Name Landgravine of | ||
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Burial Carmel du faubourg Saint-Jacques, Paris, France Issue Louis Joseph, Prince of Conde Father Ernest Leopold, Landgrave of Hesse-Rotenburg Mother Eleonore of Lowenstein-Wertheim Died June 14, 1741, Hotel de Conde, Paris, France Spouse Louis Henri, Duke of Bourbon (m. 1728–1740) Children Louis Joseph, Prince of Conde Parents Eleonore of Lowenstein-Wertheim, Ernest Leopold, Landgrave of Hesse-Rotenburg Grandchildren Louis Henri, Prince of Conde, Louise Adelaide de Bourbon Grandparents Maximilian Karl Albert, Prince of Lowenstein-Wertheim-Rochefort | ||
Princess Caroline of Hesse-Rheinfels-Rotenburg (18 August 1714 – 14 June 1741) was the consort of Louis Henri, Duke of Bourbon.
Contents
Biography
Born at Rotenburg an der Fulda in Hesse, Germany, she was the daughter of Ernest Leopold, Landgrave of Hesse-Rotenburg, head of the Roman Catholic branch of the House of Hesse, by his wife Countess Eleonore of Lowenstein-Wertheim-Rochefort. She was one of 10 children.
On 24 July 1728 she married Louis Henri, Duke of Bourbon at Sarry in France. Louis Henri was a French prince of the Blood Royal and head of the House of Conde, a branch of the House of Bourbon. Maternally, he was a grandson of Louis XIV of France through his mother, one of the king's legitimated daughters. By the time of his second marriage to Caroline, Louis Henri had lost the sight of one eye and the attractive slenderness his height bestowed upon him in youth. After marriage she was known at the French court as Madame la Duchesse.
The previous Princess of Conde had been Marie Anne de Bourbon and had died eight years before the marriage between Caroline and Louis Henri. Caroline was alleged to have been pretty and to have been included on a list of possible wives for Louis XV of France, but had been removed on account of her bad temper. When her husband was banished to his estates in 1725, Madame la Duchesse was obliged to withdraw with him to the Chateau de Chantilly until Monsieur le Duc was pardoned and the couple were allowed to resume attendance at the royal court again in 1730, where they lived quietly at the Hotel de Conde. The couple had one child eight years into their marriage:
Her husband died at the Chateau de Chantilly on 27 January 1740, in the same year the future Marquis de Sade was born at the Hotel de Conde; his mother was Caroline's lady in waiting. Caroline died in Paris in June 1741 and was buried at the Carmel du faubourg Saint-Jacques in Paris.
In 1767 her niece, Princess Maria Luisa of Savoy, would come to France to marry the young Louis Alexandre de Bourbon. She would become the great friend of Marie Antoinette as the princesse de Lamballe and be murdered by a revolutionary mob in Paris during the September Massacres of 1792.
In 1745 another of her nieces, Princess Viktoria of Hesse-Rheinfels-Rotenburg, would marry Charles, Prince of Soubise, head of the junior branch of the House of Rohan and father of Charlotte de Rohan, who would also marry a Prince of Conde.