François de Bourbon, prince de Conti

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François de Bourbon, prince de Conti (1558 – 1614), third son of the marriage between Louis I de Bourbon, prince de Condé and Eleanor de Roye, was given the title of Marquis of Conti and between 1581 and 1597 was elevated to the rank of a Prince.

Conti, who belonged to the older faith, appears to have taken no part in the French Wars of Religion until 1587, when his distrust of Henry, third duke of Guise, caused him to declare against the League, and to support his cousin Henry of Navarre, afterwards King Henry IV of France.

In 1589 after the murder of Henry III of France, he was one of the two princes of the blood who signed the declaration recognizing Henry IV as king, and he continued to support Henry, although on the death of Charles cardinal de Bourbon in 1590 he himself was mentioned as a candidate for the throne.

In 1605 Conti, whose first wife Jeanne de Coeme, heiress of Bonnétable, had died in 1601, married Louise Marguerite of Lorraine-Guise (1574-1631), daughter of Duke Henry of Guise and Catherine of Cleves, who was wished for as Queen by Henry of France. Conti died in 1614. His only child Marie having predeceased him in 1610, the title of Prince de Conti lapsed. She was only 3 weeks old.

He also had an illegitimate son Nicolas de Conti (died 1648), abbot of Gramont

His widow followed the fortunes of Maria de' Medici, from whom she received many marks of favour, and was secretly married to François de Bassompierre, who joined her in conspiring against Cardinal Richelieu. Upon the exposure of the plot the cardinal exiled her to her estate at Eu, near Amiens, where she died. The princess wrote Aventures de la cour de Perse, in which, under the veil of fictitious scenes and names, she tells the history of her own time.