Marie de Nemours, originally known as Marie d'Orléans-Longueville (1625–1707), was the reigning Princess of Neuchâtel from 1694 to 1707. She was the daughter of Henri II d'Orléans, duc de Longueville and his first wife, Louise de Bourbon. After the death of her brother Jean Louis Charles d'Orléans, Duke of Longueville in 1694 she succeeded him as sovereign Princess of Neuchâtel, although she remained a prominent member of the French royal court. From her reign to her death she was the last living member of the House of Valois through a cadet line.
Biography
Descended from Jean d'Orléans, illegitimate son of Louis I, Duke of Orléans, she was known as Mademoiselle de Longueville prior to her marriage.
By her marriage with Henri of Savoy, she became Duchess of Nemours. The couple were married on 22 May 1657 at Trie. The dukes of Nemours were descendants of the Dukes of Savoy having settled in France in the sixteenth century, where they ranked as princes étrangers.
She left some interesting memoirs, published by C. B. Petitot in the Collection complete des memoires (1819–1829).[2]
She was the muse for Jean Loret's Muse historique (1650, 1660, 1665), a collection of weekly gazette burlesque reporting on the news of Paris society and the court of Louis XIV in the form of letters to Marie d'Orléans-Longueville which are considered an early example of French journalism.
Her childless death in 1707, without close relatives, opened a conflict about her vast inheritance. For example, see Duke of Estouteville.
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