She recovered from a near fatal illness at the age of six; her father personally nursed her day and night in order to save her life.

[2] Her paternal grandmother, Elizabeth Charlotte of the Palatinate, wrote in her memoirs that from a very early age, Louise Élisabeth: ... had entirely her own way, so that it is not surprising she should be like a headstrong horse.

At the age of ten, Louise Élisabeth caught smallpox at Saint-Cloud and her grandmother wrote in her memoirs that Mademoiselle d'Orléans was presumed dead for over six hours.

[3] It was decided, with the help of Marie Adélaïde, Duchess of Burgundy, that Louise Élisabeth would marry Charles, Duke of Berry, the youngest son of the Grand Dauphin.

[citation needed] On 5 May 1714, her husband died from internal injuries sustained in a hunting accident, whereupon Louise Élisabeth became the Dowager Duchess of Berry.

King Louis XIV had died on 1 September and Louise Élisabeth, officially in mourning, promised she would not attend any shows for six months, but she soon openly turned into a "merry widow".

Dangeau noted in his diary dated Saturday, 4 January 1716: "There was ball in the evening in the hall of the Opera, the Duchess of Berry and many other princesses were there masked."

This clandestine confinement is reported in the Gazette de la Régence on 6 February 1716:[5] "They say the Duchess of Berry gave birth to a daughter who lived only three days.

According to the Gazette de la Régence, when the Duchess of Berry received the Russian emperor at the Luxembourg, she appeared at the reception "stout as a tower" ("puisssante comme une tour"),[7] a rare idiom implying she was big with a child.

It is then during May 1717 that Voltaire got arrested after saying to a police informer that the daughter of the Regent was a whore, adding that she had retired for six months at La Muette to give birth.

The Gazette de la Régence mentions that her prolonged stay there and also the fact she had given up hunting and horse-riding had given rise to salacious gossip.

[10] The "Gazette" reports by the end of July[11] that Madame de Berry was rumored to be in critical condition as she was finally delivered of this new fruit of her amours.

[12] As in 1716, this clandestine birth was an open secret and satirical songwriters mocked the loose morality of the princess who always armed with a large c..k, gets f....d from both front and behind.

Voltaire had been sent to the Bastille in May 1717 after suggesting in presence of a police informer that the Duchess of Berry was expecting a child conceived by her own father.

The young Princess was rumored to be expecting again and her condition, which she could not fully conceal, inspired the satirists' malicious comments that spectators would not only see Oedipus (the Regent) and Jocaste (Berry) but also detect the presence of Eteocles.

[17] On 11 February 1719, the Duchess of Berry attended another performance of Oedipus played for her nephew Louis XV at the Louvre.

As with her previous pregnancies, she had put on enormous weight during gestation and her loose fitting gown failed to hide her advanced condition.

The room was very crowded and hot; the Duchess of Berry felt unwell and fainted when some allusion made in the play to Jocasta's incestuous pregnancy was loudly applauded by the public.

The incident instantly awakened the jubilation of scandalmongers who expected the Duchess of Berry (Jocasta) to go into labor and give birth to Eteocles in the middle of the performance.

According to Saint-Simon the father was her lieutenant of the guards, Sicaire Antonin Armand Auguste Nicolas d'Aydie, the Chevalier de Rion.

The curé of Saint-Sulpice Paris church, Jean-Baptiste Languet de Gergy refused to give her the absolution or to let anyone else administer her the sacraments unless she would expel her paramour from the palace.

According to Saint-Simon, the Duchess of Berry secretly married Rion a few days later hoping thereby to lessen the public scandal caused by her confinement and the refusal of the church to administer her the sacraments.