Marie Anne de Bourbon, Duchess of Vendôme

This article is about the Duchess of Vendôme. For the daughter of Louis XIV of France, see Marie Anne de Bourbon.

Marie Anne
Duchess of Vendôme
Marie Anne in c.1710 by Etienne Jahandier Desrochers
Spouse	Louis Joseph, Duke of Vendôme
Full name
Marie Anne de Bourbon
Father	Henri III Jules, Prince of Condé
Mother	Anne Henriette of Bavaria
Born	24 February 1678(1678-02-24) Hôtel de Condé, Paris, France
Died	11 April 1718(1718-04-11) (aged 40) Hôtel de Vendôme, Paris, France
Burial	Carmelite Convent of the Faubourg Saint-Jacques, Paris, France

Marie Anne de Bourbon (24 February 1678 – 11 April 1718^[1]) was the daughter of the Prince of Condé and a Bavarian princess by birth. As a member of the reigning House of Bourbon, she was a Princesse du Sang. She was the duchesse de Vendôme by marriage. She was the Duchess of Étampes in her own right.

Biography

Born in Paris in 1678, she was ninth child of her parents and in her youth was known as Mademoiselle de Montmorency - a style which was derived from one of her grandfathers titles. Her father, the Duke of Bourbon, was the eldest surviving son of le Grand Condé - the famous general and the First Prince of the Blood. One of the last of her many siblings to marry, she was the sister-in-law to the:

• Louise Françoise de Bourbon - eldest surviving daughter of Louis XIV of France and Madame de Montespan and wife of Louis de Bourbon, Duke of Bourbon (later Prince of Condé);
• Louis Auguste de Bourbon - Her younger sister Anne Louise Bénédicte de Bourbon married her brother's brother-in-law in 1692.

Her siblings were:

• Marie Thérèse de Bourbon (1 February 1666 – 22 February 1732);
• Henri de Bourbon, Duke of Bourbon: (5 November 1667 – 5 July 1670);
• Louis de Bourbon, future Prince of Condé: (10 November 1668 – 4 March 1710);
• Anne de Bourbon (1670 - 27 May 1675);
• Henri de Bourbon (1672–1675);
• Louis Henri de Bourbon (9 November - 1673 - 1675);
• Anne Marie de Bourbon, (11 August 1675 – 23 October 1700);
• Anne Louise Bénédicte de Bourbon (8 November 1676 – 23 January 1753);
• X de Bourbon (1679–1680).

At the birth of her niece in 1697, her she would share her name with Marie Anne de Bourbon (1697–1741). In 1704, her father had wanted her to marry Ferdinand Charles Gonzaga, Duke of Mantua and Montferrat but the proposal did not materialise and Ferdinand Charles instead married Suzanne Henriette de Lorraine known as Mademoiselle d'Elbeuf.

Reputedly very ugly, her father died leaving her unmarried; her brother who became the Prince of Condé in 1709, died the next year not having helped the poor Marie Anne marry. She could have married the duc du Maine but he preferred Anne Louise Bénédicte to Marie Anne and their tiny sister Anne Marie.

Marie Anne was engaged to marry her distant cousin, the old Duke of Vendôme. Born Louis Joseph de Bourbon, he was the great-grandson of Henry IV of France and his mistress Gabrielle d'Estrées. He had been orphaned at the age of 15 and had inherited a vast fortune which had been handed down from his great-grand mother, the Duchess of Mercœur and Penthièvre in her own right.

The marriage ceremony occurred at the chapel at the Château de Sceaux on 21 May 1710. Sceaux was the residence of her older sister Anne Louise Bénédicte. Marie Anne was aged 32; her husband was aged 56. Her husband, a famous general was a Marshal of France and was also the First Prince of the Blood of Spain. This meant, that should the then King Philip V of Spain die, then Louis Joseph would become the king of Spain. The marriage remained sterile; this may have been due to the homosexual tendencies of her husband. Vendôme had been a lover of Marie Anne's own brother in law the Prince of Conti (husband of her oldest sister Marie Thérèse de Bourbon).

Marie Anne had previously lived at the Parisian Hôtel de Condé, where she had been born, with her father who was abusive to her as well as her mother, the pious Anne Henriette of Bavaria. He frequently beat them and had very bad hygiene. Her marriage came about with the help of her sister Anne Louise Bénédicte de Bourbon, duchesse du Maine who had the marriage carried out in their presence without the permission of the Dowager Princess of Condé (mother of Marie Anne) and Dowager Duchess of Bourbon (Marie Anne's sister in law).

He died in 1712 leaving Marie Anne a widow till her early death in 1718 aged 40 in Paris. Despite Louis XIV had given permission for the marriage, the duc and duchesse du Maine carried out the marriage. Even though the Dowager Princess of Condé was not informed of the marriage, she was present at the bedding ceremony at Sceaux along with Louis Henri, Duke of Bourbon; his wife Marie Anne de Bourbon;^[2] the Dowager Princess of Conti and her children the Prince of Conti and Mademoiselle de La Roche-sur-Yon. Also present were the Maine couple with their children the prince de Dombes and the comte d'Eu.

Two days after the marriage, Vendôme left his wife at Sceaux to retire to the Château d'Anet. There was no royal compliment for Marie Anne.

She was buried in the Carmelite Convent of the Faubourg Saint-Jacques, in Paris.^[3]

Her husband left her the title Duchess of Étampes and its lands. She held this in her own right and when she died, it went to her niece, the Princess of Conti.

In her widowhood the Dowager Duchess extended the Hôtel de Vendôme in Paris. Previoulsy, the hotel had been built as one of the projects that the famous Jean-Baptiste Alexandre Le Blond who had also worked on the Château de Saint-Cloud. It was in 1714 that Marie Anne began improvements. It was at the Hôtel de Vendôme that she died.

• Hôtel de Vendôme (Hôtel de Chaulnes, 1733 to 1758), (rue d'Enfer to the "Boulevard Saint-Michel"), 1706–1707, for Antoine de La Porte, canon of Notre-Dame, backing onto the Jardin du Luxembourg (today houseing the "École nationale supérieure des mines de Paris").

Ancestry

Titles, styles, honours and arms

Titles and styles

• 24 February 1678 – 21 May 1710 Her Serene Highness Mademoiselle de Montmorency^[4]
• 21 May 1710 – 11 June 1712 Her Serene Highness the Duchess of Vendôme
• 11 June 1712 – 11 April 1718 Her Serene Highness the Dowager Duchess of Vendôme (duchesse de Vendôme Douairière)

References and notes

1. ^ [1]
2. ^ niece of Marie Anne as daughter of Marie Thérèse de Bourbon, Dowager Princess of Conti
3. ^ [2]
4. ^ http://www.heraldica.org/topics/france/frroyal.htm#sang Style of HSH and further information on Princes of the Blood - Other princes of the blood were only entitled to Most Serene Highness (Altesse Sérénissime) from 1651 to 1824, when they received the style of Royal Highness

Marie Anne de Bourbon, Duchess of Vendôme House of Bourbon Born: 24 February 1678 Died: 11 April 1718
French nobility
Preceded by Louis Joseph de Bourbon, Duke of Vendôme	Duchess of Étampes 1712–1718	Succeeded by Louise Élisabeth de Bourbon

See also

	Europe portal
	Biography portal

Persondata
Name	Bourbon, Marie Anne De
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	24 February 1678
Place of birth	Hôtel de Condé, Paris, France
Date of death	11 April 1718
Place of death	Hôtel de Vendôme, Paris, France