Philippe II, Duke of Orleans (1674 - 1723). Philippe II, Duke of Orléans, was a member of the Royal Family of France and served as Regent of the Kingdom from 1715 to 1723. Born at his father's palace at Saint-Cloud, he was known from birth under the title of Duke of Chartres. His father was Louis XIV's younger brother Philippe I, Duke of Orléans, his mother was Elizabeth Charlotte of the Palatinate. In 1692, Philippe married his first cousin, Françoise Marie de Bourbon-the youngest legitimised daughter of Philippe's uncle Louis XIV and Madame de Montespan. Named regent of France for Louis XV until Louis attained his majority on 15 February 1723, the period of his de facto rule was known as the Regency. He died at Versailles in 1723. He is also referred to as le Régent. In March 1661, his father married his first cousin Princess Henrietta Anne of England, known as Madame at court. The marriage was stormy; Henrietta was a famed beauty, sometimes depicted as flirtatious by those at the court of Versailles. Nonetheless, the marriage produced three children: Marie Louise d'Orléans, future queen of Spain, who left France in 1679 when Philippe was just five; Philippe Charles, Duke of Valois; and Anne Marie d'Orléans, born at Saint-Cloud in 1669, later queen consort of Victor Amadeus II of Sardinia. Madame Henriette died at Saint-Cloud in 1670; rumors abounded that she had been poisoned by her husband or his long-term lover, the Chevalier de Lorraine; the two would remain together till the death of the Duke of Orléans in 1701. In the following year, the Duke of Orléans wed Princess Elizabeth Charlotte of the Palatinate, only daughter of Charles I Louis, Elector Palatine and Landgravine Charlotte of Hesse-Kassel. The new Duchess of Orléans, who had converted from Protestantism to Catholicism just before entering France, was popular at court upon her arrival in 1671 and quickly became the mother of Alexandre Louis d'Orléans in 1673, another short-lived Duke of Valois. The next year, the duchess gave birth to another son, Philippe Charles d'Orléans. Philippe Charles d'Orléans was born at the Château de Saint-Cloud, some ten kilometers west of Paris. As the grandson of King Louis XIII of France, Philippe was a petit-fils de France. This entitled him to the style of Royal Highness from birth, as well as the right to be seated in an armchair in the king's presence. At his birth, he was titled Duke of Chartres and was formally addressed as Monseigneur le duc de Chartres. As the second living son of his parents, his birth was not greeted with the enthusiasm the Duke of Valois had received in 1673. Philippe was born fourth in line to the throne, coming after Louis, Dauphin of France, his own father, and his older brother. When Philippe was born, his uncle Louis XIV was at the height of his power. In 1676, the Duke of Valois died at the Palais-Royal in Paris, making Philippe the new heir to the House of Orléans; the future heirs of the Duke of Orléans would be known as the Duke of Chartres for the next century. His distraught mother was pregnant at the time with Élisabeth Charlotte d'Orléans, future Duchess and regent of Lorraine. Élisabeth Charlotte and Philippe would always remain close. The Duke of Chartres grew up at his father's private court held at Saint-Cloud, and in Paris at the Palais-Royal, the Parisian residence of the Orléans family until the arrest of Philippe Égalité in April 1793 during the French Revolution. The Palais-Royal was frequented by, among others, Marie Anne Mancini, Duchess of Bouillon, part of Philippe's father's libertine circle. A program of how best to educate a prince was drawn up exclusively for him by Guillaume Dubois, his preceptor. Dubois had entered Philippe's household in 1683 as his under-preceptor. Philippe's education was carried out by the respected instructor Nicholas-François Parisot de Saint-Laurent until 1687. Each course of study taught the duc de Chartres the principles or elements of a subject. Some of the best historians, genealogists, scientists and artists in the kingdom participated in this educational experiment, which started around 1689. For example, Philippe learned physics and mathematics from Joseph Sauveur; and from Étienne Loulié he learned musical notation, elementary musical theory, plus the basics of playing the viol and the recorder. Chartres was reared alongside Louis de Rouvroy, duc de Saint-Simon, later famous for his memoirs and defense of the rights of the peerage of France; Saint-Simon often accompanied the duke, and his wife was later a lady-in-waiting to Philippe's daughter, Louise Élisabeth d'Orléans, duchesse de Berry.