Élisabeth Charlotte d'Orléans

Élisabeth Charlotte d'Orléans (13 September 1676 – 23 December 1744) was a niece of Louis XIV and wife of Leopold, Duke of Lorraine. She was later regent of Lorraine. As a widow she was created Princess of Commercy. Among her children was Francis I, Holy Roman Emperor, father of Marie Antoinette. She also had much input in the construction of the "Château de Lunéville". She also introduced the future architect "Germain Boffrand" to the royal courts in 1711. 
Family.
Élisabeth Charlotte was born at the Château de Saint-Cloud the daughter of Philippe, Duke of Orléans and of his second wife, Elizabeth Charlotte of the Palatinate. Her father was the only sibling of King Louis XIV of France.
She was entitled to have the style of "Her Royal Highness". At birth, she was given the honorary style "Mademoiselle de Chartres". After the marriage of her two older half-sisters, Marie Louise and Anne Marie born of the first marriage of their father to Henrietta of England, she was known as "Madame Royale", according to her status as the highest-ranking unmarried princess in France.
Marriage.
There were plans for her to marry Joseph Clemens of Bavaria (Élisabeth Charlotte herself refused), William III of England, Holy Roman Emperor Joseph I, Joseph was suggested by Pope Innocent XII himself, as well as her widowed first cousin Louis, Grand Dauphin. Another was Louis Auguste de Bourbon, Duke of Maine, eldest son of Louis XIV and Madame de Montespan.
Élisabeth Charlotte was finally married on 13 October 1698 at the Palace of Fontainebleau to Leopold, Duke of Lorraine, son of Charles V, Duke of Lorraine, and of the Archduchess Eleonora of Austria. The marriage was the result of the Treaty of Ryswick, one of its conditions being that the Duchy of Lorraine, which had been for many years in the possession of France, be restored to Leopold, a son of Charles V, Duke of Lorraine. Thus, Élisabeth Charlotte was but an instrument to cement the peace treaty. The House of Lorraine received a dowry of 900,000 Livres. 
To everyone surprise, what had been expected to be an unhappy union turned out to be a marriage of love and happiness. With the birth of her children, Élisabeth Charlotte showed great maternal instinct and a naturally caring character. The marriage produced thirteen children, of which five survived into adulthood. Three of them died within a week in May 1711 due to a smallpox outbreak at the Château de Lunéville, the country seat of the Duke's of Lorraine.
Regent of Lorraine.
Her husband died in 1729, leaving his wife Regent of Lorraine for their son, Francis Stephen of Lorraine. After being educated in Vienna, Francis Stephen returned to Lorraine in 1737, ending his mother's tenure as regent.
Élisabeth Charlotte tried to engage her youngest child Anne Charlotte to King Louis XV; this project failed due to the intrigues of Duke of Bourbon; Élisabeth Charlotte then tried to arrange the marriage of Anne Charlotte to her first cousin Louis d'Orléans, Duke of Orléans, who had been recently widowed; Louis d'Orléans refused. 
Later years.
Unable to prevent her son from giving up the duchy of Lorraine to Stanisław Leszczyński when he married the Habsburg heiress, Maria Theresa of Austria, Élisabeth Charlotte moved into the "Château d’Haroué" in nearby Commercy, which was turned into a sovereign principality for her to enjoy during her dowager years. 
Élisabeth Charlotte died of a stroke, on 23 December 1744, one week after her daughter-in-law and grandchild, at the age of sixty-eight. She was the last of her siblings to die and had outlived ten of her thirteen children. Nine months after her death, her son Francis Stephen became Holy Roman Emperor.
She was buried in the funerary chapel of the Dukes of Lorraine in the "Saint-François-des-Cordeliers" church in Nancy.