Duke, Philanthropist. Louis Jean Marie de Bourbon, son of Louis Alexandre de Bourbon and his wife Marie Victoire de Noailles, was born at the Château de Rambouillet. His father was the legitimized son of King Louis XIV and his mistress Madame de Montespan. At birth, he received the title of Duke of Penthièvre. His mother acted as a surrogate parent to Louis XV, who had been orphaned. The duke was close, therefore, to the young king, who was his godfather. Louis Jean's father died in 1737, and at that time he received the titles of Admiral of France, Grand Master of France, Grand Huntsman of France, Marshal of France, and Governor of Brittany. He was barely twelve years old. Louis XV conferred upon him the Ordre de la Toison d'or in 1740 and the Order of the Holy Spirit in 1742. The duke served in military. As one of the wealthiest men in Europe, Louis Jean was considered to be an excellent candidate for a match. In 1744, he married Princess Maria Teresa Felicitas d'Este of Modena, daughter of Francesco III d'Este and Charlotte Aglaé d'Orléans. There were seven children from this marriage, only two of whom survived to adulthood. His wife died in childbirth in 1754. The widower, devastated over the loss of his wife, never remarried. Rather, he devoted much of the remainder of his life to charitable acts. He moved to the Chateau de Bizy in Vernon, Normandy in 1791. His daughter joined him after leaving her husband. Due to his philanthropy, the duke was never personally injured during the Revolution, although other family members were not spared. In 1783, the Duke sold the Château of Rambouillet to King Louis XVI. He transferred from Saint-Lubin in Rambouillet the nine bodies of his deceased family members (parents, wife, and six of his children) to the Collégiale Saint-Étienne de Dreux. Ten years later, he was buried there himself. However, just eight months later, the site was desecrated and all ten bodies thrown in a mass grave in Chanoines cemetery. His daughter Louise Marie Adélaïde de Bourbon had a new chapel built on that site in 1816. Fourteen years later, her son Louis-Philippe I, King of the French, upgraded the chapel and renamed it Chapelle Royale de Dreux. In Paris, a street near the Avenue des Champs Élysées is named for the duke.