Françoise Marie de Bourbon

Françoise Marie
Légitimée de France Duchess of Orléans
Françoise Marie by Alexandre François Caminade, 1834, painted during the reign of her descendant King Louis Philippe
Born	4 May 1677 Château de Maintenon, Maintenon, France
Died	1 February 1749 (aged 71) Palais-Royal, Paris, France
Burial	6 February 1749 Église de la Madeleine de Trainel, Paris, France
Spouse	Philippe II, Duke of Orléans
Issue Detail	Louise Élisabeth, Duchess of Berry Adélaïde, Abbess of Chelles Charlotte Aglaé, Duchess of Modena Louis, Duke of Orléans Louise Élisabeth, Queen of Spain Philippine Élisabeth, Mademoiselle de Beaujolais Louise, Princess of Conti
Full name Françoise Marie de Bourbon, légitimée de France
Royal House	Bourbon
Father	Louis XIV of France
Mother	Madame de Montespan
Signature

Royal styles of Françoise Marie, Duchess of Orléans
Reference style	Her Royal Highness
Spoken style	Your Royal Highness
Alternative style	Madame d'Orléans

Françoise Marie de Bourbon, légitimée de France (4 May 1677 – 1 February 1749) was the youngest illegitimate daughter of Louis XIV of France and his maîtresse-en-titre, Françoise-Athénaïs, marquise de Montespan. At the age of 14 she was wed to her first cousin Philippe d'Orléans, future regent of France during the minority of Louis XV. Through four of the eight children she bore him in an unhappy marriage she became the ancestress of several of Europe's Roman Catholic monarchs of the 19th and 20th centuries, notably those of Belgium, Italy, Spain and France.

Françoise Marie was born in 1677, at the château de Maintenon, owned since 1674 by Françoise d'Aubigné, marquise de Maintenon, the governess of Madame de Montespan's illegitimate children by Louis XIV. She and her younger brother, Louis Alexandre de Bourbon, Count of Toulouse were cared for by Mmes de Monchevreuil, de Colbert and de Jussac under Mme. de Maintenon's' supervision, their mother being eventually ostracized from court. As a child, she was brought occasionally to Versailles to visit her parents.

On 22 November 1681, at the age of four and a half, Françoise Marie was legitimised by Louis XIV and given the courtesy title of Mademoiselle de Blois, a style held previously by her older half-sister, Marie Anne de Bourbon, a legitimised daughter of the king by Louise de La Vallière. The name of her mother was not mentioned in the act of legitimisation because Madame de Montespan was still married to the Marquis de Montespan, who might have counter-claimed paternity and custody of his wife's children. By the time of her birth, her parents' relationship was coming to an end because of Madame de Montespan's possible involvement in the Affaire des poisons.