Louis II. Joseph de Bourbon, duc de Vendôme

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Louis Joseph de Bourbon
Marie Anne de Bourbon

Louis II. Joseph de Bourbon (born July 1, 1654 in Paris ; † June 11, 1712 in Vinaròs , Catalonia ), often also called the Great Vendôme (French: le Grand Vendôme ), was Duke of Vendôme and Beaufort and a French maréchal de camp from the House of Bourbon-Vendôme .

family

Louis II Joseph was born the first-born son of Duke Louis I de Bourbon , Viceroy of Catalonia , and his wife Laure Mancini .

Since 1710 he was with Marie-Anne (1678-1718), daughter of the Prince of Condé, Henri III. de Bourbon , married. The marriage of the two remained childless. He was known for his openly displayed homosexuality . Liselotte von der Pfalz reports on this in her letters.

Life

Vendôme was born into a sideline of the Bourbons and began his warrior career in 1672 under Henri de La Tour d'Auvergne, vicomte de Turenne . He took part in the sieges of Condé and Cambrai , was Maréchal de camp in 1678 and Governor of Provence in 1681 .

In 1688 the king appointed Vendôme lieutenant-général , who then fought against Flanders in four campaigns . In 1693 he supported Nicolas de Catinat in his victory in the Battle of Marsaglia near Cuneo . In 1697 he forced Barcelona to give up as Commander in Chief in Catalonia .

In the War of the Spanish Succession , Louis II Joseph took over command of the troops in Italy and on August 15, 1702, he fought with Prince Eugene of Savoy in the Battle of Luzzara with a tie. In 1703 he tried in vain to penetrate into Germany via Tyrol . In autumn he therefore took various fortresses in Piedmont and began the siege of Turin .

On August 16, 1705 he defeated Prince Eugene at Cassano d'Adda , and in 1706 drove the Austrians back across the Adige . In the midst of these successes he was recalled to the Netherlands to compete against John Churchill , the Duke of Marlborough, whom he initially put off by long marches . In 1708 King Louis XIV gave him sub-command of an 80,000-strong army under Louis de Bourgogne , with whom Vendôme soon got into a dispute. He conquered Ghent , Bruges and Passendale , but was defeated on July 11th in the Battle of Oudenaarde . Thereupon he lost his command at Madame Maintenon's instigation and remained suspended from duty for two years.

When in 1710 the French cause in Spain was again on the brink, the king sent him back over the Pyrenees . He led Philip V back to Madrid and then defeated General Starhemberg on December 10, 1710 in the battle of Villaviciosa .

Louis II Joseph de Bourbon died childless on June 11, 1712 in Viñaroz in Catalonia and was buried in Chapel 8 of the Pantheon of the Infants in the Real Sitio de San Lorenzo de El Escorial . He was followed as Duke of Vendôme by his brother Philippe .

literature

  • Édouard Mennechet: Vendôme (Louis-Joseph, duc de) . In: Le Plutarque français, vies des hommes et femmes illustres de la France, avec leurs portraits en pied . Volume 6. Imprimerie de Crapelet, Paris 1838 ( PDF ; 15.8 MB).

Web links

Commons : Louis II. Joseph, duc de Vendôme  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Single receipts

  1. ^ Didier Godard: Le Goût de Monsieur. L'homosexualité masculine au XVIIe siècle . Editions H & O., Montblanc 2002, ISBN 978-2-84547-042-2 .
  2. ^ Fadi El Hage: Vendôme: La gloire ou l'imposture . Humensis, 2017, ISBN 978-2-410-00300-0 (French, google.de [accessed January 4, 2020]).
  3. ↑ Dirk Van der Cruysse: "To be a Madame is a great craft": Liselotte von der Pfalz - a German princess at the court of the Sun King . Piper ebooks, 2017, ISBN 978-3-492-97470-7 ( google.de [accessed January 4, 2020]).
personal data
SURNAME Vendôme, Louis II. Joseph de Bourbon, duc de
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Bourbon, Louis II. Joseph de; Great Vendôme, the
BRIEF DESCRIPTION French general and Duke of Vendôme
DATE OF BIRTH July 1, 1654
PLACE OF BIRTH Paris
DATE OF DEATH June 11, 1712
Place of death Viñaroz , Catalonia