Marie Louise Élisabeth d'Orléans

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Marie Louise Elisabeth de Bourbon-Orléans

Marie Louise Élisabeth d'Orléans (born August 20, 1695 in Versailles , † July 21, 1719 in La Muette Castle ) was Princess of France and Duchess of Berry.

origin

Marie Louise Elisabeth was born in Versailles on August 20, 1695 as the daughter of Duke Philip II of Orléans and his wife Françoise Marie de Bourbon , a daughter of Louis XIV and his mistress Madame de Montespan .

Marie Louise Elisabeth's father, Philip II of Orléans, was the son of Duke Philip I of Orléans and his second wife Elisabeth Charlotte of the Palatinate and thus the nephew of Louis XIV of France. The marriage between the homosexual and lavish brother of the Sun King and the German, down-to-earth princess was very unhappy. Philip I of Orléans preferred to surround himself with men and only sought out his wife to fulfill his dynastic duties. Philip II of Orléans was introduced to court life at a very early age by his father and developed into a seducer and charmer who liked to surround himself with beautiful women and spent most of the nights away from home. His political talent, intelligence, and acumen with regard to the affairs of government were revealed very early on. Louis XIV of France only moderately promoted his nephew's talent and eyed his critical judgment with suspicion and jealousy.

In 1692 the Sun King made the decision to marry his now 15-year-old daughter Françoise Marie von Blois to her 17-year-old cousin Philipp von Orléans. The bride's father organized an elaborate and expensive wedding and presented the young bride and groom with jewelry and a considerable fortune.

The couple were very different and very soon Philip II of Orléans resumed his bachelor life. Nevertheless, between 1693 and 1716, Duchess Françoise Marie gave birth to seven girls and a boy, who later became Duke Ludwig I of Orléans .

childhood

Marie Louise quickly became her father's favorite. The otherwise rather cold-hearted duke and loveless husband was able to transform himself into the most loving family man in the presence of this daughter and care for his daughter with illnesses and deal with her for hours. This strong bond between father and daughter should strengthen as the girl gets older. While she was overwhelmed with love by her father and he granted her every wish, she was ignored by her mother. Duchess Françoise Marie was not interested in raising her children, so that especially the girls developed into undisciplined beings. When King Louis XIV complained to his daughter about the scandalous behavior of his granddaughter, she only replied: “I don't know her (Marie Louise Elisabeth) better than you, your Majesty, because I never took part in the upbringing of my children. "

Youth and life on the farm

As the granddaughter of Louis XIV, Marie Louise Elisabeth was introduced to her grandfather's court in Versailles at the age of fourteen and was given her own court. Soon she got so caught up in antics that her behavior earned her the reputation of a “ Messalina of France”.

At her mother's instigation, she was married to Duke Karl von Berry , also a grandson of Louis XIV of France, in July 1710 . A year later, Marie Louise Elisabeth, who was just 15 years old, became pregnant for the first time. The pregnancy caused her pain and nausea, so that the young duchess no longer wanted to get out of bed. Duke Philip II of Orléans spent hours at the bedside of his sick daughter and during this time rumors increased that the affection of Philip II of Orléans was not purely paternal. On July 21, 1711, Marie Louise Elisabeth gave birth to a girl in Fontainebleau , but she only lived two days.

The king himself was apparently responsible for the unfortunate birth and the rapid death of the child: he insisted that the pregnant woman should travel to Fontainebleau with the court. However, given the advanced pregnancy, doctors advised against traveling and insisted that the duchesse should stay at Versailles or the Palais Royal. Louis XIV, however, did not allow himself to be softened and offered the duchesse not to travel in the carriage but by ship. During the voyage, the ship struck the jetty of a bridge in Melun and almost sank. The duchess almost escaped death. Doctors saw the stress caused by the trip and the accident as the cause of the baby's early death.

Another pregnancy ended in a premature birth in 1713. The boy, born in the seventh month, lived only three weeks.

The funniest widow of Versailles

Marie Louise Elisabeth von Orléans, widowed Duchess of Berry, 1714, painting by Louis de Silvestre

On May 4, 1714, Duke Karl von Berry died as a result of a hunting accident and his young wife suffered another premature birth the following month.

After the death of her grandfather Louis XIV in 1715 and during the reign of Philip II of Orléans for the underage King Louis XV. Duchess Marie Louise lost all inhibitions, changed lovers and spent most of the time on the hunt, at scandalous parties and in gaming rooms. She also took great pleasure in organizing celebrations that took place in her new residence, the Palais du Luxembourg . Not infrequently, her father also took part in the festivities, which often turned into orgies, and, like Marie Louise Elisabeth, enjoyed himself with the naked dancers.

As she got older, Marie Louise Elisabeth became more and more like her mother. She was extremely lazy and could not get out of bed for days to cram a huge amount of food that was brought to her bed. At the age of twenty the young woman suffered from obesity and indigestion. Duchess Marie Louise often vomited up the food she had previously devoured and then began to eat again. The young widow most likely suffered from the eating disorder bulimia nervosa (eating and vomiting addiction) , which alternates days of fasting and overeating. Women who suffer from bulimia nervosa are very irritable and temperamental and fluctuate between feelings of excessive joy and deepest depression.

Under the spell of love

From 1716 a change began in the life of Marie Louise Elisabeth. She fell madly in love with Lieutenant Armand d'Aydie , Comte de Rion (1692–1741), and concentrated only on this relationship. In autumn 1716 she secretly married her lover against her father's wishes and began to neglect her father. The Count of Rion took more and more possession of the young woman and began to make her life hell. Terrorized and yet dependent on her husband, Marie Louise suffered more and more from existential fears and sought refuge in religion. So she led an unsteady life between stays in Carmelite convents and the vicious life in the Palais du Luxembourg .

The first child of the two was born in July 1717. Nothing more is known about this child. However, it is said that the girl was the only child of Marie Louise Elisabeth who did not die immediately, but allegedly later became a nun in the Pontoise Abbey.

In 1716 the young poet Voltaire read a satirical poem to the Duc du Maine and his wife Bénédicte , the sharpest rival and archenemy of their brother-in-law Philip II of Orléans, in which he alluded to the rumor that Philip was having an incestuous relationship with his daughter. This then banished Voltaire from Paris. After a few months he was allowed to return after addressing an epistle of supplication and homage to the regent. Hardly in Paris, however, he wrote another satire. In the presence of a police spy, he again made highly insulting comments about the Duchess of Berry. This time the sentence was harsher: In May 1717 Voltaire was imprisoned in the Bastille . However, after he had subsequently processed the subject of incestuous love in the tragedy Œdipe , both the regent and his daughter took part in the premiere in the Comédie-Française on November 18, 1718; the former rewarded Voltaire with a pension of 1200 livres and a gold medal for the play, the latter demonstratively attended several performances in succession.

The domineering Comte de Rion now demanded from his wife that the marriage should be made public. Philip II of Orléans forbade this to prevent a major scandal. In 1718, Marie Louise Elisabeth became pregnant by Count Armand. The young woman again suffered from problems during pregnancy and became so ill that her imminent death was feared. However, the Sun King's granddaughter recovered and gave birth to a dead girl in early 1719.

Early end

In the summer of 1719 she organized a banquet for her father, Philip II of Orléans. It was a mild summer evening and Marie Louise Elisabeth caught a cold due to her poor health, which caused a high fever and attacks of weakness. At a sumptuous dinner she fell from her chair and then lay in a death-like rigidity for three hours, so that the doctors' first diagnosis was a stroke . However, she came to and was by no means paralyzed, but the young woman was so weak that she could not get out of bed and screamed because of the excruciating pain in her feet and legs - she could not even bear a light blanket and was less emaciated within Weeks extremely off, only the stomach was bloated like a heavily pregnant woman. On July 21, 1719, the granddaughter of the Sun King closed her eyes forever, leaving a sad father behind. The autopsy revealed a new pregnancy and ulcers in the stomach, liver, spleen, hip joints and brain. Today it is believed that Marie Louise Elisabeth fell victim to general sepsis caused by a gallbladder expansion .

Because of her bad reputation, she received the funeral mass in the burial church of the Bourbons , which could not be refused to her, but for the first time in history there was no funeral speech, as the old rule that one should only say good things about the dead does not apply with the best will was.

Elisabeth Charlotte von der Pfalz regretted her son because "he would have lost what he loved most in the world".

progeny

Children from the marriage with Duke Karl von Berry were:

  • Louise d'Alençon, granddaughter of France, Duchess of Alençon (* July 21, 1711 in Fontainebleau , † July 21, 1711 ibid) Mademoiselle de Berry, the dead child was buried in Saint-Denis.
  • Charles d'Alençon, grandson of France, Duke of Alençon (born March 26, 1713 in Versailles , † April 16, 1713 there) was born prematurely in Versailles, but died half a month later after a series of seizures. His heart was buried in the Val de Grâce convent, his body in the basilica of Saint-Denis.
  • Marie Louise Elisabeth d'Alençon, granddaughter of France, Duchess of Alençon (born June 16, 1714 in Versailles, † June 17, 1714 there) died the day after her birth and was buried in Saint-Denis.

Children from the relationship with Sicaire Antonin Armand Auguste Nicolas d'Aydie, Chevalier de Rion, or Armand d'Aydie , Count of Rion, were:

  • a daughter whose name is unknown (* on January 27 or 28, 1716 in the Palais du Luxembourg in Paris; † after three days)
  • a daughter whose name is unknown (* in July 1717 in the Château de la Muette ), according to Saint-Simon later a nun in the Pontoise Abbey
  • a nameless daughter (born March 20, 1719 in the Palais du Luxembourg; † March 20, 1719 ibid)

literature

  • Thea Leitner : Scandal at court. Habsburg's golden brides; The fate of women at Europe's royal courts . Piper, Munich 2004, ISBN 3-492-24165-4 , pp. 113, 122-123.

Web links

Commons : Marie Louise Élisabeth d'Orléans  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Thea Leitner: Scandal at court . Ueberreuter, Vienna 1993, ISBN 3-8000-3492-1 , p. 104.
  2. She had become pregnant again and was hiding in La Muette Castle until she was born (Jean-Michel Raynaud: Voltaire soi-disant. Presses Universitaires de Lille, 1983, vol. 1, p. 289)
  3. ^ Thea Leitner: Scandal at court . Ueberreuter, Vienna 1993, ISBN 3-8000-3492-1 , p. 123.
  4. a b c [1]. France's Bourbons