Elizabeth Charlotte, Madame Palatine

Princess Elizabeth Charlotte of the Palatinate
Duchess of Orléans
Portrait by Pierre Mignard, 1675
Born(1652-05-27)27 May 1652
Heidelberg Castle, Heidelberg, Electoral Palatinate, Holy Roman Empire
Died8 December 1722(1722-12-08) (aged 70)
Château de Saint-Cloud, Île-de-France, France
Burial
Spouse
(m. 1671; died 1701)
Issue
Detail
House
FatherCharles I Louis, Elector Palatine
MotherLandgravine Charlotte of Hesse-Kassel
Religion
SignaturePrincess Elizabeth Charlotte of the Palatinate's signature

Madame Elizabeth Charlotte, Duchess of Orléans (born Princess Elizabeth Charlotte of the Palatinate,[1] German: Elisabeth Charlotte; 27 May 1652 – 8 December 1722), also known as Liselotte von der Pfalz, was a German member of the House of Wittelsbach who married into the French royal family. She was the second wife of Monsieur Philippe I, Duke of Orléans (younger brother of Louis XIV of France). By Philippe, Liselotte was the mother of Philippe II, Duke of Orléans, and Élisabeth Charlotte, Duchess of Lorraine. Philippe II was France's ruler during the Regency. Liselotte gained literary and historical importance primarily through preservation of her correspondence, which is of great 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.

Liselotte 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".[2] 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.

  1. ^ Spanheim, Ezechiel (1973). Le Temps retrouvé XXVI: Relation de la Cour de France. Paris, France: Mercure de France. pp. 74–79, 305–308.
  2. ^ Van der Cruysse 2001, p. 229.