Marie Louise Élisabeth d'Orléans

Marie Louise Élisabeth d'Orléans, Duchess of Berry (Château de Versailles, 20 August 1695 – Paris, 21 July 1719) was a member of the House of Orléans and a princesse du sang. After her marriage to her cousin, the duc de Berry, she became a petite-fille de France and assumed the style of Royal Highness.

Early life

Marie Louise Élisabeth d'Orléans was born at the Palace of Versailles. She was the eldest of the surviving children of the Duke of Chartres, future Duke of Orléans and Regent of France, and of his wife Françoise-Marie de Bourbon, a legitimised daughter of Louis XIV of France and of his mistress, Madame de Montespan.

Mademoiselle de Valois, her older sister and the eldest daughter of her parents, had died a year before the birth of Marie Louise Élisabeth, who was given the honorary title of Mademoiselle d'Orléans when she was born. After her marriage the title would be given to her younger sister Marie Louise Adélaïde d'Orléans.

Marie Louise Élisabeth grew up at the Palais-Royal, the Orléans residence in Paris, which, at the time of her parents' marriage, had been given by Louis XIV to the Duke and Duchess of Orléans, the parents of the Duke of Chartres, in order to make them give in to the marriage of their son to a royal bastard. She was surrounded by a small court of her own friends. After recovering from a near fatal illness at the age of six, she became close to her father, who had personally nursed her day and night in order to save her life. She would remain his most beloved and favourite daughter until her very early death. Her paternal grandmother, Elizabeth Charlotte of the Palatinate, Madame, known since her childhood as Liselotte, wrote in her memoirs that from a very early age, Marie Louise Élisabeth:

... had entirely her own way, so that it is not surprising she should be like a headstrong horse.

Marriage

Discussion of Marie Louise Élisabeth's marriage arose at the time when her cousin, the more beautiful Louise-Élisabeth de Bourbon-Condé, the daughter of Louise-Françoise de Bourbon, was suggested to be a possible wife for the Charles de France, Duke of Berry, the youngest grandson of Louis XIV. The respective mothers of Marie Louise Élisabeth d'Orléans and Louise-Élisabeth de Bourbon-Condé were sisters and had been feuding for years.

It was decided that it would be the younger Marie Louise Élisabeth who would marry her older cousin, the Duke of Berry. This was arranged with the help of Marie-Adélaïde, Duchess of Burgundy, her future sister-in-law.

The marriage took place on 6 July 1710, at the Palace of Versailles. Berry was the third and youngest son of Le Grand Dauphin, (the only legitimate son of Louis XIV), and of his wife, Princess Maria Anna of Bavaria. The marriage at first was happy, as the newlyweds were in love; but soon, they began arguing in public, much to the annoyance of their grandfather Louis XIV.

The couple had three children who never reached three months of age:

• Louise de Berry (21 July 1711)
• Charles de Berry (26 March 1713 - 16 June 1713)
• Marie-Louise-Élisabeth de Berry (16 June 1714 - 17 June 1714)

• 
  The duc d'Orléans, her father
• 
  The duchesse d'Orléans, her mother
• 
  The duc de Berry, her husband

Widowhood

On 5 May 1714, her husband died from internal injuries sustained in a hunting accident. His death led Louis XIV, not eager for the regency to be overly controlled by her father Philippe II d'Orléans, to increase the power of his legitimised sons, Louis Auguste, Duke of Maine and Louis Alexandre, Count of Toulouse, by making them princes du sang, thus putting them in line of succession of the throne.

Marie Louise Élisabeth was then known as the Dowager Duchess of Berry, (Madame la Duchesse de Berry Douairière). She held this style until her death. Upon the death of her grandfather in 1715, within one week, the Parlement de Paris confirmed her father Régent for the five-year old king, Louis XV. This meant that the House of Orléans now took center stage in France.

Marie Louise Élisabeth was later given the Luxembourg Palace as her Parisian residence, where she gave magnificent banquets which would later affect her already brittle health. One of the most famous, given in 1718 in honour of her visiting aunt, Élisabeth Charlotte d'Orléans (Duchess Consort of Lorraine), listed 132 hors-d'œuvre, 32 soups, 60 entrées, 130 hot entremets, 60 cold entremets, 72 plats ronds, 82 pigeons, 370 partridges and pheasants and 126 sweetbreads were served to the overwhelmed guests. The desserts consisted of 100 baskets of fresh fruit, 94 baskets of dried fruit, 50 dishes of fruits glacés and 106 compotes. The event was considered one of the most lavish receptions of the season.

During her father's regency (1715-1723), Marie Louise Élisabeth was given an annual income of 600,000 livres. In addition to her father's residences, she was also allowed the use of the Château de Meudon. Ill since the still-birth of a daughter she suffered in March 1719, her health kept on deteriorating, and she died on 21 July 1719 at the Luxembourg Palace, where years later two of her younger sisters, Louise Élisabeth of Orléans and Charlotte Aglaé of Orléans, would also die.

On Saturday 22 July 1719, her heart was taken to the Val-de-Grâce church in Paris, and on the following day, she was buried in the Basilica of Saint-Denis.

Concerning her last visit to her granddaughter, Madame wrote:

28th March, 1719. I went to see her last Sunday, the 23rd May, and found her in a sad state, suffering from pains in her toes and the soles of her feet until the tears came into her eyes. I went away because I saw that she refrained from crying out on my account. I thought she was in a bad way. A consultation was held by her three physicians, the result of which was that they determined to bleed her in the feet. They had some difficulty in persuading her to submit to it, because the pain in her feet was so great that she uttered the most piercing screams if the bedclothes only rubbed against them. The bleeding, however, succeeded, and she was in some degree relieved. It was the gout in both feet

During her lifetime, Marie Louise Élisabeth gained a reputation for scandal. In an irony of history, the next duchesse de Berry, Princess Caroline Ferdinande of Bourbon-Two Sicilies, was also known for her scandalous behaviour.

Ancestors

Family of Marie Louise Élisabeth d'Orléans

16. Henry IV of France 8. Louis XIII of France 17. Marie de' Medici 4. Philippe I, Duke of Orléans 18. Philip III of Spain 9. Anne of Austria 19. Margaret of Austria 2. Philippe II, Duke of Orléans 20. Frederick V, Elector Palatine 10. Charles I Louis, Elector Palatine 21. Elizabeth Stuart 5. Elizabeth Charlotte of the Palatinate 22. William V, Landgrave of Hesse-Kassel (or Hesse-Cassel) 11. Charlotte of Hesse-Kassel (or Hesse-Cassel) 23. Amalie Elisabeth of Hanau-Münzenberg 1. Marie Louise Elisabeth d'Orléans 24. Henry IV of France =16 12. Louis XIII of France 25. Marie de' Medici =17 6. Louis XIV 26. Philip III of Spain =18 13. Anne of Austria 27. Margaret of Austria =19 3. Françoise-Marie de Bourbon 28. Gaspard de Rochechouart, Marquess of Mortemart 14. Gabriel de Rochechouart, Duke of Mortemart 29. Louise de Maure, Countess of Maure 7. Françoise-Athénaïs de Rochechouart de Mortemart, Marchioness of Montespan 30. Jean de Grandseigne, Marquess of Marsillac 15. Diane de Grandseigne 31. Catherine de La Béraudière, Lady of Villenon

Titles and Styles

• 20 August 1695 - 6 July 1710 Her Serene Highness Mademoiselle d'Orléans
• 6 July 1710 - 5 May 1714 Her Royal Highness Madame la duchesse de Berry
• 5 May 1714 - 21 July 1719 Her Royal Highness Madame la duchesse de Berry douairière

Titles

Titles and Succession