Élisabeth Marguerite of Orléans
Encyclopedia
Élisabeth Marguerite d'Orléans. (26 December 1646 - 17 March 1696), known as Isabelle d'Orléans, was the Duchess of Alençon and, during her husband's lifetime, Duchess of Angoulême. She was a daughter of Gaston d'Orléans
and a first cousin of Louis XIV of France
. She has no descendants today. She was suo jure
Duchess of Alençon
and Angoulême
.
, then called the Palais d'Orléans, and now the seat of the Senate of France. The palace had been given to her father on the death of his mother, Marie de' Medici
in 1642. Élisabeth was known by her first name, Élisabeth, but she always signed Isabelle. One of five children, she was not raised with her siblings but in a convent, because she was destined to become abbess of Remiremont
and was styled as such.
, mistress of Louis XIV, and who grew up at Blois in the entourage of Isabelle's sister Marguerite Louise d'Orléans
. It was assumed that Isabelle's older and more beautiful sister, Marguerite Louise, would marry Louis, and that Françoise Madeleine would marry another European prince. A possible match was one with Charles Emmanuel II, Duke of Savoy
, who later married her younger sister on 4 March 1663.
Another possible husband was her cousin Henri Jules de Bourbon - the future Prince de Condé and Prince du Sang
. This was dropped as Henri Jules preferred the German Anne Henriette of Bavaria
who was a granddaughter of the Queen of Bohemia
.
The choice for Isabelle (who was humpbacked) fell upon a foreign prince
(prince étranger); Louis Joseph de Guise
. The Duke of Guise was the titular head of the House of Guise, a cadet branch of the House of Lorraine
of which Isabelle's mother was a member.
Isabelle and the Duke were married at the Château de Saint-Germain-en-Laye
on 15 May 1667 in the presence of the Court and the Princes of the Blood
. Her husband, four years younger than she was, was not only under the legal control of his aunt and guardian, the "magnificent" and proud Mademoiselle de Guise (Marie de Lorraine de Guise), but in day-to-day protocol, he was treated by Isabelle as the social inferior that he was. From her marriage to her death, Isabelle d'Orléans was known to the French as Madame de Guise. Her brief union with the Duke of Guise produced one child:
Isabelle's husband died in 1671, from smallpox
contacted on his way back from a visit to the court of Charles II, King of England. Her son inherited his father's titles: duc de Guise et de Joyeuse and prince de Joinville.
At the death of her mother in 1672, she moved in to the Luxembourg Palace along with the little Francis Joseph. Still unable to walk unaided at age four, he was dropped by his nurse and died from a head injury in 1675. He died at the Luxembourg Palace.
After the death of her son, Isabelle (whom the French knew as "Madame de Guise") spent every summer in her duchy of Alençon and most winters at the royal court. When in Paris, she would stay at the Luxembourg Palace which had been ceded to her after her mother's death in 1672. (Haunted by her little son's death throes there, she found it difficult to stay very long at the Luxembourg.) In 1672 she created a private apartment for herself at the abbey of Saint Pierre de Montmartre
, where she often saw Mlle de Guise and her sister, the abbess. After 1675, this little circle expanded when Isabelle's sister Marguerite Louise, Grand Duchess of Tuscany, left her husband, moved into an apartment within the abbey walls, and was kept under what amounted to house arrest. Always very devout, Isabelle commissioned religious pieces from Marc-Antoine Charpentier
, the composer of Mlle de Guise. She also commissioned secular works (operas and pastorales) from him, some of which were performed at the royal court.
Isabelle was a fervent supporter of her cousin Louis XIV's policies to bring Huguenots back into the Catholic fold. As early as November 1676, when she supervised the conversion of a Protestant lady, Isabelle commissioned from Marc-Antoine Charpentier the first of a succession of oratorios that recounted how St. Cecilia had won over her bridegroom and his brother to Christianity. After the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes in October 1685, she created a house for "New Converts" in her duchy of Alençon and actively converted the local Huguenots.
In 1694, she gave the Luxembourg Palace to Louis XIV. She died in 1696 at the Palace of Versailles
and was buried in the Great Carmel of Paris, among the nuns.
The fortune that she had accumulated was willed to her older and only surviving sibling, Marguerite Louise, Grand Duchess of Tuscany
.
Upon her son's death, she became the Duchess of Alençon and Angoulême in her own right. She kept her rank of Granddaughter of France during her marriage. This allowed her the style of HRH (sa Altesse Royale).
Gaston, Duke of Orléans
Gaston of France, , also known as Gaston d'Orléans, was the third son of King Henry IV of France and his wife Marie de Medici. As a son of the king, he was born a Fils de France. He later acquired the title Duke of Orléans, by which he was generally known during his adulthood...
and a first cousin 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...
. She has no descendants today. She was suo jure
Suo jure
Suo jure is a Latin phrase meaning "in her [or his] own right".It is commonly encountered in the context of titles of nobility, especially in cases where a wife may hold a title in her own right rather than through her marriage....
Duchess of Alençon
Counts and dukes of Alençon
Several counts and then royal dukes of Alençon have figured in French history. The title has been awarded to a younger brother of the French sovereign.-History:...
and Angoulême
Counts and dukes of Angoulême
Angoulême in western France was part of the Carolingian Empire as the kingdom of Aquitaine. Under Charlemagne's successors, the local Count of Angoulême was independent and was not united with the French crown until 1307. By the terms of the Treaty of Brétigny the Angoumois, then ruled by the...
.
Immediate family
Élisabeth d'Orléans was born in Paris at the Luxembourg PalaceLuxembourg Palace
The Luxembourg Palace in the 6th arrondissement of Paris, north of the Luxembourg Garden , is the seat of the French Senate.The formal Luxembourg Garden presents a 25-hectare green parterre of gravel and lawn populated with statues and provided with large basins of water where children sail model...
, then called the Palais d'Orléans, and now the seat of the Senate of France. The palace had been given to her father on the death of his mother, Marie de' Medici
Marie de' Medici
Marie de Médicis , Italian Maria de' Medici, was queen consort of France, as the second wife of King Henry IV of France, of the House of Bourbon. She herself was a member of the wealthy and powerful House of Medici...
in 1642. Élisabeth was known by her first name, Élisabeth, but she always signed Isabelle. One of five children, she was not raised with her siblings but in a convent, because she was destined to become abbess of Remiremont
Remiremont
Remiremont is a commune in the Vosges department in Lorraine in northeastern France.Inhabitants are called Romarimontains.-Geography:Remiremont is located on the Moselle, close to its confluence with the Moselotte, southeast of Épinal...
and was styled as such.
Biography
Known as Mademoiselle d'Alençon until her marriage, Isabelle (Élisabeth Marguerite) was acquainted with the young Louise Françoise de La Baume Le Blanc, who was to become duchesse de La VallièreLouise de La Vallière
Louise de La Vallière was a mistress of Louis XIV of France from 1661 to 1667. She later became the Duchess of La Vallière and Duchess of Vaujours in her own right...
, mistress of Louis XIV, and who grew up at Blois in the entourage of Isabelle's sister Marguerite Louise d'Orléans
Marguerite Louise d'Orléans
Marguerite Louise d'Orléans was Grand Duchess of Tuscany, as the wife of Grand Duke Cosimo III de' Medici. Deprived of her lover, Charles V of Lorraine, and yearning for France, Marguerite Louise despised her husband and his family, whom she often quarrelled with and falsely suspected of...
. It was assumed that Isabelle's older and more beautiful sister, Marguerite Louise, would marry Louis, and that Françoise Madeleine would marry another European prince. A possible match was one with Charles Emmanuel II, Duke of Savoy
Charles Emmanuel II, Duke of Savoy
Charles Emmanuel II was the Duke of Savoy from 1638 to 1675 and under regency of his mother Christine Marie of France until 1663. He was also Marquis of Saluzzo, Count of Aosta, Geneva, Moriana and Nice, as well as claimant king of Cyprus and Jerusalem...
, who later married her younger sister on 4 March 1663.
Another possible husband was her cousin Henri Jules de Bourbon - the future Prince de Condé and Prince du Sang
Prince du Sang
A prince of the blood was a person who was legitimately descended in the male line from the monarch of a country. In France, the rank of prince du sang was the highest held at court after the immediate family of the king during the ancien régime and the Bourbon Restoration...
. This was dropped as Henri Jules preferred the German Anne Henriette of Bavaria
Anne Henriette of Bavaria
Anne Henriette of Palatinate-Simmern, in France known as Anne Henriette of Bavaria was a Princess of Palatinate-Simmern by birth and by her marriage in 1663, the Duchess of Enghien and then the Princess of Condé...
who was a granddaughter of the Queen of Bohemia
Elizabeth of Bohemia
Elizabeth of Bohemia was the eldest daughter of King James VI and I, King of Scotland, England, Ireland, and Anne of Denmark. As the wife of Frederick V, Elector Palatine, she was Electress Palatine and briefly Queen of Bohemia...
.
The choice for Isabelle (who was humpbacked) fell upon a foreign prince
Foreign Prince
Foreign Prince is the English translation of prince étranger, a high, though somewhat ambiguous, rank at the French royal court of the ancien régime.-Terminology:...
(prince étranger); Louis Joseph de Guise
Louis Joseph, Duke of Guise
Louis Joseph de Lorraine Duke of Guise and Duke of Angoulême, was the only son of Louis, Duke of Joyeuse and Marie Françoise de Valois, the only daughter of the Count of Alès, Governor of Provence and son of Charles de Valois Duke of Angoulême, a bastard of Charles IX of France.-Biography:He was...
. The Duke of Guise was the titular head of the House of Guise, a cadet branch of the House of Lorraine
House of Lorraine
The House of Lorraine, the main and now only remaining line known as Habsburg-Lorraine, is one of the most important and was one of the longest-reigning royal houses in the history of Europe...
of which Isabelle's mother was a member.
Isabelle and the Duke were married at the Château de Saint-Germain-en-Laye
Château de Saint-Germain-en-Laye
The Château de Saint-Germain-en-Laye is a royal palace in the commune of Saint-Germain-en-Laye, in the département of Yvelines, about 19 km west of Paris, France. Today, it houses the Musée d'Archéologie Nationale ....
on 15 May 1667 in the presence of the Court and the Princes of the Blood
Prince du Sang
A prince of the blood was a person who was legitimately descended in the male line from the monarch of a country. In France, the rank of prince du sang was the highest held at court after the immediate family of the king during the ancien régime and the Bourbon Restoration...
. Her husband, four years younger than she was, was not only under the legal control of his aunt and guardian, the "magnificent" and proud Mademoiselle de Guise (Marie de Lorraine de Guise), but in day-to-day protocol, he was treated by Isabelle as the social inferior that he was. From her marriage to her death, Isabelle d'Orléans was known to the French as Madame de Guise. Her brief union with the Duke of Guise produced one child:
- Francis Joseph de LorraineFrancis Joseph, Duke of GuiseFrançois Joseph de Lorraine , Duke of Guise, Duke of Alençon and Duke of Angoulême, was the only son of Louis Joseph de Lorraine, Duke of Guise and Élisabeth Marguerite d'Orléans, suo jure duchess of Alençon.-Biography:Born at the Hôtel de Guise in Paris to the daughter of Gaston d'Orléans and the...
, Duke of Guise (Hôtel de GuiseHôtel de SoubiseThe Hôtel de Soubise is a city mansion entre cour et jardin , located at 60 rue des Francs-Bourgeois, in the IIIe arrondissement of Paris....
, Luxembourg Palace, Paris, 28 August 1670 – 16 March 1675).
Isabelle's husband died in 1671, from smallpox
Smallpox
Smallpox was an infectious disease unique to humans, caused by either of two virus variants, Variola major and Variola minor. The disease is also known by the Latin names Variola or Variola vera, which is a derivative of the Latin varius, meaning "spotted", or varus, meaning "pimple"...
contacted on his way back from a visit to the court of Charles II, King of England. Her son inherited his father's titles: duc de Guise et de Joyeuse and prince de Joinville.
At the death of her mother in 1672, she moved in to the Luxembourg Palace along with the little Francis Joseph. Still unable to walk unaided at age four, he was dropped by his nurse and died from a head injury in 1675. He died at the Luxembourg Palace.
After the death of her son, Isabelle (whom the French knew as "Madame de Guise") spent every summer in her duchy of Alençon and most winters at the royal court. When in Paris, she would stay at the Luxembourg Palace which had been ceded to her after her mother's death in 1672. (Haunted by her little son's death throes there, she found it difficult to stay very long at the Luxembourg.) In 1672 she created a private apartment for herself at the abbey of Saint Pierre de Montmartre
Saint Pierre de Montmartre
The Church of Saint Peter of Montmartre is the lesser known of the two main churches on Montmartre in Paris, the other being the 19th-century Sacré-Cœur Basilica...
, where she often saw Mlle de Guise and her sister, the abbess. After 1675, this little circle expanded when Isabelle's sister Marguerite Louise, Grand Duchess of Tuscany, left her husband, moved into an apartment within the abbey walls, and was kept under what amounted to house arrest. Always very devout, Isabelle commissioned religious pieces from Marc-Antoine Charpentier
Marc-Antoine Charpentier
Marc-Antoine Charpentier, , was a French composer of the Baroque era.Exceptionally prolific and versatile, he produced compositions of the highest quality in several genres...
, the composer of Mlle de Guise. She also commissioned secular works (operas and pastorales) from him, some of which were performed at the royal court.
Isabelle was a fervent supporter of her cousin Louis XIV's policies to bring Huguenots back into the Catholic fold. As early as November 1676, when she supervised the conversion of a Protestant lady, Isabelle commissioned from Marc-Antoine Charpentier the first of a succession of oratorios that recounted how St. Cecilia had won over her bridegroom and his brother to Christianity. After the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes in October 1685, she created a house for "New Converts" in her duchy of Alençon and actively converted the local Huguenots.
In 1694, she gave the Luxembourg Palace to Louis XIV. She died in 1696 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....
and was buried in the Great Carmel of Paris, among the nuns.
The fortune that she had accumulated was willed to her older and only surviving sibling, Marguerite Louise, Grand Duchess of Tuscany
Marguerite Louise d'Orléans
Marguerite Louise d'Orléans was Grand Duchess of Tuscany, as the wife of Grand Duke Cosimo III de' Medici. Deprived of her lover, Charles V of Lorraine, and yearning for France, Marguerite Louise despised her husband and his family, whom she often quarrelled with and falsely suspected of...
.
Titles and styles
- 26 December 1646 – 15 May 1667 [Her Royal HighnessRoyal HighnessRoyal Highness is a style ; plural Royal Highnesses...
] Mademoiselle d'Alençon - 15 May 1667 – 30 July 1671 Her Royal HighnessRoyal HighnessRoyal Highness is a style ; plural Royal Highnesses...
the Duchess of Guise and Joyeuse (Madame la duchesse de Guise et Joyeuse) (or, to the public in general, Madame de Guise)- 30 July 1671 – 17 March 1696 Her Royal HighnessRoyal HighnessRoyal Highness is a style ; plural Royal Highnesses...
the Dowager Duchess of Guise and Joyeuse - 2 February 1660 – 17 March 1696 Her Royal HighnessRoyal HighnessRoyal Highness is a style ; plural Royal Highnesses...
the Duchess of Alençon and Angoulême
- 30 July 1671 – 17 March 1696 Her Royal Highness
Upon her son's death, she became the Duchess of Alençon and Angoulême in her own right. She kept her rank of Granddaughter of France during her marriage. This allowed her the style of HRH (sa Altesse Royale).