Philippe, Chevalier de Lorraine

Philippe of Lorraine (1643 – 8 December 1702), known as the Chevalier de Lorraine, was a French nobleman, descendant of the Dukes of Elbeuf, member of the House of Guise, cadet branch of the ducal House of Lorraine. He was the renowned lover of Philippe I, Duke of Orléans, brother of Louis XIV.

Philippe was the second son of the Prince Henri I de Lorraine, Comte d'Harcourt and his wife, Marguerite-Philippe du Cambout. His father, Henri of Lorraine, was created the Count of Harcourt in 1605, aged 4. Henri was also the Grand Squire of France, a prestigious office in charge of the royal stables, the transport of the king, and his ceremonial entourage. He was known as Monsieur le Grand. His mother, Marguerite-Philippe du Cambout, was a member of the House of Cambout, who traced their ancestry back to the Sovereign Dukes of Brittany.

Philippe was the titular abbot of four abbeys: Saint-Père-en-Vallée in the Diocese of Chartres, Tiron, Fleury and Saint-Jean-des-Vignes, near Soissons. Known to be "as beautiful as an angel", Philippe became the duc d'Orléans' lover in 1658, while living at the duke's Palais-Royal residence in Paris, where the young Princess Henriette Anne of England was living with her mother Queen Henriette Marie. The two Henriettes had fled England due to the English Civil War and had lived at the Palais-Royal as a grace and favor residence.

After the duc d'Orléans married Henriette Anne of England at the Palais-Royal in 1661, Lorraine remained a prominent presence within the household.^[1] Contemporary correspondence and later memoirists attest to the tension between Lorraine and Henriette,^[2] as well as to Philippe's limited discretion regarding his long-standing relationship with Lorraine.^[3][4]

The relationship between Philippe I, Duke of Orléans and Philippe de Lorraine reportedly affected Philippe's first marriage to Henrietta Anne Stuart. Contemporary accounts indicate that the Duke of Orléans declared he could not love his wife without the chevalier's approval, contributing to marital tensions.^[4] In January 1670, Henrietta Anne appealed to Louis XIV, who ordered Lorraine's imprisonment, first near Lyon, later at the island fortress of Château d'If, before banishing him to Rome.^[4]. Following sustained protests from the Duke of Orléans, the king agreed in February 1670 to mitigate the severity of the punishment, although Lorraine remained in exile and did not immediately return to court.

When in 1670 Henriette Anne died suddenly and mysteriously at Saint-Cloud it was suspected that Lorraine had poisoned her, even though the autopsy performed reported that Henrietta-Anne had died of peritonitis caused by a perforated ulcer.^[5] The duc d'Orléans married Elizabeth Charlotte of the Palatinate in 1671, who later wrote of Lorraine:

Philippe de Lorraine was three years younger than Philippe d'Orléans. Insinuating, brutal and devoid of scruple, he was the great love of Monsieur's life. He was also the worst enemy of the latter's two wives. As greedy as a vulture, this younger son of the French branch of the House of Lorraine had, by the end of the 1650s, hooked Monsieur like a harpooned whale. The young prince loved him with a passion that worried Madame Henrietta and the court bishop, Cosnac, but it was plain to the King that, thanks to the attractive face and sharp mind of the good-looking chevalier, he would have his way with his brother.^[6]

In 1682, Lorraine was exiled again, having been accused of seducing the young Count of Vermandois (son of Louis XIV and Louise de La Vallière) with his set (including the Prince of Conti) and began practicing le vice italien (the contemporary term for homosexuality).

Having been allowed to return to court, he was then blamed for helping to instigate the marriage between the duc de Chartres and Mademoiselle de Blois in 1692. Chartres was the son of Lorraine's lover, the duc d'Orléans and his second wife Elizabeth Charlotte of the Palatinate, who did not get on with Lorraine at all and merely "tolerated his existence." According to Henriette Anne, Elizabeth Charlotte, and Saint-Simon, Lorraine frequently manipulated the duc d'Orléans.

At the end of his life, by 1701, Philippe de Lorraine had lost much of the furniture in his apartment at the Palais-Royal and in his country residence (filled with remains from the Palatinate), his four abbeys, and all the money he had obtained (more or less with permission) from the coffers of the State, by gambling and exploitation of his lovers; however, he did manage to reconcile with Elizabeth Charlotte.

Saint-Simon reported rumors that Lorraine married in secret his cousin Béatrice Hiéronyme de Lorraine (1662–1738), Abbess of Remiremont^[4].

His niece, Marie de Lorraine, (12 August 1674 – 30 October 1724), was a princess of the House of Lorraine-Guise and Princess of Monaco as the wife of Antonio I.^[7]

Later genealogical traditions have attributed descendants to Philippe de Lorraine through unacknowledged or collateral lines, including associations with the old Counts of Oeynhausen, Marquess of Alorna and a line of the Counts of Stolberg-Wernigerode; however, no contemporary documentation confirms direct descent from Philippe de Lorraine.

Philippe has been portrayed by a few actors over the years:

• Versailles (2015 TV series), played by Evan Williams

• Alexandre, Chevalier de Beauvernois (dates unknown, active after 1734), known as le bâtard de Lorraine, was a figure at the French court whose sobriquet reflected a contemporary belief or rumor of illegitimate connection to the House of Lorraine. Later genealogical sources associated him with Philippe de Lorraine, Chevalier de Lorraine, though no contemporary documentation formally establishes his parentage. Some later sources further associate Claude de Souches with this belief; however, contemporary records do not substantiate this attribution.

Philippe de Lorraine died in December 1702, aged 59, after suffering a sudden attack of apoplexy, a term used at the time for stroke-like illness. Contemporary memoirist Louis de Rouvroy, duc de Saint-Simon, records that Lorraine collapsed suddenly and died shortly thereafter, noting the event without evidence of prolonged illness.^[4]