Philippe, Chevalier de Lorraine
Philippe of Lorraine, known as the Chevalier de Lorraine, was a French nobleman, descendant of the Dukes of Elbeuf, member of the House of Guise, cadet branch of the ducal House of Lorraine. He was the renowned lover of Philippe I, Duke of Orléans, brother of Louis XIV.
Biography
Philippe was the second son of the Prince Henri I de Lorraine, Comte d'Harcourt and his wife, Marguerite-Philippe du Cambout. His father, Henri of Lorraine, was created the Count of Harcourt in 1605, aged 4. Henri was also the Grand Squire of France, a prestigious office in charge of the royal stables, the transport of the king, and his ceremonial entourage. He was known as Monsieur le Grand. His mother, Marguerite-Philippe du Cambout, was a member of the House of Cambout, who traced their ancestry back to the Sovereign Dukes of Brittany.Philippe was the titular abbot of four abbeys: Saint-Père-en-Vallée in the Diocese of Chartres, Tiron, Fleury and Saint-Jean-des-Vignes, near Soissons.
Known to be "as beautiful as an angel", Philippe became the duc d’Orléans' lover in 1658, while living at the duke's Palais-Royal residence in Paris, where the young Princess Henriette Anne of England was living with her mother Queen Henriette Marie. The two Henriettes had fled England due to the English Civil War and had lived at the Palais-Royal as a grace and favor residence.
After the duc d’Orléans married Henriette Anne of England at the Palais-Royal in 1661, Lorraine remained a prominent presence within the household. Contemporary correspondence and later memoirists attest to the tension between Lorraine and Henriette, as well as to Philippe’s limited discretion regarding his long-standing relationship with Lorraine.
The relationship between Philippe I, Duke of Orléans and Philippe de Lorraine reportedly affected Philippe’s first marriage to Henrietta Anne Stuart. Contemporary accounts indicate that the Duke of Orléans declared he could not love his wife without the chevalier’s approval, contributing to marital tensions. In January 1670, Henrietta Anne appealed to Louis XIV, who ordered Lorraine’s imprisonment, first near Lyon, later at the island fortress of Château d'If, before banishing him to Rome.. Following sustained protests from the Duke of Orléans, the king agreed in February 1670 to mitigate the severity of the punishment, although Lorraine remained in exile and did not immediately return to court.
When in 1670 Henriette Anne died suddenly and mysteriously at Saint-Cloud it was suspected that Lorraine had poisoned her, even though the autopsy performed reported that Henrietta-Anne had died of peritonitis caused by a perforated ulcer. The duc d’Orléans married Elizabeth Charlotte of the Palatinate in 1671, who later wrote of Lorraine:
In 1682, Lorraine was exiled again, having been accused of seducing the young Count of Vermandois with his set and began practicing le vice italien.
Having been allowed to return to court, he was then blamed for helping to instigate the marriage between the duc de Chartres and Mademoiselle de Blois in 1692. Chartres was the son of Lorraine's lover, the duc d’Orléans and his second wife Elizabeth Charlotte of the Palatinate, who did not get on with Lorraine at all and merely "tolerated his existence." According to Henriette Anne, Elizabeth Charlotte, and Saint-Simon, Lorraine frequently manipulated the duc d’Orléans.
At the end of his life, by 1701, Philippe de Lorraine had lost much of the furniture in his apartment at the Palais-Royal and in his country residence, his four abbeys, and all the money he had obtained from the coffers of the State, by gambling and exploitation of his lovers; however, he did manage to reconcile with Elizabeth Charlotte.
Saint-Simon also said that Lorraine married in secret his cousin Béatrice Hiéronyme de Lorraine, Abbess of Remiremont.
Relatives
His niece, Marie de Lorraine, was the Princess of Monaco, as the wife of Antonio I.Lorraine has descendants, including the old Counts of Oeynhausen, Marquess of Alorna and a line of the Counts of Stolberg-Wernigerode.
Portrayals in media
Philippe has been portrayed by a few actors over the years:- Versailles, played by Evan Williams
Issue
- Alexandre, Chevalier de Beauvernois, known as le bâtard de Lorraine, was a figure at the French court whose sobriquet reflected a contemporary belief or rumor of illegitimate connection to the House of Lorraine. Later genealogical sources associated him with Philippe de Lorraine, Chevalier de Lorraine, though no contemporary documentation formally establishes his parentage.Some later sources further associate Claude de Souches with this belief; however, contemporary records do not substantiate this attribution.