Suzanne Henriette of Lorraine

Suzanne Henriette of Lorraine
Duchess of Mantua and Montferrat
Tenure 8 November 1704 – 5 July 1708
Spouse Ferdinand Charles Gonzaga
Full name
Suzanne Henriette de Lorraine
House House of Lorraine
Father Charles of Lorraine
Mother Françoise de Montault de Navailles
Born 1 February 1686(1686-02-01)[1]
France
Died 19 October 1710(1710-10-19) (aged 24)
Paris, France
Burial Carmel du faubourg Saint-Germain, Paris[2]

Suzanne Henriette of Lorraine (1 February 1686 – 19 October 1710) was a member of the House of Lorraine and was the Duchess of Mantua by marriage. Her husband Ferdinand Charles Gonzaga was the last Gonzaga Duke of Mantua.

Contents

Biography

Lorraine was the penultimate daughter of Charles of Lorraine, Duke of Elbeuf and his third wife Françoise de Montault de Navailles. Her two older half brothers, Henri and Emmanuel Maurice were successively Dukes of Elbeuf. As a member of the House of Lorraine, she was entitled to the style of Highness and is sometimes called "Princess Suzanne Henriette".

Ferdinando Carlo Gonzaga, Duke of Mantua and Montferrat sought her hand as she was a member of a ducal house. She married Gonzaga in Milan on 8 November 1704 accompanied by her grandmother Catherine Henriette de Bourbon. To the French, her husband was known as Charles de Gonzagne.[3]

The Prince of Condé (son of le Grand Condé) had proposed his daughter Marie Anne, Mademoiselle d'Eghien to marry Ferdinando Carlo Gonzaga, ruler of the Duchies of Mantua and Montferrat. He had lost his first wife Anna Isabella Gonzaga and subsequent first cousin in August 1703 and was childless. Gonzaga however did have illegitimate children with his mistress Eleonora Parma, a line which died out in the mid 18th century and were not able to inherit Mantua. The couple were married in Milan on 8 November 1704.[1] Only eight months later, her husband died on 5 July 1708 leaving her a widow at the age of 18.

She returned to France and was later involved in a lawsuit between the Duke of Lorraine and Princess of Condé regarding the heir to the Guise fortune. Residing in Paris, she died there in 1710 at the age of 24. She was buried at the Carmel du faubourg Saint-Germain in her grand fathers crypt, the maréchal de Navailles.[2] Saint-Simon noted that she died after a long illness in the flower of her death and was considered to have been a beauty at the time. He also said that her "bizarre" marriage had been the cause of her sad life.

Titles, styles, honours and arms

Titles and styles

Ancestry

References and notes

  1. ^ a b van de Pas, Leo. "Suzanne Henriette de Lorraine". Genealogics .org. http://www.genealogics.org/getperson.php?personID=I00012929&tree=LEO. Retrieved 2010-03-04. 
  2. ^ a b van de Pas, Leo. "Histoire de Charleville". Googlebooks.org. http://books.google.com/books?id=7CB-GQRVKyUC&pg=PA164&dq=suzanne+henriette+de+lorraine&hl=fr&ei=dvQxTPP4OtGHOJeRuaYC&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CCgQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=suzanne%20henriette%20de%20lorraine&f=false. Retrieved 2010-03-04. 
  3. ^ Foucault (comte). Histoire de Léopold I, duc de Lorraine et de Bar, père de l'Empereur, 1856, p.430

See also