Marie de Bourbon, Countess of Soissons

Marie
Princess of Carignano Countess of Soissons
Spouse	Thomas Francis, Prince of Carignano
Detail Issue
Louise Christine, Margravine of Baden-Baden Prince Eugène Maurice of Savoy Emmanuel Philibert, Prince of Carignano
Full name
Marie Marguerite de Bourbon
Father	Charles de Bourbon, comte de Soissons
Mother	Anne de Montafié
Born	3 May 1606(1606-05-03) Hôtel de Soissons, Paris, France
Died	3 June 1692(1692-06-03) (aged 86) Hôtel de Soissons, Paris, France

Marie de Bourbon, Countess of Soissons (3 May 1606 – 3 June 1692) was the wife of Thomas Francis, Prince of Carignano.

Biography

Marie Marguerite de Bourbon was born at the Hôtel de Soissons in Paris, was the second daughter and youngest child of Charles de Bourbon, comte de Soissons and his wife Anne de Montafié. At the court of Louis XIII, Marie, as a member of the House of Bourbon-Condé, enjoyed the rank of princesse du sang.

On 6 January 1625 Marie was married to Thomas Francis, ninth child of Charles Emmanuel I, Duke of Savoy and his wife Infanta Catherine Michelle of Spain. It was arranged that Thomas, as son of a reigning monarch, would hold the rank of first among the princes étrangers at the French court—taking precedence even before the formerly all-powerful House of Guise, whose kinship to the sovereign Duke of Lorraine was more remote.^[1] He was appointed Grand Master of France of the king's household, briefly replacing the traitorous Louis II de Bourbon, Prince de Condé. He engaged the services of the distinguished grammarian and courtier Claude Favre de Vaugelas as tutor for his children.

After Thomas, the senior branch of his descendants repatriated to Savoy, alternately marrying French, Italian and German princesses.

After the Bourbons obtained the French crown and the Princes de Condé and their heirs apparent became known (by right of their rank as premier princes du sang), respectively, as Monsieur le prince and Monsieur le duc, Charles came to be styled Monsieur le comte at court.^[2] That honorific was borne also by his son Louis and, subsequently, by the Savoy-Carignano counts of Soissons, who inherited the countship from Charles's daughter, Marie, princesse de Carignano, even though they ranked as princes étrangers in France rather than as princes du sang.^[3]

At the death of her older brother Louis de Bourbon (6 July 1641), Marie was named his heir and became the Countess of Soissons suo jure. She lived in her native France with her husband and resided at the Hôtel de Soissons where she was born. It was Marie who built the small Château de Bagnolet in Paris; at her death the building was acquired by the Ferme générale François Le Juge. In 1719 it became the property of Françoise-Marie de Bourbon. Marie and her daughter helped to raise the famous Prince Eugene of Savoy, the famous soldier.

Family

Thomas and Marie had seven children who survived infancy (Italian names in parentheses):

• Carignano line
  • Princess Cristine Charlotte of Savoy (born and died in 1626)
  • Princess Louise Christine of Savoy (1627–1689)
  • Emmanuel Philibert Amadeus of Savoy (1628–1709), 2nd prince de Carignan
  • Prince Amedeo of Savoy (1629 – died young)
  • Prince Joseph-Emmanuel (1631–1656), comte de Soissons
  • Prince Ferdinand of Savoy (1637)
• Soissons Line
  • Prince Eugène Maurice of Savoy (1633–1673)

Ancestors

References

1. ^ Spanheim, Ézéchiel (1973). ed. Emile Bourgeois. ed (in French). Relation de la Cour de France. le Temps retrouvé. Paris: Mercure de France. pp. 107. 
2. ^ Velde, François. "The French Royal Family: Titles and Customs". Heraldica.org. http://www.heraldica.org/topics/france/frroyal.htm#address. Retrieved 3 April 2008. 
3. ^ Spanheim, Ézéchiel (1973). ed. Emile Bourgeois. ed (in French). Relation de la Cour de France. le Temps retrouvé. Paris: Mercure de France. pp. 323, 107–108.