Marie-Eloise Denise de Burgundy d’Orléans

## Mademoiselle d'Orléans

Marie-Eloise Denise, Mademoiselle d'Orléans, with her dog Tournesol. c. 1767

### Siblings

Marie Antoinette, Mademoiselle d'OrléansMarie Anne Louise, Mademoiselle d'Orléans

Marie-Therese, Mademoiselle d'Orléans

Marie-Steve-Antoinette, Mademoiselle d'Orléans

Marie Augustine Sophie, Mademoiselle d'Orléans

Marie Benedicte-Anne, Mademoiselle d'Orléans

### Religion

Roman Catholic

**Marie-Eloise Denise de Burgundy d’Orléans** (Born May 18, 1745) is a French Noblewoman one of the famous **Orléanettes.** Known as the most insane out of her sisters, she sees herself as a plant and refuses to think otherwise. Having 4 servants around her at all time to pour a glass of lavender water on her head everyday. Out of all her sisters, Denise was remarked as the second ugliest. Not only were her features very ugly, she was a hunchback and had a clubbed foot. She was also quite short, only being 4,7 by the age of 20.

## **Birth**

In the mid-afternoon of May 18, 1745, a baby girl was born to Louis-Anne Marie and Marie-Seraphine-Augustine. Even after many scolding's from the family, Louis and Augustine continued to produce the cursed children which would not yet be known as the **Orléanettes.** In the early staged of her life, Augustine was known as the beauty and wittiness at court. But after all of her births, she would be known as the cursed and disliked Augustine.

The birth was probably the roughest and most dangerous for Augustine, even though it had only been the couple's fourth child. In total, the Duchesse fainted about 4 times during the birth and needed heavy assistance from governesses. Surprisingly they both made it though the birth and were healthy, (aside from Denise's several deformities).

Even though the family was quite famous and high up on the scale, not many people got to witness the full birthing of Denise. Most people got bored and simply was too worried about the Duchesse to continue watching. After the birth Denise was quickly placed under the care of 6 governesses in total, fighting to keep her alive. A young midwife was also in place as the mother breastfeeding was not common. One governess had nicknamed the young child *Hystérie* because of how bubbly and sweet she was. Though, other than this Denise was not very much liked by her governesses and midwife. She was annoying and was sick too often. One governess even caught one of Denise's many illnesses and died.

## **Childhood**

Denise and her other sisters were sent to an Abbaye in Paris. Defidently not much was spent on their educations, as there was way too many of them and most of them had learning disabilities. Making it was merely impossible to teach them anything. They could not read nor could they write until the age of 8.

Surprisingly at a young age all of the sisters got along quite well, aside from Marie-Steve-Antoinette who was quite the loner and would be what would now be known as sociopathy. She only wore black and would drape her chambers in black as well, thinking herself of nothing but a helpless bat. Though fairly strange, Denise's plant thinking was much weirder because of the fact that people actually water her. She also liked going outside on warm sunny days and sometimes would even wear brown stockings and shoes because it would be the soil, or start to every outfit.

At the age of 14 Denise entered the doors of court. Full of judgement and gossip. Many already expected her as a couple sisters came before her. Whispers and giggles surrounded the court as Denise's impression was well, to say the least, not very good. She yelled at a few courtiers the moment she arrived and people did not like the fact she literally thought she was a plant. A young Duchesse surprisingly gifted the Mademoiselle a dog, which she named Tournesol, which means Sunflower. To the most embarrassment to her mother, it was quickly revealed that Denise's dowry was 500k Livres. Though, the sum was very large, no one (high enough title) asked to marry the woman. A young man even commenting, "How would one love a freak as she is?"

## **Court Life**

Little hope was left for all of the Orléanettes, as in their mid 20s, they all remained unmarried. The oldest, Marie-Antoinette had even a child unmarried. The child though, was secretly disposed of by the church. Continuing into her court life, many grew to fear Denise. The way she walked and stared was enough to get you running for mercy.