1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Orleans, Louis, Duke of (1372-1407)

ORLEANS, LOUIS, Duke of (1372–1407), younger son of the French king, Charles V., was born on the 13th of March 1372. Having been made count of Valois and of Beaumont-sur-Oise, and then duke of Touraine, he received the duchy of Orleans from his brother Charles VI. in 1392, three years after his marriage with Valentina (d. 1408), daughter of Gian Galeazzo Visconti, duke of Milan. This lady brought the county of Asti to her husband; but more important was her claim upon Milan, which she transmitted to her descendants, and which furnished Louis XII. and Francis I. with a pretext for interference in northern Italy. When Charles VI. became insane in 1392, Orleans placed himself in opposition to his uncle Philip II., duke of Burgundy, who was conducting the government; and this quarrel was not only the dominating factor in the affairs of France, but extended beyond the borders of that country. Continued after Philip’s death in 1404 with his son and successor, John the Fearless, it culminated in the murder of Orleans by one of John’s partisans on the 23rd of November 1407. The duke, who was an accomplished and generous prince, was suspected of immoral relations with several ladies of the royal house, among them Isabella of Bavaria, the queen of Charles VI. He had eight children by Valentina Visconti, including his successor, Charles of Orleans, the poet, and one of his natural sons was the famous bastard of Orleans, John, count of Dunois.

See E. Jarry, La Vie politique de Louis d’Orléans (Paris, 1889).