Philippe, Duke of Orléans (Philippe Charles; 2 August 1674 – 2 December 1723), known as the Regent, was a French prince, soldier, and statesman who served as Regent of the Kingdom of France from 1715 to 1723. He is referred to in French as le Régent. He was the son of Philippe I, Duke of Orleans, and Elisabeth Charlotte of the Palatinate. Born at his father's palace at Saint-Cloud, he was known from birth by the title of Duke of Chartres.
In 1692, Philippe married his first cousin Françoise Marie de Bourbon, the youngest legitimised daughter (légitimée de France) of King Louis XIV and Madame de Montespan. Named regent of France during the minority of Louis XV, his great-nephew and first cousin twice removed, the period of his de facto rule was known as the Regency (French: la Régence) (1715 - 1723). The Regency came to an end in February 1723, and the Duke of Orléans died at Versailles in December.
In March 1661, Monsieur Philippe I, Duke of Orleans, married his first cousin Princess Henrietta of England, known as Madame at court; she was the sister of King Charles II of England. The marriage was stormy; Henrietta was a famed beauty, sometimes depicted as flirtatious by those at the court of Versailles. Nonetheless, the marriage produced three children: Marie Louise, later Queen of Spain; Philippe Charles, Duke of Valois, who died in infancy; and Anne Marie, later Queen of Sardinia. Madame Henrietta died at Saint-Cloud in 1670; rumors abounded that she had been poisoned by her husband or his long-term lover, the Chevalier de Lorraine; the two would remain together till the death of the Duke of Orléans in 1701.
In the following year, the Duke of Orléans married Elizabeth Charlotte, Princess Palatine, the only daughter of Charles I Louis, Elector Palatine, and Princess Charlotte of Hesse-Kassel. The new Duchess of Orléans, who had converted from Protestantism to Catholicism just before entering France, was popular at court upon her arrival in 1671. In 1673 the Duke and Duchess had a son named Alexandre Louis, another short-lived Duke of Valois. The next year, the Duchess gave birth to Philippe Charles, the future Regent. A daughter, Élisabeth Charlotte, later Duchess of Lorraine, was born in 1676.
Philippe Charles d'Orléans was born at the Château de Saint-Cloud, some ten kilometers west of Paris. As the grandson of King Louis XIII, Philippe was a petit-fils de France. This entitled him to the style of Royal Highness from birth, as well as the right to be seated in an armchair in the king's presence.
At his birth, he was titled Duke of Chartres and was formally addressed as Monseigneur le Duc de Chartres. As the second living son of his parents, his birth was not greeted with the enthusiasm the Duke of Valois had received in 1673.
Philippe was born fourth in line to the throne, coming after Louis, Dauphin of France, his own father, and his older brother. When Philippe was born, his uncle Louis XIV was at the height of his power.
In 1676, his older brother the Duke of Valois died at the Palais-Royal in Paris, making Philippe the new heir to the House of Orléans; the future heirs of the family would be known as Duke of Chartres (Duc de Chartres) for the next century. The distraught mother of Philippe was pregnant at the time with Élisabeth Charlotte d'Orléans (1676–1744), future Duchess and regent of Lorraine. Élisabeth Charlotte and Philippe would always remain close.
The Duke of Chartres grew up at his father's "private" court at Saint-Cloud and in Paris at the Palais-Royal, the Parisian residence of the Orléans family until the arrest of Philippe Égalité (his great grandson) in April 1793, during the French Revolution. The Palais-Royal was frequented by, among others, Marie Anne Mancini, Duchess of Bouillon, part of Philippe's father's libertine circle.
A program of how best to educate a prince was drawn up exclusively for him by Guillaume Dubois, his preceptor. Dubois had entered Philippe's household in 1683 as his "under-preceptor". Philippe's education was carried out by the respected instructor Nicholas-François Parisot de Saint-Laurent until 1687.
Each course of study taught the Duc de Chartres the "principles" or "elements" of a subject. Some of the best historians, genealogists, scientists and artists in the kingdom participated in this educational experiment, which started around 1689. For example, Philippe learned physics and mathematics from Joseph Sauveur; and from Étienne Loulié he learned musical notation, elementary musical theory, plus the basics of playing the viol and the recorder.
Chartres was reared alongside Louis de Rouvroy, duc de Saint-Simon, later famous for his memoirs and defense of the rights of the peerage of France; Saint-Simon often accompanied the duke, and his wife was later a lady-in-waiting to Philippe's daughter, Louise Élisabeth d'Orléans, Duchesse de Berry.
Next, collaborating to link physics and music, Sauveur and Loulié demonstrated vibrating strings and the Galilean pendulum, and how the mathematical principles on which these devices depend are related to music. Finally, in 1693 the prince studied composition with Marc-Antoine Charpentier. With Charpentier's help, he composed an opera, Philomèle, performed at his residence in 1694. The prince wrote two operas with some support from Gervais, Penthée, to a libretto by the Marquis de La Fare, and Suite d'Armide, ou Jerusalem delivree with a libretto by the Baron de Longepierre. In the late 1690s Chartres studied the viol with Antoine Forqueray the elder. Meanwhile, he was studying diplomacy and riding, as preparations for a military career.
In May 1685 the Duc de Chartres, then just ten years old, made his first public appearance at Versailles; the occasion was the arrival of the Doge of Genoa, Francesco Maria Imperiale Lercari, at the French court. Chartres was put on a stage with his uncle, cousin and father. On 2 June 1686 Chartres was invested with the Order of the Holy Spirit at Versailles; on the same day his future brother-in-law, Louis-Auguste de Bourbon, Duc du Maine, also joined the order as did his cousins Louis III, prince de Condé and François Louis, Prince de Conti.
His father gained military distinction in the Battle of Cassel and during the decisive French victory against William of Orange, Chartres would similarly demonstrate military prowess. He had his first experience of battle at the siege of Mons in 1691, the year before his marriage. He fought with great distinction at the Battle of Steenkerque on 3 August 1692. In the same year he also served at the Siege of Namur. The following year he served at the Battle of Landen; he fought alongside the prince de Conti, who was wounded.
During a hiatus between military assignments, Chartres studied natural science.
In the next century, he would serve in the War of the Spanish Succession. He was next given a command in Italy (1706) and gained much credit for the Battle of Turin. Later he went to Spain and took part in the Battle of Almansa, a major step in the consolidation of Spain under the Bourbons (1707), where he achieved some important successes.
Constant wars with many of the major powers in Europe rendered a significant marriage with a foreign princess unlikely, or so Louis XIV told his brother, Monsieur, when persuading him to accept the king's legitimised daughter, Françoise Marie de Bourbon (known as Mademoiselle de Blois), as wife for Philippe. The king offered a dowry of two million livres with his daughter's hand (not to be paid until the Nine Years' War was over), as well as the Palais-Royal for the bridegroom's parents. Upon hearing that her son had agreed to the marriage, Philippe's mother slapped his face in full view of the court and turned her back on the king as he bowed to her. Nonetheless, on 18 February 1692, the cousins were married.