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Louise Henriette de Bourbon-Conti, (Paris June 20 1726 - Paris February 9, 1759), was a French princess, who by marriage was first the Duchesse de Chartres (1743-1752) and later the Duchesse d'Orléans (1752-1759).
She was a daughter of Louis Armand II de Bourbon, prince de Conti and Louise Élisabeth of Bourbon-Condé. As such, she was a Princesse du Sang. In her youth, she was known at court as Mademoiselle de Conti.
She married a cousin, the Duc de Chartres, on December 17, 1743 . The pious father of the groom, the Duc d'Orléans, had a lot of difficulties in finding a suitable wife for his son, and accepted the not so glorious background of Louise Henriette believing that the girl was a model of Christian virtues, having been raised in a convent. This judgment turned out to be a mistake. Louise Henriette caused a lot of scandal during her marriage.
The unhappy marriage produced three children :
- A girl (1745 - 1745)
- Louis Philippe, Duc de Chartres (1747–1793), who succeeded his father as Duc d'Orléans in 1785. During the French Revolution, he became better known as Philippe-Égalité;
- Bathilde d'Orléans (1750–1822), who married Louis Henry II, Prince of Condé.
Her son, Philippe-Égalité, claimed publicly during the Revolution that his real father wasn't his mother's husband at all, but was instead a coachman at the Palais Royal. This wasn't very probable, considering the striking resemblance between father and son.
Louise Henriette died young in 1759 as a consequence it was said of her debaucheries.
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