VINTAGE GERMAN BROOCH~DUCHESSE d'ORLEANS~HEIDELBERG

Elisabeth Charlotte was the daughter of the ruler of the Rhineland area called the Palatine (or Pfalz). She was born at Heidelberg, just three years after her parents had returned from exile to try to rebuild the country that had been ravaged during the Thirty Years War. She was their second child and only daughter; from her childhood, she was called Liselotte, a combined form of her first names.

When Liselotte was seven, her father repudiated his wife and made a morganatic marriage with one of his wife's attendants, a marriage which would produce 14 children, eight of whom survived to adulthood. At the time of the new marriage, Liselotte was sent away from Heidelberg to live with her father's sister Sophie, whose husband ruled Hanover. Liselotte always remembered the four years with Sophie as the happiest of her life. In 1663 she moved back to Heidelberg, where she was educated with her brother and her half-siblings.

After rejecting several proposals from German princes, in 1671 her father arranged Liselotte's marriage to Philippe, Duc d'Orleans, the brother of King Louis XIV of France. Philippe was 18 years older, a widower with two daughters, who needed a male heir. He was also by preference homosexual, and some of his lovers had been rumored to be involved in the death of his first wife the year before. But for Liselotte's father the match seemed to promise the protection of one of Europe's most powerful kings; that promise would turn out to be illusory.

By the end of the year, Liselotte had agreed to give up her family's Calvinism for Catholicism, been married by proxy, and left Germany forever. The newly-married couple did their duty: by 1676, Liselotte had borne three children, of whom two survived, the required male heir and a daughter. Then Philippe turned exclusively to his lovers; Liselotte turned to her correspondence.

She had much to write about: "Monsieur" (Philippe's title as brother to the king) and "Madame" (Liselotte's title as his wife) had their own homes in Paris and at St. Cloud, but they were most often required to be in attendance on Louis at court. Liselotte described for her German relatives all that was going on; to most, she wrote of her enjoyment of hunting, the theatre, and the favor of the king. However, in her most intimate letters, to Sophie, she described her growing unhappiness: at first with her increasing estrangement from Philippe; later with the depredations that Louis' armies were inflicting on her beloved Palatine; later still, with the efforts of Louis' last favorite, the Marquise de Maintenon, to force unsuitable marriages on Liselotte's children.

Philippe died in 1701, leaving his widow and children completely dependent on the aging king and on those who influenced him. Liselotte continued to write letters, describing her efforts to keep up her position and that of her children.

When Louis XIV died in 1715, Liselotte's son became Regent for the young Louis XV, and some of Liselotte's correspondence assumed a political role: for example, she began to write to Caroline of Ansbach, whom she had never met, but who had married the heir to the English throne, and so was a contact that the Regent wished to develop.

Liselotte's letters are remarkable for their ability to convey her speaking voice. She always prided herself on saying exactly what she thought, no matter to whom she was speaking, and her letters do just that. Over 4000 letters in German survive, as do 850 in French. There is no complete English-language translation, but available selections will allow you to hear something of her voice.