Charles Alain Gabriel de Rohan

Prince Charles Alain Gabriel de Rohan

Charles Alain Louis Prince of Rohan-Guémenée (born January 18, 1764 in Versailles , † April 24, 1836 in Prague ) was a member of the French noble family of Rohan and received the title of Duke of Montbazon on December 10, 1788 . After his escape from France he became an Imperial Austrian Lieutenant Field Marshal and Knight of the Maria Theresa Order and the Order of the Golden Fleece (1823).

Life

Origin and family

Prince Charles Alain von Rohan was born in 1764 as the elder son of Prince Henri Louis de Rohan-Guéméné from his marriage to Victorine Armande Josephine von Rohan-Soubise, heiress of Maubuisson and Madame de Clisson. He was baptized in Notre Dame by his maternal grandfather Charles de Rohan, Prince de Soubise, with Julie Louise Gabrielle de Rohan as godmother. The early upbringing of the Prince of Rohan was directed by Madame Marguerite Laurent, the wife of Jean-Baptiste Clery. His mother Victorine von Rohan-Soubise acted as governess of the children of King Louis XVI. and by Marie Antoinette . His cousins ​​included the Prince de Condé , a son, his mother's sister Victoire, and Louise Adelaide de Bourbon, Abbess of Remiremont . After the death of his father, Charles Alain received the title of Prince of Rohan and Duke of Montbazon. He married in the St. Sulpice church in Paris on May 29, 1781 Louise Aglaé de Conflans (1763-1819), with whom he had a daughter. After his parents went bankrupt due to excessive debts, they had to sell their Paris family property, the Hôtel de Rohan-Guémené . Prince Charles Alain stood before the Revolution as an officer in the French army and led the regiment de Bazon, financed by his uncle Cardinal de Rohan , which was formed from an infantry battalion, two squadrons of hussars and two artillery batteries.

emigration

As a result of the French Revolution , he emigrated from France to Austria with his father Henri Louis and the two brothers Viktor and Ludwig in 1792, where he entered the service of Emperor Leopold II and later fought against the revolution as part of the French emigre corps. After the death of his distant cousin Jacques Leopold de La Tour d'Auvergne, he inherited the title of Duke of Bouillon , because through his grandmother Marie-Louise de La Tour d'Auvergne (1725-1793) he was the closest relative of the family. In 1808 Charles Alain was raised to the status of Austrian prince, and on April 24, 1809 he was given the title of Prince of Guéméné .

Imperial army service

Knight's Cross of the Military Maria Theresa Order

Prince Charles Alain Louis joined the imperial army in 1798 and was promoted to colonel in June 1798 and became commander of the 2nd Light Jäger Battalion, which was deployed in Tyrol . On April 8, 1799, he excelled at Cassano on Lake Idro , where he personally led the attack against the enemy positions of San Antonio and was able to force the capture of the strongly fortified point. The removal of the dam at Rocca d'Anfo enabled General Vukassovich's troops to advance to Brescia , with the prince's troops securing the right flank. The attack enabled the capture of Verderio and the elimination of the French Serrurier division. After this success, the prince's troops advanced via Novara and Vercelli to Ivrea , where he seized the citadel of the Bard fortress and thus secured access to the Aosta Valley and the flank of the main army when advancing on Turin . He was promoted to major general on October 29, 1800 (with rank of January 18, 1801) . The Prince was awarded the Knight's Cross of the Maria Theresa Order on August 18, 1801 .

In 1805 he commanded a cavalry brigade made up of Latour- Chevauxlegers and Hungarian hussars in southern Germany . When retreating from the French, his troops joined the corps of Archduke Ferdinand , which returned to Bohemia . The Prince of Rohan was seriously wounded during these retreats and was briefly imprisoned. Released after the conclusion of the Pressburg Peace , he resigned from the active on February 1, 1806 and on September 2, 1807 received the honorary character of a field marshal lieutenant in the Austrian army, whose service he resigned in full after the wars of liberation in 1815.

Last time

As the grandson of Princess Marie Louise Henriette Princess von Bouillon, the last of her family, Prince Charles Alain raised a claim to the Duchy of Bouillon , which was granted to him after the decision of the Congress of Vienna on July 1, 1816 through an arbitration decision made in Leipzig by the Austrian Commissioners, Was awarded to Prussia and Sardinia. Supported by the Supreme Court of Justice of Liège , Princess Louise of Condé, Prince Louis de la Tremouille and Princess of Pois appeared as counter-pretenders and claimed the Duchy of Bouillon for themselves despite the decision of the Congress of Vienna. Prince Charles Alain protested in vain, but could only reserve his own rights. His daughter Bertha (May 4, 1782 - February 22, 1841) had married her uncle Louis Victor Mériadec de Rohan (1766–1846) in 1802 , who in 1836 also received the title and coat of arms of the Duke of Rohan . Since his brother had no children either, his title and coat of arms passed to his nephew Camille Joseph Philipp Idesbald (1800-1892), the son of his sister Maria Louise Theresia. The grandson Camille was also awarded the title of Duke of Bouillon due to his relationship with the La Tour d'Auvergne family . Prince Charles Alain von Rohan bought the Sychrov Castle in the Liberec region and retired to Prague where he died in 1836.

literature

• Constantin von Wurzbach : Rohan-Guémenée, Duke of Montbazon, Karl Alois (Alain) Gabriel Prinz . In: Biographisches Lexikon des Kaiserthums Oesterreich . 26th part. Imperial-Royal Court and State Printing House, Vienna 1874, p. 279 ( digitized version ).