Antonin Nompar de Caumont

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The Duke of Lauzun as a knight of the Order of the Garter

Antonin Nompar de Caumont, marquis de Puyguilhem K.G. , since 1692 1st Duke of Lauzun (* May 1633 in Lauzun , France , † November 19, 1723 in Paris ) was a French court nobleman and officer, commander of the king's bodyguard and since 1668 the first colonel général of the dragoons .

Life

He was born at Schloss Lauzun near Marmande in Guyenne, the third son of nine children of Gabriel, Count von Lauzun, and his wife Charlotte, daughter of Armand Nompar de Caumont . Antonin grew up from 1647 together with the children of a cousin of his father Antoine III. de Gramont (Marshal de Gramont and former Count of Guiche), one of whom, the Count de Guiche, later became the lover of Henrietta Anne Stuart , Duchess of Orleans, and another, Catherine Charlotte de Gramont , later after marrying Louise de Grimaldi, Princess of Monaco, was his childhood sweetheart.

He attended one of the many military academies in Paris and entered the army as a simple "Cadet de Gascoigne" (known from Dumas ' The Three Musketeers ). There he distinguished himself on campaigns by his daredevil, which he won the friendship of Field Marshal Turenne . In 1655 he succeeded his father as the commander of the “cent gentilshommes de la maison de roi” . Puyguilhem (as he was then called, also spelled Péguilin) ​​was introduced to the king and quickly rose to favor with Louis XIV , becoming a colonel in the Régiment Royal Dragons , governor of Berry and maréchal de camp in 1658 . In 1659 he accompanied Mazarin to the negotiations about the marriage of Louis XIV with the Infanta of Spain. He also belonged to the circle of friends of the Duke of Orleans with his childhood friend Catherine Charlotte of Monaco. He was incessantly engaging in intrigues, large or small, which he persistently pursued, and was feared for his ridicule and vehemence. After his bonmots, Lauzun used to turn in circles on his heels, which are very high because of his small stature. But he could also suddenly become a flatterer - his behavior was often completely unpredictable for those around him. Louis XIV was delighted with the lukewarm lukewarm and his often biting, irreverent humor and let him get away with a lot. The king, however, was bothered by his uncontrolled appearances and his violent jealousy, which did not stop at his person either. For example, when the king approached Lauzun's childhood sweetheart, the Princess of Monaco, one evening, according to Saint Simon's memories, he simply borrowed a second key to her room from a maid and locked it up so that the king had to leave without having achieved anything. watched from a shed by the delighted Lauzun. Out of anger over her disloyalty, he later triggered a second scandal by "accidentally" stepping on her hand with his high heels (May 1666). A violent appearance in this matter towards the king was also the reason for a six-month stay in the Bastille from July 1665.

His ambition was very great, but when he sought the important position of Grand Master of the Artillery, the War Minister Louvois, who hated him, knew how to prevent it. The king had initially promised him the office in 1669, but only on condition of secrecy. Lauzun wanted to know where the change of heart came from, because he had even involved the king's mistress Madame de Montespan (allegedly one of his former mistresses) in this matter . According to Saint-Simon, he hid under the bed with her when the king was pastoral and overheard the Montespan mockery of him. Instead of keeping this a secret, however, he went to her and repeated to her, while he accompanied her through the crowd to the King and constantly smiled outwardly, her conversation with the King in a low tone, word for word, interrupted by threats and gross insults. Madame de Montespan fainted when she got to the King. At a meeting a little later with the king, Lauzun turned his back on him, broke his sword and said that he would never again serve a king who broke his word. The king was so angry that he threw his own stick out the window to avoid hitting him with it. The result was a stay in the Bastille - albeit only a few days. After his return he was in favor again and was appointed captain lieutenant in one of the guards. As Lieutenant General , he commanded the army that accompanied the King on the campaign to Flanders in 1670.

More serious was the fact that Anne, Duchess of Montpensier ("La Grande Mademoiselle") fell in love with Lauzun, who was known for his amorous affairs. The marriage to the wealthy heiress was set for December 20, 1670, when the king strictly forbade his cousin to do so. He had already agreed (with the support of Montespan), but revoked it three days later at the insistence of Queen Marie-Thérèse and the Princes of the Blood, who refused to tolerate this unprecedented rise of what they saw as a small “second-born” provincial noble the planned marriage caused a great scandal in aristocratic circles, as demonstrated by letters from Madame de Sévigné from December 1670). Since neither of them gave up their efforts, he was sent to the Bastille at the instigation of Montespan, which had not forgiven him for his defeat against the king, and the Minister of War Louvois, from where he was transferred to Pignerol in Piedmont in November 1671. There he sat with the man in the iron mask , with whom he was not allowed to have any contact, and with Nicolas Fouquet , with whom he socialized, and whose daughter he even approached while he was imprisoned.

The Grande Mademoiselle, who did not give up her plans so easily (at the time of the Fronde , she personally persuaded the Bastille commander to fire the Bastille's cannons at the royal troops), has meanwhile been promised that Lauzun would be released if she got one large part of her possessions (Dombes, Eu, Aumale, which she had given to Lauzun) would cede to the Duke of Maine , the eldest son of Madame de Montespan and the king. She agreed, but Lauzun refused to sign when he was released from imprisonment for the purpose in 1680. Only after another brief detention in Chalon-sur-Saône did his mind change. Louis XIV was still against the marriage, but it may have been secretly as early as 1671. Lauzun resumed his public liaison with the Montpensier, but the two officially separated in 1684. On the side he also wooed Fouquet's daughter, whom he knew from Pignerol; but she married and in 1683 became Madame d'Uzès. At court he had again been received with full honor.

In 1685 Lauzun went to England to take advantage of his acquaintance with King James II , under whom he had served in Flanders when he was still Duke of York. Here, too, he quickly gained great influence. In 1688 he visited England again and accompanied the family of James II, Maria von Modena and their young son, into exile in Saint-Germain-en-Laye near Paris.

In autumn 1689 he became one of the commanders in chief of the campaign ("Williamites War") started in March 1689 by James II against the new English King William of Orange in Ireland. Lauzun had the best of intentions, but was militarily inexperienced and blindly followed the plans of Richard Talbot, 1st Earl of Tyrconnell , Count of Tyrconnel, which led to the defeat at the Battle of the Boyne . He then fled to France in September with Talbot via Limerick , where they left command to Patrick Sarsfield . There he was received very ungraciously.

The Grande Mademoiselle died in 1693, and two years later Lauzun married Genevieve de Durfort, the then 14-year-old daughter of Marshal de Lorges. He retained the favor of Maria von Modena, thanks to whom he received his title of duke in 1692, and in 1715 brought her the news of the "victory" at Sheriffmuir (the battle ended rather in a draw).

After his death, his title fell to his niece's husband, Charles Armand de Gontaut, Duke of Biron (1663-1756). The Duke von Lauzun 's memoirs, published in German in 1912, come from a successor in this line, Armand Louis de Gontaut , Duke of Lauzun and von Biron (1747–1793), general in the American War of Independence and the Revolutionary Wars .

literature

  • Jean-Christian Petitfils: Lauzun ou l'insolente séduction . Librairie Académique Perrin, Paris 1987, ISBN 2-262-00450-1 .
  • Vita Sackville-West : daughter of France. The adventurous life of Anne Marie Louise d'Orleans, Duchess of Montpensier . Chr. Wegner Verlag, Hamburg 1966.
  • Mary F. Sandars: Lauzun. Courtier and adventurer. The life of a friend of Louis XIV. 2 volumes. Hutchinson, London 1908 ( digitized volume 1 , volume 2 ).
  • Gilette Ziegler (ed.): The court of Louis XIV in eyewitness reports . dtv, Munich 1981, ISBN 3-423-02711-8 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Gilette Ziegler (Ed.): The court of Ludwig XIV. In eyewitness reports . dtv, Munich 1981, ISBN 3-423-02711-8 , p. 51.
  2. ^ Gilette Ziegler (Ed.): The court of Ludwig XIV. In eyewitness reports . dtv, Munich 1981, ISBN 3-423-02711-8 , p. 85 ff.
  3. ↑ Madame de Sévigné: Letters (= Insel-Taschenbuch Nr. 395). 1st edition. Insel, Frankfurt am Main 1979, ISBN 3-458-32095-4 , letter 5 ff p. 33 ff.
personal data
SURNAME Nompar de Caumont, Antonin
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Puyguilhem, Antonin Nompar de Caumont marquis de (full name); Lauzun, Duke of
BRIEF DESCRIPTION French courtier and officer
DATE OF BIRTH May 1633
PLACE OF BIRTH Lauzun , France
DATE OF DEATH November 19, 1723
Place of death Paris