Father Louis de Bourbon Signature Grandparents Louis XIV of France | Religion Roman Catholicism Name Louise de | |
Born 23 June 1695
Palace of Versailles, France ( 1695-06-23 ) Burial Carmel du faubourg Saint-Jacques, Paris, France Mother Louise Francoise de Bourbon Died April 8, 1758, Paris, France Parents Louis, Prince of Conde, Louise Francoise de Bourbon, Duchess of Bourbon Cousins Duke of Orleans, Louise Elisabeth d'Orleans Aunts Francoise Marie de Bourbon Similar People Louise Francoise de Bourb, Louis - Prince of Conde, Louise Benedicte de Bourb, Francoise Marie de Bourbon, Francoise‑Athenais - marquise de Monte | ||
Louise Anne de Bourbon, Countess of Charolais (23 June 1695 – 8 April 1758) was a French noblewoman, the daughter of Louis de Bourbon, Prince of Conde. Her father was the grandson of le Grand Conde, while her mother, Louise Francoise de Bourbon, was the eldest surviving legitimised daughter of Louis XIV of France and his maitresse-en-titre, Madame de Montespan.
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Biography
Born at the Palace of Versailles, Louise Anne was the fourth child and third daughter of her parents. Her eldest sisters were Marie Anne Gabrielle Eleonore de Bourbon and Louise Elisabeth de Bourbon. She was baptised in the chapel of Versailles on 24 November 1698 with her brother Louis Henri and her sister Louise Elisabeth.
Louise Anne never married.
During the Regence of her cousin, Philippe II, Duke of Orleans, she became romantically involved with the Duke of Richelieu, a grandnephew of Cardinal Richelieu. At the same time, the Duke of Richelieu also began an affair with Louise Anne's first cousin, Charlotte Aglae d'Orleans, known at court as Mademoiselle de Valois. The two cousins, rivals in love, would later both fight fiercely, but separately, for the liberation of the duke from his incarceration in the Bastille due to his participation in the Cellamare Conspiracy.
At one time, she was considered as a possible bride for her cousin, Louis Auguste, Prince of Dombes, but she refused. Another proposed husband was the Duke of Chartres, the son of the Regent, and heir to the House of Orleans. His mother, however, wanted a more prestigious marriage for her son with a young German princess.
Voltaire, a friend of Richelieu, wrote the following verse concerning Louise-Anne:
Frere ange de Charolois Dis-nous par quelle aventure Le cordon de Saint Francois Sert a Venus de ceinture.As the years passed, Louise Anne constantly intrigued for political prominence. She would later help her cousin Louis XV in his search for new mistresses. It was common gossip at the time that Louise Anne was actually one of the king's former mistresses, while Louise Anne's older sister, Louise Elisabeth, introduced Madame de Pompadour to the French court in the 1740s.
Louise Anne's father died in 1710, eleven months after having inherited the title of Prince de Conde at the death of his own father. Her mother, who had built the Palais Bourbon in Paris, died in 1743 at the age of seventy. Since her first cousin, Louis d'Orleans, never had a daughter who survived into adulthood, Louise Anne became known at court by the style of Mademoiselle, which she held from 1728 when Louis' daughter, Louise Marie d'Orleans, died at the age of one.
Louise Anne owned several estates. In 1735, she became the owner of the Hotel de Rothelin-Charolais in Paris, which became her townhouse. She would later sell the lands at Vallery, in the Bourgogne province of France, which had been the traditional burial place of her Conde ancestors. She also owned various chateaux such as the one at Athis outside Paris. She later sold the estate of Charolais to the Crown and in return got land in Palaiseau, which further augmented her personal real estate holdings.
Louise Anne died in Paris, at the Hotel de Rothelin-Charolais, at the age of sixty-two. She was buried in the Carmelite Convent of the Faubourg Saint-Jacques. Her brother, Louis Henri, Duke of Bourbon, and her two sisters, Marie Anne de Bourbon and Elisabeth Alexandrine de Bourbon, were also buried there.