Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 17.djvu/918

Rh 852 ORLEANS least, was not devoid of brilliancy. At this most of the best -known French men-of -letters at the time Villon, Olivier de la Marche, Chastelain, Meschinot, and others were residents or visitors or correspondents. His son, afterwards Louis XII., was not born till 1462, three years before Charles s own death. He had become, notwith standing his high position, something of a nullity in politics, and tradition ascribes his death to vexation at the harshness with which Louis XL rejected his attempt to mediate on behalf of the duke of Brittany. At any rate he died, on 4th January 1465, at Amboise. Many of his later poems are small occasional pieces addressed to his courtiers and companions, and in not a few cases answers to them by those to whom they were addressed exist. The best edition of Charles d Orleans s poems, with a brief but sufficient account of his life, is that of C. d Hericault in the Xouvelle Collection Jannet, Paris, 1874. (G. SA.) ORLEANS, DUKES OF. The title duke of Orleans was borne by three distinct dynasties of French princes of the blood. The first duke of Orleans was Louis (1371-1407), second son of King Charles V., who was born in 1371, and received the title from his brother Charles VI. in 1392. Both he and his son and heir played very important parts in the history of the Hundred Year.s War with England (see FRANCE) in opposition to the duke of Burgundy. He had been appointed regent of France during the madness of his brother, Charles VI., and had, by his immorality and his intimacy with the queen, raised a great scandal throughout the kingdom. The duke of Burgundy made himself the mouthpiece of the general discontent, and on 23d November 1407 had the regent murdered in the streets of Paris in revenge for his own father s death. Louis s son CHARLES is the subject of the preceding article. With his son s accession to the throne as Louis XII. the duke dom of Orleans merged in the crown. It was revived in 1626, when Louis XIII. created his brother, JEAN BAP- TISTE GASTON (1608-1660), the third son of Henry IV., duke of Orleans and Chartres and count of Blois. Gaston of Orleans s fruitless intrigues fill the history of France from the time of Richelieu and Mary de Medici to that of Mazarin and Anne of Austria. Four times he was banished from France, and more than four times did he sacrifice his associates, who had plotted the overthrow of Richelieu. To him Montmorency, Cinq-Mars, and De Thou owed their deaths, and he was only protected from sharing their fate by the fact of his royal birth. On the death of Louis XIII. he was appointed lieutenant-general of the kingdom for the minority of Louis XIV. But Mazarin never meant him to exercise any real power, and when he became convinced that his power was subordi nate to the cardinal s he entered the ranks of the Fronde (see MAZARIX), in which he played a conspicuous part, but always as the tool or the mouthpiece of others. Far more manly and determined was his daughter, best known as La Grande Mademoiselle, who with her own hands directed the guns of the Bastille upon Turenne s soldiers on the day of the battle of St Antoine. He was after wards exiled to his castle of Blois, where he died without male issue in 1660. The title was at once revived by Louis XIV., who created his brother PHILIPPE (1640- 1701) duke of Orleans and of Chartres, and married him to Henrietta, the sister of Charles II. of England. The court was soon entertained by the details of the quarrels between the duke and duchess, and by the former s jealousy even of his brother the king, and, when Henrietta, after successfully detaching Charles from the Triple Alliance and negotiating the treaty of Dover, died suddenly in 1670, the duke was universally accused of poisoning her. In the following year he married Princess Charlotte Elizabeth of Bavaria, In the campaign of 1677 he so distinguished himself that Louis XIV. became afraid of his popularity and refused to allow him to go again to the frontier. He was obliged to waste his time at Paris like other noblemen, in attendance on the court, until his death in 1701. He left one son and three daughters: the daughters married Charles II. of Spain, Victor Amadeus II. of Savoy, and Prince Charles of Lorraine ; the son was PHILIPPE (1674-1723), the regent, who has been spoken of in FRANCE, vol. ix. p. 584. Before succeeding to the dukedom of Orleans in 1701 he had given no indication of political ambition or capacity, yet Louis XIV. distrusted him, and thought to mar his chance of allying himself with any royal or noble family, and to unite his interest with that of his own natural children, by marrying him to his illegitimate daughter by Madame de Montespan, Made moiselle de Blois. This distrust was increased as the king s legitimate descendants died off, and in his will he left his natural son, the duke of Maine, guardian of the person of his great-grandson and heir, and greatly circumscribed the authority of Orleans as regent. On the death of the grand monarque in 1715 Philippe, guided by the advice of the duke of Saint Simon, induced the parliament of Paris to upset the will and make him regent of the realm with the fullest authority. By the same nobleman s advice he procured the degradation of the natural children of the late king from the precedence above the peers of France which had been conferred on them. Saint Simon hoped he would go yet further, and that he would entrust the nobility with their old political authority ; but the regent had no mind to restore the privileges which Richelieu had had so much difficulty in combating, and Avhich the policy of Louis XIV. had only, after long years, been able to destroy. He determined to hand down to Louis XV. the absolute power of his great-grandfather. Another main object he sought was to keep France at peace, which alone could restore her to her former prosperity. With this in tention he joined the Quadruple Alliance. He remained in close union with Stanhope, the prime minister of England, and the emperor,, whilst Dubois worked out his intentions. This alliance enabled the kingdoms of England and France to overthrow Alberoni and prevent his disturbing the peace of Europe. In compliance with the wishes of Lord Stair, the able English ambassador, Orleans expelled the Pre tender from France, and was helped to overthrow the con spiracy of Cellamare the French part of Alberoni s scheme by which the bastards of Louis XIV. were to overthrow the regent. Under this peaceful policy France rapidly began to recover prosperity, and Philippe hoped to restore the condition of her finances by listening to the advice of a Scotch adventurer, and buying out the farmers-general of the taxes, who were the real causes of the financial dis tress (see LAW, JOHN, vol. xiv. p. 367). It should also be noted that the regent showed both courage and deter mination in putting a stop to the insane speculations of the Rue Quincampoix, He cannot be called a great states man ; he indeed formed great plans, but left all details of government to Dubois. Yet his real political ability must not be overlooked, as is often done, because the period of the regency is only regarded, as a rule, as a period of wild debauchery, in which the regent ruled a court of bacchanals. Philippe never allowed his pleasures to interfere with his politics. His fidelity to the youthful monarch is no less remarkable in a man of his seemingly abandoned character, hence it is no wonder that when Louis XV. attained his majority he maintained the duke of Orleans and with him Dubois in power. But a career of debauchery had weakened his physical powers, and, in the very year in which hits ward had thus shown his gratitude to him (1723), he died. His character is best painted in an apologue of his mother s. &quot;The fairies were all invited to my bedside, and.