Marie de Bourbon, Duchess of Montpensier

Marie de Bourbon (15 October 1605 – 4 June 1627), Duchess of Montpensier, Princess of Dombes and Duchess of Orléans by marriage, was a French noblewoman and one of the last members of the House of Bourbon-Montpensier. Her parents were Henri de Bourbon, Duke of Montpensier and Henriette Catherine de Joyeuse, Duchess of Joyeuse in her own right.^[1]

Marie de Bourbon
Duchess of Orléans Duchess of Montpensier
Born	(1605-10-15)15 October 1605 Château de Gaillon, Gaillon, France
Died	4 June 1627(1627-06-04) (aged 21) Palais du Louvre, Paris, France
Burial	Royal Basilica of Saint Denis, Paris, France
Spouse	Gaston, Duke of Orléans
Issue	Anne Marie Louise, Duchess of Montpensier
House	Bourbon-Montpensier
Father	Henri de Bourbon
Mother	Henriette Catherine de Joyeuse

Biography

Marie de Bourbon was born in the château de Gaillon, in Gaillon (Eure department of France), in the former province of Normandy.

Known as Mademoiselle de Montpensier before her marriage, she was the Duke and Duchess of Montpensier's only child. At the age of two, she had been engaged to the second son of Henry IV of France, Nicolas Henri de France, Duke of Orléans, but he died at the age of four in 1611. She was then betrothed to his brother, Gaston de France, Duke of Orléans, the younger brother of King Louis XIII, and the heir presumptive to the throne of France.

At the death of her father, in 1608, Marie became the Duchess of Montpensier in her own right; the Duchy was one of the oldest in France having been elevated from a County in 1539. Marie was a descendant of John II of France, of the House of Valois and of Saint Louis.

Because of the Montpensier fortune, of which Marie was the only heiress, and despite the aversion shown by Gaston toward this arranged marriage, Louis XIII and Richelieu were determined the marriage would take place.

The wedding ceremony was celebrated in Nantes, on 6 August 1626, in the presence of Louis XIII, his wife, Queen Anne of Austria, and Marie de' Medici, the Queen Mother. According to her daughter's biographer, Vita Sackville-West, quoting a member of her husband's household, A sadder wedding was never seen..^[2]

From this union, the new ducal couple had one child:

• Anne Marie Louise d'Orléans, Duchess of Montpensier (Louvre, 29 May 1627 – Palais du Luxembourg, 3 April 1693), the future Grande Mademoiselle.

Marie died on 4 June 1627 at the Palais du Louvre in Paris, at the age of twenty-one, shortly after the birth of her daughter who, as her only child, inherited her fortune and titles. She was buried at the Royal Basilica of Saint Denis, north of Paris.

In a will intended to disinherit her niece,^[3] Anne Marie Louise d'Orléans, Marie's half-sister Marie de Lorraine,^[4]) chose Charles François de Stainville as beneficiary in 1688; but on the urging of her heirs, the will was broken by the Parlement of Paris in 1689.^[5][6]

After the death of her daughter, La Grande Mademoiselle, in 1693, Marie's fortune was handed over to Philippe de France, Louis XIV's younger and only brother.

Ancestors

Ancestors of Marie de Bourbon, Duchess of Montpensier

16. Louis de Bourbon, Prince of La Roche-sur-Yon[7] 8. Louis de Bourbon, Duke of Montpensier[8] 17. Louise de Bourbon, Duchess of Montpensier[7] 4. François de Bourbon, Duke of Montpensier[8] 18. Jean de Longwy[7] 9. Jacqueline de Longwy[8] 19. Jeanne d'Angoulême[7] 2. Henri de Bourbon, Duke of Montpensier 20. René D'Anjou, Baron de Mezieres[9] 10. Nicolas d'Anjou, Marquess of Mézières[8] 21. Antoinette de Chabannes[9] 5. Renée d'Anjou, Countess of Saint-Fargeau[8] 11. Gabrielle de Mareuil[8] 1. Marie de Bourbon 12. Guillaume de Joyeuse, Viscount of Joyeuse, Lord of Saint-Didier, Laudun, Puyvert and Arques[10] 6. Henri de Joyeuse, Duke of Joyeuse[10] 13. Marie de Batarnay[10] 3. Henriette Catherine de Joyeuse 14. Jean de Nogaret, Seigneur of La Valette and of Caumont[11] 7. Catherine de Nogaret[10] 15. Jeanne de Saint-Lary[11]

References

1. Gavard, Charles (1848). Galeries historiques du Palais de Versailles [Historical Galleries of the Palace of Versailles] (in French). Vol. 9. Impr. Royale. p. 320. Retrieved 27 May 2018.
2. Sackville-West, V.. Daughter of France:The life of Anne Marie Louise d'Orléans, duchesse de Montpensier 1627-1693
3. Patricia M. Ranum, "Mademoiselle de Guise, ou les défis de la quenouille," XVII^e Siècle (1984), pp.221-32.
4. Ranum, Portraits, pp. 449-54
5. Marie de Guise (1615–1688), French Wikipedia.
6. Counts and Dukes of Guise
7. Gavard (1848), pp. 18–19
8. Gavard (1848), pp. 79–80
9. Courcelles, Jean Baptiste Pierre Jullien de (1825). "De Chabannes". Histoire généalogique et héraldique des pairs de France (in French). Vol. 50. pp. 69–70.
10. Gavard (1848), pp. 206–207
11. Gavard (1848), p. 223

External links

Media related to Marie de Bourbon, Duchess of Montpensier at Wikimedia Commons