Louis Philippe I , Duke of Orléans Louis Philippe d ' Orléans known as " le Gros " ( " the Fat " ) ( 12 May 1725 – 18 November 1785 ) , was a French prince , a member of a cadet branch of the House of Bourbon , the dynasty then ruling France . The First Prince of the Blood after 1752 , he was the most senior male at the French court after the immediate royal family . He was the father of " Philippe Égalité " . He greatly augmented the already huge wealth of the House of Orléans . Biography . " Louis Philippe d ' Orléans " was born at the Palace of Versailles on 12 May 1725 . As the only son of Louis d ' Orléans , Duke of Orléans and his wife Johanna of Baden - Baden , he was titled Duke of Chartres at birth . He was one of two children ; his younger sister Louise Marie d ' Orléans died at Saint - Cloud in 1728 aged a year and eight months . His father , who had been devoted to his German wife became a recluse and pious as he grew older . Louise Marie was known as " Mademoiselle " in her short lifetime . Louis Philippe was hardly fifteen when he and his young cousin Princess Henriette of France ( 1727 – 1752 ) , the second daughter of King Louis XV and Queen Marie Leszczyńska , fell in love . After considering the possibility of such a marriage , Louis XV and his chief minister , Cardinal Fleury , decided against it because this union would have brought the House of Orléans too close to the throne . First marriage . In 1743 , his paternal grandmother , Françoise - Marie de Bourbon the formidable Dowager Duchess of Orléans , and Louise Élisabeth , Dowager Princess of Conti arranged his marriage to his seventeen - year old cousin , Louise Henriette de Bourbon ( 1726 – 1759 ) , a member of the House of Boubon - Conti , another cadet branch of the House of Bourbon . It was hoped this marriage would close a fifty - year - old family rift . Louis Philippe ' s father , " Louis le Pieux " , gave his consent to the union in the belief that because the young bride had been brought up in a convent , she would be a paragon of virtue and as such be an ideal wife for his son . Louise Henriette was the only daughter of Louis Armand de Bourbon , Prince of Conti and the earlier mentioned Louise Élisabeth de Bourbon . Louise Henriette was a Princess of the Blood ( " princesse du sang " ) and was known at court as " Mademoiselle de Conti " . The couple was married on 17 December 1743 in the chapel of the Palace of Versailles . After a few months of a passion that surprised everyone at court , the couple started to drift apart as the young Duchess of Chartres began to lead a scandalous life . This caused her father - in - law to refuse to recognise the legitimacy of his grandchildren . The couple had three children : Because he knew that Louise Henriette was having affairs during her marriage and felt that Louis Philippe was physically incapable of having children , Louise Henriette ' s father - in - law refused to acknowledge any of her children as legitimate . Military achievements and succession as Duke of Orléans . Serving with the French armies in the War of the Austrian Succession , he distinguished himself in the campaigns of 1742 , 1743 and 1744 , and at the Battle of Fontenoy in 1745 . After the death of his first wife , he retired to his château at Bagnolet , where he occupied his time with theatrical performances and the society of intellectuals . Louise Henriette accompanied her husband to the field despite being pregnant . Upon the death of his father in Paris on 4 August 1752 , Louis Philippe became Duke of Orléans and head of the House of Orléans . He also became First Prince of the Blood , Duke of Valois , Nemours and Montpensier . His father was buried at the Abbaye - Sainte - Geneviève where he had lived since 1740 . Étiennette Le Marquis . After the death of Louise Henriette on 9 February 1759 at the Palais - Royal , the Orléans residence in Paris , Louis Philippe took as his mistress Étiennette Le Marquis , a former dancer who liked to act in comedy plays , and who introduced him into the world of the theater . At that time , the " château de Bagnolet " , which he had inherited from his father , became his favorite residence . Louis Philippe had three children with Étiennette ; they were raised under the care of the Orléans family : In 1769 , Louis Philippe sold Bagnolet and bought the Château du Raincy , located less than ten miles east from the center of Paris . The same year , his son Louis Philippe , married Louise Marie Adélaïde de Bourbon , heiress to the fortune of her father , the Duke of Penthièvre . Louis Philippe had wanted his son to have a prestigious marriage with the Polish princess Maria Kunigunde , the youngest daughter of Augustus III of Poland and Maria Josepha , Archduchess of Austria . Princess Maria Kunigunde was the sister of the deceased Dauphine of France ( 1731 – 1767 ) , mother of Louis XVI . It was the King Louis XV who opposed this marriage on the pretence that the princess was too old for the young Duke of Chartres . This caused the Duke of Penthièvre to ask if the Duke of Orléans if he would allow a union with the Orléans family . Louis Philippe is said to have rejected the idea of his son marrying Mademoiselle de Penthièvre due to her " bastard race " ; this is an irony in itself due to Louis Philippe and the Duke of Penthièvre were both descended from two daughters of Louis XIV and Madame de Montespan . Second marriage . In spite of his liaison with Étiennette , Louis Philippe had several other mistresses until he met , in July 1766 , Charlotte Jeanne Béraud de La Haye de Riou , " Madame de Montesson " , a witty but married twenty - eight - year - old . After the death of the Marquis of Montesson in 1769 , Louis Philippe tried to obtain Louis XV ' s authorisation to marry the young widow . Finally , in December 1772 , the King gave his consent on the condition that the Marquise of Montesson would never become Duchess of Orléans or succeed to any other Orléans titles . In addition , the couple was to live a quiet life away from the court . The morganatic wedding took place on 23 April 1773 " " dans la plus stricte intimité " " . As a wedding gift , the Duke of Orléans gave his new wife the " château de Sainte - Assise " at Seine - Port , in today ' s Seine - et - Marne department of France . Later life . Louis XV had added to the appanage of the House of Orléans the " hôtel de Grand - Ferrare " in Fontainebleau ( 1740 ) , the county of Soissons ( 1751 ) , the seigneuries of La Fère , Marle , Ham , Saint - Gobain , the " Ourcq canal " and the " hôtel Duplessis - Châtillon " in Paris ( 1766 ) . In 1773 , Orléans added to his residences a magnificent hôtel built at Chaussée d ' Antin , the new elegant quarter of Paris . In 1780 , Louis Philippe gave his son the Palais - Royal , a gift that was to mark their reconciliation after the rift provoked by the Duke ' s second marriage . In Sainte - Assise , Le Raincy and Paris , the couple received nobles , intellectuals , playwrights , scientists , such as the Duchess of Lauzun , the Countess of Egmont , the Marquis of Lusignan , the Marquis of Osmond , the mathematician d ' Alembert , the German writer Melchior Grimm , the mathematician and astronomer Pierre - Simon de Laplace , the chemist Claude Louis Berthollet , the composer Pierre - Alexandre Monsigny , and the playwright Louis Carrogis Carmontelle . The couple also gave theatrical presentations , some of which were written by the Marquise of Montesson . In February 1785 , upon the insistence of Louis XVI , and with some help from Madame du Barry , the Duke of Orléans sold the magnificent château de Saint - Cloud , which had been in the Orléans family ' s possession since 1658 , to Queen Marie Antoinette , for six million livres , a much reduced price than the original cost . The beautiful château had been ignored after the death of his wife Louise Henriette . Surrounded by all the members of his immediate family , even his three children by Etiennette Le Marquis , Louis - Philippe died on 18 November 1785 , at Sainte - Assise at the age of sixty . He was buried at the Val - de - Grâce convent in Paris , built by his ancestor Anne of Austria to celebrate the birth of Louis XIV of France , Louis Philippe ' s great grandfather . Sources . < BR > ! style = " background : # ccccff ; " | Titles and Succession < BR >