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When Philippe's uncle Gas­ton died in Feb­ru­ary 1660, the Duchy of Orléans re­verted to the crown, as he had no sur­viv­ing male issue. The duchy was one of the most highly re­garded ap­panages of the an­cien régime, and it was tra­di­tion­ally Philippe's birthright as the brother of the king. Thus, at the death of Gas­ton, Philippe him­self took ...

Sexuality

Dur­ing his child­hood, Queen Anne was ob­served to ad­dress Philippe by such nick­names as "my lit­tle girl" and en­cour­aged him to dress in fem­i­nine cloth­ing even as a young man – a habit he would re­tain all his life. A con­tem­po­rary would later call him the "sil­li­est woman who ever lived", a ref­er­ence to his effeminacy. As a young man, Philippe would dress up and at­tend balls and par­ties in fe­male at­tire, for ex­am­ple, dressed as a shepherdess. Mind­ful that Gas­ton's trea­...

Marriage with Princess Henrietta of England

After Louis XIV's mar­riage to Maria Theresa of Spain on 9 June 1660, Queen Anne turned her at­ten­tion to the mar­riage of Philippe. He had pre­vi­ously been en­cour­aged to court his older cousin the Duchess of Mont­pen­sier, el­dest daugh­ter of Gas­ton and his first wife Marie de Bour­bon. Known as Made­moi­selle at this time, she had an im­mense pri­vate for­tune and had pre­vi­ously re­jected suit­ors such as Charles II of Eng­land. Born in 1627, she was the sole heiress of her mother w...

Search for a second bride

Hen­ri­etta was mourned greatly at the court of France, but lit­tle by her hus­band, due to their strained re­la­tion­ship. Louis XIV him­self looked for a sec­ond wife for Philippe, who was eager to have a male heir to con­tinue the Orléans line. At­ten­tion again turned to the duchess of Mont­pen­sier, by now known as "la Grande Made­moi­selle". Louis him­self asked her if she wanted to fill "the va­cant place", but she po­litely de­clined the offer. Louis re­jected many other can­di­dates...

Hav­ing al­ready es­tab­lished him­self as a suc­cess­ful mil­i­tary com­man­der dur­ing the War of De­vo­lu­tion in 1667, Philippe was eager to re­turn to the field. In 1676 and 1677 he took part in sieges in Flan­ders, and was pro­moted to the rank of Lieu­tenant gen­eral, which made him sec­ond-in-com­mand to Louis XIV him­self. The most im­pres...

From the time of the vic­tory at Cas­sel until the 1690s, Philippe mainly con­cen­trated his en­er­gies on the ex­pan­sion of his es­tates, per­sonal for­tune, and art col­lec­tion, in­clud­ing the ren­o­va­tion of his res­i­dences, the Palais Royal and the Château de Saint-Cloud. The lat­ter was his favourite residence, the home of an ever-ex­pand...

Upon the death of Made­moi­selle in 1693, Philippe ac­quired the duke­doms of Mont­pen­sier, Châteller­ault, Saint-Fargeau and Beaupréau. He also be­came prince of Joinville, count of Dour­dan, Mor­tain and Bar-sur-Seine and vis­count of Auge and Dom­front. In later life, Philippe was thus able to main­tain his lav­ish lifestyle eas­ily, and he fou...

Philippe has been por­trayed in var­i­ous mod­ern media: 1. The Private Life of Louis XIV (1935 film), played by Hans Stüwe 2. Liselotte of the Palatinate (1966 film), played by Harald Leipnitz 3. The Taking of Power by Louis XIV(1966 film), played by Pierre Pernet 4. Marquise(1997 film), played by Franck de La Personne 5. Vatel (2000 film), played...

First marriage

Mar­ried his first cousin, Princess Hen­ri­etta of Eng­land, daugh­ter of Charles I of Eng­land and Hen­ri­etta Maria of France, on 31 March 1661, at the Palais Royal. The cou­ple had four chil­dren, in ad­di­tion to two mis­car­riages: 1. Marie Louise d'Orléans (26 March 1662 – 12 February 1689) married King Charles II of Spain, no issue; 2. Miscarriage (1663); 3. Philippe Charles d'Orléans, Duke of Valois(16 July 1664 – 8 December 1666) died in infancy; 4. Stillborn daughter (9 July 1665);...

Second marriage

Mar­ried Eliz­a­beth Char­lotte of the Palati­nate, daugh­ter of Charles I Louis, Elec­tor Pala­tine and Char­lotte of Hesse-Kas­sel, on 16 No­vem­ber 1671 at Châlons. The cou­ple had three chil­dren: 1. Alexandre Louis d'Orléans, Duke of Valois (2 June 1673 – 16 March 1676) died in childhood; 2. Philippe II, Duke of Orléans (2 August 1674 – 2 December 1723) married Françoise Marie de Bourbon, Légitimée de France, and had issue; 3. Élisabeth Charlotte d'Orléans (13 September 1676 – 24 Decembe...