ORLEANS, JEAN BAPTISTE GASTON, Due d', third son of Henry IV. of France and Marie de Medici; was b. at Fontainebleau, April 25, 1608. He possessed tolerable abilities, but his education was neglected. On his marriage with Marie of Bourbon. duchess of Montpensier, in 1626, he received the duchy of Orleans as appanage. His wife soon died, leaving one daughter, the celebrated Mademoiselle de Montpensier. His brother, Louis XIII., regarded him with dislike as heir-presumptive to the throne, the queen having no children; and the treatment which he received at the hands of the king and of Richelieu, led him to join with his mother in attempting the overthrow of that minister. He left the court with a number of other great nobles in Feb., 1631; sought the support of the duke of Lorraine, whose sister he married, and raised in the Spanish Nether ]ands a corps of 2,000 men, at the head of which he crosssed the French frontier assum ing the title of lient.gen. of the kingdom; hut was completely defeated by marshal Schomberg at Castelnaudary, and tied to the duke of Lorraine. whom he thereby involved in ruin. In 1634, however, he returned to the French court. Richelieu
sought to have his marriage with Marguerite of Lorraine declared invalid, but after a long struggle, and much disputing among jurists and theologians, its validity was sus tained. The duke was, however, again obliged to leave France in consequence of fresh.
intrigues against Richelieu. After Richelieu's death, a reconciliation was effected between him and his brother, the king, by the ministers .Mazarin and Chavigny; and. Louis XIII appointed him lieut.gen. of the kingdom during the minority of Louis XIV. Mazarin and the queen-mother, Anne of Austria, attempting to assume all power to them selves, the duke placed himself at the head of the Fronde (q.v.); but with his usual vacillating weakness and selfish sacrifice of his friends, soon made terms again with the court. Yet, when Marzarin returned from banishment in 1659, the duke again assem bled troops for the prince of Conde, upon which account, after the disturbances were ended, he was confined to his castle of Blois, where he died Feb. 2, 1660. Ile left three. daughters by his second marriage.