- Charles, Prince of Soubise
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Charles Prince of Soubise Spouse Anne Marie Louise de La Tour d'Auvergne
Princess Anna Teresa of Savoy
Landgravine Anna Viktoria of Hesse-RotenburgIssue Charlotte, Princess of Condé
Victoire, Princess of GuéménéeFull name Charles de Rohan Father Jules, Prince of Soubise Mother Anne Julie de Melun Born 16 July 1715
Palace of Versailles, FranceDied 1 July 1787 (aged 71)
Hôtel de Soubise, Paris, FranceCharles de Rohan (16 July 1715 – 1 July 1787), duke of Rohan-Rohan, seigneur of Roberval, and marshal of France from 1758, was a military man, a minister to the kings Louis XV and Louis XVI, and a notorious libertine. The last male of his branch of the House of Rohan, he was also the great grandfather to the duc d'Enghien, executed by Napoleon in 1804. Styled prince d'Epinoy at birth, he became the Prince of Soubise after 1749.
Contents
Biography
The prince was born at Versailles on 16 January 1715, the son of Jules, Prince of Soubise, lieutenant captain of the gendarmes of the Royal Guard, and of Anne Julie Adélaïde de Melun. The eldest of five children, he was styled the Prince of Epinoy till his fathers death in 1724.
His parents died in Paris of smallpox in 1724, remaining his siblings, including Marie Louise, making them orphans. His sister lost her husband to smallpox in 1743.
He was entrusted to his grandfather Hercule Mériadec, Duke of Rohan-Rohan, who raised Soubise to the court, where he became the companion of Louis XV, who was the same age as he. One of his great grandmother's was Madame de Ventadour, via his paternal grandmother Anne Genevieve de Levis; Madame de Ventadour, who died in 1744, was close to her great grandson.
He accompanied Louis XV in the campaign of 1744-1748 and attained high military rank, which owed more to his courtiership than to his generalship.
Soon after the beginning of the Seven Years' War, through the influence of Madame de Pompadour, he was put in command of a corps of 24,000 men, and in November 1757 he sustained the crushing defeat of Rossbach. Along with the failure to hold Hanover following the Invasion of Hanover (1757) this marked a dramatic turnaround for French fortunes as just months before they have seemed on the brink of victory.
He was more fortunate, however, in his later military career, and continued in the service until the general peace of 1763, after which he lived the life of an ordinary courtier and man of fashion in Paris.
"Soubise" also refers to a culinary dish with a sauce made with a rice and onion purée, named to compliment Charles de Rohan, prince of Soubise: see sauce Soubise.
Marriages
Charles married three times:
- Firstly in 1734 to Anne Marie Louise de La Tour d'Auvergne 1722 - 1739, daughter of Emmanuel Théodose de La Tour d'Auvergne and a grand daughter of the famous Marie Anne Mancini; Anne Marie Louise died in 1739 giving birth to a son who died in 1742. Their daughter was;
- Charlotte Élisabeth Godefride de Rohan 1737 - 1760 known as Charlotte. She married Louis Joseph de Bourbon, a Prince du Sang and descendant of Louis XIV of France and Madame de Montespan. Charlotte was the paternal grand mother of the murdered duc d'Enghien.
- In 1741 he married again this time to a Savoyard Princess named Anna Teresa 1717 - 1745, a daughter of the Prince of Carignan and Maria Vittoria Francesca of Savoy who in turn was an illegitimate daughter of Victor Amadeus II of Sardinia. Anna Teresa (known as Anne Thérèse de Savoie) gave birth to another daughter
- Victoire Armande Josèphe de Rohan 1743 - 1807. She married Henri Louis Marie de Rohan, Prince of Guéménée who was a cousin. Victoire was later the governess to the daughter of Marie Antoinette. Anne Thérèse died in 1745.
- The same year Charles married again to a German Princess, Landgravine Anne Victoire of Hesse-Rotenburg 1728 - 1792. Anna Viktoria was a niece of an old Princess of Condé, Landgravine Caroline of Hesse-Rotenburg. Anna Viktoria had no children.
References
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed (1911). Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.
Ancestry
Ancestors of Charles, Prince of Soubise 16. Hercule de Rohan, Duke of Montbazon 8. François de Rohan, Prince of Soubise 17. Marie de Bretagne d'Avaugour 4. Hercule Mériadec de Rohan, Duke of Rohan-Rohan 18. Henri Chabot, Duke of Rohan 9. Anne de Rohan-Chabot, Princess of Soubise 19. Marguerite de Rohan 2. Jules de Rohan, Prince of Soubise 20. Charles de Lévis, Duke of Ventadour 10. Louis Charles de Lévis, Duke of Ventadour 21. Marie de La Guiche 5. Anne Geneviève de Lévis 22. Philippe de La Mothe Houdancourt, Duke of Cardona 11. Charlotte de La Motte Houdancourt 23. Louise de Prie 1. Charles de Rohan, Prince of Soubise 24. Guillaume de Melun, Prince of Epinoy 12. Alexandre Guillaume de Melun, Prince of Epinoy 25. Princesse Ernestine d'Arenberg 6. Louis de Melun, Prince of Epinoy 26. Henri Chabot, Duke of Rohan =18 13. Jeanne Pelagie de Rohan-Chabot 27. Marguerite de Rohan =19 3. Anne Julie de Melun 28. Charles de Lorraine, Duke of Elbeuf 14. François Marie de Lorraine, Prince of Lillebonne 29. Catherine Henriette de Bourbon, Légitimée de France, "Mademoiselle de Vendôme" 7. Élisabeth Thérèse de Lorraine 30. Charles IV, Duke of Lorraine 15. Anne de Lorraine 31. Béatrix de Cusance Titles, styles, honours and arms
Titles and styles
- 16 July 1715 – 6 May 1724 His Highness the Prince of Epinoy
- 6 May 1724 – 4 July 1787 His Highness the Prince of Soubise
Categories:- 1715 births
- 1787 deaths
- People from Versailles
- House of Rohan
- Princes of Soubise
- Marshals of France
- Dukes of Joyeuse
- Dukes of Rohan-Rohan
- Princes of Epinoy
- Counts of St Pol
- Firstly in 1734 to Anne Marie Louise de La Tour d'Auvergne 1722 - 1739, daughter of Emmanuel Théodose de La Tour d'Auvergne and a grand daughter of the famous Marie Anne Mancini; Anne Marie Louise died in 1739 giving birth to a son who died in 1742. Their daughter was;
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