Louis de Bourbon, comte de Clermont

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Louis de Bourbon, comte de Clermont - en -Argonne (born June 15, 1709 in Versailles , † June 16, 1771 ), French churchman, general and libertine ; Prince of blood ; Count of Clermont and Peer of France , Duke of Châteauroux and Peer of France; Abbot of Saint-Germain-des-Prés, Bec, St. Claude and other abbeys; Knights of royal orders; Commander in Chief of the Rhine Army in the Seven Years' War ; was defeated by Prince Ferdinand of Braunschweig near Krefeld in 1758 ; 1754 member of the academy .

Life

Comte de Clermont, with the insignia of a commander of the Order of the Holy Spirit : the order star on his chest and the cordon bleu over his shoulder.

Louis de Bourbon was the third son of Louis III. de Condé , and Louise Françoise de Bourbon , a legitimate daughter of Louis XIV with the Montespan . He was born in Versailles and was supposed to bear the title of Count de La Marche, which his father then left to the Bourbon sideline Conti .

Louis was determined by the clergy and therefore received several rich abbeys as Commendatarabbot : 1717 Nôtre Dame de Bec in Normandy (until 1766), 1718 St. Claude, 1721 Marmoutier and Nôtre-Dame des Eschalis and 1723 Cercamp . On April 6, 1723, he received the new royal order of the pavilion and on February 2, 1724, he received the Order of the Holy Spirit , in which, as a clergyman, he also received the 6th position of command.

After Pope Clement XII. Had dispensed him from his vows for this purpose, he joined the army - as it is said, out of vanity - took part in the campaigns of 1733 and 1734, served in 1734 at the siege of Philippsburg as maréchal de camp and was appointed for it at Appointed Lieutenant-General on July 10, 1735 . In 1737 he also received the Saint-Germain-des-Prés Abbey , which brought him 130,000 livres a year. On December 26, 1736, he sold the duchy of Châteauroux , which he had inherited from his father, to the king.

In the War of the Austrian Succession he served in the campaigns of 1743 and 1744 in the Netherlands. During the sieges of Ypres and Menen , he commanded one attack, while the king, Louis XV. who led others. On July 10, 1744, the Furnes garrison had to surrender to his army. But before Nieuwpoort was taken, the Austrian crossing of the Rhine forced the main French army, and with it Clermont, to march into Alsace .

While Freiburg was besieged, he went with a flying corps through Swabia, which at that time belonged to Upper Austria, to behind Constance , which fell without a fight. Bregenz, on the other hand, was able to repel the siege.

In the campaign of 1746 - that of 1745 he stayed away from jealousy of the Marshal of Saxony - after a heavy siege he succeeded in conquering the citadel of Antwerp and the main fortress of Namur . In the Battle of Lauffeldt (July 2, 1747) he led the first attack and his daring was widely admired.

From 1743 he was the successor of the late Duke von Antin and one of the first grand masters of the French Masonic lodges , which he remained until the end of his life. In September 1751 he received the governorate of Champagne and Brie and in December 1753 he was elected to the Académie française ( fauteuil 34), of which he became a member on March 26, 1754.

On December 1, 1753, the day the Académie wanted to elect the successor to Claude Gros de Boze , Marshal Richelieu asked the permanent secretary Mirabaud to read out a letter that Clermont had sent him; the Count of Clermont thanked the Académie for the honor of awarding him the vacant seat. The society, duped in this way, had no choice but to bow to the Count's wish and accept him. Clermont attended the meetings regularly and became patron of the Châlons-sur-Marne Academy.

Louis de Bourbon, comte de Clermont, (1771)

However, he soon lost the reputation of a successful army leader that he had acquired in the fight against the allies of Prussia. In 1758, although many, including the Count of Charolais , his brother, advised against it, he took over the command of the army in Germany, which until then had been Marshal Richelieu . No sooner had Clermont arrived in Hanover - and, above all, occupied with amusement - when the Allies' transition over the Aller forced him to flee quickly to Wesel . No sooner had he sat down there and gathered his troops than Prince Ferdinand of Braunschweig and his army were already approaching. Clermont had to withdraw again and lost the Battle of Krefeld on June 23 . He was then recalled from his command on July 7th.

When he returned to Versailles, he was received very coldly and retired to Berny Castle , which belonged to the Abbey of St. Germain , where he celebrated splendid festivals and died on June 16, 1771. Since he was involved in the quarrels between the princes and the court, albeit without showing himself particularly prominently, he was buried in silence.

His successor as Grand Master of the Masonic Order in France was Louis Philippe II Joseph de Bourbon, duc d'Orléans . He had ceded the governorate of Champagne to his great-nephew, the Duke of Bourbon , in 1769 .

progeny

Count Clermont had been secretly married to the dancer Mademoiselle Leduc since 1765 and had two children with her, a son, born in 1766 (Abbé de Vendôme, † 1800), and a daughter, born in 1768.

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personal data
SURNAME Bourbon, Louis de, comte de Clermont
BRIEF DESCRIPTION French churchman, general and libertine; Commander in Chief of the Rhine Army in the Seven Years War
DATE OF BIRTH June 15, 1709
PLACE OF BIRTH Versailles
DATE OF DEATH June 16, 1771