Louis, Hereditary Prince of Lorraine (28 January 170410 May 1711) was

heir apparent An heir apparent, often shortened to heir, is a person who is first in an order of succession and cannot be displaced from inheriting by the birth of another person; a person who is first in the order of succession but can be displaced by the b ...

to the throne of the sovereign

Duchy of Lorraine The Duchy of Lorraine (french: Lorraine ; german: Lothringen ), originally Upper Lorraine, was a duchy now included in the larger present-day region of Lorraine in northeastern France. Its capital was Nancy. It was founded in 959 following th ...

. His father was the

reign A reign is the period of a person's or dynasty's occupation of the office of monarch of a nation (e.g., Saudi Arabia, List of Belgian monarchs, Belgium, Co-prince of Andorra, Andorra), of a people (e.g., List of Frankish kings, the Franks, List of ...

ing

Duke of Lorraine The rulers of Lorraine have held different posts under different governments over different regions, since its creation as the kingdom of Lotharingia by the Treaty of Prüm, in 855. The first rulers of the newly established region were kings of ...

and his mother a member of the House of Bourbon, then ruling the

Kingdom of France The Kingdom of France ( fro, Reaume de France; frm, Royaulme de France; french: link=yes, Royaume de France) is the historiographical name or umbrella term given to various political entities of France in the medieval and early modern period ...

. He became the ''

Hereditary Prince A crown prince or hereditary prince is the heir apparent to the throne in a royal or imperial monarchy. The female form of the title is crown princess, which may refer either to an heiress apparent or, especially in earlier times, to the wife ...

'' at his birth in 1704, but died of

smallpox Smallpox was an infectious disease caused by variola virus (often called smallpox virus) which belongs to the genus Orthopoxvirus. The last naturally occurring case was diagnosed in October 1977, and the World Health Organization (WHO) c ...

in 1711 at the age of seven, unmarried and without descendants.

Biography

He was born at the

Château de Lunéville The Château de Lunéville, which had belonged to the Dukes of Lorraine since the thirteenth century, was rebuilt as “the Versailles of Lorraine” by Duke Léopold from 1703 to 1723, from designs of Pierre Bourdict and Nicolas Dorbay and then ...

to Léopold, Duke of Lorraine and his wife

Élisabeth Charlotte d'Orléans Élisabeth Charlotte d'Orléans (13 September 1676 – 23 December 1744) was a ''petite-fille de France'', and Duchess of Lorraine and Bar by marriage to Leopold, Duke of Lorraine. She was regent of Lorraine and Bar during the minority (1729– ...

. 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 Léopold, Duke of Bar (26 August 16992 April 1700) died aged eight months; his younger brother Léopold Clément Charles (25 April 17074 June 1723) died aged sixteen and his younger brother François Etienne/Stephen lived to adulthood, became the

and also, by union, became Holy Roman Emperor and founded the

House of Habsburg-Lorraine The House of Habsburg-Lorraine (german: Haus Habsburg-Lothringen) originated from the marriage in 1736 of Francis III, Duke of Lorraine and Bar, and Maria Theresa of Austria, later successively Queen of Bohemia, Queen of Hungary, Queen of C ...

. Soon after his birth, on 24 June 1704, the young prince was baptised as a

Roman Catholic Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy * Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD * Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *'' Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a let ...

at the

. He did not see the deaths of two of his siblings: Louis, Duke of Bar (26 August 16992 April 1700) and Princess Louise Christine (13 November 170118 November 1701) both died before reaching the age of one. By the time of his birth, however, two sisters had survived. An epidemic of

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 Élisabeth Charlotte of Lorraine Élisabeth Charlotte Gabrièle of Lorraine (21 October 1700 – 4 May 1711) was a Princess of Lorraine. She died of smallpox aged 10. She was the Titular Abbess of Remiremont. Biography Élisabeth Charlotte Gabrièle de Lorraine was born at ...

, Louis' older sister, contracted smallpox and died on 4 May. Before this, she passed the disease on to Louis and Princess Marie Gabrièle Charlotte. Louis died on 10 May and Marie Gabrièle Charlotte died the very next day. They were both buried in the ducal crypt at the Église Saint-François-des-Cordeliers. At Louis' death, his younger brother Léopold Clement Charles became Hereditary Prince, but he, too died of smallpox in 1723, at the age of sixteen.

Ancestry

References and notes

, - {{DEFAULTSORT:Louis of Lorraine House of Lorraine 1704 births 1711 deaths Heirs apparent who never acceded Deaths from smallpox 18th-century French people People from Lunéville Hereditary Princes of Lorraine Royalty who died as children