Elizabeth Charlotte, Madame Palatine

Born Elizabeth Charlotte of the Palatinate on 27 May 1652, she became the second wife of Philippe I, Duke of Orléans, younger brother of Louis XIV. The marriage brought her into the suffocating ritual of Versailles, where she raised two children: Philippe II, who would rule France during the Regency, and Élisabeth Charlotte, Duchess of Lorraine. What survived her was the correspondence — blunt, sometimes savage dispatches on court intrigue and royal absurdity that became a cultural artifact of the age. Through her daughter she became grandmother to Francis I, Holy Roman Emperor, and great-gran…