House House of Lorraine | Name Louis, Prince | |
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Born 28 January 1704
Chateau de Luneville, Lorraine ( 1704-01-28 ) Died 10 May 1711(1711-05-10) (aged 7)
Chateau de Luneville, Lorraine Burial Eglise Saint-Francois-des-Cordeliers Father Leopold, Duke of Lorraine Mother Elisabeth Charlotte d'Orleans | ||
Louis, Hereditary Prince of Lorraine (28 January 1704 – 10 May 1711) was heir apparent to the throne of the sovereign Duchy of Lorraine.
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His father was the reigning Duke of Lorraine and his mother a member of the House of Bourbon, then ruling the Kingdom of France. He became the Hereditary Prince at his birth in 1704, but died of smallpox in 1711 at the age of seven, unmarried and without descendants.
Biography
He was born at the Chateau de Luneville to Leopold, Duke of Lorraine and his wife Elisabeth Charlotte d'Orleans.
Louis was the fifth child but second son born to his parents. Also, Louis was the second of the four heirs of his father: his older brother Prince Leopold, Duke of Bar (26 August 1699 – 2 April 1700) died aged eight months; his younger brother Leopold Clement Charles (25 April 1707 – 4 June 1723) died aged sixteen and his younger brother Francois Etienne/Stephen lived to adulthood, became the Duke of Lorraine and also, by union, became Holy Roman Emperor and founded the House of Habsburg-Lorraine.
Soon after his birth, on 24 June 1704, the young prince was baptised as a Roman Catholic at the Chateau de Luneville. He did not see the deaths of two of his siblings: Louis, Duke of Bar (26 August 1699 – 2 April 1700) and Princess Louise Christine (13 November 1701 – 18 November 1701) both died before reaching the age of one. By the time of his birth, however, two sisters had survived.
An epidemic of smallpox was going around Europe in the Spring of 1711. It had already killed people like the Holy Roman Emperor Joseph I (who died on 17 April) and the Grand Dauphin, Louis (who died on 14 April). Unfortunately, against all efforts, Princess Elisabeth Charlotte of Lorraine, Louis' older sister, contracted smallpox and died on 4 May. Before this, she passed on to Louis and Princess Marie Gabriele Charlotte. Louis died on 10 May and Marie Gabriele Charlotte died the very next day. They were both buried in the ducal crypt at the Eglise Saint-Francois-des-Cordeliers. At Louis' death, his younger brother Leopold Clement Charles became Hereditary Prince, but he, too died of smallpox in 1723, at the age of sixteen.