Nicolas de Neufville de Villeroy

Marshal-duke Nicolas V de Neufville de Villeroy.

Nicolas V de Neufville de Villeroy (14 October 1598 – 28 November 1685) was a French nobleman and marshal of France. He was marquis then (from 1651) 1st duke of Villeroy and (from 1663) peer of France, marquis d'Alincourt and lord of Magny, and acted as governor of the young Louis XIV. His son François succeeded him as duke. He was the lover of Catherine-Charlotte de Gramont.

Life

He was the son of Charles de Neufville (1566–1642), marquis de Villeroy et d'Alincourt, and his second wife, Jacqueline de Harlay de Sancy.

Nicolas de Neufville studied at the court of Louis XIII as an enfant d’honneur. In 1615, he was made governor of the Lyonnais under his father's supervision - an effective governor, he served in that post until his father's death in 1642. He served in Italy with Lesdiguières and was promoted to marshal of France on 20 October 1646 thanks to being the protege of cardinal Jules Mazarin.

In March 1646, the queen-mother made marshal de Villeroy governor of Louis XIV, under Mazarin's authoritym chosen as "surintendent for the government and conduct of the king". It is difficult to attribute him any good or bad influence in the young king's education. He was made duke of Villeroy in September 1651^[1] and admitted to the peerage of France in 1663. He served as Grand Master of France at Louis XIV's coronation and was made a knight of the Order of the Holy Spirit on 31 December 1661. Louis XIV also made him head of the Conseil royal des finances in 1661, a role (of particular importance at the time of the suppression of the surintendance des finances, but becoming largely honorific) he held until his death.

Hotel de Villeroy

In 1640 Nicolas de Villeroy builds a Hôtel Particulier on 34 rue des Bourdonnais in the center of Paris in the district of les Halles. The House is built on the grounds of a former mansion already belonging to the Villeroy family. The beautiful courtyard of the building was frequently visited by the young King Louis XIV who lived in the nearby Palais Royal and played there as a child with his brother Prince Philippe d´Orleans^[2].

Family

Nicolas married on 11 July 1617 to Madeleine de Blanchefort de Créquy.

They had four children:

• Charles de Neufville de Villeroy (died 1645), marquis d'Alincourt
• François de Neufville de Villeroy (1644–1730), 2nd duc de Villeroy
• Françoise de Neufville de Villeroy (died 1701) married: (1) Just, comte de Tournon (†1644) (2, 1646) Henri, duc de Chaulnes (†1653), then (3) Jean Vignier, marquis d'Hauterive
• Catherine de Neufville de Villeroy (1639–1707), in 1660 married Louis de Lorraine-Armagnac (1641–1718), comte d'Armagnac, de Charny and de Brionne

Notes

1. ^ François Bluche (in Louis XIV, Paris, Fayard, 1986, p. 43) gives the date as 15 December 1648.
2. ^ History of the Hotel de Villeroy

Persondata
Name	Villeroy
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	14 October 1598
Place of birth
Date of death	28 November 1685
Place of death