Until her marriage, Louise was known as Mademoiselle de Chartres.[2] The style of Mademoiselle de Chartres had been used by her elder sister Adélaïde, who, by the time of Louise Diane's birth, was a nun at Chelles. Her aunt Élisabeth Charlotte d'Orléans also used the title.
Louise, who grew up with her older sister Élisabeth, received a religious education. Her sister would later become the queen of Spain as the wife of Louis I of Spain.[1]
Louise grew up in an era when her father, known as Philippe d'Orléans, or simply le Régent, was the de facto ruler of France, as he had been in charge of the affairs of the state since the death of Louise's maternal grandfather King Louis XIV. The Palais-Royal was where the régent held his court and lived openly with his mistress Marie Thérèse de Parabère.[3] Her mother later acquired the Château de Bagnolet, where she lived quietly and without scandal.
In her youth, she was said to have been a very sensitive child and would grow up to be one of the more beautiful of the regent's daughters. As she was another girl (1 of 7 overall), her birth was not necessarily greeted with the joy that had met that of her brother, Louis, Duke of Orléans. Upon the death of her father in 1723, at Versailles, at the age of forty-nine, her only brother inherited the title of Duke of Orléans and, in 1724, he married Margravine Johanna of Baden-Baden.
After the marriage, she became known at court as Her Serene Highness, the Princess of Conti. Her husband had succeeded to the Conti title in 1727 upon the death of his father Louis Armand II, Prince of Conti. In 1734, Louise gave birth to a son, heir to the Conti name, and, in 1736, to a second child who died at birth.
Louise died in childbirth on 26 September 1736 at Issy, outside Paris. She was buried at the Saint-André-des-Arcs church. At her death, due to the Queen Marie Leszczyńska being otherwise engaged, the queen sent Louise's cousin Marie Anne de Bourbon (Mademoiselle de Clermont) to represent her at Issy.
Bryant, Mark (2004). "Mme de Maintenon: Partner, Matriarch, and Minister". In Orr, Clarissa Campbell (ed.). Queenship in Europe 1660-1815: The Role of the Consort. Cambridge University Press.
Lever, Evelyne (2002). Madame de Pompadour: A Life. Translated by Temerson, Catherine. St. Martin's.
Powell, Lawrence N. (2012). The Accidental City. Harvard University Press.
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