Louise Bénédicte Renée de Valois, Comtesse de Valois (circa 1710). A lady of some renown, the Comtesse de Valois, as she referred to herself, was considered attractive, but not beautiful. It was, more so, her wit and scandals that drew men to her.
It was the 8th of May, 1708, when the 46 year old Count of the Palatine, Henry von Pfalz-Simmern, married for love a lady who went by the title the Comtesse de Valois. Louise Bénédicte Renée de Valois, a descendant of an illegitimate child of Charles IX of France, had been raised under the fiction that her great-great-grandmother had been the King's secret wife and that she was a Princess of France by right, if not in truth. Thus, the lady in question chose a suitably royal title and began travelling the globe in 1698, when she was 16 years of age. Louise, somewhat penniless, traveled first with a family friend, Marie Anne de Bourbon, the youngest unmarried daughter of the Prince de Condé. Travelling in preparation of her own marriage to the second son of the Duke of Bavaria, the presence of the entertaining Louise Bénédicte Renée de Valois was in a way a gift from her father, although this is not to say the abusive Prince was simply thinking of his daughter's pleasure. Having made a promise to Louise's mother, Anne Thérése de Valois, that he would provide for her, sending her to another court with a tiny allowance was a way of providing cheaply for a bothersome young girl, particularly one with no prospects.
Anne Thérése de Valois (circa 1690). Married to her first cousin, Nicholas de Valois, in 1680, the Lady Anne Thérése de Valois was a proud, poor woman who was known for her long running debts and close friendship with the Prince of Condé, and might have been his ownly female friend.
The Lady in question had appropriated the title Comtesse de Valois in 1699, when she took the money sent by the Prince of Condé to cover her costs for the next year and a half and travelled to England, to attempt to make some outlandish and profitable marriage with some rich Englishman. However, the Comtesse would be disappointed with the men of England in this respect, except for the personage of the Prince Henry William de Valois, the second son of the Duke of York and Orleans and a young man with a rebellious spirit. Hoping to marry Louise Bénédicte Renée de Valois, the Prince presented her to his parents, after borrowing the majority of his sisters' Margaret and Anne's jewelry to bedeck his hopeful bride. While at first impressed by her story of travelling across the globe to meet their son, it was another former suitor in the form of the Duke of St Albans, a friend of the royal family who had rejected the Comtesse de Valois merely 2 months earlier. Thus, the marriage was denied, even when Louise panicked and announced herself impossibly pregnant with the Prince's child. Having thoroughly embarrased herself in England, the Comtesse returned to her friend's court, enjoying a brief affair with her husband before attempting to marry his brother, a spoilt youth who insulted the Comtesse by calling her a bastard of a bastard that he'd never choose to stand in the same room in if he might have a choice again.
Fully annoyed, she would enjoy the hospitality of the Duc de Croÿ-Solre in Vienna, actually managing to marry his son Francis de Croÿ-Solre in 1703. Unfortunately, the marriage lasted all of three weeks and the Comtesse de Valois was left a childless widow in Vienna. She was initially supported, in style, by her father-in-law, who hoped to marry the Lady to his next son, Anthony de Croÿ-Solre. However, Louise Bénédicte Renée de Valois would instead attempt to elope with Joseph of Austria, the elder, illegitimate brother of her dead husband and the son of the Holy Roman Emperor. However, her luck in Vienna fell through when the young man in question publicly denounced the Comtesse de Valois as a whore at court after spending the night with her. Her father-in-law would defend her honour and found himself in a terrible decision when the Comtesse was found missing in the moring, travelling out back to France.
Returning to France, the Comtesse de Valois returned for a time to her former protector, the Prince de Condé, who with his son, had gone completely insane. Thus, she found herself more in the care Henriette of Salm and her daughter-in-law, Marguerite de Guise. Both women were sympathetic to the Comtesse de Valois, although they never used that title with her. In fact, they attempted to have the young woman marry the Prince of Condé's other surviving son, Gaston de Bourbon. However, Louise Bénédicte Renée de Valois would find the young man, with a humped back and a tendency to laugh at random intervals, disturbing and thus she would leave for the court in 1706. There, she would spend two years flirting and (allegedly) sleeping her way into the Queen's royal attendance, and eventually into the attendance of Charlotte de Valois, the youngest Fille de France. Thus, it was in her attendance that she would meet her husband in January of 1708.
Marie Anne de Bourbon, Duchess of Bavaria (circa 1707). Married young to a young man who unexpectantly rose to his own throne, the Duchess of Bavaria was composed, beautiful, and barren.
Henry von Pfalz-Simmern, Count of the Palatine, would turn 46 in February of that year, and had up until that point remained a firm bachelor. Refusing a English-Valois bride twice, he had hoped to leave his holdings to one of his French nephews, in particular the Comte de Artois, who was his favourite nephew. However, it was the sight of the Comtesse de Valois, that was said to have driven him made with desire. And the Comtesse, having learnt from her mistake with Joseph of Austria, who know how to capitalize off such an opportunity. Establishing herself to him as an almost virginal widow desperate for a strong man, she effectively was betrothed in a month and only waited until May because she had to be sure she was not pregnant by a lover before the wedding. Thus, they were married in May, with the King and Queen themselves in attendance. The Princess Charlotte was said to have given her a diamond as large as a goose's egg as a gift, while the King formally invested her with the title she used and gave the couple some lands in France. Finally, the Comtesse had achieved her fantastic marriage.
Henry von Pfalz-Simmern, Count of the Palatine (circa 1709).
The couple resided in France for a further twelve months, until the new Countess of the Palatine discovered she was pregnant with their first child. Determined to have his child born in Noordeinde Palace as he had been, the Count of the Palatine had his bride brought to The Hague, which she found unappealing. Writing to her dear friend, Marie Anne de Bourbon (the attempt at husband stealing was all but forgotten at this point, although Marie Anne was most definitely not the one to begin this correspondence), she expressed her desire to return to France. Ultimately, she was granted her wish in the cruelest way. Struggling with the labour, the Comtesse de Valois gave birth in February to twin sons, names Louis and Charles. Unfortunately, Louise Bénédicte Renée de Valois was not as lucky as her healthy sons and would die, in her death leaving the Count of the Palatine fully grieved, a state he only lost at his own death in 1717. Her sons would be raised in the French royal household, among the children and grandchildren of the royal family.