Louise Élisabeth de Bourbon

Louise Élisabeth de Bourbon
Église Saint-Sulpice , Paris, France.
Spouse	Louis Armand II, Prince of Conti ​ ​ (m. 1713; died 1727)​
Roman Catholicism
Signature
Coat of arms of Louise Élisabeth de Bourbon

Louise Élisabeth de Bourbon (22 November 1693–27 May 1775) was a daughter of

.

She was the wife of

, also became her property in 1740 at his death.

Biography

Louise Élisabeth was born on 22 November 1693, at the

a style later borne by her younger sister. Her parents' second daughter, and third child, she was one of nine children. She was baptised in the chapel of Versailles on 24 November 1698 with her brother Louis Henri and her sister Louise Anne.

Marriage

At the age of seventeen, it was suggested by her ambitious mother that she marry one of the king's grandsons, the young

.

On 9 July 1713, Louise Élisabeth married her first cousin

Le Grand Condé

.

Her marriage was part of a double wedding between the Condé and Conti branches of the House of Bourbon; Louise Élisabeth's older brother Louis Henri de Bourbon married Mademoiselle de Conti, Marie Anne de Bourbon-Conti. The ceremony took place in the newly built Royal Chapel of Versailles.

Present at the wedding were her mother, paternal grandmother the

In August 1716, at the age of twenty-two, Louise Élisabeth contracted smallpox from her husband, whom she had been nursing through his illness. A year later she gave birth to her first child. She and her husband had five children.

The

(Madame), sister in law of Louis XIV and famous memoir writer, wrote of Louise Élisabeth c. 1719:

She is a person full of charms, and a striking proof that grace is preferable to beauty. When she chooses to make herself agreeable, it is impossible to resist her. Her manners are most fascinating; she is full of gentleness, never displaying the least ill-humour, and always saying something kind and obliging. It is greatly to be regretted that she is not in the society of more virtuous persons, for she is herself naturally very good; but she is spoiled by bad company. She has an ugly fool for her husband, who has been badly brought up; and the examples which are constantly before her eyes are so pernicious that they have corrupted her and made her careless of her reputation. Her amiable, unaffected manners are highly delightful to foreigners. Among others, some Bavarians have fallen in love with her, as well as the Prince Ragotzky; but she disgusted him with her coquetry.

..she does not love her husband, and cannot do so, no less on account of his ugly person than for his bad temper. It is not only his face that is hideous, but his whole person is frightful and deformed. She terrified him by placing some muskets and swords near her bed, and assuring him that if he came there again with his pistols charged, she would take the gun and fire upon him, and if she missed, she would fall upon him with the sword. Since this time he has left off carrying his pistols.^[3]

Louise Élisabeth had several extramarital affairs, such as her liaison with the handsome Philippe Charles de La Fare.^{[4][citation needed]} These infidelities incensed her husband, whose jealousy made him turn physically violent against his wife. He is reported to have hurt his wife to the point that she had to see a doctor on two separate occasions.^{[citation needed]} After a particularly dramatic scene in the Conti household, the princess refused to live with her husband anymore and took refuge with her mother. Later she fled to a convent. According to Saint-Simon, she once said of her husband:

he could not make a prince du sang without her, while she could make one without him.^[5]

The first years of her marriage were full of court cases at the Parlement of Paris against her husband due to his violent temper and her desire to leave him.^[6] In 1725, she consented to return to the Prince of Conti, who had her confined to the Château de l'Isle-Adam.^[7] She was able later, however, to convince him to allow her to return to Paris in order to give birth to her daughter, Louise Henriette. Her husband died a year later.

Due to his open support of the Scottish economist

, her husband had made a fortune.

Her husband died in 1727 at the

in Paris due to a "chest swelling". Louise Élisabeth was known at court either as Madame la Princesse de Conti troisième or Madame la Princesse de Conti dernière douairière, in order to distinguish Louise Élisabeth from the other two widowed princesses of Conti still alive:

• Louis XIV and Louise de La Vallière and wife of Louis Armand I de Bourbon, Prince of Conti. She was known as Madame la Princesse de Conti première douairière as she was the first to be widowed in 1685. Her husband's Conti title fell upon his younger brother, François de Bourbon, Prince of Conti
  .
• Marie Thérèse de Bourbon (1666–1732), the wife of François Louis de Bourbon, Prince of Conti and Louise Élisabeth's mother-in-law. She was known as Madame la Princesse de Conti seconde douairière after losing her husband in 1709.

Hôtel de Conti (rue Saint-Dominique) on the 1739 Turgot map of Paris

In 1733 Louise Élisabeth purchased a townhouse with an extensive garden on the rue Saint-Dominique in Paris from

as "H. de Conty".

The Dowager Princess and her aunt the Dowager Duchess of Orléans joined forces in 1743 to arrange the marriage of her son to her first cousin, Louise Diane d'Orléans, and that of her daughter to Louise Diane's nephew, the heir to the House of Orléans. This helped to somewhat smooth over the century-long feud between the House of Condé and House of Orléans, a feud fueled by the animosity between Louise Élisabeth's mother and aunt, the Princess of Condé and the Duchess of Orléans, both legitimised daughters of Louis XIV and Madame de Montespan.

After the death of her mother in June 1743, she acquired the

. The Dowager Princess of Conti later also acquired the château de Voisins.

Later, in 1746, the Dowager Princess was asked by Louis XV to present his new mistress, the future

She obliged the king in the hope that he would help her escape her debts, a tactic which worked.

Just before her death, the princess gave her townhouse on the rue Saint-Dominique to her grandson,

Église Saint-Sulpice

in Paris.

Issue

Name	Portrait	Lifespan	Notes
Louis de Bourbon, Count of La Marche		28 March 1715 - 1 August 1717	Born in Paris, he died in infancy;
Louis François I de Bourbon, prince de Conti		13 August 1717 - 2 August 1776	Born in Paris, he was the heir to the Conti titles and lands. Husband of Louise Diane d'Orléans; had issue;
Louis Armand de Bourbon, Duke of Mercœur		19 August 1720- 13 May 1722	Born in Paris, he died in infancy;
Charles de Bourbon, Count of Alais		5 February 1722- 7 August 1730	Born in Paris, he died in infancy;
Louise Henriette de Bourbon, Duchess of Orléans		20 June 1726 – 9 February 1759	Born in Paris, she was Louise Élisabeth's only daughter; known as Mademoiselle de Conti in her youth, she married Louis Philippe d'Orléans, Duke of Chartres at Versailles in 1743; she had issue and was the mother of Philippe Égalité and Bathilde d'Orléans, the last princesse de Condé.

Ancestry

Ancestors of Louise Élisabeth de Bourbon Madame de Montespan
							30. Jean de Grandseigne, marquis de Marsillac
				15. Diane de Grandseigne
							31. Catherine de La Béraudière, dame de Villenon

References

Louise Élisabeth de Bourbon House of Bourbon-Condé Born: 22 November 1693 Died: 27 May 1775
French nobility
Preceded by Vacant Anne Louise Bénédicte de Bourbon	Mademoiselle de Charolais 1693–1713	Succeeded by Louise Anne de Bourbon
Preceded by Louis Henri de Bourbon, Prince of Condé	Countess of Sancerre 27 January 1740– 27 May 1775	Succeeded by Sahuguet Family
Preceded by Marie Anne de Bourbon	Duchess of Étampes 1718–1752	Succeeded by Louise Henriette de Bourbon
Preceded by Vacant Marie Thérèse de Bourbon	Princess of Conti 1713–1775	Succeeded by Vacant Louise Diane d'Orléans