| Louise Françoise | |
|---|---|
| Princess of Condé Duchess of Bourbon Légitimée de France | |
 Portrait byPierre Gobert, ca. 1692 | |
| Born | (1673-06-01)1 June 1673 Tournai,France |
| Died | 16 June 1743(1743-06-16) (aged 70) Palais Bourbon,Paris, France |
| Burial | Carmel du faubourg Saint-Jacques, Paris, France |
| Spouse | |
| Issue Detail |
|
| House | Bourbon |
| Father | Louis XIV of France |
| Mother | Françoise-Athénaïs, Marquise de Montespan |
| Signature | .jpg) |
Louise Françoise, Duchess of Bourbon (French pronunciation:[lwizfʁɑ̃swaz]; 1 June 1673 – 16 June 1743) was the eldest surviving legitimised[1] daughter ofLouis XIV of France and hismaîtresse-en-titreFrançoise-Athénaïs, Marquise de Montespan. She was said to have been named after hergodmother,Louise de La Vallière,[2] the woman her mother had replaced as the King's mistress. Before her marriage, she was known at court as Mademoiselle de Nantes.
Married at the age of 11, Louise Françoise became known asMadame la Duchesse, a style she kept as a widow. She wasDuchess of Bourbon[3] andPrincess of Condé by marriage. She was later a leading member of thecabale de Meudon,[4] a group centered on her half-brotherLouis, Grand Dauphin. While her sonLouis Henri, Duke of Bourbon, wasPrime Minister of France, she tried to further her political influence, but to little avail.
Considered attractive, Louise Françoise had a turbulent love life and was frequently part of scandals during her father's reign. Later in life, she built thePalais Bourbon in Paris, the present seat of theNational Assembly, with the fortune she amassed having invested greatly withJohn Law.
Louise Françoise was born inTournai on 1 June 1673 while her parents, KingLouis XIV of France andFrançoise-Athénaïs de Rochechouart were on a military tour; her maternal aunt, theMarquise de Thianges, was there also. After returning from Tournai, her parents placed her and her older siblings in the care of one of her mother's acquaintances, the widowedMadame Scarron.
On 19 December 1673, Louis XIVlegitimised the children he had had with his mistress in a legitimisation process that was recognised with letters patent from theParlement of Paris. At the time of their legitimisation, her eldest brother,Louis Auguste de Bourbon, received the title ofDuke of Maine; her next eldest brother,Louis-César de Bourbon, became theCount of Vexin, while Louise Françoise received the courtesy title of Mademoiselle de Nantes. Her parents had nicknamed herPoupotte after her doll-like appearance.[5]
In the year after her birth, another sibling joined Louis-Auguste, Louis-César, and Louise Françoise at their residence in Paris. The futureMademoiselle de Tours had been born at theChâteau de Saint-Germain-en-Laye in November 1674. The young Mademoiselle de Tours was legitimised in 1676 and would become a great friend of Louise Françoise.[5] When she died in 1681, Louise Françoise was deeply affected.
After the death of Mademoiselle de Tours, Madame de Montespan wrote to theDuc du Maine:
I do not speak to you of my grief, you are naturally too good not to have experienced it for yourself. As for Mademoiselle de Nantes, she has felt it as deeply as if she were twenty and has received the visits of theQueen andMadame la Dauphine.[6]
The Mesdemoiselles of Nantes and of Tours had been raised together in a private house on the Rue de Vaugirard in Paris, where the King's illegitimate children with Madame de Montespan had been hidden away from the prying eyes of the court by their parents.[5] Louise Françoise would never be close to either her older half-sister,Marie Anne de Bourbon, or younger full sister,Marie Françoise de Bourbon, as the three sisters were intensely jealous of each other. Louise Françoise and Marie Françoise were especially competitive, despising any increase in status or rank that the other, or any of her children, might achieve. Louise Françoise was, however, close to her half-brotherLouis, Grand Dauphin.
_by_Fran%25C3%25A7ois_de_Troy_02.jpg)
.jpg)
Having inherited her parents' passion for music and dance, Louise Françoise became a good dancer. When she was nine, she played Youth in a ballet dedicated to theDauphine of France.[7] She also inherited her mother's sharp and caustic wit, the famous Mortemartesprit, which made her popular with some but not with others.Saint-Simon later said of the future Princess of Condé:
. . . her face was formed by the most tender loves and her nature made to dally with them. She possessed the art of placing everyone at their ease; there was nothing about her which did not tend naturally to please, with a grace unparalleled, even in her slightest actions. She made captive even those who had the most cause to fear her, and those who had the best of reasons to hate her required often to recall the fact to resist her charms. Sportive, gay, and merry, she passed her youth in frivolity and in pleasures of all kinds, and, whenever the opportunity presented itself, they extended even to debauchery.[8]
She was also called the...
prettiest, wittiest, and naughtiest of the fast set in the latter half of the reign, and was in constant hot water. Her comic verse, too often indecent, was genuinely amusing, except to the victims, and the king was not at all amused at a set which she had written on his august self.[9]
On 25 May 1685, at the age of eleven, Louise Françoise was married toLouis de Bourbon, Duke of Bourbon, a distant sixteen-year-old cousin of her father. Her husband was the son ofHenri-Jules, Duke of Enghien, the son of the head of theHouse of Condé, a cadet branch of the reigningHouse of Bourbon. His mother wasAnne Henriette of Bavaria. Louis XIV gave his daughter a largedowry of one millionlivres upon her marriage.[5]
At court, Louise Françoise's husband was known by the courtesy title ofduc de Bourbon, and was addressed asMonsieur le Duc. As a result, his new wife became known asMadame la Duchesse.
Some time after her marriage in 1686, while the court was in residence at thePalace of Fontainebleau, Louise Françoise contracted smallpox. While her then seventeen-year-old husband did not help nurse her back to health, her mother and grandfather-in-law, theGrand Condé, did.[10] Louise Françoise recovered, but theGrand Condé died the following November after having caught her illness.[2] Louise Françoise and her husband eventually had nine children, all of whom survived into adulthood, something rare at the time.
After her mother officially left court in 1691, Louise Françoise would visit her at the convent of theFilles de Saint-Joseph, in the Rue Saint-Dominique in Paris,[11] where she had retired. As they saw each other often, the two became much closer, and so Louise Françoise was deeply affected by her mother's death in 1707. Louis XIV forbade anyone at court to wear mourning clothes for his former mistress, but, as a mark of respect for their mother, Louise Françoise and her two younger siblings,Marie Françoise de Bourbon and theCount of Toulouse, decided not to attend any court gatherings. On the other hand, her older brother, theDuke of Maine, could barely conceal his joy at inheriting his mother's fortune. TheChâteau de Clagny was bequeathed to him, but he rarely used it.[2]
In 1692, her youngest sister, Marie Françoise, was married to their first cousin,Philippe d'Orléans, the only son and heir of their uncle,Monsieur. As the wife of apetit-fils de France, Marie Françoise took precedence at court over Louise Françoise and their half-sister Marie Anne. This, combined with the fact that Marie Françoise received a dowry twice the amount given to her older sister, greatly angered Louise Françoise, who thereafter became quite competitive with her younger, more successful sister.[12]
Louise Françoise, considered beautiful and vivacious, began a romantic affair withFrançois Louis de Bourbon, Prince of Conti,[10] the handsome brother-in-law of her older half-sister,Marie Anne de Bourbon, in 1695. François Louis' wife was the piousMarie Thérèse de Bourbon; Marie Thérèse was in turn the oldest sister of Louise Françoise's husband.[8] Louise Françoise's fourth daughterMarie Anne, born in 1697, was rumoured to have been the result of this affair.[10]
When her husband discovered her infidelity, he was furious but did not openly quarrel with the Prince of Conti due to a fear of his father-in-law, Louis XIV. Her older half-brother, the Dauphin, allowed the couple to meet at his country estate atMeudon away from her husband and the court.[5]
Upon the death of her father-in-law on 1 April 1709, her husband succeeded to the title ofPrince of Condé. He did not, however, succeed to his father's rank ofPremier Prince du Sang, which was instead officially transferred from theHouse of Condé to theHouse of Orléans. As a result, her younger sister's husband, the Duke of Orléans, became entitled to use the style ofMonsieur le Prince. His wife, Louise Françoise's sister Marie Françoise, accordingly became entitled to use the styleMadame la Princesse.[13] Despite the fact that Marie Françoise never referred to herself as Madame la Princesse, this transfer in rank from the House of Condé to the House of Orléans greatly aggravated the rivalry between Louise Françoise and her younger sister.[14]
Louise Françoise's husband, who had by this time descended into madness,[5] did not survive his father long and died within the year in 1710. Although Louise Françoise should have officially assumed the style of Madame la Princesse de Condé douairière (Dowager Princess of Condé) upon the death of her husband, she instead chose to be known in her widowhood as Madame la Duchesse douairière. She had a portrait taken in widow's dress.[15] When her husband died she is said to have been affected butMadame de Caylus did not believe her grief was sincere.[8]
Perhaps in the hope of ingratiating herself with the future King, Louise Françoise frequently attended the court of her older half-brother,Monseigneur,[12] at theChâteau de Meudon. At Meudon, she became close toÉlisabeth-Thérèse de Lorraine, Princess of Epinoy and her older sister,Mademoiselle de Lillebonne, a futureAbbess of Remiremont. Unexpectedly, the Dauphin died in 1711, ruining his sister's plan of establishing a more solid relationship with the Crown. Despite her dashed hopes, Louise Françoise was deeply affected by the Dauphin's death. This death made her nephew,Louis, Duke of Burgundy, and his wife,Marie Adélaïde, the newDauphin andDauphine.
Marie Adélaïde and Louise Françoise were to become bitter enemies because of the new Dauphine's condescending attitude toward ladies of inferior rank. The Duchess of Orléans and the older Dowager Princess of Conti also grew to dislike their niece for her haughty behaviour.
As a dowager, Louise Françoise became a good friend ofJeanne Baptiste d'Albert de Luynes, the former mistress ofVictor Amadeus, Duke of Savoy. Jeanne Baptiste had escaped Savoy in 1700 and had been residing in Paris ever since. She was a great literary figure of the day.
Within two years, in 1712, the new Dauphin and his young wife died, leaving only a small son, theDuke of Anjou, as the legitimate heir of Louis XIV. In 1715 the King died and was succeeded by his five-year-old great-grandson,Louis XV. A controversy immediately arose between Louise Françoise's older brother, the Duke of Maine, and her brother-in-law, the Duke of Orléans, over which of the two should be declared regent. After theParlement of Paris had deliberated for a week, the Duke of Orléans was declared the officialregent. This, of course, exacerbated the rivalry between Louise Françoise and her younger sister, theDuchess of Orléans, now the highest-ranking woman in France.[5]
During theRégence, Louise Françoise was frequently occupied with the escapades of her second daughter, Louise Élisabeth, Princess of Conti, who had become the mistress of Philippe Charles de La Fare. When her daughter's husband, thePrince of Conti, discovered the liaison, he became physically abusive toward his wife.[5] The only son of the Conti couple,Louis François de Bourbon, was thought to have been the result of his mother's adulterous relationship with La Fare. Louise Élisabeth later took refuge from her violent husband with her mother at thePalais Bourbon.
In 1714 her niece,Mademoiselle du Maine, the daughter of her older brother, the Duke of Maine, was named in her honour.
In the 1720s, Louise Françoise became the mistress of theArmand de Madaillan de Lesparre. In order to be closer to her, he built the Hôtel de Lassay[12] next to the Palais Bourbon, her residence in Paris. Later on, a gallery was built, housing the grander, more public part of the collection of paintings that made Lassay's reputation as a connoisseur redound in Parisian circles for a generation after his death;[16] the gallery that joined the two buildings also enabled the lovers to have better access to each other.
In 1737, she was asked to be the godmother to Louis XV's eldest son,Louis, Dauphin of France. The young Dauphin's godfather was Louise Françoise's nephew,Louis, Duke of Orléans.
When her son was disgraced during the regency of the Duke of Orléans, Louise Françoise regarded his mistressMadame de Prie as the cause. As such, Louise Françoise detested her.[8] Her son died in exile in 1740 to be succeeded by his son, Louise Françoise's grandson,Louis Joseph, Prince of Condé, who was aged four.
During her long widowhood, Louise Françoise built thePalais Bourbon in Paris, not far from the residences of her surviving siblings. Named after her family, it was built after her stay at theGrand Trianon, which became the architectural inspiration for her new home.
Construction on the palace started in 1722, when she was forty-nine years old. Several designers were involved, includingRobert de Cotte, who drew up plans around 1720,[17] Lorenzo Giardini, who died in 1722, andLassurance, who died in 1724.Jean Aubert became the chief architect in 1726 and is given credit for the definitive design.Jacques Gabriel acted as a consultant.[18][19]
The palace had a collection of large reception rooms, the main one being thegalerie which overlooked theSeine; the main salon of the palace looked towards theTuileries Palace to the east. The palace was linked to the Hôtel de Lassay by means of a corridor overlooking a jointparterre.
Her older half-sister,Marie Anne de Bourbon, who was theDowager Princess of Conti, lived in theHôtel de Conti, opposite theLouvre, on the Quai de Conti. Her older brother, the Duke of Maine, owned theHôtel du Maine (destroyed in 1838) on the Rue Bourbon (now the Rue de Lille), very near the Palais Bourbon.[20] Her younger sister, the Duchess of Orléans, lived in thePalais-Royal, the Orléans residence in Paris. Near the Louvre and the Palais-Royal, her youngest brother, the Count of Toulouse, lived in theHôtel de Toulouse. In 1733 her daughter Louise Élisabeth moved into a house very near the Palais Bourbon, which became another Hôtel de Conti (now theHôtel de Brienne), on the Rue Saint-Dominique.
Louise Françoise de Bourbon died on 16 June 1743, at the age of seventy, at the Palais Bourbon. She was buried at theCarmel du faubourg Saint-Jacques,[21] a Carmelite convent on theLeft Bank in Paris'sLatin Quarter.
Louise Françoise gave birth to nine children:
| Name | Portrait | Lifespan | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Marie Anne Gabrielle Éléonore de Bourbon Abbess ofSaint-Antoine-des-Champs |  | 22 December 1690 - 30 August 1760 | Born at thePalace of Versailles; became abbess of Saint-Antoine-des-Champs in her teens; died in Villejuif. During her youth, she was known as Mademoiselle de Condé and de Bourbon. | |
| Louis Henri Joseph de Bourbon Duke of Bourbon Prince of Condé |  | 18 August 1692 - 27 January 1740 | Born at the Palace of Versailles and married twice; first to his paternal cousinMarie Anne de Bourbon and had no issue. He later marriedLandgravine Caroline of Hesse-Rotenburg and had issue. He was the Prime Minister of France during the reign ofLouis XV of France but the king had him exiled. Louis Henri died in exile at theChâteau de Chantilly. | |
| Louise Élisabeth de Bourbon Princess of Conti | %2c_Princess_of_Conti_by_Pierre_Gobert.jpg) | 22 November 1693 – 27 May 1775 | Born at the Palace of Versailles, she married her paternal cousinLouis Armand II, Prince of Conti. She was the maternal grandmother ofPhilippe Égalité. She died in Paris having outlived all her siblings. | |
| Louise Anne de Bourbon Mademoiselle de Charolais | _by_Alexandre_Fran%25C3%25A7ois_Caminade_(Versailles).jpg) | 23 June 1695 - 8 April 1758 | Born at the Palace of Versailles, she never married; she had a romantic affair with theDuke of Richelieu and was his mistress just like her cousin,Charlotte Aglaé d'Orléans. She never had any legitimate children, but was suspected of having illegitimate issue, although there was no evidence. She owned the Hôtel de Rothelin-Charolais (where she died) and in her life was known as Mademoiselle de Sens and then Mademoiselle de Charolais. | |
| Marie Anne de Bourbon Mademoiselle de Clermont |  | 16 October 1697 - 11 August 1741 | Born in Paris, she was said to have been the fruit of her mother's affair withFrançois Louis, Prince of Conti. She married Louis de Melun, Duke of Joyeuse in 1719, in secret and against her brother's wishes; she died in Paris after having been for many years in the service of QueenMaria Leszczyńska; known as Mademoiselle de Clermont. | |
| Charles de Bourbon Count of Charolais |  | 19 June 1700 - 23 July 1760 | Born at Chantilly, he was known as the Count of Charolais and on his death, the title was passed to his sister Louise Anne; He secretly married Jeanne de Valois-Saint-Rémy, a descendant ofHenry II of France via an illegitimate branch. Their son was Louis-Thomas (1718–1799), who was not legitimated by the King, later was exiled to England; he also had issue from his affair with one Marguerite Caron de Rancurel. He died in Paris. | |
| Henriette Louise Marie Françoise Gabrielle de Bourbon Abbess of Beaumont-lès-Tours |  | 15 January 1703 - 19 September 1772 | Born at the Palace of Versailles, she was once considered as a possible bride for Louis XV; despite that, she never married. Known as Mademoiselle de Vermandois, she was the abbesse de Beaumont-lès-Tours from 1728; she died at Beaumont. | |
| Élisabeth Thérèse Alexandrine de Bourbon Mademoiselle de Sens |  | 15 September 1705 - 15 April 1765 | Born in Paris she was known as Mademoiselle de Sens; her vast fortune went to her nephew,Louis Joseph de Bourbon – future Prince of Condé. | |
| Louis de Bourbon Count of Clermont |  | 15 June 1709- 16 June 1771 | Born at the Palace of Versailles, he was the Count of Clermont from birth and was theabbé deSaint-Germain-des-Près from 1737; never married and died at Versailles; he founded theAcadémie du Petit-Luxembourg, where scientists, artists and architects would meet. He was also the fifth Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of France, the supreme Masonic authority in France, which existed from approximately 1728 until its reorganisation in 1773. |
| Ancestors of Louise Françoise, Princess of Condé | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Louise Françoise, Princess of Condé Born: 1 June 1673 Died: 16 June 1743 | ||
| French nobility | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by Royal domain | Mademoiselle de Nantes 19 December 1673 – 25 May 1685 | Succeeded by Royal domain |
| Preceded by | Duchess of Bourbon 25 May 1685 – 1 April 1709 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Princess of Condé 1 April 1709 – 16 June 1743 | Succeeded by de factoMarie Anne de Bourbon but did not use the title |
The generations start from the children ofFrançois de Bourbon, Count of Vendôme, from whom are descended all legitimateBourbons after the death in 1627 ofMarie de Bourbon, last of theMontpensier branch of the dynasty. | ||
| 1st generation | .svg) | |
| 2nd generation | ||
| 3rd generation | ||
| 4th generation | ||
| 5th generation | ||
| 6th generation | ||
| 7th generation | ||
| 8th generation | ||
| 9th generation | ||
| 10th generation | ||
| 11th generation | ||
*princess of the Blood in her own right as well as wife of aprince of the Blood | ||
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| People | |
| Other | |
