page_title: Elizabeth Charlotte, Madame Palatine
hierarchical_section_title: Elizabeth Charlotte, Madame Palatine
caption_attribution_description: The Duchess wears the black vap and veil of a widow (her husband died in 1701).
context_page_description: Princess Elisabeth Charlotte, was a German princess member of the House of Wittelsbach and, as Madame, the second wife of Philippe I, Duke of Orléans and mother of Philippe II, Duke of Orléans, France's ruler during the Regency. She gained literary and historical importance primarily through her correspondence, which is of cultural and historical value due to her sometimes very blunt descriptions of French court life and is today one of the best-known German-language texts of the Baroque period.
  Although she only had two surviving children, she not only became the ancestress of the House of Orléans, which came to the French throne with Louis Philippe I, the so-called "Citizen King" from 1830 to 1848, but also became the ancestress of numerous European royal families, so she was also called the “Grandmother of Europe”. Through her daughter she was the grandmother of Francis I, Holy Roman Emperor, the husband of Maria Theresa, and great-grandmother of Joseph II and Leopold II and Marie Antoinette, the last Queen of France before the French Revolution.
context_section_description: Princess Elisabeth Charlotte (German: Prinzessin Elisabeth Charlotte von der Pfalz; nicknamed "Liselotte", 27 May 1652 – 8 December 1722), was a German princess member of the House of Wittelsbach and, as Madame, the second wife of Philippe I, Duke of Orléans (younger brother of Louis XIV of France) and mother of Philippe II, Duke of Orléans, France's ruler during the Regency. She gained literary and historical importance primarily through her correspondence, which is of cultural and historical value due to her sometimes very blunt descriptions of French court life and is today one of the best-known German-language texts of the Baroque period.
  Although she only had two surviving children, she not only became the ancestress of the House of Orléans, which came to the French throne with Louis Philippe I, the so-called "Citizen King" from 1830 to 1848, but also became the ancestress of numerous European royal families, so she was also called the “Grandmother of Europe”. Through her daughter she was the grandmother of Francis I, Holy Roman Emperor, the husband of Maria Theresa, and great-grandmother of Joseph II and Leopold II (both Holy Roman Emperors) and Marie Antoinette, the last Queen of France before the French Revolution.
caption: Portrait by Hyacinthe Rigaud, ca. 1713. Currently displayed at Versailles Palace. The black veil is the customary widow's veil, the hermelin-lined coat with golden Fleur-de-lis on a blue background distinguishes her as a member of the French royal family. Liselotte herself was so enraptured by the resemblance of this portrait that she had various copies made, which she sent to relatives; she wrote: "... one saw nothing more like his life than Rigaud painted me."[1]
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