Louis Henri, Prince of Condé

Louis Henri de Bourbon (Duke of Bourbon, Baron of Candé) (Louis Henri Joseph; 13 April 1756 - 30 August 1830) was the Prince of Condé from 1818 to his death.

Life

He was the only son of Louis Joseph, Prince of Condé and his wife, Charlotte de Rohan.

As a member of the reigning House of Bourbon, he was a prince du sang. Prior to his accession to the Condé title, he was known as the duc de Bourbon.

In 1770, he married Louise Marie Thérèse Bathilde d'Orléans, daughter of Louis Philippe I, Duke of Orléans and Louise Henriette de Bourbon. In 1772 their only son, Louis Antoine, duc d'Enghien, was born. The marriage was not a happy one, and in 1780 the couple separated. Louis never remarried.

Shortly afterwards, the duc de Bourbon began a public affair with an opera singer, Marguerite Michelot, which resulted in two illegitimate daughters, one of whom, Adèle, went on to marry the comte de Reuilly. During the French Revolution, the duc accompanied his father into exile in England and survived the purge of the House of Bourbon in France, which cost the life of King Louis XVI and his Queen Marie-Antoinette, amongst others.

In 1804, his son, the duc d'Enghien, was abducted in Germany by order of Napoleon and executed in the moat of the Château de Vincennes on trumped up charges of treason. The duc d'Enghien had been married to Charlotte de Rohan-Rochefort for less than two months and had no issue.

The duc de Bourbon returned with his father to France after the defeat of Napoleon in 1814, and both recovered their fortunes and public status. On his father's death in 1818, he assumed the title of Prince de Condé.

If French kings Henry IV or Louis XIII had no children, Louis Henri would be the last living male line member of the House of Bourbon. However this could have changed as his paternal grandmother would not have existed either as a granddaughter of Louis XIII.

End of the Condé

The line of Bourbon-Condé came to an end with Louis Henri II's death under suspicious circumstances in 1830, shortly after the July Revolution. While in exile in 1811, the duc de Bourbon had made the acquaintance at a bordello in Piccadilly of one Sophia Dawes or Daw, a prostitute from the Isle of Wight. He set the woman and her mother up in London in a house on Gloucester Street. There, she went through an extensive educational program in modern languages and ancient authors.

After the Bourbon Restoration in 1815, the duc brought her to Paris and arranged a marriage for her to Baron Adrien Victor de Feucheres, an officer in the royal guard. This was done to allow Sophia entry into French society. However, in the course of setting up her marriage license, Sophia lied on several particulars. Feucheres, who became an aide to the duc, believed for several years that Sophia was a natural daughter of Louis Henri II. When he discovered the truth, he separated from his wife, and informed King Louis XVIII of the real relationship between Louis Henri and Sophia. The king banned Sophia from court.

In revenge, Sophia approached the head of the house of Orléans, Louis Philippe and through him made a new entry into society. In return, she agreed to use her influence on the aging Louis Henri II to have him set up a will making the son of Louis Philippe, Henri d'Orléans, duc d'Aumale, the old prince's main heir. Sophia was given two million francs for her services in the matter. The new Bourbon king, Charles X, eventually accepted her back at court. She was again considered acceptable by polite French society. She was even able to arrange the marriage of a niece to a nephew of Talleyrand.

By now, Louis Henri was trying to get away from the mistress who had taken over his life. In the summer of 1830, he returned to his home at St. Leu. There, he heard of the July Revolution. Sophia immediately set about to get him to recognize the new Orléans monarchy. On 27 August 1830, the Prince de Condé was found hanging in his bedroom by two handkerchiefs knotted to a window handle. Despite evidence against her from the servants, Sophia was cleared of any wrongdoing by a judicial enquiry set up by the new king. Despite this fact, the terms of the prince's will were still disputed. While Sophia did receive much of the money earmarked by the prince for her, she was refused some property. As a result of the scandal, her reputation was in tatters. She died in 1840 in London.

There are some aspects of the relationship between Sophia and the prince that William Thackeray may have had in mind in the novel Vanity Fair regarding Becky Sharp possibly killing Joseph Sedley. The prince's lands and wealth passed to his godson, the duc d'Aumale. His father, Louis Philippe, was the feudal-law heir to Conti and Condé, being the grandson of Louise Henriette de Bourbon, a daughter of Louise Élisabeth de Bourbon, who was sister of Louis Henri II's grandfather.

Ancestry

Titles, styles, honours and arms

Titles and styles

• 13 April 1756 – 13 May 1818 His Serene Highness the Duke of Bourbon
• 13 May 1818 – 30 August 1830 His Serene Highness the Prince of Condé

Bibliography

• The Dictionary of National Biography (original edition), Vol. 5: Cr-Dr, p. 664-665, article: Dawes or Daw, Sophia, Baroness of Feucheres (1790–1840) by J. G. Alger.
• Smith-Hughes, Jack, Eight Studies in Justice (London: Cassell & Co., 1953), p. 124-153, Ch. VI: "Royal Justice: The Conscience of a Citizen-King".

Prince de Condé