Princess Anne Charlotte of Lorraine

Anne Charlotte of Lorraine (17 May 1714 – 7 November 1773) was the Abbess of Remiremont and Mons. She was the thirteenth of fifteen children of Leopold, Duke of Lorraine, and his spouse Élisabeth Charlotte d'Orléans. Her mother was the niece of Louis XIV of France and sister of Philippe II, Duke of Orléans and Regent of France during the minority of Louis XV. Family Anne Charlotte was born at the Château de Lunéville because the Capital of Lorraine, Nancy, was occupied by French troops of Louis XIV due to the War of the Spanish Succession. She was given her mother's name of Charlotte. At the time of her birth, she had three brothers and a sister alive: Léopold Clément, born in 1707 and heir of the Duchy as the eldest surviving son; Francis Stephen born in 1708; Élisabeth Thérèse born in 1711; and then Charles-Alexandre born in 1712. In 1718, her mother had a stillborn daughter in her last recorded pregnancy. In 1719 the Château de Lunéville where Anne Charlotte was born was damaged greatly by a fire. Anne Charlotte was seven and a half when she went to the French court of her maternal family, the Royal House of Bourbon. She met her grandmother, the Dowager Duchess of Orléans, the Princess Palatine for the first and last time; the occasion was for the coronation of Louis XV at the Cathedral of Notre-Dame in Rheims. Her grandmother said that Anne Charlotte was a "little beauty" and that she and her siblings had been brought up well; her mother would always be praised for her maternal instinct. Uncommon for the time, Anne Charlotte's mother insisted that she raise her children, and had a close and affectionate relationship with them.