| Louis Joseph de Bourbon | |
|---|---|
| Prince of Condé Grand Master of France | |
 Standing portrait byJean-Marc Nattier, circa 1753 | |
| Prince of Condé | |
| Tenure | 27 January 1740 – 13 May 1818 |
| Predecessor | Louis Henri I |
| Successor | Louis Henri II |
| Born | (1736-08-09)9 August 1736 Hôtel de Condé,Paris,Kingdom of France |
| Died | 13 May 1818(1818-05-13) (aged 81) Palais Bourbon, Paris,France |
| Burial | |
| Spouse | |
| Issue Detail | |
| House | Bourbon-Condé |
| Father | Louis Henri I, Prince of Condé |
| Mother | Caroline of Hesse-Rotenburg |
| Signature | _1736-1818%2c_Prince_of_Cond%25C3%25A9_signature.jpg) |
Louis Joseph de Bourbon (9 August 1736 – 13 May 1818) wasPrince of Condé from 1740 to his death. A member of theHouse of Bourbon, he held the prestigious rank ofPrince du Sang.
During the French revolution, Louis was a supporter of the monarchy.
Born on 9 August 1736 atChantilly,[1] Louis Joseph was the only son ofLouis Henri I, Prince of Condé (1692–1740) andLandgravine Caroline of Hesse-Rotenburg (1714–41). As acadet of the reigningHouse of Bourbon, he was aprince du sang. His father Louis Henri, was the eldest son ofLouis de Bourbon, Prince of Condé (known asMonsieur le Duc) and his wifeLouise Françoise de Bourbon, legitimated daughter ofLouis XIV andFrançoise-Athénaïs de Rochechouart, Marquise de Montespan.
During his father's lifetime, the infant Louis Joseph was known as the Duke of Enghien,(duc d'Enghien). At the age of four, following his father's death in 1740, and his mother's death in 1741,[1] he was placed under the care of his paternal uncle,Louis, Count of Clermont, his father's youngest brother.
Louis Joseph had an older half sister, Henriette de Bourbon,Mademoiselle de Verneuil (1725–1780).
Through his mother, he was a first cousin of KingVictor Amadeus III of Sardinia and ofMarie Thérèse of Savoy, Princess de Lamballe. His paternal cousins includedLouise Henriette de Bourbon, Duchess of Orléans (mother ofPhilippe Égalité), the sister ofLouis François de Bourbon, Prince of Conti, head of anothercadet branch of the royal dynasty.Viktoria of Hesse-Rotenburg, thePrincess of Soubise, was another first cousin.
In 1753, Louis Joseph marriedCharlotte de Rohan, the daughter of the French kingLouis XV's friend,Charles de Rohan, Prince of Soubise. Charlotte's mother,Anne Marie Louise de La Tour d'Auvergne, was a daughter ofEmmanuel Théodose de La Tour d'Auvergne, the reigningDuke of Bouillon. The couple were married atVersailles on 3 May 1753.
Together, they had three children: a daughter, Marie de Bourbon, who died young; an only son,Louis Henri de Bourbon, who would later become the last Prince of Condé; and a daughter,Louise Adélaïde de Bourbon. In 1770, his son marriedBathilde d'Orléans, daughter ofLouis Philippe I, Duke of Orléans, and sister of PhilippeÉgalité. The marriage was supposed to heal relations between the Condé and Orléans branches of the royal family.[2]
Louis Joseph's wife Charlotte died in 1760, and as time passed, his relationship withMaria Caterina Brignole, Princess of Monaco, became serious. Maria was the daughter ofGiuseppe Brignole, Marquis of Groppoli and Maria Anna Balbi. By 1769, Maria had begun to set up a home in theHôtel de Lassay, an annex of the Prince of Condé's primary residence, thePalais Bourbon.[3] In 1770, her jealous husband,Honoré III, Prince of Monaco, ordered the borders of Monaco closed in an attempt to prevent her from escaping. She managed, nonetheless, to cross into France and found her way toLe Mans, southwest of Paris, where she took refuge in a convent. Eventually, she was able to return to Paris.
Due to Maria Caterina's illicit position as the Prince of Condé's mistress, the new French queen, 18-year-oldMarie Antoinette (wife of KingLouis XVI), treated her poorly at court, which consequently offended Louis Joseph.[citation needed] In about 1774, Louis Joseph and his mistress Maria began the construction of theHôtel de Monaco, which was to be her permanent home in Paris. It was in therue Saint-Dominique, near the Palais Bourbon, and was completed in 1777.[3] Subsequently, Prince Honoré of Monaco finally realized his relationship with Maria Caterina was completely finished and thereupon turned his attention to his own love affairs. Maria Caterina later wrote to her husband that their marriage could be summarised in three words: greed, bravery, and jealousy.[citation needed]
During both the reigns ofKing Louis XV and his grandson,King Louis XVI, Louis Joseph held the position ofGrand Maître de France in the King's royal household, theMaison du Roi. Obtaining the rank of general, he fought in theSeven Years' War with some distinction, serving alongside his father-in-law, the Prince of Soubise. He was also Governor ofBurgundy.
Furthermore, the Prince was the leader of the Condé army ofémigrés. He used her great fortune to help finance the exiled French community'sresistance movement.
In 1765, named the heir of his paternal aunt,Élisabeth Alexandrine de Bourbon, Louis Joseph received generous pensions which Élisabeth Alexandrine had in turn acquired from her cousin,Louise-Françoise de Bourbon. In that same year, Louis Joseph repurchased thePalais Bourbon, previously owned by his family, from King Louis XV, and decided to rebuild it from a country house into a monumental palace, in the newClassical Revival style. With this in mind, he purchased the neighboringHôtel de Lassay in 1768, planning to make the two buildings into one. However, the palace was only finished at the end of the 1780s, when theFrench Revolution later swept away the old regime. He then moved from theHôtel de Condé,[4] where he was born, to the Palais Bourbon. The former residence was later sold to King Louis XV in 1770, becoming the subsequent site of theOdéon Theatre. Among other estates, Louis Joseph also inherited the famousChâteau de Chantilly, the main seat of the Condé line. At Chantilly, the prince conducted a number of improvements and embellishments in the years before the French Revolution. He had theChâteau d'Enghien built on the grounds of the estate to house guests when the prince entertained at Chantilly. It was constructed in 1769 by the architect, Jean François Leroy, and was later renamed theChâteau d'Enghien in honour of his grandson,Louis Antoine de Bourbon, Duke of Enghien,[5] who was born at Chantilly in 1772. He also commissioned a largegarden in the English style as well as anhameau, much like the contemporary one thatQueen Marie Antoinette had created atVersailles and at thePetit Trianon château.
Louis Joseph lived with his mistress Maria in France until the French Revolution, when the couple left for Germany and then Great Britain. In 1792, he wrote theBrunswick Manifesto, which further spurred French people's revolutionary fervor. In 1795, Prince Honoré of Monaco died, and on 24 October 1798, the Prince of Condé and Maria were married in London.[6][7] The marriage was kept secret for a decade, the couple reportedly becoming openly known as husband and wife only after 26 December 1808.[6]
During the French Revolution, Louis Joseph was a dedicated supporter of the monarchy and one of the principal leaders of the counter-revolutionary movement. After thestorming of the Bastille in 1789, he fled France with his son and grandson, before theReign of Terror which arrested, tried and guillotined most of the Bourbons still living in France:Louis XVI,Marie Antoinette and theDuke of Orleans (Philippe Égalité) were executed in 1793, and the king's sister,Madame Élisabeth, was beheaded in 1794.
Louis Joseph established himself atCoblenz in 1791, where he helped to organize and lead a large counter-revolutionary army ofémigrés. In addition to containing the prince's grandson,Louis-Antoine-Henri de Bourbon-Condé, duc d'Enghien, and the two sons of his cousin, the late king's brother, thecomte d'Artois, the corps included many young aristocrats who eventually became leaders during theBourbon Restoration years later. This group also includedArmand-Emmanuel du Plessis, Duc de Richelieu,Pierre Louis Jean Casimir de Blacas andFrançois-René de Chateaubriand. In 1792, he staid with his entourage atSchloss Dürkheim.
TheArmy of Condé initially fought in conjunction with the Austrians. Later, due to differences with the Austrian plan of attack, however, the Prince de Condé entered with his corps into English pay in 1795. In 1796, the army fought inSwabia. In 1797,Austria signed theTreaty of Campo Formio with theFirst French Republic, formally ending its hostilities against the French. With the loss of its closest allies, the army transferred into the service of the Russian tsar,Paul I and was stationed inPoland, returning in 1799 to the Rhine underAlexander Suvorov. In 1800 whenRussia left the Allied coalition, the army re-entered English service and fought inBavaria.
The army was disbanded in 1801 without having achieved its principal ambition, restoring Bourbon rule in France. After the dissolution of the corps, the prince spent his exile in England, where he lived with his second wife,Maria Caterina Brignole, the divorced wife ofHonoré III, Prince of Monaco, whom he had married in 1798. She died in 1813.
With the defeat ofNapoleon, Louis Joseph returned to Paris, where he resumed his courtly duties asgrand maître in the royal household ofLouis XVIII. He died in 1818 and was succeeded by his son,Louis Henri. His daughter,Louise Adélaïde de Bourbon, who was a nun and had become the abbess ofRemiremont Abbey, survived until 1824. He was buried at theBasilica of St Denis.
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Media related toLouis Joseph, Prince of Condé at Wikimedia Commons
Louis Joseph, Prince of Condé Cadet branch of theHouse of Bourbon Born: 9 August 1736 Died: 13 May 1818 | ||
| French nobility | ||
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| Preceded by | Prince of Condé 27 January 1740 – 13 May 1818 | Succeeded by |
Generations are numbered by descent fromCharles de Bourbon, Duke of Vendôme | ||
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*died without issue | ||
