Charles de Rohan, prince de Soubise
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Charles de Rohan, prince de Soubise (July 16, 1715 — July 4, 1787), duke of Rohan-Rohan, seigneur of Roberval, and marshal of France from 1758, was a military man, a minister to the kings Louis XV and Louis XVI, and a notorious libertine. The last male of his branch of the House of Rohan, he was also the great grandfather to the duc d'Enghien, executed by Napoleon in 1804.
The prince was born at Versailles on 16 January 1715, the son of Jules François Louis de Rohan, prince de Soubise, lieutenant captain of the gendarmes of the Royal Guard, and of Anne-Julie-Adélaïde de Melun. His parents died in Paris of smallpox in 1724, remaining a sister, Madame de Marsan, making them orphans. He was entrusted to his grandfather Hercule, who raised Soubise to the court, where he became the companion of Louis XV, who was the same age as he.
He accompanied Louis XV in the campaign of 1744-1748 and attained high military rank, which owed more to his courtiership than to his generalship. Soon after the beginning of the Seven Years' War, through the influence of Madame de Pompadour, he was put in command of a corps of 24,000 men, and in November 1757 he sustained the crushing defeat of Rossbach.
He was more fortunate, however, in his later military career, and continued in the service until the general peace of 1763, after which he lived the life of an ordinary courtier and man of fashion in Paris.
He had two daughters:
- Charlotte Élisabeth Godefride de Rohan 1737 - 1760, married Louis Joseph de Bourbon, Prince de Condé.
- Victoire Armande Josèphe 1743 - 1807, married Henri Louis Marie de Rohan, Prince de Guéménée.
"Soubise" also refers to a culinary dish with a sauce made with a rice and onion purée, named to compliment Charles de Rohan, prince of Soubise: see sauce Soubise.
[edit] References
- This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.
