Philippe II, Duke of Orléans

Born at Saint-Cloud on 2 August 1674, Philippe Charles was the son of Philippe I, Duke of Orléans, and Elisabeth Charlotte of the Palatinate, and carried the title Duke of Chartres from birth. In 1692 he married his first cousin Françoise Marie de Bourbon, youngest legitimised daughter of Louis XIV and Madame de Montespan. When Louis XIV died in 1715, Philippe became Regent of France for his great-nephew and first cousin twice removed, the five-year-old Louis XV. For the next eight years he wielded near-absolute authority, a period the French still call simply the Regency. The arrangement ended in February 1723 when Louis XV came of age. Philippe died at Versailles that December, just ten months after stepping down.