Princess Anne Charlotte of Lorraine
Anne Charlotte of Lorraine (17 May 1714 – 7 November 1773) was the Abbess of Remiremont and Mons. She was the thirteenth of fourteen children of Leopold, Duke of Lorraine, and his spouse Élisabeth Charlotte d'Orléans. Her mother was the niece of Louis XIV of France and sister of Philippe II, Duke of Orléans and Regent of France during the minority of Louis XV.
Anne Charlotte de Lorraine
Family[edit]
Anne Charlotte was born at the Château de Lunéville because the Capital of Lorraine, Nancy, was occupied by French troops of Louis XIV due to the War of the Spanish Succession. She was given her mother's name of Charlotte. At the time of her birth, she had three brothers and a sister alive: Léopold Clément, born in 1707 and heir of the Duchy as the eldest surviving son; Francis Stephen born in 1708; Élisabeth Thérèse born in 1711; and then Charles-Alexandre born in 1712. In 1718, her mother had a stillborn daughter in her last recorded pregnancy.
In 1719 the Château de Lunéville where Anne Charlotte was born was damaged greatly by a fire.
Anne Charlotte was seven and a half when she went to the French court of her maternal family, the Royal House of Bourbon. She met her grandmother, the Dowager Duchess of Orléans, the Princess Palatine for the first and last time; the occasion was for the coronation of Louis XV at the Cathedral of Notre-Dame in Rheims. Her grandmother said that Anne Charlotte was a "little beauty" and that she and her siblings had been brought up well; her mother would always be praised for her maternal instinct. Uncommon for the time, Anne Charlotte's mother insisted that she raise her children, and had a close and affectionate relationship with them.
Marriage negotiations with the King of France[edit]
In 1723 Anne Charlotte's father, Léopold, disappointed with his relations with France, decided to send his heir to finish his education in Vienna under the supervision of Charles VI, Holy Roman Emperor. Léopold had been secretly hoping to have his son marry the Emperor's heiress, Archduchess Maria Theresa.
The young prince of 16 years died the same year and as a result his brother Francis Stephen became the heir to Lorraine and left Lunéville for Vienna. Francis Stephen later married Maria Theresa and became Holy Roman Emperor upon her accession, the couple having sixteen children. Anne Charlotte's younger sister Marie Louise also died on the same day.
Two years later, the Ducal couple hoped and tried fiercely to get Anne Charlotte to marry the King of France Louis XV who at the time was just 15 years old. The intrigues of the Prime Minister, the Duke of Bourbon, prince of the blood, head of the Condé family and great rival of the House of Orléans also fought fiercely to stop the marriage as it would have decreased their influence over the young king. This did not stop the Duke of Bourbon and his mistress the marquise de Prie, from suggesting the king marry the sister of the Duke, Henriette Louise de Bourbon.
Despite the plans of the Prime Minister, Marie Leszczyńska, a poor and plain catholic princess who was the second daughter of Stanislaw I of Poland was chosen as the bride of the monarch. Anne Charlotte's parents were greatly insulted that the daughter of an exiled Pole was to become Queen and not someone who was brought up as French.