Henri II de Rohan

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Henri de Rohan
Monument at Jenins
Statue of Henri de Rohan on his tomb in Geneva Cathedral

Duke Henri II. De Rohan-Gié , Prince of Léon (born August 21, 1579 at Blain Castle in Brittany , † April 13, 1638 in Königsfelden ) was a military leader of the Huguenots in the Wars of Religion between 1610 and 1629, and later French General in the Thirty Years War. He came from the older line of the House of Rohan , of which he was the last male descendant.

Life

His mother was the mathematician Catherine de Parthenay , his father René II de Rohan. His siblings included Benjamin de Rohan , Catherine de Rohan, an ancestor of Elizabeth II, and the poet Anne de Rohan.

Henri came to the court of Henry IV at the age of sixteen . As long as the king had no heirs, Henri, who was made by their great-grandfather, King John III. of Navarre was his second cousin, considered his successor in Navarre and in 1603 made Duke of Rohan, Peer of France . From 1605 to 1608 he was Colonel général of the Swiss Guard in Paris and from 1618 to 1626 Colonel général of the French cavalry. In 1605 he married Sully's daughter .

After the king's assassination, which destroyed his hopes, he was considered the head of the Huguenots. After his efforts for an amicable settlement of the conflict between these and the court had failed, he took up arms, fortified the Huguenot security posts in Guienne , defended Montauban against the king and finally forced him to confirm the Edict of Nantes in the peace of 1622. Endangered personally, he decided to go to war again in 1625 and forced Richelieu to sign a treaty of February 5, 1626.

Later, despite his low power, Rohan won at Revel in County Foix and at Pamiers . After the successful siege of La Rochelle in 1628, he was the only one who retained the courage to continue the fight and, through his perseverance, brought it to the peace of July 27, 1629, which robbed the Protestants of their political importance, but ensured freedom of religion . He then negotiated eagerly with the Sublime Porte about the cession of the island of Cyprus , where he wanted to unite all persecuted Protestants.

From Louis XIII. Sent to Graubünden in 1631 to take command of the troops recruited there by France, he threw the Spaniards and Austrians out of the Valtellina in 1634, supported by Jörg Jenatsch . In 1636 he defeated the Spaniards on Lake Como after he had driven the Duke of Lorraine from this area and also repeatedly beaten the imperial and Spaniards. Recalled in 1637 because of an unauthorized conclusion of a contract, he went to Geneva and in 1638 to the Rhine in the camp of Duke Bernhard von Sachsen-Weimar , but was seriously wounded on February 28, 1638 in the battle of Rheinfelden and died on April 13 in Koenigsfelden .

His extensive legacy, including the Château de Pontivy , fell to his only surviving daughter Marguerite de Rohan (1617–1684). Despite numerous applicants for marriage, some of royal blood, in 1645 she entered into a love affair with the penniless Catholic petty aristocracy Henri de Chabot (1615–1655). She achieved against the resistance of the younger Rohan line that her husband was raised to the 2nd Duke of Rohan and her illustrious family name was passed on to her children, creating the Rohan-Chabot family (of the Chabot male tribe ). This family is still based at Josselin Castle in Brittany.

Works

  • Mémoires sur les choses advenues en France depuis la mort de Henri IV jusqu'à la paix au mois de juin 1629. Paris 1630.
  • Memories and letters on the guerre de la Valteline. Paris 1758.

literature

Web links

Commons : Henri II. De Rohan  - Collection of images, videos and audio files
personal data
SURNAME Rohan, Henri II. De
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Rohan-Gié, Henri de; Rohan, Heinrich Duke of
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Leader of the Huguenots
DATE OF BIRTH August 21, 1579
PLACE OF BIRTH Blain Castle, Brittany
DATE OF DEATH April 13, 1638
Place of death Koenigsfelden