House of la Tour d'Auvergne

La Tour d'Auvergne was a French noble family. Its senior branch, extinct in 1501, held the titles of count of Auvergne and count of Boulogne for about half a century. Its junior branch, extinct in 1802, held the title of duke of Bouillon since 1594 and the titles of duke of Albret and duke of Château-Thierry since 1651. The name was also adopted by the famous soldier Théophile Corret de la Tour d'Auvergne, who was descended from an illegitimate branch of the family.

Senior line: counts of Auvergne and Boulogne

Although various La Tours are mentioned in the documents from the 11th and 12th century, the family history remains unclear until the 13th century, when they owned the lordship of la Tour in the county of Auvergne, hence the name.

The medieval family was related through marriages to other notable dynasties of the French South, including Ventadour, La Rochefoucauld, and Levis-Mirepoix.

The la Tours d'Auvergne maintained close ties with the Avignon popes, and many of them became bishops and cardinals, particularly after 1352, when Guy de la Tour married Marthe Rogier of Beaufort, Popes Gregory XI's niece and Clement VI's grand niece. Their son Bertrand IV of la Tour (1375-1423) married a rich heiress, Marie of Auvergne, in 1389, with their son Bertrand V de la Tour succeeding to the counties of Auvergne and of Boulogne in 1437.

Bertrand V's grandson Jean III of la Tour d'Auvergne (1467-1501) was the last medieval count of Auvergne, Boulogne, and Lauraguais. By his marriage to Jeanne of Bourbon-Vendôme, he left only two daughters:

* The elder, Anne of la Tour d'Auvergne, married John Stuart, duke of Albany. they had a son John Stewart, she was married secondly to Louis de Seyssel Count de la Chambre, they had 5 sons, the fourth, Phillippe de la Chambre became Cardinal de Boulogne
* The younger, Madeleine of la Tour d'Auvergne, married Lorenzino de Medici and gave birth to Catherine de' Medici, who inherited both Auvergne and Boulogne. And became Queen of France.

The cadet line of this family, extinct in 1497, also owned the lordship of Montgascon. Anne of la Tour d'Auvergne, the last of her race and heiress to this lordship, married three times:

* firstly, in 1506, to Charles of Bourbon, count of Roussillon.
* secondly, in 1510, to John of Montmorency, lord of Chantilly.
* thirdly, in 1518, to her distant cousin, Francis II of la Tour, viscount of Turenne. For her issue by the last marriage, see below.

Junior line: viscounts of Turenne and princes of Sedan

and several other seigneuries, was the author of the junior line of the family.

He died in 1329 and was buried in Clermont-Ferrand. His great grandson William of la Tour became bishop of Rodez and catholic Patriarch of Antioch. The latter's nephew, Agne IV of Oliergues, married in 1444 his cousin, viscountess Anne of Beaufort, succeeding to the viscounty of Turenne upon her death.

Among his children, the younger, Antony Raymond, lord of Murat, became the ancestor of the obscure line of "la Tour-Apchier", which rose to prominence shortly before its extinction in the 19th century.

and mother of his natural children.

Francis II of la Tour d'Auvergne, viscount of Turenne (1497-1532) was the eldest son of Anthony of la Tour and husband of Anne of la Tour de Montgascon (see above). Their grandson, Henry of la Tour d'Auvergne (1555-1623), is remembered as a faithful adherent of Henri IV's Huguenot cause and Marshal of France. His first wife was Charlotte of la Marck, heiress to the principality of Sedan and to the duchy of Bouillon. Upon her death, Henry inherited her titles and dominions and remarried Elisabeth of Orange-Nassau, William the Silent's daughter.

Hoping to succeed the Orange rulers of the Netherlands, their son and heir Frederic Maurice of la Tour d'Auvergne (1605-1652) remained in the Dutch service until his marriage to Eleonore-Catherine of Berghes, which was effected against his family's wishes in 1634 and led to his conversion to Catholicism.

Compromised in the Cinq-Mars conspiracy, he was pardoned on condition that he would exchange his principalities of Sedan, Jametz, and Raucourt - highly important strategically - for the titles of duke of Albret and duke of Château-Thierry in the French peerage. This exchange was formalized in 1651. Although Frederic Maurice was promised to take rank from the original creation of the duchy of Château-Thierry for Robert III of la Marck in 1527, this could never be effected due to vocal opposition of other dukes-peers.

Frederic Maurice's younger brother was viscount Henry of Turenne (1611-1675), undoubtedly the most illustrious member of this family and one of the most successful French generals ever. Hailed by Napoleon as the greatest military leader in history, Turenne was buried at Saint-Denis among the kings. Both he and his brother enjoyed the rank and precedence of foreign prince in the French peerage.

Later history: Dukes of Bouillon and Albret

Frederic-Maurice's son, Godefroy Maurice de La Tour d'Auvergne (1641-1721), was the first to become a truly sovereign duke of Bouillon. This happened in 1678, when the Duchy of Bouillon was finally reconquered by Marshal de Créqui from the Spaniards. Apart from his ducal titles, Godefroy-Maurice held the titles of Count of Évreux, Armagnac, Beaumont, etc, was made Grand-Chambellan in 1658 and governor of Auvergne in 1662. All these titles would remain in the la Tour d'Auvergne family for more than a century.

Godefroy-Maurice's younger brother, Count Frederic Maurice d'Auvergne (1642-1707), was a prominent general in the Dutch service. He married Henrietta von Hohenzollern (1648-1698), heiress to the marquessate of Bergen-op-Zoom, which passed to their children. After the line went extinct in 1732, Bergen devolved upon Count Palatine Johann Christian von Sulzbach (1700-1733), who had married an heiress, Marie Anne de La Tour d'Auvergne, in 1722.

Godefroy-Maurice's wife, Marie Anne Mancini (1649-1714), best remembered for her literary pursuits and for her patronage of La Fontaine, was a niece of Cardinal Mazarin. Their eldest son Louis married an heiress to the Duchy of Ventadour but predeceased his parents. The Duchy of Bouillon and other titles passed to their second son, Emmanuel Théodose (1668-1730), whose four wives included Princess de Lorraine-Guise. Another son, Prince Frédéric-Jules d'Auvergne (1672-1733) married an Irish adventuress.

Charles Godefroy de La Tour d'Auvergne (1706-1771) was Emmanuel-Théodose's son and the 5th Duke of Bouillon. His wife was Maria Karolina Sobieska, the Polish king's granddaughter and his own brother's widow. Their only daughter, Marie Louise Henriette Jeanne, was a famous adventuress, guillotined in 1793. Although officially married to Jules de Rohan, Duc de Montbazon, she also had a son who died as an infant by her cousin, Charles Edward Stuart, Jacobite claimant to the thrones of England and Scotland.

Her brother, Godefroy Charles Henri de La Tour d'Auvergne (1728-1792), was the 6th Duke of Bouillon. He served with distinction in the Seven Years' War and was elected to the Royal Academy of Sculpture and Painting in 1777. In just three months, he squandered almost a million livres on his mistress, an opera singer, thus bringing his family to the verge of ruin. Although the 6th duke embraced the French Revolution enthusiastically, the Duchy of Bouillon was annexed by the Republic within three years after his death. His only son, Jacques Léopold Charles Godefroy, incapacitated by a road accident, died in 1802, leaving no issue of his marriage to a Princess of Hesse-Rheinfels. As a consequence, the main line of the La Tour d'Auvergne family went extinct.

Bouillon Succession

In 1780 the 6th Duke of Bouillon contracted an acquaintance with a certain Philip Dauvergne, a British naval officer imprisoned in France. As a family legend has it, the Dauvergne family represented a collateral branch of the ancient Counts of Auvergne, which had moved to the island of Jersey sometime in the 13th century. In 1787, the 6th Duke recognized this legendary connection and adopted Philip Dauvergne, calling on him to succeed his own son in the case the latter were to die without male issue.

In 1809 Napoleon endorsed an arrangement, whereby the La Tour estates and liabilities pertaining to the 1651 exchange devolved upon the French State. Their chateau at Navarre and Hôtel d'Évreux in Paris passed to Empress Josephine and her relatives. The Parisian residence was subsequently renamed into the Élysée Palace and currently serves as the official residence of the President of France. As for the Duchy of Bouillon, its citizens recognized Philip Dauvergne as their legitimate ruler and duke.

The Congress of Vienna, however, awarded the sovereignty of the duchy to the king of the Netherlands, whereas the real estate of the former dukes was to be attributed by a special arbitration either to Philip Dauvergne or to an Austrian claimant, Charles-Alain-Gabriel de Rohan-Guéméné, who was the last duke's closest relative on the paternal side. The issue was eventually settled in Rohan's favor, and Philip Dauvergne committed suicide two months later.

In 1817 Rohan was sued by other claimants to the La Tour heritage - Duc de Bourbon, Duc de La Tremoille, Princesse de Bourbon-Condé, and Princesse de Poix - all related to the 7th duke of Bouillon on their maternal side. Seven years later, their claims were upheld by the court in Liège, and Rohan had to step down.

In the 1820s, the La Tour name and inheritance were disputed by the families of La Tour d'Auvergne d'Apchier, which represented the last surviving line of the La Tour d'Auvergne before its eventual extinction in 1896, and La Tour d'Auvergne-Lauragais, whose origins apparently lie elsewhere.

References

* [http://genealogy.euweb.cz/french/delatour1.html Genealogy of the House of La Tour d'Auvergne]
* [http://www.heraldica.org/topics/france/bouillon.htm Account of the Duchy of Bouillon, by François Velde]