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

heir apparent An heir apparent is a person who is first in the order of succession and cannot be displaced from inheriting by the birth of another person. A person who is first in the current order of succession but could be displaced by the birth of a more e ...

to the throne of the sovereign

Duchy of Lorraine The Duchy of Lorraine was a principality of the Holy Roman Empire which existed from the 10th century until 1766 when it was annexed by the kingdom of France. It gave its name to the larger present-day region of Lorraine in northeastern France ...

. 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., King of Saudi Arabia, Saudi Arabia, List of Belgian monarchs, Belgium, Co-princes of Andorra, Andorra), of a people (e.g., List of Frankish kin ...

ing

Duke of Lorraine The kings and dukes 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 ...

and his mother a member of the

House of Bourbon The House of Bourbon (, also ; ) is a dynasty that originated in the Kingdom of France as a branch of the Capetian dynasty, the royal House of France. Bourbon kings first ruled France and Kingdom of Navarre, Navarre in the 16th century. A br ...

, then ruling the

Kingdom of France The Kingdom of France is the historiographical name or umbrella term given to various political entities of France in the Middle Ages, medieval and Early modern France, early modern period. It was one of the most powerful states in Europe from th ...

. 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, crown princess, is held by a woman who is heir apparent or is married to the heir apparent. ''Crown prince ...

'' 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 (W ...

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

Biography

He was born at the

Château de Lunéville The Palace of Lunéville ( ) is a residence of the Duke of Lorraine since the 13th century in Lunéville, about 35 kilometers east of Nancy, France, Nancy, capital of Lorraine. The palace is owned by the Department Meurthe-et-Moselle since 2017. ...

to Léopold, Duke of Lorraine and his wife

Élisabeth Charlotte d'Orléans Elizabeth or Elisabeth may refer to: People * Elizabeth (given name), a female given name (including people with that name) * Empress Elisabeth (disambiguation), lists various empresses named ''Elisabeth'' or ''Elizabeth'' * Princess Elizabeth ...

. 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 The Holy Roman Emperor, originally and officially the Emperor of the Romans (disambiguation), Emperor of the Romans (; ) during the Middle Ages, and also known as the Roman-German Emperor since the early modern period (; ), was the ruler and h ...

and founded the

House of Habsburg-Lorraine The House of Habsburg-Lorraine () originated from the marriage in 1736 of Francis I, Holy Roman Emperor, Francis III, Duke of Lorraine and Bar, and Maria Theresa of Habsburg monarchy, Austria, later successively List of Bohemian monarchs, Queen ...

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

Roman Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics worldwide as of 2025. It is among the world's oldest and largest international institut ...

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, 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 in France 18th-century French people People from Lunéville Hereditary princes of Lorraine French royalty who died as children