ORLEANS. 



317 



deuce (Paris, 1822). The second marriage of the 

 duke, with the princess Elizabeth (1671), was 

 arranged by Louis, to secure the neutrality of the 

 elector palatine, in the approaching war against 

 Holland. In this war the duke distinguished him- 

 self, and the soldiers said of him that he was more 

 afraid of the sun than of powder and ball. But the 

 feebleness of his cliaracter displayed itself in all his 

 tastes. Dress, masquerades, court pageants, were 

 his great delights; and his wife, in the Memoires 

 above-mentioned, relates some amusing stories of his 

 superstition. He died in 1701. 



ORLEANS, PHILIP, duke of (not to be confounded 

 with the regent duke of Orleans, afterwards Louis 

 XII.), son of the preceding, was born in 1G74. As 

 regent of France during the minority of Louis XV. 

 (1715 23), notwithstanding his talents and naturally 

 good disposition, he paved the way for the revolu- 

 tion by his personal character, no less than by that of 

 his administration, by the shameless profligacy of his 

 court, and the public bankruptcy, which was the con- 

 sequence of the financial schemes of Law. The duke 

 of Orleans (known, till the death of his father, in 

 1701, as the duke of Chartres) united wit and elo- 

 quence with grace and amiable manners ; his intelli- 

 gence and good memory had enabled him to make 

 considerable acquisitions without much effort. From 

 Henry IV., whom he aimed to resemble, he inherited 

 a confiding and happy temper, a simplicity and good- 

 ness of heart, a readiness to forget injuries, and the 

 qualities of a warrior ; but he wanted energy and 

 strength of mind. Dubois, his tutor, became his 

 guide. His precepts and example contributed to 

 corrupt the young prince (see Dubois), and, by ad- 

 ministering to his vanity and his pleasures, he soon 

 acquired a great ascendency over his pupil. The 

 prince was prevailed upon, through the influence of 

 Dubois, and in opposition to the wishes of his mother) 

 to comply with the desire of Louis XIV. in marrying 

 Mile, de Blois, the legitimated daughter of the king. 

 By this marriage, which was not happy, he had three 

 daughters and one son. The duke neglected his 

 wife, who was proud and cold, and, when reproved 

 by the king for his excesses, indulged in a course of 

 secret debauchery. Among his dissolute companions 

 (whom he called his roues'), and in the society of 

 prostitutes, he ridiculed all notions of morality and 

 the superstitions of the aged king. (See Louis XI V^ 

 In 1692, the prince served his first campaign, under 

 marshal Luxembourg, in the Netherlands. In the 

 war of the Spanish succession, he received a com- 

 mand in Italy; but his opinion was slighted, and 

 Italy was lost. The king then placed him at the 

 head of a corps under marshal Berwick, in Spain ; 

 but he thought himself not properly supported, and 

 was also offended by the refusal to make his mistress 

 lady of honour to the queen. When the fall of the 

 feeble Philip V., in Spain, appeared probable, the 

 duke formed the plan of raising himself to the Spanish 

 throne ; but his scheme was betrayed and his accom- 

 plices arrested. It was even made a subject of de- 

 liberation at Versailles, whether a process should be 

 instituted against him. His enemies accused him of 

 a design to excite the soldiers of Philip against their 

 king, and the dauphin demanded his execution ; 

 madame de Maintenon also held him guilty ; but the 

 chancellor and the virtuous duke of Burgundy, son 

 of the dauphin, defended him so strongly, that he was 

 permitted to justify himself. The duke, from this 

 time, devoted himself to the study of chemistry, with 

 a certain Homberg, and in 1711 and 1712, the dau- 

 phin, the duke of Burgiuidy, his wife, and his eldest 

 son, dying suddenly, one after another, the public 

 voice openly accused the duke of having poisoned 

 them. Only two members of the dauphin's 



now survive.! the duke of Berry, son-in-law of the 

 duke of Orleans, and the duke of Anjou (afterwards 

 Louis XV.), who, as two ladies of the court pre- 

 tended, was saved only by an antidote. The duke 

 was exposed to great danger from popular violence, 

 and was slimmed at court, although the king ap- 

 peared to be convinced of his innocence. At this 

 time, Louis signed an edict making his natural sons, 

 the duke of Maine and the count of Toulouse, capa- 

 ble of the succession, and, in his will, named a coun- 

 cil of regency, in which the duke of Orleans was to 

 preside, but to have no other privilege except that of 

 a casting vote. But the duke had already ceased to 

 be unpopular ; the military, the noblesse, and the 

 parliament were favourable to him, and, twenty-four 

 hours after the death of the king (September 2, 1715), 

 measures were taken for declaring his will null ; and 

 the duke of Orleans thus became sole regent, as first 

 prince of the blood. The new regent promised to 

 administer the government on a plan found among 

 the papers of the duke of Burgundy, and was con- 

 ducted to his palace amidst the rejoicings of the 

 people. The different councils were filled with his 

 friends, and the abbe Dubois, who was commonly 

 known by the name of the abbe Friponneau, was 

 made a counsellor of state ; on which occasion the 

 regent said to him, " A little honesty, abbe, I beg of 

 you." Dubois soon had an opportunity to render 

 himself serviceable. Since the peace of Utrecht, 

 France had stood alone. The measures of the regent 

 raised the suspicions of the king of England. The 

 Dutch had still less confidence in the French policy, 

 and inclined more to the Austrian court, which was 

 by no means on good terms with France ; and with 

 Spain the duke was involved in personal hostility. 

 An alliance with Britain could alone render him 

 secure ; and Dubois not only effected this, but also 

 the accession of the states-general, the consequence 

 of which was the celebrated triple alliance concluded 

 at the Hague (January 4, 1717), which baffled the 

 plans of Alberoni, and entirely divided the Spanish 

 and French houses of Bourbon in their political 

 course. Notwithstanding this, that subtle politician, 

 who had been made minister of foreign affairs, after- 

 wards concluded a double alliance between the 

 French and Spanish courts, by the marriage of Louis 

 XV. with an Infanta, and of the prince of the Asturias 

 with the princess of Chartres. The fatal conse- 

 quences of Law's scheme were owing to the manner 

 in which it was executed, and to the inconsiderate- 

 ness of the regent, who expected to obtain, by means 

 of it, a mine of gold for his mistresses and favourites. 

 He endeavoured, without success, to raise the bank 

 notes and public paper to their nominal value, by a 

 depreciation of the value of the metals, and finally 

 issued the tyrannical edict (February 24, 1720) that 

 no person should have in his possession more than 

 500 livres in silver, coined or uncoined, under the 

 penalty of 10,000 livres. All credit immeoiately 

 disappeared, and the first seeds of the revolution 

 were sown. The regent, who hated all exertion, 

 left the ministers to conduct affairs at their own 

 pleasure, and the politics of his court became 

 very vacillating. He obliged the legitimated 

 sons of Louis XIV. to renounce their claims to 

 the succession, and the privilege of styling them- 

 selves princes of the blood. To revenge this act of 

 violence, the duchess of Maine entered into a con- 

 spiracy with the Spanish minister Cellamare to dis- 

 place the regent. The duke pardoned her, but some 

 of her accomplices perished on the scaffold. De 

 Mesmes, president of the parliament, protested tc 

 the regent his innocence of any participation in the 



Elot ; but the latter proved his guilt, and pardoned 

 im. In other respects, justice was strictly and im- 



