Francoise d'Orléans-Longueville

Françoise
Princess of Condé
Spouse Louis de Bourbon
Issue
Charles, Count of Soissons
Full name
Françoise d'Orléans
Father François d'Orléans
Mother Jacqueline de Rohan
Born 5 April 1549
Châteaudun, France
Died 11 June 1601 (aged 52)
Paris, France
Religion Roman Catholic (formerly Huguenot)

Françoise d'Orléans (5 April[1] 1549 – 11 June 1601) was the second wife of Louis I de Bourbon, prince de Condé, a "Prince du Sang" and leader of the Huguenots during the French Wars of Religion.

Contents

Family

Françoise was born on 5 April 1549 in Châteaudun, France. She was the only daughter of François d'Orléans–Longueville, Marquis de Rothelin, Prince of Chalet-Aillon, Viscount of Melun, and Jacqueline de Rohan, Marquise de Rothelin.[2] Her father had died on 25 October 1548, less than six months before her birth.

Her paternal grandparents were Louis I, Duke of Longueville, Sovereign Count of Neuchâtel, Prince of Chatel-Aillon, and Johanna of Baden-Hochberg, Sovereign Countess of Neuchâtel and Margravine of Rothelin, and her maternal grandparents were Charles de Rohan, Viscount of Fronsac and Jeanne de Saint-Séverin.

Françoise had an older brother, Leonor, Duke of Longueville, Duke of Estouteville, and Prince du Sang (1540–1573), who married, in 1563, Marie d'Estouteville (1539–1601), by whom he had issue, including Henri I, 8th Duke of Longueville.

Françoise's cousin, François de Longueville was the uterine half-brother of Mary, Queen of Scots. Her maternal aunt, Claude de Thoury de Rohan-Gyé, was a mistress of King Francis I of France.

Marriage and issue

On 8 November 1565, in the Château de Vendôme, Françoise married Louis I de Bourbon, Prince de Condé, the youngest brother of King Antoine of Navarre and a Huguenot general. This made Francoise the sister-in-law of the powerful Jeanne d'Albret, who was queen regnant of Navarre and the spiritual leader of the Huguenots. Condé's first wife, Eléanor de Roucy de Roye, had died in 1564. Together he and Francoise had three sons:

Death of Condé

On 13 March 1569, her husband was slain at the Battle of Jarnac when the Huguenot forces were defeated by the Catholic forces led by Marshal Gaspard de Saulx, sieur de Tavannes, and the Duke of Anjou, who would later rule as King Henry III.[3] Françoise was left a widow shortly before her 20th birthday, and she chose not to remarry.

After the night of the St. Bartholomew's Day massacre on 23 August 1572, she and her sons quickly converted to Roman Catholicism to avoid persecution and possible assassination.

Françoise died in Paris on 11 June 1601 at the age of 52, and was buried at Gaillon.

The House of Savoy-Carignan descended from Françoise through her son Charles.[4]

Ancestry

References

  1. ^ Père Anselme, Histoire des Rois de France.
  2. ^ Europäische Stammtafeln, page 32.
  3. ^ Mark Strage Women of Power, p. 142
  4. ^ Père Anselme, Histoire des Rois de France.

Sources

  1. Europäische Stammtafeln
  2. Mark Strage, Women of Power, published by Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1976
  3. Genealogy.Eu
  4. Père Anselme, Histoire des Rois de France
Eléanor de Roucy de Roye (1551-1564)  · Françoise d'Orléans (1565-1569)  · Marie of Cleves (1572-1574)  · Charlotte Catherine de La Trémoille (1586-1588)  · Charlotte Marguerite de Montmorency (1609-1646)  · Claire Clémence de Maillé (1646-1686)  · Anne Henriette of Bavaria (1686-1709)  · Louise Françoise de Bourbon (1709-1710)  · Marie Anne de Bourbon (1713-1720)  · Landgravine Caroline of Hesse-Rotenburg (1728-1740)  · Charlotte de Rohan (1753-1760)  · Maria Caterina Brignole (1798-1813)  · Bathilde d'Orléans (1818-1822)