Louis, Duke of Orléans (1703–1752)

Louis d'Orléans (4 August 1703 – 4 February 1752) was the Duke of Orléans and a prince du sang. At his father's death, he became the First Prince of the Blood (Premier Prince du Sang). Known as Louis le Pieux and also as Louis le Génovéfain, Louis was a pious, charitable and cultured prince, who took very little part in the politics of the time.

Louis d'Orléans was born at the Palace of Versailles in 1703 to Philippe II, Duke of Orléans and his wife, Françoise Marie de Bourbon, the youngest legitimised daughter of Louis XIV and of his mistress Madame de Montespan. At his birth, he was given the courtesy title of Duke of Chartres.

He was brought up by his mother and his grandmother, Elizabeth Charlotte of the Palatinate. Louis was very close to his younger sister Louise Élisabeth d'Orléans. Upon the death of his father on 2 December 1723, he became Duke of Orléans. 

Marriage
He married Johanna of Baden-Baden (1704–1726), the daughter of Louis William, Margrave of Baden-Baden and his wife Sibylle Auguste of Saxe-Lauenburg, on 18 June 1724. The couple were very happy but Joanne died in childbirth in 1726 and Louis mourned her intensely. He never remarried. 

He died in 1752, at the age of forty-eight, at the Abbaye de Sainte Geneviève, having lost most of his sanity. He was buried at the Val-de-Grâce in Paris.

Children

Louis Philippe d'Orléans (12 May 1725 – 18 November 1785) married Louise Henriette de Bourbon in 1743 and had issue.
Louise Marie d'Orléans (5 August 1726 – 14 May 1728) died young.

Titles and styles

4 August 1703 – 2 December 1723 His Serene Highness the Duke of Chartres 
2 December 1723 – 4 February 1752 His Serene Highness the Duke of Orléans 
Monsieur le Prince

Category:1703 births
Category:1752 deaths
Category:People from Versailles
Category:House of Orléans
Category:Dukes and Duchesses of Valois
Category:Dukes and Duchesses of Chartres
Category:Dukes and Duchesses of Orléans
Category:Dukes and Duchesses of Nemours
Category:Dukes and Duchesses of Montpensier