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Marie Louise d'Orléans

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Marie Louise d'Orléans (Spanish: María Luisa de Borbón-Orleans y Estuardo;[1] 26 March 1662 – 12 February 1689) was Queen of Spain from 1679 to 1689 as the first wife of King Charles II. She was born petite-fille de France as the daughter of Philippe I, Duke of Orléans and Princess Henrietta of England. Marie became the Queen of Spain on 19 November 1679, and remained in her post until her death in 1689 from the presumed cause of appendicitis.

Marie Louise d'Orléans
Portrait in the Palace of Versailles, c. 1679
Queen consort of Spain
Tenure19 November 1679 – 12 February 1689
Born(1662-03-26)26 March 1662
Palais Royal, Paris, France
Died12 February 1689(1689-02-12) (aged 26)
Royal Alcázar, Madrid, Spain
Burial
El Escorial
Spouse
​
(m. 1679)​
Names
French: Marie Louise d'Orléans
Spanish: María Luisa de Borbón-Orleans y Estuardo
HouseOrléans
FatherPhilippe I, Duke of Orléans
MotherHenrietta of England

Life

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Childhood

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Marie Louise as a child (workshop of Jean Nocret, c. 1667)

Marie Louise d'Orléans was born at the Palais Royal in Paris. She was the eldest daughter of Philippe of France, Duke of Orléans and of his first wife, Princess Henrietta of England.[2] As a petite-fille de France she was entitled to the attribute of Royal Highness, although, as was customary at court at the palace of Versailles, her style, Mademoiselle d'Orléans,[3] was more often used.[4] Both parents were initially disappointed about her sex, with her mother reportedly exclaiming "Then throw her into the river!",[5] although she was quickly consoled by her mother-in-law (Marie Louise's grandmother) that despite not giving birth to a prince, her infant daughter, just months younger than her cousin the dauphin, she might one day become queen.[5]

Marie Louise was her father's favourite child, and had a happy childhood, residing most of the time in the Palais Royal, and at the château de Saint-Cloud,[1] situated a few kilometres west of Paris. Marie Louise spent a lot of time with both her paternal and maternal grandmothers—Anne, who doted on her and left the bulk of her fortune to her when she died in 1666; and Henrietta Maria, who lived in Colombes.

Marie Louise's mother died in 1670. The following year, her father married Elisabeth Charlotte of the Palatinate. All her life, Marie Louise would maintain an affectionate correspondence with her stepmother.[1] Marie Louise received a careful education, picking up skills including horse riding, playing musical instruments such as the harpsichord, singing and dancing, and holding formal conversations[6] – all under the watchful eye of her governess, Louise Françoise de Chavigny. It is, however, recorded that the biggest influence on Marie Louise's later character was Louise Élisabeth de Rouxel, who not only shaped her character but also helped to curb her frequent fits of anger. Contemporary descriptions viewed her in a positive way:

[Of an] elegant presence, of well-proportioned stature, with a serene and flattering countenance; her hair was thick and dark brown; her eyebrows were arched and her eyes were black, lively, large, and majestic; her forehead was broad and white; her lips were full and slightly rounded; her nose was sharp and well-formed; her manner was graceful and perfect.[1]

Marriage and queen consort of Spain

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Portrait of Marie Louise wearing a fleur-de-lis dress to signify her relations to France and a Spanish crown to signify her new country.
Portrait by José García Hidalgo, c. 1679[7]

In July 1679,[8] Marie was informed by her father, Philippe, and uncle, King Louis XIV, of her betrothal to Charles II of Spain.[9] Distressed by the arranged marriage, Marie Louise spent most of her time weeping, since she had fallen in love with her cousin the dauphin.[8][10] The contract was signed and the proxy marriage took place at the Palace of Fontainebleau on 30 August 1679;[11] standing for the groom was Mademoiselle d'Orléans' distant cousin Louis Armand de Bourbon, Prince of Conti.[12] Until mid-September, there were a series of formal events held in honour of the new Queen of Spain. Marie Louise went to the convent of Val-de-Grâce, before her departure, where the heart of her mother was kept. She would never return to France.

Marie Louise, Charles and his mother, Mariana of Austria, attend together an ”auto da fe” from a balcony in Madrid's Plaza Mayor on 30 June 1680. Detail from Auto da fe (1683), painting by Francisco Rizi. Prado Museum, Madrid.

On 19 November 1679, Marie Louise married Charles in person in Quintanapalla, near Burgos, Spain,[6][13] coinciding with the signing of the Treaties of Nijmegen between France and the Habsburg monarchy. The Queen made her official entrance into Madrid on the 13th of January, 1680.[14][6] Her new husband had fallen in love with her and remained so until the end of his life.[15] However, the confining etiquette of the Spanish Court (e.g., touching the Queen was forbidden) and unsuccessful attempts to bear a child caused her distress. Her most frequent companion was the French ambassadress, Marie Gigault de Bellefonds, the Marquise de Villars.[16]

After ten years of marriage, the couple had no children.[17][18] Marie Gigault de Bellefonds wrote to the French ambassador regarding Marie Louise:

"She was really not a virgin any longer, but that as far as she could figure things, she believed she would never have children."[16]

Marie Louise, Queen of Spain, lying in state in the Royal Alcazar of Madrid (1689), oil painting by Sebastián Muñoz.

During the last years of her life she became overweight.[19] She was reportedly fond of sweetened lemon and cinnamon drinks, the making of which required 32 pounds of sugar.[20]

Death

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After horseback riding on 11 February 1689, she experienced abdominal pain followed by convulsions and vomiting. After doctors found that her condition had become mortal, confessors were called in to administer last rites.

On her deathbed, she spoke to her husband the following words:[21]

Many women may be with His Majesty, but none will love him more than I do.

She died the following night. There were rumors she was poisoned, coming especially from her native France;[22][23] however, an autopsy proved otherwise.[6] The official funeral rites were held with the usual pomp and ceremony of a queen consort at the monastery of the Incarnation. Marie Louise was buried in the royal pantheon of El Escorial.[1][11]

Funeral honors

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Coat of arms of Queen Marie Louise

Following her death, the Royal Audiencia and Casa de la Contratación of Seville held funeral honors for the queen under the presidency of the Count of Calçada, a member of His Majesty's Council. In 1689, the Royal Audiencia published a Succinct Description of the Funeral Honors dedicated to Queen Marie Louise of Bourbon, together with the funeral sermon preached by Juan Manuel de Bustamante y Medrano.[24]

TO MARIE LOUISE OF BOURBON, QUEEN OF SPAIN: Whom Charles II, through faith, duty, and love, cherished with solicitude, integrity, and modesty; whom gentleness, liberality, justice, zeal, amiable piety, spotless innocence, and the ornament of every virtue, rendered renowned throughout the world; whose death, untimely and deeply mourned, struck terror into all; and whom Heaven now receives into eternity: This funeral tribute is dedicated.[24]

The volume received ecclesiastical approval from the Archbishopric of Seville and commemorated the ceremonies held on 1 April 1689.[24] Its inscriptions celebrated Marie Louise's descent from the royal houses of France, Spain, England, and Scotland, praised her piety, modesty, liberality, and other virtues, and described her as a "noble lily" cut down prematurely by death.[24] The publication portrayed her death as a loss mourned throughout the monarchy and recorded that the Royal Tribunal offered its funeral honors "more through grief than through pomp."[24]

Funeral oration (1689)

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The funeral oration for Queen Marie Louise was delivered on 1 April 1689, the Day of Sorrows, by Juan Manuel de Bustamante y Medrano, canon of Segovia, former senior collegian of the College of Saint Ildefonso at the University of Alcalá, and canon penitentiary of the Holy Metropolitan and Patriarchal Church of Seville. The funeral sermon was subsequently published as Oración Fúnebre en la muerte de la Serenísima Señora Doña María Luisa de Borbón, Reina de España (Funeral Oration on the Death of the Most Serene Lady Doña María Luisa de Borbón, Queen of Spain).[25]

In his funeral oration for Queen Marie Louise of Bourbon, Juan Manuel de Bustamante y Medrano recalled her arrival in Spain in the following terms:

"Happy, joyful, and loyally acclaimed was that day for our Spanish Kingdom. Happy, I say, was that day on which Spain saw enter, first through her hearts and then through her borders, from the heroic bed of beautiful French lilies, the most beautiful, the most gallant, the most distinguished in fragrance, the most revered by loyalties, the most adored by attentions, and the most cherished by Majesties: the Most Serene Lady Doña María Luisa of Bourbon, our Queen and Lady."[25]

Bustamante y Medrano described Marie Louise as a "beautiful flower" whose arrival filled Spain with hope and expectation. He wrote that the kingdom welcomed her with "harmonious union of affections" and "loyal rejoicings," proclaiming: "Now the flowers have appeared in our land; now the fruits are near."[25]

French lilies depicted on Marie Louise's coat of arms as queen consort of Spain.

Miguel de Bustamante y Medrano recounts how Spain believed that Heaven, "in granting such a flower," pledged itself to grant the "fruits" or heirs desired by the Crown.[25] He contrasted this joy with the sorrow of her death, lamenting that scarcely had this "beautiful lily" become mistress of Spain's adorations when "a powerful decree caused her to wither" and "a sharp and violent sickle" claimed her life at the age of 26, "in the most flourishing season of her beauty."[25] He called Marie Louise the joy of Spain, the hope of the monarchy, and the flower whose "brief blooming" left the kingdom in mourning.[25]

Recalling an occasion in Madrid that he personally witnessed, Bustamante y Medrano wrote that when several women rose to depart upon the queen's arrival, Marie Louise addressed them "with particular joy and graciousness" and said:

Stay where you are; do not leave. Why are you leaving because the Queen is coming? Is she not a woman like all the others? Do not leave, for I love you all very much, and I am pleased that you should all love me. Love me much, for you are my daughters.[25]

Commenting on the exchange, Bustamante y Medrano praised the queen's affability and remarked:

"You call daughters those whom you regard as vassals? A wise lesson of kings: to treat the vassal as a son, so that from being a vassal he may become a son. How little did Majesty avail to make you loved! They revered you as Queen, yet adored you as gracious; and Majesty served to guard your respect, but without closing the doors to affection."[25]

Ancestry

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References

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  1. 1 2 3 4 5 Proyectos, HI Iberia Ingeniería y. "Real Academia de la Historia | Historia Hispánica". historia-hispanica.rah.es (in Spanish). Retrieved 26 December 2025.
  2. ↑ Barker 1989, p. 210.
  3. ↑ Horowski, Leonhard. "Prosopographie de la cour de France et de l'élite du pouvoir (1661-1789)" (PDF).
  4. ↑ "Mademoiselle | Fashion, Femininity & Style | Britannica". Encyclopedia Britannica. Archived from the original on 26 June 2025. Retrieved 26 December 2025.
  5. 1 2 Cartwright 1894, p. 115.
  6. 1 2 3 4 "Marie Louise d'Orléans". La Galería de las Colecciones Reales@es|||. Retrieved 26 December 2025.
  7. ↑ "Marie Louise d'Orléans, Queen of Spain - The Collection - Museo Nacional del Prado". www.museodelprado.es. Archived from the original on 2 November 2022. Retrieved 26 December 2025.
  8. 1 2 Barker 1989, p. 211.
  9. ↑ Hume 1906, p. 419.
  10. ↑ Savoie-Carignan 1911, p. 150.
  11. 1 2 "Marie Louise d'Orleans (1662–1689) | Encyclopedia.com". www.encyclopedia.com. Retrieved 26 December 2025.
  12. ↑ Sternberg 2014, p. 177.
  13. ↑ Hume 1905, p. 301.
  14. ↑ Borgognoni, Ezequiel (2018). "The Royal Household of Marie-Louise of Orleans, 1679–1689: The Struggle over Executive Offices". Universidad Rey Juan Carlos. doi:10.1080/14629712.2018.1539449. ISSN 1462-9712.
  15. ↑ Hume 1906, p. 415.
  16. 1 2 Borgognoni, Ezequiel (24 June 2020). "Marie Gigault de Bellefonds, Ambassadress of France. Gender, Power and Diplomacy at the Court of Charles Ii of Spain, 1679-1681". Librosdelacorte.es (20): 7–30. doi:10.15366/ldc2020.12.20.001. hdl:10115/30908. ISSN 1989-6425.
  17. ↑ "Collections Online | British Museum". www.britishmuseum.org. Archived from the original on 2 March 2024. Retrieved 26 December 2025.
  18. ↑ "NGV | Italian Masterpieces". www.ngv.vic.gov.au. Retrieved 26 December 2025.
  19. ↑ Hume 1906, p. 443.
  20. ↑ Campbell 2017, p. 108.
  21. ↑ G. Maura y Gamazo, Vida y Reinado... op. cit., p. 342
  22. ↑ Savoie-Carignan 1911, p. 152.
  23. ↑ Barker 1989, p. 213.
  24. 1 2 3 4 5 Sevilla. Tribunal de Contratación de Indias; Bustamante y Medrano, Juan Manuel de Oracion funebre en la muerte de María Luisa de Borbón (1689). Succinta descripcion de las exequias que a Su Reina, la Señora Doña Maria Luisa de Borbon, consagro el regio Tribunal de la Contratacion de las Indias de ... Sevilla, el dia primero de Abril ... de 1689. Biblioteca de la Universidad de Sevilla. En Sevilla : por Juan Francisco de Blas.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: publisher location (link)
  25. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Medrano, Juan Manuel de Bustamante y (1689). Oracion funebre en la muerte de ... Maria Luisa de Borbon, reina de España (in Spanish). por Juan Francisco de Blas.

Sources

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