Marriage
One of Louise Henriette's cousins, Louis Jean Marie de Bourbon, Duke of Penthièvre, son of the Louis-Alexandre de Bourbon, Count of Toulouse and heir to the Penthièvre fortune, had proposed marriage to her, but her mother's choice fell upon the heir of the more prestigious House of Orléans. As a result, on 17 December 1743, at the age of seventeen, Louise Henriette married her second cousin, the Duke of Chartres, Louis Philippe d'Orléans, in the chapel of the Palace of Versailles.
Louise Henriette's mother, Louise Élisabeth de Bourbon, had hoped that the marriage would put an end to a family rivalry between the House of Bourbon-Condé and the House of Orléans. The source of conflict was animosity between Louise Élisabeth's mother, LouiseFrançoise de Bourbon, Dowager Princess of Condé, and her aunt, Françoise-Marie de Bourbon, Dowager Duchess of Orléans, who were sisters and legitimised daughters of Louis XIV and Madame de Montespan.
In 1731, a marriage between the two families had already taken place, that of Henriette's elder brother Louis François I de Bourbon, prince de Conti to Louise Diane d'Orléans.
The Duke of Chartres' father, Louis d'Orléans, Duke of Orléans, known as the Pious, accepted his wife's choice because of the princess' upbringing in a convent; however, after a much passionate beginning, Louise Henriette's scandalous behaviour caused the couple to break up.
Read more about this topic: Louise Henriette De Bourbon
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