Francoise d'Orleans-Longueville

Francoise d'Orleans-Longueville (5 April [Pére Anselm "Histoire des Rois de France] 1549-11 June1601) was the second wife of Louis I de Bourbon, Prince de Condé, Prince of the Blood, and leader of the Huguenots during the French Wars of Religion.

Family

Francoise was born postumously on 5 April 1549 in Chateaudun, France. She was the only daughter of Francois d'Orleans-Longueville, Marquis de Longueville, Prince of Chalet-Aillon, Viscount of Melun, and Jacqueline de Rohan. [Europäische Stammtafeln, page 32.] Her father had died on 25 October 1548, less than six months before her birth. Her paternal grandparents were Louis I, Duke de Longueville, Sovereign Count of Neufchatel, Prince of Chatel-Aillon and Johanna of Baden-Hachberg, Sovereign Countess of Neufchatel. Her maternal grandparents were Charles de Rohan, Viscount of Fronsac and Giovanna Sanseverino. Francoise had an older brother Leonor, duke de Longueville, duke d' Estouteville, Prince of the Blood (1540-1573). Her cousin, Francois III de Longueville was the uterine half-brother of Mary, Queen of Scots.

Marriage

On 8 November 1565, in the Chateau de Vendome, Francoise married Louis I de Bourbon, Prince de Condé, the youngest brother of King Antoine of Navarre and a Huguenot general. His first wife Eleonore de Roye had died in 1564. They had three sons.

Children

# Charles de Bourbon, Count of Soissons (3 November1566-1 November1612. He was born at Nogent le Routrou. In 1601, he married Anne de Montafié and Clermont-en-Beauvasis (1577-1644). Had issue.
# Louis de Bourbon (1567-1569)
# Benjamin de Bourbon (1569-1573)

Death of Condé

On 13 March 1569, her husband was slain at the Battle of Jarnac when the Huguenot forces were defeated by the Catholic forces led by Marshal Gaspard de Saulx, sieur de Tavannes and the Duke of Anjou, whom would later rule as King Henry III. [Mark Strage "Women of Power", page142] Francoise was not yet 20 years old. She died in Paris on 11 June 1601 at the age of 52. She was buried at Gaillon. The House of Savoy-Carignan descended from Francoise through her son Charles. [Pére Anselm "Histoire des Rois de France"]

References

Sources

# Europaische Stammtafeln
# Mark Strage "Women of Power", Published by Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1976
# Genealogy.Eu
# Pére Anselm "Histoire des Rois de France"