her younger sisters Louise Élisabeth and Philippine Élisabeth. In December 1723, while she was away in Italy, her father died. Her younger brother, Louis, succeeded to the Orléans titles. Following her father's death, Charlotte Aglaé and her husband were asked to stay at the prince's villa at Reggio, in a sort of private exile away from the court of Modena. In 1727, her former lover, the Duke of Richelieu, visited her in Modena in disguise, and the two resumed their romantic affair. When this was exposed, her husband allowed her to return to France in temporary disgrace. She returned to Modena later in 1727. The next year, 1728, she and her husband fled to Genoa; five years later in 1733, she returned to France where she found herself unwelcome; her mother, who had never liked her, was cold; her closest friend in the family was her illegitimate half-brother, the chevalier d'Orléans. In 1733, the War of the Polish Succession broke out. Despite her father-in-law declaring himself neutral, the ducal family still found their home being occupied by foreign armies. As a result, the Duke of Modena went to Bologna while his son and Charlotte Aglaé travelled to France where they stayed in Lyons. Her mother, trying to keep her scandalous daughter away from Paris and Versailles, wrote to the Duke of Modena to make sure that Charlotte Aglaé and her husband stayed in Lyons. Her younger brother, Louis, Duke of Orléans, did the same. The next year, after much correspondence on her husband's part with the French court, the two were allowed to go to Paris incognito. They arrived on 12 March 1734. Her arrival at the Palais-Royal was a cold one. She met her mother and brother, neither of whom even bothered to offer her any accommodation or refreshment. Initially, she and her husband lived at the Hôtel de Luynes Rue du Colombier (where her son Benedetto was born), not far from the Abbey of Saint-Germain-des-Prés. Soon after, they moved to the Hôtel de Lyon, in the Rue des Petits-Champs, which was much closer to her brother's residence, the Palais-Royal. Her brother gave her the small sum of 25,000 écus during her stay in Paris, but he refused to help in any other way. In 1735 her husband was recalled to Modena on matters of state. Charlotte Aglaé used her looks to influence her cousin, the young king, to