Honoré-Armand de Villars
Honoré-Armand de Villars , (born October 4, 1702 in Paris , † April 27, 1770 in the Château des Aygalades in Marseille ) was from 1734 to 1770 Duc de Villars , Pair de France , Prince de Martigues , Grandee of Spain , Knight of the Order of the Golden Fleece (No. 701 in the Spanish branch, from 1736), Viscount de Melun , Comte de Rochemiley , Marquis de la Melle, as well as Gouverneur-général des pays et comté de Provence and member of the Académie française (Fauteuil 18), everything as heir or successor to his father.
Life
Honore-Armand de Villars is the son of Claude-Louis-Hector de Villars , Marshal of France , and Jeanne-Angélique Rocque de Varengeville, and the grandson of Pierre de Villars . He was nicknamed "l'ami de l'homme" at court because of his homosexuality . In 1721 he married Amable Gabrielle de Noailles , daughter of Adrien-Maurice de Noailles , 3rd Duke of Noailles and Marshal of France, and Françoise Charlotte d'Aubigné . The couple had a daughter, Amable-Angélique de Villars, born March 18, 1723, whose actual father was Jean Philippe François d'Orléans , the legitimate illegitimate son of the regent Philippe II. De Bourbon, duc d'Orléans . She was married in 1744 to Guy-Félix Pignatelli de Bisaccia d'Egmont de Gavre de Braine (1720–1753), the eldest son of Procope Pignatelli and nephew of Casimir Pignatelli d'Egmont , Duke of Bisaccia ; the marriage remained childless. As a widow she retired to a monastery, she died on September 16, 1771.
He was Mestre de camp of a cavalry regiment and brigadier of the royal army. In 1733 he fought in Italy under the command of his father. It was he who brought the news of the capture of the Castello Sforzesco in Milan to the king.
He was a member of the Académie française , in which he followed his father on August 16, 1734 on Fauteuil 18. Also as his father's successor, he was governor of Provence and the fortress of La Tour de Bouc from 1734.
Life in Provence
He resided in Provence, was a sponsor of the Académie de Marseille , but was rarely seen in the Académie française. He was friends with Voltaire , d'Alembert and Duclos .
As governor, he bought a Hôtel particulier in 1750 on what is now the Cours Mirabeau in Aix-en-Provence , which was built in 1710 by Lois d'Esmivy de Moissac, Conseiller at the Cour des Comptes . The hotel was built on a prestigious site that had been planned as the Hôtel du gouvernement in 1664 . Louis I de Bourbon, duc de Vendôme , who was governor at the time and who had made the property available, ultimately preferred the seclusion of the Faubourg des Cordeliers, where he had his famous Pavillon de Vendôme built.
The façade was completed in 1757 by Georges Vallon for the Duke of Villars: the four columns that frame the monumental entrance, along with those of the Hôtel de Ville and the University, are the only ones built in public buildings - a hallmark and privilege of the governor. The staircase with the beautiful railing was adorned with the Villars coat of arms (stolen in 1980). Since then the building has been called the Hôtel de Villars .
Honoré-Armand de Villars spent little time in Aix. He was badly received by the population and the notables, although this exclusion was not based on his customs, which were considered banal at the time, but on the fact that he represented the king and did not renounce any of the civil privileges associated with it. This “royal” attitude met with rejection in a province that came to France quite late. Honoré-Armand de Villars most often resided in Marseille.
The last few years
According to his will of June 27, 1765, Honoré-Armand de Villars, 2nd Duke of Villars, Pair de France, Governor of Provence, bequeathed a large sum to the city of Aix, which was intended for the creation of several facilities: a public library, a garden des plantes , an antiques and medals cabinet, as well as a drawing school, today's École de dessin d'Aix-en-Provence . This school was immediately established in the Chapelle des Dames, a branch of the Collège de Bourbon.
He also decided that his father's statue, created by the sculptor Nicolas Coustou , should be placed in the hall of the first public library. Enclosed in the Beneditine convent after the Revolution , the statue was forgotten until it found its place at the top of the grand staircase of the Hôtel de Ville in 1812.
Since his daughter, the only child, quickly became a widow and in September 1771 retired to a monastery without any descendants, Honoré-Armand de Villars had no further descendants.
sexuality
He received his nickname "l'ami de l'homme" because of his customs, as his homosexuality was publicly known. Louis Petit de Bachaumont (1700–1771) writes in his Mémoires secrets dated May 5, 1770 “that he was accused of a vice which he had introduced at court and which earned him a widespread reputation, as is the case in“ La Pucelle ” In fact, in the first edition of “La Pucelle d'Orléans”, Voltaire had added his name to that of the Marquis de Thibouville , who is accused of the same vice:
“Tels on a vu Thibouville et Villars, / Imitateurs du premier des Césars, / Tout enflammés du feu qui les possède, / Tête baissée attendre un Nicomède; / Et seconder, par de fréquents écarts, / Les vaillants coups de leurs laquais picards. ”“ So were seen Thibouville and Villars, / imitators of the first of the Caesars, / All kindled by the fire that rules them; / Head down, waiting for a Nicomedes; / And through frequent deviations, / support the brave blows of their Picardy lackeys. "
Casanova tells in the story of my life : “The personality of the Duke of Villars drew my full attention. As I examined his demeanor and face, I thought I saw a seventy-year-old, lean, sunken, and tired woman disguised as a man, who might have been beautiful in her youth. He had copper-red cheeks covered with blush, carmine-red lips, black-washed eyelashes, teeth that were just as fake as the hair that was glued to his head with a lot of ambrapomade, and in the top buttonhole a bouquet that reached to his chin. He was very gracious in all gestures and spoke so softly that you could hardly understand what he was saying. Besides, he was very polite, sociable and graceful, in the style of the Régence. I was told that he loved women in his youth, but that in his old age he was content to be the wife of three or four handsome lust boys whom he held at his service and who took turns enjoying the privilege of sleeping with him. The duke was governor of Provence. His whole back was covered with acrid sores, and according to the laws of nature he should have died from it ten years ago; but Tronchin kept him alive by his diet nourishing the sores that would have died without this nourishment, and the Duke with them. This is called artificially staying alive. "
Remarks
- ↑ Although it was called Villars, she was the daughter of general d'Orléans Chevalier known
- ↑ André Bouyala d'Arnaud, Evocation you much Aix-en-Provence, Les Éditions de Minuit, 1964, p 179f
- ↑ Jean-Paul Costé, Aix-en-Provence et le Pays d'Aix, Edisud, 1981, p 107f
- ↑ Julius Caesar was accused of having a sexual relationship with Nicomedes IV. Bithynia.
- ↑ Casaova tells of the year 1760, Villars was 58 years old
- ↑ 1715 to 1723
- ↑ Giacomo Casanova, Story of my life , ed. by Erich Loos , trans. by Heinz von Sauter , Propylaeen Verlag , 1964-1967, Volume 6, Chapter 10, pp. 250f.
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Villars, Honoré-Armand de |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Duc de Villars |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | French nobleman, member of the Académie française |
| DATE OF BIRTH | October 4, 1702 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Paris |
| DATE OF DEATH | April 27, 1770 |
| Place of death | Marseille |