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Why was Voltaire imprisoned in the Bastille in 1717?

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Life-sized plaster sculpture Seated Voltaire by Jean-Antoine Houdon shows Voltaire draped in a robe, seated with a thoughtful expression and a ribbon crown, against a dark background. — Voltaire *Voltaire*, plaster sculpture by Jean-Antoine Houdon; in the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, California.

Voltaire was imprisoned in the Bastille in 1717 because he dared to mock the duc d’Orléans, who was serving as the regent of France at the time. Following this act of defiance, he was initially banished from Paris before being incarcerated for nearly a year.1