but princely German noble families until 1918...
Elizabeth Charlotte, Countess Palatine of Simmern; - 16 November 1671 – 9 June 1701 Her Royal HighnessRoyal HighnessRoyal Highness is a style ; plural Royal Highnesses...
the Duchess of Orléans;- MadameFils de FranceFils de France was the style and rank held by the sons of the kings and dauphins of France. A daughter was known as a fille de France .The children of the dauphin, who was the king's heir apparent, were accorded the same style and status as if they were the king's children instead of his...
was her general style of address and reference;
- Madame
- 9 June 1701 – 8 December 1722 Her Royal HighnessRoyal HighnessRoyal Highness is a style ; plural Royal Highnesses...
the Dowager Duchess of Orléans.
Further reading
- Life and letters of Charlotte Elizabeth, Princess Palatine and mother of Philipp d'Orléans, régent de France 1652 - 1722, compiled, translated, and gathered from various published and unpublished, Chapman & Hall, London, 1889.
- A woman's life in the court of the Sun King : letters of Liselotte von der Pfalz, 1652–1722, Elisabeth Charlotte, Duchesse d'Orléans, translated by Elborg Forster, Johns Hopkins University Press, 1984.