- Marie of Cleves, Princess of Condé
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"Marie de Clèves" redirects here. For the duchess of Orléans, see Maria of Cleves, Duchess of Orléans.
Marie of Cleves or of Nevers (Marie de Clèves, Marie de Nevers) (1553–1574), by marriage the Princess of Condé, was the wife of Henry, Prince of Condé, and an early love interest of King Henry III of France. She was the last child of Francis I of Cleves, Duke of Nevers, and Margaret of Bourbon-Vendôme, elder sister of Antoine of Navarre.
Her older sisters were Henriette of Cleves and Catherine of Cleves.[1] King Henry IV of France was her maternal first cousin, and Anne of Cleves, the fourth wife of Henry VIII of England, was her second cousin once removed. Her brothers-in-law were Henry I, Duke of Guise and Louis Gonzaga, Duke of Nevers.
She was brought up by her aunt Queen Joan III of Navarre, who raised her as a Calvinist. In 1572 she married in a Calvinist ceremony her first cousin, Henri I de Bourbon, prince de Condé, duc d'Enghien. A few months later, after the St. Batholomew massacre, the couple had forcibly been converted to Roman Catholicism and remarried according to Catholic rites. When her husband fled the court and rejoined the Protestant cause, she refused and stayed behind at court remaining a Catholic the rest of her life.
Known for her beauty, Marie caught the eye of the young Henry, Duke of Anjou, the future Henry III of France, sometime before 1574. Upon ascending the throne later that year, Henry intended to procure Marie a divorce from her husband and marry her himself; however, Marie died before he could implement his plan. Sources vary on her cause of death but it is given as either a lung infection or complications from childbirth as Marie had recently given birth to her and Henry's first child, Catherine (1574-1595), Marquise d'Isles.
Henry would go on to remarry Charlotte de la Trémoille (1568−1629), while the now King Henry III would mourn for several months and eventually marry Louise de Lorraine-Vaudémont, who greatly resembled Marie.
Ancestry
Ancestors of Marie of Cleves, Princess of Condé 16. Jean I, Duc de Clèves 8. Engelbert de Clèves, Comte de Nevers 17. Elizabeth de Nevers 4. Charles II de Clèves, Comte de Nevers 18. Jean VIII, Comte de Vendôme = 24 9. Charlotte de Bourbon-Vendôme 19. Isabelle de Beauvau = 25 2. François I de Clèves, Duc de Nevers 20. Arnaud Amanieu d'Albret, Seigneur d'Orval 10. Jean d'Albret, Seigneur d'Orval 21. Isabelle de La Tour d'Auvergne 5. Marie d'Albret, Comtesse de Rethel 22. Jean II, Comte de Nevers et de Rethel 11. Charlotte de Nevers, Comtesse de Rethel 23. Pauline de Bosse-Bretagne 1. Marie of Cleves 24. Jean VIII, Comte de Vendôme = 18 12. François I, Comte de Vendôme 25. Isabelle de Beauvau = 19 6. Charles IV de Bourbon, Duc de Vendôme 26. Pierre II de Luxembourg 13. Marie de Luxembourg 27. Marguerite of Savoy 3. Marguerite de Bourbon-Vendôme 28. Jean II, Duc d'Alençon 14. René de Valois, Duc d'Alençon 29. Marie d'Armagnac 7. Françoise d'Alençon 30. Ferry II de Vaudémont 15. Marguerite de Lorraine 31. Yolande d'Anjou References
- ^ thePeerage.com
Sources
The generations start from the children of Charles de Bourbon Duke of Vendôme, from whom are descended all Bourbons after ca 1513 1st Generation 2nd Generation Marie de Clèves^ · Charlotte Catherine de La Trémoille^ · Jeanne de Coeme · Louise Marguerite de Lorraine3rd Generation 4th Generation 5th Generation Countess Palatine Anne Henriette Julie of Simmern^ · Anna Maria Martinozzi · Marie Thérèse de Bourbon*6th Generation 7th Generation Margravine Johanna of Baden-Baden^ · Marie Anne de Bourbon* · Landgravine Caroline of Hesse-Rotenburg · Louise Élisabeth de Bourbon* · Maria Teresa Felicitas d'Este8th Generation Louise Henriette de Bourbon^* · Charlotte de Rohan · Maria Caterina Brignole · Princess Maria Luisa of Savoy · Louise Diane d'Orléans*9th Generation 10th Generation ^wife of the First Prince of the Blood
*Already Princess of the blood in her own rightCategories:- 1553 births
- 1574 deaths
- House of La Marck
- Princesses of Condé
- Princesses of the Blood
- House of Bourbon
- Duchesses of Enghien
- Converts to Roman Catholicism from Calvinism
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