Louise Élisabeth d'Orléans

Daughter of Philippe II, Duke of Orléans (1674-1723), Regent of France, and Françoise Marie de Bourbon (1677-1749), the natural daughter of Louis XIV, Louise Élisabeth d'Orléans spent her early years at the French court, where her education was mostly neglected. Her marriage to Prince Louis (1707-1724) was negotiated as part of a new diplomatic rapprochement between France and Spain, which was to be crowned by a double marriage: that of Louise Élisabeth and the Prince of Asturias, on one hand, and the planned marriage of the Spanish Infanta Mariana Victoria to the young King Louis XV of France on the other. The latter finally did not take place. 

The Prince and Princess of Asturias were wedded in the town of Lerma on 20th January 1722. Almost two years after their marriage, on 10th January 1724, Philip V abdicated the throne in favour of his son Louis, making Louise Élisabeth d'Orléans, Queen of Spain when she was only thirteen years old. Deemed incapable of conducting herself in a manner befitting her royal status, Louis I had her confined in the Alcazar in Madrid. However, the King pardoned her after sixteen days of confinement. Shortly afterwards, the King fell ill with smallpox, and Louise Élisabeth d'Orléans personally tended to her husband during his illness. However her devotion led her to fall ill herself. 

After Louis I died on 31st August 1724, his widow, who was barely fifteen years old and had no children, remained secluded from the world for almost a year. On 15th March 1725, after the engagement between Louis XV of France and the Spanish Infanta Mariana Victoria was called off, Louise Élisabeth d'Orléans was forced to leave Madrid. Back in France, the widowed Queen lived for a while at the Château de Vincennes, and later settled in Paris. In the French capital she led a solitary life, marked by illness and financial difficulties. She died at the Luxembourg Palace in Paris on 16th June 1742. Louise Élisabeth d'Orléans is buried in the Church of Saint-Sulpice in Paris. 

Source: Royal Academy of History (https://www.rah.es)