Marie Louise de La Tour d'Auvergne

Marie Louise de La Tour d'Auvergne

Marie Louise Henriette Jeanne de La Tour d'Auvergne (born August 15, 1725 in the Hotel de Bouillon in Paris ; † 1793 in Paris (?)), Better known as Madame de Guéméné , was a member of the French aristocratic family of the La Tour d'Auvergnes and official educator of the children of Louis XVI. ; from 1743 she became Princess of Guéméné by marriage .

origin

Marie Louise de La Tour d'Auvergne was the first child of Charles Godefroy de la Tour d'Auvergne (1706–1771), Duke of Bouillon , and his wife Maria Karolina Sobieska (1697–1740), the daughter of Jakob Louis Heinrich Sobieski Granddaughter of the Polish King Jan III. Sobieski and older sister of Maria Clementina Sobieska , later wife of the Scottish pretender Edward James Stuart . Her younger brother Godefroy Charles Henri (born January 26, 1728, † December 3, 1792) succeeded their late father in 1771 as Duke of Bouillon.

Life

As the great-granddaughter of the Polish King Sobieski, she was an exceptionally sought-after and wealthy heir, even King Louis XV. of France influenced their marriage. The young Mademoiselle d'Auvergne was initially the bride for Honoré III. proposed by Monaco . Although this marriage plan was announced publicly on January 26, 1741, the marriage never materialized. Finally, at the age of 17, she married Prince Jules Hercule Mériadec de Rohan, prince de Guéméné (1726–1800), a son of Hercule Mériadec de Rohan (1688–1757) and Louise Gabrielle Julie de Rohan (1688–1757) in Paris on February 19, 1743 ( 1704–1741), since 1757 Prince of Guéméné and Duke of Montbazon . This connection came from Prince Henri Louis Marie von Rohan , who later became the 9th Prince of Rohan-Guéméné.

Through her mother, Marie Louise was also related to the Empress and Electress of Saxony. Her aunt Anne Marie Louise de la Tour d'Auvergne had married into the Rohan house before her, which resided at the court of Versailles . In November 1746, Marie Louise survived smallpox, which at the time was often fatal. During her convalescence , her family received a letter of reference from their first cousin, Charles Edward Stuart (1720–1788), also known as The Young Pretender of Scotland . In Louise's higher circles, adultery was widely accepted at the time, but had to be done discreetly. However, her mother-in-law supervised her closely because her husband was in the French army in Holland and her virtue had to be preserved. In August 1747, the young Scottish heir to the throne, who appeared at court, fell passionately in love with his cousin Maria Louise, who responded violently. The affair took its course, Louise and Charles met on secret midnight trips; the mother-in-law even alerted the Paris police once when the meetings were continuing.

After a while, Louise became pregnant and tried to sleep with her returned husband to trick him into believing that he himself was the father of the expected child. In January 1748, Louise, urged by her own father and mother-in-law, had to write a suicide note to end their affair. Even so, Charles Edward was still allowed to officially visit her family to curb the gossip. In desperation, Maria Louise threatened suicide if she couldn't see Charles again. A few months later a new evening meeting followed, in which Charles Edward already admitted his love for a new lady of the heart, Clementina Walkinshaw.

On July 28, 1748, Marie Louise gave birth to a son, who was baptized Charles Godefroi Sophie Jules Marie de Rohan. It was the mother-in-law who informed the pretender's father in Rome about the birth of a grandson. Despite the recognition of this child as a member of the Rohan family at the time, several genealogical books note that the Rohan no longer mentions this child later. Charles Godefroi died five months later, in December 1748 or not until January 18, 1749.

Louise lived another thirty-three years and apparently never again became unfaithful to her husband. To all appearances, she also became a good wife and mother. She occasionally made appearances at the court of Versailles and for several years acted as educator for the children of Louis XVI. The Prince de Guéméné and Madame de Guéméné did not stand out in their official functions, but rather through the splendor of their festivities, the splendor of their palace and their exuberant extravagance. Their financial outlay was so immense that the couple created a scandalous bankruptcy in 1783: their debts amounted to 33 million, the settlement of which could not be completed until 1792. The Prince de Guéméné fell out of favor and his wife had to give up her job at court.

In old age, Maria Louise became increasingly religious and devoted her time to charity. When she died, she was buried with her second child in the monastery of the Feuillants. The year of her death is not clear, some sources state that it was September 1781, but the more widely accepted is her death under the guillotine in 1793 as a result of the French Revolution. After her death, her claims to the Duchy of Bouillon fell to Prince Charles Alain de Rohan-Guéméné, who was living in exile in Austria . Her son Henri Louis Marie de Rohan (born August 31, 1745; † April 24, 1809) became Prince of Guéméné and Duke of Montbazon in 1800, he later married Victoire de Rohan, sister-in-law of the Prince of Condé.

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