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Memoirs of Louis XIV and His Court and of the Regency

Elisabeth Charlotte von der Pfalz

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Elizabeth Charlotte, Countess Palatine of Simmern (1652-1722 at the Chteau de Saint-Cloud near Paris), known in French as la princesse palatine and in German as Liselotte von der Pfalz, was a princess of the electoral family of the Palatinate who became Duchess of Orlans by her marriage to Philip I, Duke of Orlans, younger brother of Louis XIV of France, and then in 1693 by inheritance Duchess of Montpensier in her own right. When the Wittelsbach branch of Palatinate-Simmern became extinct in the male line with the death of her brother Karl II, Elector Palatine in 1685, her brother-inlaw Louis XIV claimed the Palatinate and started the War of the Palatine Succession (1688 - 1697). Her brother's death also meant that she became the heiress of the then Duchess of Montpensier, her distant childless cousin and her husband's first cousin. After the deaths of her husband in 1701 and of Louis XIV in 1715, her son-Philip II, Duke of Orlans-became Regent of France (1715-1723), acting for the underage king Louis XV of France.

GenresHistoryNonfictionEuropean History

264 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2003

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Elisabeth Charlotte von der Pfalz

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Elisabeth Charlotte of the Palatinate, Duchess of Orléans, also known as Liselotte von der Pfalz, was a German princess and the second wife of Philippe de France, younger brother of Louis XIV of France. Her vast correspondence provides a detailed account of the personalities and activities at the court of her brother-in-law, Louis XIV.

Princess Elisabeth Charlotte was the mother of Philippe II, Duke of Orléans, France's ruler during the Regency. Her sometimes very blunt descriptions of French court life is today one of the best-known German-language texts of the Baroque period.

Although she had only two surviving children, she 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". 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.

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