Louis François, Prince of Conti

Louis François I
Prince of Conti
Portrait by Alexis Simon Belle, c. 1730
Born	(1717-08-13)13 August 1717 Paris, Kingdom of France
Died	2 August 1776(1776-08-02) (aged 58) Paris, France
Spouse	Louise Diane d'Orléans ​ ​ (m. 1732; died 1736)​
Louis Armand II, Prince of Conti
Mother	Louise Élisabeth de Bourbon
Signature

Louis François de Bourbon, or Louis François I, Prince of Conti (13 August 1717 – 2 August 1776), was a French nobleman who became the

Biography

Louis François I de Bourbon was born in Paris.

In 1731, he married

His mother, the

In 1760, he bought a famous Burgundy vineyard, which then bore the name of La Romanée, at a high price. After the purchase, he added his own name to the vineyard and it has been known as Romanée-Conti since then. This vineyard produces some of the world's most expensive wine today.^[2]

Candidate for the Polish throne and court influence

In that same year, a faction of Polish nobles offered Conti the

Although Conti did not secure the Polish throne, he did remain in the confidence of the king until 1755, when Madame de Pompadour destroyed his influence through her intrigues at court. His relationship with Louis XV deteriorated enough that when the Seven Years' War broke out in 1756, Conti was refused the command of the army of the Rhine. Angry, he began opposing the royal government, which caused Louis to refer to him as, "my cousin, the advocate".

In 1771, Conti took the lead in opposing the chancellor,

Eventually, Conti accumulated a vast and celebrated art collection, which he housed in a special gallery at the Temple, having collected it mainly during the last twenty years of his life. This was dispersed by auction between April and June 1777, a sale which impacted the Parisian art market through the following decade. His collection included Michel Barthélemy Ollivier's English Tea Served in the Salon des Glaces at the Palais du Temple, dated 1764, showing the infant Mozart at the clavichord (now in the Palace of Versailles).

Conti inherited literary tastes from his father, was a brave and skillful general, and a diligent student of military history. His mistress, the cultivated

His son,

Issue

Name	Portrait	Lifespan	Notes
Louis François Joseph de Bourbon Prince of Conti		1 September 1734 - 13 March 1814	Born in Paris, he was known as the "Count of La Marche" before succeeding as Prince of Conti; married his first cousin, Francesco III d'Este, Duke of Modena and Charlotte Aglaé d'Orléans, the sister of his mother; had no legitimate issue; died in Barcelona, Spain , at the age of 79.
X de Bourbon[3]		26 September 1736	Born at the Château d'Issy, the child was a stillbirth, whose mother died after the birth.

Ancestors

References

•  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Conti, Princes of". Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.