Charlotte Aglaé of Orléans

Infobox Monarch|royal|consort
name =Charlotte Aglaé d'Orléans
title =Duchess Consort of Modena


caption =Charlotte Aglaé d'Orléans in Hebe
consortreign =October 26 1737 - 1744
spouse =Francesco III, Duke of Modena
issue =Alfonso
Francesco Costantino
Maria Teresa
Ercole Rinaldo
Mathilde
Beatrice
Maria Fortunata
Benedetto Filippo
Maria Elisabetta
royal house =House of Orléans
othertitles =
father =Philippe II d'Orléans, duc d'Orléans
mother =Françoise-Marie de Bourbon
date of birth =birth date|1700|10|20|mf=y
place of birth =Palais-Royal, Paris, France
date of death =death date and age|1761|01|19|1700|10|20|mf=y
place of death =Palais du Luxembourg, Paris, France|

Charlotte Aglaé d'Orléans (sometimes "Charlotte Aglaë d'Orléans") was the Duchess of Modena and Reggio by marriage. She was born in Paris on October 20, 1700 and died on January 19, 1761. She was the third daughter of Philippe II d'Orléans, duc d'Orléans, Regent of France from 1715 to 1723, and his wife, Françoise-Marie de Bourbon. As a member of the reigning House of Bourbon, she was a Princesse du Sang.

Youth

She was born at her parents' home, the Palais-Royal in Paris. As a young child, Charlotte was known by the same form of address as her mother had been in her youth, "Mademoiselle de Blois", but later on, assumed the style of "Mademoiselle de Valois".

She, vivacious and self-assured, and her older sister Louise Adélaïde, were considered the more attractive of the daughters of the "Régent" and her mother had wanted her to marry her cousin, the Louis-Auguste de Bourbon, prince de Dombes", son of the duc du Maine but Charlotte refused. Her grand mother, the Dowager "duchesse d'Orléans", said of her:

"Mademoiselle de Valois is not, in my opinion, pretty, and yet occasionally she does not look ugly. She has something like charms, for her eyes, her colour and her skin are good. She has white teeth, a large, ill-looking nose, and one prominent tooth, which when she laughs has a bad effect" [Mémoires sur la cour de Louis XIV et de la Régence by duchesse d'Orléans]

She also said of her grand daughter that:

"She has a good deal of the Mortemart family in her, and is as much like the Duchess of Sforza, the sister of Montespan" [Mémoires sur la cour de Louis XIV et de la Régence by duchesse d'Orléans]

Her father had a special affection for her and paid particular attention to her education.
In 1717, at the age of seventeen, Charlotte began an affair with Louis François Armand du Plessis, duc de Richelieu. [Histoire de France par Louis-Pierre Anquetil 1820] The duke was arrested and jailed in Hem in connection with the Cellamare Conspiracy in 1719. Charlotte visited him in prison several times and urged her father, as regent, to pardon her lover so they could marry.

Duchess of Modena

Despite Charlotte's wishes, the regent accepted an offer of marriage for his daughter that was proffered by the sovereign Duke of Modena for his son and heir, Prince Francesco d'Este (1698-1780). An earlier project to marry Charlotte to the King of Sardinia had failed.On 12 February 1720 at Palais de Tuilieries, Paris, she had a proxy marriage before she met her husband in her distant new home. ["La Cour du Régent" par "Louis de Rouvroy Saint-Simon"]

The wedding took place in 1720, and Charlotte received an enormous dowry of 1,8 million Livres, half of which was to be contributed by the king, on orders of the regent. Upon the death of her father-in-law in 1737, her husband became Francesco III, reigning Duke of Modena. At the time of her marriage, her husbands lands were exhausted by debts from the recent wars such as the Spanish, Polish and Austria Successions.

Children

Like her mother and father, she had a very large family. Seven survived infancy and overall Charlotte and her husband had nine children:
*Alfonso (1723 - 1725);
**died in infancy
*Francesco Constantino (1724 - 1725);
**died in infancy
*Maria Teresa Felicita (1726 - 1754)
**wed Louis Jean Marie de Bourbon, duc de Penthièvre;
*Ercole III) (1727 - 1803);
**succeeded his father as the Duke of Modena
*Matilde (1729 - 1803);
*Beatrice (1731 - 1736);
*Maria Fortunata (1734 - 1803)
**wed Louis François II de Bourbon, prince de Conti;
*Benedetto Filippo (1736 - 1751);
*Maria Elisabetta (1741 - 1774).

Later life

Charlotte grew bored and lonely in Modena, and the duc de Richelieu visited her in disguise. She wanted, at all costs, to separate from her husband and return to her homeland France; She was allowed to return, however once she did, King Louis XV welcomed her with extreme coldness and forced her to live a marginalised life in the city of her birth.

While in France, she tried her best to secure most of her daughters the best marriages possible; her eldest daughter was engaged to marry Louis Jean Marie de Bourbon, duc de Penthièvre and hier to the vastly wealthy "House of Bourbon-Penthièvre". The couple were married in the year of Charlottes return to France, 1744. Her grand daughter was Mademoiselle de Penthièvre, a vast heiress who was the mother of Louis-Philippe of France.

She also managed to secure a marriage for her fourth daughter known as "Maria Fortunata d'Este". She married a cousin of her mothers, Louis François II de Bourbon, prince de Conti. He was the last prince de Conti and the marriage was very unhappy to the point that the groom did not want to live with his wife. Despite the work she did for her family back in France, she was relatively ignored once she returned and did not pay court to her cousin, King Louis XV.

She died in Paris at the Palais du Luxembourg, where her elder sister, Louise Elisabeth, had died nearly twenty years earlier. Charlotte died at the age of sixty, outliving all of her siblings. Her heart was placed in the Chapel of "Val-de-Grâce" but was removed and lost during the revolution. [ [http://pagesperso-orange.fr/stephane.thomas/patrimoine/ile_france/val_grace/val_grace.htm "Val de Grace"] ] After her death, her husband remarried twice more morganatically to Teresa Castelberco and Renata Teresa d'Harrach.

Ancestors

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1= 1. Charlotte Aglaé d'Orléans
2= 2. Philippe II d'Orléans, duc d'Orléans
3= 3. Françoise-Marie de Bourbon, Mademoiselle de Blois
4= 4. Phillippe de France, duc d'Orléans
5= 5. Elizabeth Charlotte of the Palatinate
6= 6. Louis XIV
7= 7. Françoise-Athénaïs, marquise de Montespan
8= 8. Louis XIII of France
9= 9. Anne of Austria
10= 10. Charles I Louis, Elector Palatine
11= 11. Charlotte of Hesse-Kassel (or Hesse-Cassel)
12= 12. Louis XIII of France
13= 13. Anne of Austria
14= 14. Gabriel de Rochechouart, duc de Mortemart
15= 15. Diane de Grandseigne
16= 16. Henry IV of France
17= 17. Marie de' Medici
18= 18. Philip III of Spain
19= 19. Margaret of Austria
20= 20. Frederick V, Elector Palatine
21= 21. Elizabeth Stuart
22= 22. William V, Landgrave of Hesse-Kassel (or Hesse-Cassel)
23= 23. Amalie Elisabeth of Hanau-Münzenberg
24= 24. Henry IV of France =16
25= 25. Marie de' Medici =17
26= 26. Philip III of Spain =18
27= 27. Margaret of Austria =19
28= 28. Gaspard de Rochechouart, marquis de Mortemart
29= 29. Louise de Maure, comtesse de Maure
30= 30. Jean de Grandseigne, marquis de Marsillac
31= 31. Catherine de La Béraudière, Dame de Villenon

References

Notes

*Some information on this page is from the French [http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charlotte-Agla%C3%A9_d%27Orl%C3%A9ans_%281700-1761%29 "Charlotte-Aglaé d'Orléans (1700-1761)"] site

External links

* [http://books.google.fr/books?id=nKgGAAAAQAAJ&pg=RA1-PA208&lpg=RA1-PA208&dq=Charlotte+Agla%C3%A9+d'Orl%C3%A9ans+&source=web&ots=Lx2VaRIxxc&sig=sd603AWNwPkPMDbRyPcxy76PlnQ&hl=fr#PRA1-PA209,M1 French Memoirs of her Grand mother]
* [http://enviedhistoire.canalblog.com/albums/princesses_de_conde__petites_filles_de_louis_xiv/photos/5461034-charlotte_agla_.html French site on her, siblings and cousins]
* [http://digilander.libero.it/battaglioneestense/duchesse/duchesse.htm Picture of Charlotte as Duchess of Modena]

Titles