Marie Louise de La Tour d'Auvergne (Marie Louise Henriette Jeanne; 15 August 1725 – 24 September 1781) was a French noblewoman and member of the House of La Tour d'Auvergne. She became duchess of Montbazon through her 1743 marriage to Jules de Rohan and was known as princess of Rohan from 1749. Between 1747 and 1748, she conducted an affair with her first cousin, Charles Edward Stuart, next in line in the Jacobite succession.
Biography
Ancestry and early life Louise was the first child of Charles Godefroy de La Tour d'Auvergne, Prince of Turenne and his wife, Maria Karolina “Charlotte” Sobieska. Charlotte Sobieska was the granddaughter of King John III Sobieski of Poland (famous as the winner of the Battle of Vienna) and the older sister of Maria Clementina Sobieska, wife of the Jacobite pretender James Francis Edward Stuart. As their family's last members, Charlotte and Clementina were co-heiresses to the vast Sobieski lands and fortune in Poland. Through her mother's aunt, Theresa Kunegunda Sobieska, Louise was also second cousin to Emperor Charles VIII, Maria Antonia, Electress of Saxony, and Empress Maria Josepha. Louise's paternal family, the House of La Tour d'Auvergne, were known as the Bouillons after the duchy of Bouillon where they reigned as sovereigns. Reflecting this, they were considered princes étrangères in France, entitled to be called altesse (“highness”), and female family members had the coveted right of the tabouret (meaning that they could sit on a short stool without a back and armrest in the royal presence).
Charlotte Sobieska had been married to the elder Bouillon brother, Frédéric Maurice Casimir. This was considered a prestigious marriage and a great success for the Bouillons, but the husband died of smallpox within two weeks of the wedding. His father, Emmanuel Théodose de La Tour d'Auvergne, who had arranged the marriage, was unwilling to return Charlotte's dowry to her father (as he needed the money to settle his debts), and convinced her to marry his second son, Charles Godefroy. Charlotte's father, James Louis Sobieski, Prince of Oława, did not consent to the second marriage and was furious over the loss of the dowry; he broke off all communication with his daughter.
The marriage of Louise's parents was strained and often unhappy, although letters by Charlotte from the late 1730s show love and affection for her husband. Charlotte had been promised a quasi-royal position by her in-laws, and was dismayed to be treated like other duchesses at the French court, so she chose to live in social isolation in Paris. Charles Godefroy was known for womanising, heavy drinking, fighting, and gambling, and he accrued heavy debts. Contemporaries nevertheless considered him “a man of honour and integrity”, and he enjoyed King Louis XV's favour and friendship. In 1730, he inherited the titles of grand chamberlain, grand master, and grand squire from his father, as well as the Duchy of Bouillon. The family lived in one of Paris' most luxurious palaces, the Hôtel de Bouillon, and had a country seat, the Château de Navarre.
In the first years of her life, Louise was entrusted to a wet nurse, Madame Bacquet, who was still alive when Louise died in 1781. She was raised in the Chasse-Midi (or Cherche-Midi) convent on the rue de Chasse-Midi in Paris, belonging to the Religieuses bénédictines de Notre-Dame de Consolation (“Benedictine Sisters of Our Lady of Consolation”), one of the most fashionable boarding schools for aristocratic girls. She had a governess, Mademoiselle de Minières, who probably had more influence in her childhood than her mother. She had a younger brother, Godefroy Charles Henri, born in 1728. She was known by the courtesy title mademoiselle d'Auvergne or mademoiselle de Bouillon, or as the princess of Bouillon.
Life in Poland and first marriage plans
Background
In September 1735, Louise's mother travelled to Żółkiew in Poland (today Zhovkva, Ukraine) to attempt reconciliation with her father, James Louis Sobieski, Prince of Oława. Following the death of her sister Clementina earlier that year, the Bouillons hoped to secure the Sobieski inheritance to repay their debts. Sobieski refused to see Charlotte but showed interest in his grandchildren, asking why Louise had not come to Poland. He suggested that she could marry Frederick Christian of Saxony, eldest son of King Augustus III of Poland. Charlotte did not want Louise to marry too soon and miss a better match (there were by then numerous proposals for the ten-year-old). She wrote to her husband that Louise was “rich enough and of a good enough house to marry well without leaving” France and begged him not to send Louise to Poland unless the Polish king had clearly committed to an engagement.
It was concluded by the Bouillons that the only way to persuade Sobieski about the inheritance was through Louise, arguing that it would be dishonourable to disinherit the grandchildren for their mother's error. Charlotte, however, still refused to use her daughter as a pawn, especially because now only the second-born son of the Polish king, Francis Xavier of Saxony, was being mentioned as her possible husband. Nevertheless, after Sobieski finally received Charlotte in February 1735, father and daughter became close, and Charlotte asked her husband to send Louise to Poland. Her possible marriage to Francis Xavier became European news.
Life in Poland
On 13 June 1736, eleven-year-old Louise started the journey to Poland with her governess, Mademoiselle de Minières, her father's surgeon, Jean Henri Bourgeois, and servants. She was told that she would marry a son of the Polish king. The travel was difficult because of bad roads and storms. While her letters to her father prove Louise's affection for him, she had been alienated from her mother by Charles Godefroy and his advisors. She was received in Żółkiew on 25 August with public honours. Her grandfather was impressed by her and wanted to spend as much time together as possible, but he and Charlotte fought over who would control Louise's marriage.
In October 1736, the Polish royal couple ended marriage negotiations, saying that their six-year-old son was too young. Charlotte called this rejection a “disgrace” and a “shame for our house”. Charles Godefroy, meanwhile, tried to persuade Sobieski to leave his estate directly to Louise, bypassing Charlotte's claim. Augustus III of Poland offered to make Louise his ward and raise her at his court if she was made her grandfather's sole heir. This plan was “very much to [the] taste” of Charles Godefroy but opposed by Charlotte, who feared to create the impression that the Bouillons could not afford to marry their daughter off themselves. However, according to Polish law, Louise could not inherit the Sobieski lands unless she married a Polish prince, and the plan faltered.Because of their differing financial interests, the marriage of Louise's parents completely broke down. Charles Godefroy offered to give back Charlotte's dowry if she promised never to return to France. He asked his envoy to tell Louise how much he loved and missed her. She herself took her father's side and her relationship with her mother was contentious. Charlotte said that Louise was “so sullen and so ill-bred that she brought [Charlotte] shame”, complaining that “I do all that I can to show her my maternal tenderness and I believe few mothers do as much [as I do]”. She believed that her husband's agents “inspired distrust and disobedience” in Louise towards her. In April 1737, Charles Godefroy suggested to Sobieski that Louise should marry one of her maternal cousins, the Stuart princes, and instructed his wife to send Louise to France. Sobieski, however, was still negotiating her marriage with Polish nobles and feared humiliation. One candidate was 90-year-old Prince Janusz-Antoni Wiśniowiecki, castellan of Kraków, whose suit Charlotte rejected as he was known for his “debauched” lifestyle. This suggests that Charlotte was trying to spare Louise her own fate of being married to a drunk and adulterous man. Among many other Polish nobles, the most likely suitor was Jan Klemens Branicki, aged 48, one of the most powerful and richest magnates of the country, whom Sobieski and Charlotte hoped would become king. Twelve-year-old Louise was instructed by her father's agent to “obey [her father] like God” and to say “no” in any marriage ceremony, unless “she had seen an order from the hand” of Charles Godefroy. She was also told “how dear she was” to Charles Godefroy and how many tears he shed for her. She was surrounded by violent fights between her father, mother, and grandfather over her, which probably traumatised her for life.
Although Sobieski seems to have genuinely loved his granddaughter, he was prone to violent bouts of rage. Once, he questioned Louise why she had not yet learnt Polish. She replied that it was a difficult language, at which Sobieski became so angry that she started sobbing and fled to her governess. When Louise went to say goodnight to him, Sobieski pushed her away. She could barely sleep and was still distressed the next day. Sobieski declared that he no longer considered Charles Godefroy his son-in-law and consequently Charlotte was his mistress and Louise a bastard. Nevertheless, Louise generally remained a favourite at her grandfather's court, surrounded with celebrations, dancing, and music.
At Charles Godefroy's request, Louis XV asked Augustus II of Poland for a written promise by Sobieski not to marry Louise without her parents' consent. In December 1737, after being assured of the support of the French and Polish kings, Charles Godefroy ordered his daughter to leave Żółkiew immediately, telling her staff not to have “any consideration for her health or for the [cold] season”. He added that whether Charlotte “stays in Poland or goes to China”, he was “totally indifferent” to her fate and he stopped sending her annuity (the interest on her own dowry). The family conflict was ended by James Sobieski's sudden death on 19 December 1737. He left his entire estate to Louise on the condition that she marry Francis Xavier of Saxony, but the king of Poland suppressed the document as he feared that it would upset the Polish nobility. This led to extensive litigation between Sobieski's heirs.
Louise stayed a little longer in Poland due to a marriage proposal from Charles Theodor, Elector of Bavaria, but her mother's negotiations did not succeed. By the time she left Poland, Louise and her mother were completely estranged. Charlotte wrote to her husband, “I send you back your daughter, since you desire it so much, and about whom I do not want to hear from now on”. Louise's biographer Bongie concluded that she detested her mother. They reportedly fought bitterly before her departure. Leaving around mid-May, Louise was back in the Chasse-Midi convent by summer 1738, and she never communicated with her mother again. Charlotte died on 8 May 1740 in Poland, following a long illness.
Life at Chasse-Midi and French marriage plans