Louis Henri, Prince of Condé

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Not to be confused with his grandfather Louis Henri, Duke of Bourbon (1692–1740).
His Serene Highness
Louis Henri Joseph de Bourbon-Condé
  • Prince de Condé
  • Duc de Bourbon, Duc d'Enghien
  • Seigneur de Chantilly
Louis V Joseph de Bourbon-Condé
Succeeded byHenri d'Orléans, Duke of Aumale
Personal details
Born(1756-04-13)13 April 1756
Kingdom of the French
Military service
Branch/service
Years of service1792–1795
Battles/wars

Louis Henri Joseph de Bourbon (13 April 1756 – 30 August 1830) was the

Philippe Égalité and nephew of Victoire de Rohan
.

Life

Louis Henri was the only son of Louis Joseph, Prince of Condé by his first wife, Charlotte de Rohan, daughter of Charles de Rohan, Prince of Soubise. As a member of the reigning House of Bourbon, he was a prince du sang and was entitled to the style of Serene Highness, prior to his accession to the Condé title, while he was known as the duke of Enghien and later as Duke of Bourbon. On succeeding his father he was entitled to the style of Royal Highness.

Marriage

On 24 April 1770, he married

Madame de Montespan. In 1772 their only son, Louis Antoine, Duke of Enghien, was born.[1]
The marriage was not a happy one, and in 1780 the couple separated. Louis never remarried.

Shortly afterwards, Louis Henri began a public affair with the

Marie Antoinette
amongst others.

In 1804, his son, the Duke of Enghien, was abducted in Germany by order of Napoleon and executed in the moat of the Château de Vincennes on trumped up charges of treason. The Duke of Enghien had been married to Charlotte Louise de Rohan for less than two months and had no issue.

Louis Henri returned with his father to France after the defeat of

Prince de Condé
.

Restoration

Uniform of a Chasseur à Cheval during the restoration period

During the 1814 restoration, the Prince, as Duke of Bourbon, became the namesake for the 8th Bourbon Light Horse Regiment (8ème Régiment de Chasseurs à Cheval de Bourbon). However, following Napoleon's return in March 1815, the regiment joined Napoleon and he emigrated to Belgium.[2][3] Within the Infantry Corps, the Prince was made Colonel General of the Light Infantry and consequently became the namesake for the Bourbon Line Infantry Regiment which was formed by the merger of the 9th Line Infantry Regiment (9ème Régiment d'Infanterie de Ligne) and the 2nd & 7th Battalions of the 37th Light Infantry Regiment (37ème Régiment d'Infanterie Légère). This regiment also joined Napoleon after his return from Elba in March 1815.[4][5]

End of the Condé

Portrait by Pierre Louis Delaval, Musée Condé of Chantilly, France

While in exile in 1811, the duc de Bourbon had made the acquaintance at a bordello in Piccadilly of Sophia Dawes or Daw, a maid in a brothel from the Isle of Wight. He set the woman and her mother up in London in a house on Gloucester Street. There, she went through an extensive educational program.

After the

Louis XVIII
of the real relationship between Louis Henri and Sophia. The king banned Sophia from court.

In revenge, Sophia approached the head of the

Talleyrand
.

By now, Louis Henri was trying to get away from the mistress who had taken over his life. In the summer of 1830, he returned to his home at St. Leu. There, he heard of the July Revolution. Sophia immediately set about to get him to recognize the new Orléans monarchy.

Finding The Prince. Gravure extraite de l'Histoire de Louis-Philippe Ier roi des Français, 1847

When on 27 August 1830 he was found dead with a rope around his neck but his feet on the ground, the baroness was suspected, but an inquiry was held which formally declared the death to be a suicide. There were rumours that the new King of the French,

autoerotic asphyxiation. With the evidence of death being the result of any crime appearing insufficient, the baroness was not prosecuted, although she was involved in litigation regarding the inheritance for years to come.[6]

There are some aspects of the relationship between Sophia and the Prince that

Becky Sharp, possibly killing Joseph Sedley. With Louis Henri's death the line of Bourbon-Condé came to an end; his lands and wealth passed to his godson, the Duke of Aumale. His father, Louis Philippe, was the feudal-law heir to Conti and Condé, being the grandson of Louise Henriette de Bourbon, a daughter of Louise Élisabeth de Bourbon
, who was sister of Louis Henri II's grandfather.

Issue

Arms of Louis Henri
  1. Louis Antoine de Bourbon, Duke of Enghien (2 August 1772 – 21 March 1804); died without issue.
  2. Adélaïde “Adele” de Bourbon (10 November 1780 – 26 May 1874); styled Mademoiselle de Bourbon: illegitimate with Marguerite Michelot. She married firstly in 1803 to Patrice Gabriel Bernard de Montessus, comte de Reuilly, and secondly on 24 June 1833 to Guy Eugène Victor, marquis de Chaumont-Quitry. No issue.
  3. Louise Charlotte Aglaé de Bourbon (10 September 1782 – 1831); illegitimate with Marguerite Michelot. Unmarried.
  4. Daughter* (born December 1817, lived a few days); illegitimate with certain Sophie Harris.
  5. Son* (stillborn May 1819); illegitimate with certain Sophie Harris.

Ancestry

Note: The above Anne Julie de Melun was the younger sister of Louis de Melun, Duke of Joyeuse; he was the ecret husband of Louise Adélaïde's great-aunt Marie Anne de Bourbon (1697–1741); Louis de Melun's wife was Armande de La Tour d'Auvergne — the eldest granddaughter of Marie Anne Mancini
.

Footnotes

  1. ISBN 978-0313334467
    .
  2. ^ L'Ordonnance du Roi sur l'organisation de la cavalerie Française de le 12 Mai 1814. Palais des Tuilleries, Kingdom de France.
  3. ^ Smith, pp. 268–269
  4. ^ L'Ordonnance du Roi sur l'organisation de la infanterie Française de le 12 Mai 1814. Palais des Tuilleries, Kingdom de France.
  5. ^ Smith, pp. 57–59
  6. ^ see for instance Diekstra, René, De macht van een maîtresse, Karakter Uitgevers BV, Uithoorn, 2011, 431 p
  7. ^ Genealogie ascendante jusqu'au quatrieme degre inclusivement de tous les Rois et Princes de maisons souveraines de l'Europe actuellement vivans [Genealogy up to the fourth degree inclusive of all the Kings and Princes of sovereign houses of Europe currently living] (in French). Bourdeaux: Frederic Guillaume Birnstiel. 1768. p. 43.

References

  • John Goldworth Alger (1888). "Dawes, Sophia". In Stephen, Leslie (ed.). Dictionary of National Biography. Vol. 14. London: Smith, Elder & Co.
  • Smith-Hughes, Jack, Eight Studies in Justice (London: Cassell & Co., 1953), p. 124-153, Ch. VI: "Royal Justice: The Conscience of a Citizen-King".
  • Smith, Digby (2000). Napoleon's Regiments: Battle Histories of the Regiments of the French Army, 1792–1815. London, United Kingdom: Greenhill Books.
    OCLC 43787649
    .

External links

Media related to Louis Henri, Prince of Condé at Wikimedia Commons

Louis Henri, Prince of Condé
Cadet branch of the House of Bourbon
Born: 13 April 1756? Died: 30 August 1830
French nobility
Preceded by
Louis Joseph
 Prince of Condé
13 May 1818 – 30 August 1830 		Title extinguished
end of dynasty
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