On 1 September 1715, Louis XIV died and was succeeded by his great-grandson Louis, Duke of Anjou as
Louis XV. The little boy was the grandson of du Maine's late half-brother
Louis, Grand Dauphin. The old king's last will and testament gave the regency to both his nephew and son-in-law the duc d'Orléans and the 45 year old duc du Maine. However, the next day, the duc d'Orléans ensured the annulment of Louis XIV's will in the Parlement of Paris. Displeased with Orléans' actions, Louis-Auguste, pressured by his ambitious wife, joined in the
Cellamare Conspiracy in the hope of transferring the regency to the young King
Philip V of Spain, who was the uncle of the boy king Louis XV and a half nephew of du Maine. The plot was named after
Antonio del Giudice, Prince di Cellamare, the Spanish ambassador to the French court. After the conspiracy was discovered, du Maine was arrested and imprisoned in the fortress of
Doullens, and his wife was exiled to
Dijon. In 1720, the couple was pardoned by the Council of the Regent and was allowed to return to court. After their release from imprisonment in 1720, Louise Bénédicte made an effort to reconcile with her husband, whom she had talked into joining the plot. She remarked:
I owe a full and rightful explanation to M. le Duc du Maine which is more precious to me than my own liberty or life After their release, Louis-Auguste and his wife led a more subdued, compatible life at the
Château de Sceaux, bought by Louis XIV for du Maine, where his wife created a little court attended by popular literary figures of the day. They also had a new home in Paris. On 27 December 1718, before their exile, he and his wife had purchased an unfinished house in Paris on the rue de Bourbon (now rue de Lille) from his wife's sister,
Marie Thérèse de Bourbon. It was originally designed by the architect
Robert de Cotte, but they had hired a new architect, , to enlarge and redesign it. It was completed before their return from exile and became known as the
Hôtel du Maine (destroyed 1838). Louise Bénédicte tried on several occasions to marry off their children. First, she tried to marry their son and main heir,
Louis Auguste de Bourbon, to his first cousin
Charlotte Aglaé, Mademoiselle de Valois, daughter of du Maine's younger sister,
Françoise-Marie de Bourbon. The young
Mademoiselle de Valois refused, however. Later, Louise-Bénédicte tried to marry off
Mademoiselle du Maine twice. First, she offered her daughter's hand to the duc de Guise, but that marriage never materialised. She then offered the girl to the widower,
Jacques I, Prince of Monaco, who was often at Versailles. Despite offering a large dowry to each man, neither accepted.
Mademoiselle du Maine eventually died in 1743, alone and single, at the age of thirty-five. She was buried at the Église at Sceaux. It was at Sceaux that du Maine died on 14 May 1736 at the age of sixty-six, during the reign of his grandnephew Louis XV, by now a young man of twenty-six years. The
House of Bourbon-Maine became extinct at the death of his eldest son, the
prince de Dombes, in 1775. The large du Maine fortune was inherited by their cousin, the
duc de Penthièvre, the only son of du Maine's younger brother,
Louis Alexandre, Count of Toulouse. ==Honours==