Spouse Victoire de Rohan House House of Rohan | Name Henri Prince | |
Born 30 August 1745
Paris, France ( 1745-08-30 ) Died 24 April 1809(1809-04-24) (aged 63)
Prague, Czech Republic Issue
Detail Charles Alain, Prince of Guemene
Marie Louise Josephine, Princess of Rochefort
Louis Victor, Duke of Bouillon Father Jules, Prince of Guemene Mother Marie Louise de La Tour d\'Auvergne | ||
Henri Louis de Rohan, Prince of Guéméné (Henri Louis Marie; 30 August 1745 – 24 April 1809), was a French courtier and the penultimate Grand Chamberlain of France.
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Biography
Henri Louis was born in Paris, a member of the House of Rohan, which claimed ancestry relating to the Dukes of Brittany. He was the only son of the family's main branch chief, Jules Hercule Mériadec de Rohan, Prince of Guéméné, whereas his mother Marie Louise Henriette Jeanne de La Tour d'Auvergne (daughter of Charles Godefroy de La Tour d'Auvergne) had an illegitimate child with her lover, Charles Edward Stuart.
On 15 January 1761, he married his second cousin, Victoire Armande Josèphe de Rohan, daughter of Charles de Rohan, Prince de Soubise and Princess Anna Teresa of Savoy. The couple had five children, four of whom survived into adult age. The family owned the Hôtel de Rohan-Guémené on the Place des Vosges.
In 1775 Henri Louis was appointed Grand Chamberlain of France by Louis XVI, inasmuch as his uncle Godefroy Charles Henri de La Tour d'Auvergne, duke of Bouillon gave up that charge. The Princess of Guéméné also inherited a charge; she was appointed Governess of Royal Children.
From 1780's on Henri Louis and his family was involved in personal and political scandals. In 1782, Henri Louis's mistress, Countess Thérèse Lucy de Dillon, the first wife of Arthur Dillon and a friend of his wife, succumbed to tuberculosis at 30 years; in the same year the Prince declared bankruptcy, with a debt of 33 million livres. He and Victoire abdicated their charges at the court and left Versailles. Their properties were sold, including the Hôtel de Rohan-Guéméné and their Mansion at Montreuil.
At the death of his father in law, he was the legal heir to the title Prince of Soubise.
During the French Revolution, Henri Louis and his father, wife and children fled to Habsburg Monarchy, where he in Prague died in 1809, at the age 63 years (later in 1820 his family bought Sychrov Castle, where they built residence). However, his mother was guillotined in 1793.