King Louis Philippe and his family

[Prince_Lieven]

"Aunt Coffee-mill", but what has that to do with deafness? Maybe she talked very loudly to make up for it.  :-/

Could it have been a slang term of some kind?

[crazy_wing]

Next questions ...  

Princess Louise d'Orléans (1812-1850), wife of Leopold of Belgium, and her sister Princess Marie d'Orléans (1813-1839), Duchess of Württemberg, died quite young.
First I thought Marie died after childbirth. But there are six months between the birth of her son and her death. And what about Louise? Was she ill?

Louise was quite weak throughout her life.  Her husband's unfaithfulness and her father's death in 1850, which she believed was caused by the humiliation of abdication, didn't help to keep her health up!  I am not sure what her official cause of death though.

[kmerov]

 Thanks everyone for the great portraits and info.  
Princess Clementine d'Orleans seems like a very intersting person. I know that Princes Marie, wife of Prince Valdemar of Denmark liked her very much.. Does anyone have a picture of her?  

[Prince_Lieven]

Marc already posted one, see?  

[kmerov]

Yes, I did see his (great) portraits, but I was actually thinking of a "real" picture, not a portrait.

[Daniela]

Louise was quite weak throughout her life.  Her husband's unfaithfulness and her father's death in 1850, which she believed was caused by the humiliation of abdication, didn't help to keep her health up!  I am not sure what her official cause of death though.

Leopold was unfaithfull?
Don't know why, but I thought that he "wasn't like that". :-/

Daniela

[Prince_Lieven]

He morganatically married one of his mistresses, Caroline Bauer, after Charlotte's death but before he married Louise. The match was later dissolved.

Leopold, though essentially a good man, liked to climb on a moral high horse when it came to giving advice to Queen Victoria and Prince Albert, but he had the lecherous Coburg streak too!

[grandduchessella]

According to Theo Aronson's Coburgs of Belgium, Louise was very unhappy in her marriage. First Leopold was a cold, distant husband. It just seemed to be his personality. Whatever warmth or affection he'd possessed had been spent on Princess Charlotte. Louise was basically sold into marriage. To estabish his upstart Kingdom, he needed a pedigreed wife. Louise fit the bill. She was quite young and naive and apparently had a very rough shock when it came to the marriage bed. It was something she dreaded and didn't find much comfort in pregnancy or childbirth either. I'll have to dig the book out but it seemed quite the pathetic tale.

[Prince_Lieven]

Thanks GDella! I never knew that. I always thought it was quite the opposite! Perhaps he would have grown like that to Charlotte in time too?

[Agneschen]

This portrait does not actually show Louis Philippe's son but his younger brother. He was also called Antoine and also bore the title of duke of Montpensier which makes it a bit confusing. This elder Antoine was born in 1775 and died in 1805.

[Agneschen]

Louise also died of tuberculosis in Ostende in 1850, a few months after her father.
She was 20 when she was married to Leopold I who was almost old enough to be her father. Their wedding was something of a nightmare : the bride, her parents and siblings all cried floods of tears during the ceremony (the Orléans siblings were all devoted to each other and to their parents hence their reluctance to see one of them leave the family circle). Queen Marie Amélie told her daughter a few words about the so-called "facts of life" before the wedding night and Louise was so terrified that she begged her mother to stay with her and finally cried herself to sleep.
Louise was very shy of her husband at first but grew to know and love him sincerely. He probably esteemed her but never was in love with her and had many love affairs (especially with Arcadie Claret who bore him 2 sons). Louise knew but kept silent only saying that as long as her husband was happy, it was enough for her. She wrote to her distraught mother : "My solitude must not worry you. I am so accustomed to being alone".
Louise and her mother wrote to each other almost everyday and their letters are full of interesting details about their respective lives, the Orléans family ... I have some of them which I may translate in English and post if anyone is interested.

The only bio I know of Louise is the excellent one by Mia Kerkvoorde (I do not know whether it has been translated in English. I have the French version entitled Louise d'Orléans - La Reine oubliée).

[crazy_wing]

According to Theo Aronson's Coburgs of Belgium, Louise was very unhappy in her marriage. First Leopold was a cold, distant husband. It just seemed to be his personality. Whatever warmth or affection he'd possessed had been spent on Princess Charlotte. Louise was basically sold into marriage. To estabish his upstart Kingdom, he needed a pedigreed wife. Louise fit the bill. She was quite young and naive and apparently had a very rough shock when it came to the marriage bed. It was something she dreaded and didn't find much comfort in pregnancy or childbirth either. I'll have to dig the book out but it seemed quite the pathetic tale.

I also read that Leopold had strong sexual drive. Louise's poor health prevented her from having more children as the pregnancies had put significant strain on her health.  Leopold had to look for others to satisfy him.  

[crazy_wing]

Anohter one of Louise by winterhalter

[Marc]

[Marc]

One more of Louise!