yield precedence to a sister seven years her junior. This matter of etiquette, so important at Versailles, led to friction between the two.

The situation of rank at Versailles grew more irritating to Marie Anne in 1692. In that year, Louise Françoise's full sister, Françoise Marie de Bourbon married the Duke of Chartres, Philippe d'Orléans, a petit-fils de France (grandson of France) by birth and heir to the House of Orléans. On her marriage, Françoise Marie assumed the rank of petite-fille de France, giving her precedence over both Marie Anne and Louise Françoise. In addition, she was given a dowry of 2 million livres, a much higher amount than what either of her sisters had received on her marriage. These developments greatly irritated both Marie Anne and Louise Françoisewho were openly hostile to their younger sister who deliberately flaunted her position much to their annoyance.

In order to differentiate between them at court after the death of the various Princes of Conti, their widows were given the name of Douairière (dowager) and a number corresponding to the time of their widowhood, their full style thus being Madame la Princesse de Conti 'number' Douairière. Between 1727 and 1732, there were three widowed Princesses de Conti:

Marie Anne de Bourbon (1666–1739), the illegitimate daughter of Louis XIV and Louise de La Vallière; the wife of Louis Armand I de Bourbon, prince de Conti, became Madame la Princesse de Conti Première Douairière as she was the first to be widowed in 1685. The title went to husband's younger brother, François Louis,