Princess Louise d'Orléans (Louise Victoire Marie Amélie Sophie; 19 July 1869 – 4 February 1952) was a French princess of 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...

 and a member of the royal family of Bavaria

Bavaria

Bavaria, formally the Free State of Bavaria is a state of Germany, located in the southeast of Germany. With an area of , it is the largest state by area, forming almost 20% of the total land area of Germany...

. Throughout her life Louise remained very close to her first cousin, the Austrian archduchess Marie Valerie of Habsburg-Lorraine

Archduchess Marie Valerie of Austria

Archduchess Marie Valerie of Austria was the fourth and last child of Emperor Francis Joseph of Austria and Elisabeth of Bavaria . Her given name was Marie Valerie Mathilde Amalie, but she was usually called Valerie.-Early life:Princess Marie Valerie was born at Ofen in Hungary...

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Family

Princess Louise was born at Bushy House

Bushy House

Bushy House is a former royal residence in Teddington in South West London, on the site of the National Physical Laboratory, overlooking Bushy Park....

, Teddington

Teddington

Teddington is a suburban area in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames in south west London, on the north bank of the River Thames, between Hampton Wick and Twickenham. It stretches inland from the River Thames to Bushy Park...

, England in 1869. She was a daughter of the French prince Ferdinand Philippe Marie d'Orléans

Ferdinand Philippe Marie, duc d'Alençon

Ferdinand Philippe Marie, duc d'Alençon was the son of Louis Charles Philippe Raphael, duc de Nemours and Princess Victoria of Saxe-Coburg-Kohary .-Marriage and issue:...

, "duc d'Alençon", and his wife Duchess Sophie Charlotte in Bavaria, herself a sister of Empress Elisabeth of Austria

Elisabeth of Bavaria

Elisabeth of Austria was the spouse of Franz Joseph I, and therefore both Empress of Austria and Queen of Hungary. She also held the titles of Queen of Bohemia and Croatia, among others...

 ("Sisi") and Queen Marie of the Two Sicilies, the heroine of Gaëte. Her paternal grandparents were Princess Victoria of Saxe-Coburg-Kohary and Prince Louis Charles Philippe d'Orléans, "duc de Nemours", the second son of Louis-Philippe I, King of the French. Louise had a younger brother, Prince Emmanuel d'Orléans, "duc de Vendôme".

On 15 April 1891 she married her cousin the infante of Spain Alfons of Bavaria

Prince Alfons of Bavaria

Prince Alfons of Bavaria was a member of the Bavarian Royal House of Wittelsbach and a General of Cavalry.-Early life:Alfons was born in Munich, Bavaria...

 at Schloss Nymphenburg

Nymphenburg Palace

The Nymphenburg Palace , i.e. "Nymph's Castle", is a Baroque palace in Munich, Bavaria, southern Germany. The palace was the main summer residence of the rulers of Bavaria.-History:...

. He was the son of Prince Adalbert of Bavaria (1828–1875) and his wife the Spanish infanta Amelia de Bourbon

Infanta Amelia Philippina of Spain

Infanta Amalia Philippina of Spain was a member of the Spanish royal house.-Childhood:She was born in Madrid as the eleventh child and sixth daughter of Infante Francisco de Paula of Spain, younger brother of King Fernando VII of Spain, and wife, Princess Luisa Carlotta of Bourbon-Two Sicilies...

 (1834–1905).

They had two children:

• Joseph of Bavaria (1902-1990), prince of Bavaria, who never married;
• Elisabeth of Bavaria (1913-2005), princess of Bavaria, who first married Franz Josef Kageneck (1915–1941), then Ernst Küstner (1920)

In Paris on 4 May 1897, her mother the famed duchesse d'Alençon died in a fire at a charity bazaar (the Bazar de la Charité

Bazar de la Charité

The Bazar de la Charité was an annual charity event organized by the French Catholic aristocracy in Paris from 1885 onwards. It is best known for the fire at the 1897 bazaar that claimed 126 lives, many of them aristocratic women, the most notable of whom was Her Royal Highness the Duchess of...

); she had refused rescue attempts, insisting that the girls working with her at the bazaar be saved first.

Princess Louise of Bavaria died in 1952 in Munich

Munich

Munich The city's motto is "" . Before 2006, it was "Weltstadt mit Herz" . Its native name, , is derived from the Old High German Munichen, meaning "by the monks' place". The city's name derives from the monks of the Benedictine order who founded the city; hence the monk depicted on the city's coat...

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Honours

• Dame of the Order of the Starry Cross
  Order of the Starry Cross
  The Order of the Starry Cross was founded by Eleanora Gonzaga of Mantua, dowager empress of the Holy Roman Empire, in 1668. This all female order was confirmed by Pope Clement IX, June 28, 1668, and was placed under the spiritual management of the Prince Bishop of Vienna...
  
  
• Dame of the Order of Theresa
  Order of Theresa
  The Order of Theresa was an order for noble ladies in the Kingdom of Bavaria. It continues to function today as an honorary society to which belong the princesses of the House of Wittelsbach as well as other ladies from Bavarian noble families....
  
  
• Dame of the Order of Saint Elizabeth
  Order of Saint Elizabeth
  The Order of Saint Elizabeth was an all-female chivalric and charitable order in the Kingdom of Bavaria. The following excerpt is from The Orders of Knighthood, British and Foreign :...
  
  

External links

• thePeerage