Auguste of Baden-Baden

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Auguste of Baden-Baden
Duchess of Orléans
Born(1704-11-10)10 November 1704
Schloss Johannisburg, Bavaria
Died8 August 1726(1726-08-08) (aged 21)
Palais-Royal, Paris, France
Burial16 August 1726
Val-de-Grâce, Paris
SpouseLouis, Duke of Orléans
Issue
Detail
Names
Sibylle of Saxe-Lauenburg
SignatureAuguste of Baden-Baden's signature

Auguste Marie Johanna of Baden-Baden (10 November 1704 – 8 August 1726), later Auguste Marie Jeanne, Duchess of Orléans, was a member of the ruling family of

Louis XIV of France. Known in France as Auguste de Bade, she died in childbirth. She is an ancestor of Louis Philippe I
and of several members of royal families of Europe, such as the Spanish and Italian royal families, as well as the present Grand Duke of Luxemburg.

Infancy

Auguste was born in

Sibylle of Saxe-Lauenburg, who was twenty years younger than her husband. After her father's death in 1707, her mother Sibylle became regent of the Margraviate for Auguste's brother, Louis George
.

Her mother was a great patron of the arts, making Baden-Baden a centre of architectural culture. Between the years of her mother's Regency (1707–1727) Sibylle ordered the construction of some four palaces in the state as well as two churches. Auguste saw the construction of the Schloss Favorite in Rastatt.

Her aunt

Prince of Carignan was also a distant cousin and was a resident at the French Court. Auguste was the youngest of nine children and was the only daughter to survive over the age of seven. She had one older brother, Louis George (1702–1761) the future Margrave of Baden-Baden and a younger one, Augustus George
who was Margrave of Baden-Baden from 1761–1771 succeeding his brother.

Duchess of Orléans

Coat of arms of Auguste as Duchess

As her mother was regent of Auguste's native Baden-Baden, it was her mother who tried to find a suitable candidate for her only daughter. Her mother proposed two candidates;

prince, Louis d'Orléans, Duke of Orléans
.

Portrait of Auguste as Duchess of Orléans by Joseph Albrier

Her mother preferred the French match as it would strengthen ties with a powerful neighbour who prior to Auguste's birth, had ravaged Baden-Baden. Auguste however preferred the German match due to her roots.

Louis XIV of France through his illegitimate daughter Françoise Marie de Bourbon. Chosen for, among other reasons, her family's Catholicism, she brought a comparatively small dowry of 80,000 livres
to the Orléans.

At the court of

Louis XV of France. At the time of her marriage, the young king Louis was "engaged" to his first cousin the Infanta Mariana Victoria of Spain. The couple were never actually married and in 1725 she was sent back to Spain then making Auguste and her mother in law the Dowager Duchess of Orléans the most senior women at court. She was popular with the court and noted as being very charming. In 1725, Louis XV married Marie Leszczyńska, making Auguste one step behind the new queen in terms of rank and etiquette. She and her husband lived in the Château de Saint-Cloud
, one of the Orléans' residences, and had also an apartment at the château of Versailles where her son Louis Philippe was born in 1725.

Expecting to give birth to her second child at Versailles in early August 1726, her mother in law Dowager Duchess of Orléans forced her heavily pregnant daughter in law to return to Paris[3] in order to have the child at the Palais-Royal. Leaving Versailles on 4 August, she had to stop at Sèvres[3] due to the extremity of her labour pains. Despite the stop, she returned to Paris.[3]

Auguste died on 8 August 1726, at the age of twenty-one, three days after giving birth to the couple's second child at the Palais-Royal, the Paris residence of the House of Orléans. Despite the shortness of the relationship, many contemporaries said that the couple was well matched and that they had fallen in love at first sight. After her death, her husband went into a long period of mourning. It was said of Auguste that she had all the great qualities of the heart, that she died with the universal regret of France.[4]

She was buried at the

Élisabeth Thérèse[6] and Anne Charlotte
. Louis refused outright, much to the annoyance of his aunt.

Issue

  1. Louis Philippe d'Orléans (12 May 1725 – 18 November 1785) married Louise Henriette de Bourbon and had children.
  2. Louise Marie d'Orléans (5 August 1726 – 14 May 1728) died in infancy.

Ancestors

References

  1. ^ a b c "Marriage policy of Sibylle of Saxe-Lauenburg, Schloss Rastatt". schloss-rastatt.de. Retrieved 2010-07-01.
  2. ^ Dufresne, Claude, Les Orléans, CRITERION, Paris, 1991, chapter: Un prince par trop dévot.
  3. ^ a b c Narbonne, Pierre (1866). Journal des règnes de Louis XIV et Louis XV (1701-1744). Retrieved 2010-04-21 – via Googlebooks.org.
  4. ^ Vatout, Jean (1836). Le chateau d'eu: notices historiques, Volume 4. Retrieved 2010-03-25 – via Googlebooks.org.
  5. ^ sister of the Regent
  6. Charles Emmanuel III of Sardinia
    and Queen of Sardinia
  7. ^ Genealogie ascendante jusqu'au quatrieme degre inclusivement de tous les Rois et Princes de maisons souveraines de l'Europe actuellement vivans [Genealogy up to the fourth degree inclusive of all the Kings and Princes of sovereign houses of Europe currently living] (in French). Bourdeaux: Frederic Guillaume Birnstiel. 1768. p. 36.

External links

Media related to Auguste of Baden-Baden at Wikimedia Commons

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