Marguerite of Lorraine

Marguerite of Lorraine (22 July 1615 – 13 April 1672), Duchess of Orléans, was the wife of Gaston, younger brother of Louis XIII of France. As Gaston had married her in secret in defiance of the King, Louis had their marriage nullified when it became known. On his deathbed, Louis permitted them to marry. After their remarriage, Marguerite and Gaston had five children. She was the stepmother of La Grande Mademoiselle. Life Marguerite was born in Nancy, Lorraine to Francis II, Duke of Lorraine, and Countess Christina of Salm. One of six children, she grew up in Nancy which was the capital of her father's duchy. After losing her mother in 1627, she was brought up by her aunt Catherine of Lorraine—the Abbess of Remiremont. Two of her older brothers, Charles and Nicolas, were successively dukes of Lorraine. Duchess of Orléans While taking refuge from the wrath of the French prime minister, Cardinal Richelieu, Gaston, Duke of Orléans, younger brother and heir presumptive of Louis XIII of France, fell in love with Marguerite. As France and Lorraine were enemies, however, Gaston was refused permission to marry the sister of Lorraine's duke, Charles IV of Lorraine. Nonetheless, Gaston returned to Lorraine and, in a secret ceremony in the presence of her family at Nancy during the night of 2–3 January 1632, took Marguerite as his wife. Since he had not obtained the prior permission of his elder brother—one of his many acts of defiance—the couple could not appear at the French court and the marriage was kept secret. In November that same year, Henri II, Duke of Montmorency, on his way to the scaffold, betrayed Gaston by revealing the elopement to the king and Richelieu. The king had his brother's marriage declared void by the Parlement of Paris in September 1634 and, despite the Pope's protest, the Assembly of the French clergy affirmed the nullification in September 1635 on the grounds that a prince du sang, especially an heir to the throne, could only enter into matrimony with the permission of the king—consistent with French sovereignty and custom. Although Marguerite and Gaston had renewed their marriage before the Archbishop of Malines, a French emissary persuaded the Pope not to publicly protest the matter, and Gaston was forced to accept the annulment of his marriage.