His father was the reigning Duke of Lorraine and his mother a member of the House of Bourbon, then ruling the Kingdom of France.

He was born at the Château de Lunéville to Léopold, Duke of Lorraine and his wife Élisabeth Charlotte d'Orléans.

Soon after his birth, on 24 June 1704, the young prince was baptised as a Roman Catholic at the Château de Lunéville.

Unfortunately, against all efforts, Princess Élisabeth Charlotte of Lorraine, Louis' older sister, contracted smallpox and died on 4 May.

[1] At Louis' death, his younger brother Léopold Clement Charles became Hereditary Prince, but he, too died of smallpox in 1723, at the age of sixteen.