Princess Anne Charlotte of Lorraine
| Anne Charlotte de Lorraine | |||||
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| Abbess of Remiremont, Mons and Essen | |||||
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| Born |
17 May 1714 Château de Lunéville, France | ||||
| Died |
7 November 1773 (aged 59) Mons, Belgium | ||||
| Burial | Église Saint-François-des-Cordeliers, Nancy, France | ||||
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| House | House of Lorraine | ||||
| Father | Leopold, Duke of Lorraine | ||||
| Mother | Élisabeth Charlotte d'Orléans | ||||
Anne Charlotte of Lorraine (17 May 1714 – 7 November 1773) was the Abbess of Remiremont, Mons and Essen. She was the youngest daughter and the youngest of thirteen 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.
Family
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. At the time of her birth, she had three brothers and a sister alive: Léopold Clément, heir to the throne since the death of Louis in 1711; Francis Stephen born in 1708; Élisabeth Thérèse born in 1711; and then Charles-Alexandre born in 1712. In 1718 her mother lost a daughter who died soon after birth.
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 grand mother, the Dowager Duchess of Orléans, the princesse 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.
Marriage negotiations with the King of France
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 Theresia. 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.
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 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 French.
Marriage negotiations with the Duke of Orléans
In 1726, the son of the now dead Regent, nephew of the Duchess of Lorraine, became a widower aged 23; his wife Margravine Auguste Marie Johanna of Baden-Baden had died in Paris in childbirth. The Duchess of Lorraine once again tried to get her daughter a husband; it failed; The Duke of Orléans refused all offers of marriage, the last one being made in 1729 when Anne Charlotte was just 15.
In the same year Anne Charlotte lost her father Léopold. Her brother, Francis Stephen, still in Vienna returned to Lorraine. While awaiting the return of the latter, Élisabeth Charlotte seizes Regency due to her son being 17. In 1737, however, the Duchy of Lorraine was annexed by France in exchange for the Duchy of Tuscany in a treaty between France and Francis Stephen.
The Dowager Duchess princess now went with Anne Charlotte to Vienna. The marriage of Francis and Maria Theresa then allowed them to negotiate the marriage of Princess Élisabeth Thérèse to Charles Emmanuel III of Sardinia, his first cousin and already two times widower. The Queen of Sardinia died four years later in childbirth in Turin.
Abbess of Remiremont
By the marriage of her sister to the King of Sardinia, Anne Charlotte was aged 23. All proposals of marriage being either ignored or declined, Anne Charlotte was made the Abbess of the prestigious Remiremont Abbey on 10 May 1738. Remiremont had previously been the "property" of her older sister Élisabeth Charlotte (who died before Anne Charlotte was born) who was the titular abbess of the prestigious abbey which had many connections with the House of Lorraine.[1]
Her new title caused irritation between certain sovereign princes since this abbey, only composed from ladies of high nobility and of which the temporal domain includes a big number of towns, raises only authority of the pope!
Later on, Anne Charlotte decided to build a sumptuous abbey palace.
Vienna
In 1744 the Dowager Duchess of Lorraine, Princess of Commercy died aged 68. After her mother's death, she went to Vienna. She attended the Imperial family in Frankfurt seeing the coronation of François as Emperor on 4 October 1745, day of the Saint Francis. The Abbess was given apartments at the vast Schönbrunn Palace.
Brussels
In 1754 at the age of 30, Anne Charlotte was made the Secular Abbess of the chapter of Noble Ladies of Saint Waudru of Mons; thus she went to Belgium to see her youngest brother Charles Alexander who had been the Governor of the Austrian Netherlands since 1744. As a Secuar Abbess, she could therefore manage this monastery all the while remaining in the world. Two years later, she was again named by her sister-in-law, coadjutor of the monastery of Thorn then in 1757 coadjutor of the one of Essen.
In Brussels, she enjoyed great influence over her brother and served as "first lady". Although Charles Alexander had been a widower for ten years, his wife was the youngest sister of the Empress, she reproached him about his liaison with Madame de Meuse. In 1763, she was designated as coadjutor and successor of Remiremont the Princess Kunigunde of Saxony, sister of Queen of Naples and Sicily and Dauphine of France. In 1765, she attended the marriage of her nephew the future Léopold II to Infante Maria Luisa of Spain in Innsbrück; the same year her brother the Emperor died. From April to September 1770, Anne Charlotte made a last trip to Vienna.
On the way Anne Charlotte crossed the path taken by her niece, the 14-year-old Archduchess Maria Antonia towards that of her French marriage.
Anne Charlotte died in Mons in present-day Belgium at the age of 59. She was buried at the Ducal Crypt in Lorraine, the Église Saint-François-des-Cordelier. She was joined by her brother Charles Alexander in 1780.[2]
Ancestry
Titles, styles, honours and arms
Titles and styles
- 17 May 1714 – 7 November 1773 Her Highness Princess Anne Charlotte of Lorraine
References and notes
- ↑ Christensen, Martin K.I. "Women in Power 1700-1740". Genealogics .org. Retrieved 2 March 2010.
- ↑ This article is based on the present Anne Charlotte de Lorraine page on French Wikipedia
See also
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