| Marie Anne | |
|---|---|
| Duchess of Vendôme | |
| Marie Anne in c.1710 by Etienne Jahandier Desrochers | |
| Spouse | Louis Joseph, Duke of Vendôme |
| Full name | |
| Marie Anne de Bourbon | |
| Father | Henri III Jules, Prince of Condé |
| Mother | Anne Henriette of Bavaria |
| Born | 24 February 1678 Hôtel de Condé, Paris, France |
| Died | 11 April 1718 (aged 40) Hôtel de Vendôme, Paris, France |
| Burial | Carmelite Convent of the Faubourg Saint-Jacques, Paris, France |
Marie Anne de Bourbon (24 February 1678 – 11 April 1718[1]) was the daughter of the Prince of Condé and a Bavarian princess by birth. As a member of the reigning House of Bourbon, she was a Princesse du Sang. She was the duchesse de Vendôme by marriage. She was the Duchess of Étampes in her own right.
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Born in Paris in 1678, she was ninth child of her parents and in her youth was known as Mademoiselle de Montmorency - a style which was derived from one of her grandfathers titles. Her father, the Duke of Bourbon, was the eldest surviving son of le Grand Condé - the famous general and the First Prince of the Blood. One of the last of her many siblings to marry, she was the sister-in-law to the:
Her siblings were:
At the birth of her niece in 1697, her she would share her name with Marie Anne de Bourbon (1697–1741). In 1704, her father had wanted her to marry Ferdinand Charles Gonzaga, Duke of Mantua and Montferrat but the proposal did not materialise and Ferdinand Charles instead married Suzanne Henriette de Lorraine known as Mademoiselle d'Elbeuf.
Reputedly very ugly, her father died leaving her unmarried; her brother who became the Prince of Condé in 1709, died the next year not having helped the poor Marie Anne marry. She could have married the duc du Maine but he preferred Anne Louise Bénédicte to Marie Anne and their tiny sister Anne Marie.
Marie Anne was engaged to marry her distant cousin, the old Duke of Vendôme. Born Louis Joseph de Bourbon, he was the great-grandson of Henry IV of France and his mistress Gabrielle d'Estrées. He had been orphaned at the age of 15 and had inherited a vast fortune which had been handed down from his great-grand mother, the Duchess of Mercœur and Penthièvre in her own right.
The marriage ceremony occurred at the chapel at the Château de Sceaux on 21 May 1710. Sceaux was the residence of her older sister Anne Louise Bénédicte. Marie Anne was aged 32; her husband was aged 56. Her husband, a famous general was a Marshal of France and was also the First Prince of the Blood of Spain. This meant, that should the then King Philip V of Spain die, then Louis Joseph would become the king of Spain. The marriage remained sterile; this may have been due to the homosexual tendencies of her husband. Vendôme had been a lover of Marie Anne's own brother in law the Prince of Conti (husband of her oldest sister Marie Thérèse de Bourbon).
Marie Anne had previously lived at the Parisian Hôtel de Condé, where she had been born, with her father who was abusive to her as well as her mother, the pious Anne Henriette of Bavaria. He frequently beat them and had very bad hygiene. Her marriage came about with the help of her sister Anne Louise Bénédicte de Bourbon, duchesse du Maine who had the marriage carried out in their presence without the permission of the Dowager Princess of Condé (mother of Marie Anne) and Dowager Duchess of Bourbon (Marie Anne's sister in law).
He died in 1712 leaving Marie Anne a widow till her early death in 1718 aged 40 in Paris. Despite Louis XIV had given permission for the marriage, the duc and duchesse du Maine carried out the marriage. Even though the Dowager Princess of Condé was not informed of the marriage, she was present at the bedding ceremony at Sceaux along with Louis Henri, Duke of Bourbon; his wife Marie Anne de Bourbon;[2] the Dowager Princess of Conti and her children the Prince of Conti and Mademoiselle de La Roche-sur-Yon. Also present were the Maine couple with their children the prince de Dombes and the comte d'Eu.
Two days after the marriage, Vendôme left his wife at Sceaux to retire to the Château d'Anet. There was no royal compliment for Marie Anne.
She was buried in the Carmelite Convent of the Faubourg Saint-Jacques, in Paris.[3]
Her husband left her the title Duchess of Étampes and its lands. She held this in her own right and when she died, it went to her niece, the Princess of Conti.
In her widowhood the Dowager Duchess extended the Hôtel de Vendôme in Paris. Previoulsy, the hotel had been built as one of the projects that the famous Jean-Baptiste Alexandre Le Blond who had also worked on the Château de Saint-Cloud. It was in 1714 that Marie Anne began improvements. It was at the Hôtel de Vendôme that she died.
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Marie Anne de Bourbon, Duchess of Vendôme
Born: 24 February 1678 Died: 11 April 1718 |
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| French nobility | ||
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| Preceded by Louis Joseph de Bourbon, Duke of Vendôme |
Duchess of Étampes 1712–1718 |
Succeeded by Louise Élisabeth de Bourbon |
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