Louis-Alexandre de Bourbon, prince de Lamballe
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Louis-Alexandre Stanislas de Bourbon, prince de Lamballe was the son and heir of the wealthy Louis Jean Marie de Bourbon, duc de Penthièvre. He is of historical interest mainly because Marie-Louise, princesse de Lamballe, the tragic friend of Marie-Antoinette, was his widow. He pre-deceased his father, and died childless. He was the last male of the House of Bourbon-Penthièvre.
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[edit] Life
Louis Alexandre de Bourbon was born on 6 September 1747, at the Hôtel de Toulouse, the Paris townhouse of his family. His father, Louis Jean Marie de Bourbon, duc de Penthièvre, was the only child of Louis-Alexandre de Bourbon, comte de Toulouse, the youngest legitimised son of Louis XIV of France and Françoise-Athénaïs, marquise de Montespan. His mother, Maria Teresa d'Este, Princess of Modena, was the daughter of the sovereign Duke of Modena, also a descendant of Mme de Montespan, and related to the House of Orléans. The prince de Lamballe was the couple's only living son. His siblings were:
[edit] Siblings
- Louis Marie de Bourbon (1746-1749);
- Jean Marie de Bourbon, duc de Châteauvillain, (1748-1755),
- Vincent Marie Louis de Bourbon, comte de Guingamp (1750-1752),
- Marie Louise de Bourbon (1751-1753) ;
- Louise Marie Adélaïde de Bourbon, Mademoiselle de Penthièvre, (1753-1821)
- married the duc de Chartres, future duc d'Orléans,
- their eldest son was to become Louis-Philippe I, King of the French;
- Louis Marie Félicité de Bourbon (born and died in 1754).
From birth, the prince de Lamballe was expected to inherit the Bourbon-Penthièvre fortune, much of which had been extorted by Louis XIV from his childless cousin la Grande Mademoiselle, and bestowed upon one of Louis XIV's illegitimate sons, the duc du Maine. His title, prince de Lamballe, was taken from one of the seigneuries owned by his father; it was neither a sovereign princedom nor a legal title, but a titre de courtoisie, title often assumed by the scions of the royals and the greats in France.[1]
[edit] Marriage
His father chose his bride, Princess Marie-Thérèse Louise of Savoy-Carignan, titled princesse de Lamballe upon her marriage. The wedding celebration lasted from 17 January 1767, until 27 January with parties in Turin and Nangis. After three months of happiness, Louis-Alexandre, a young libertin, soon tired of his young wife and resumed his life of débaucherie. On May 6, 1768, sixteen months after his marriage, the prince de Lamballe died of a venereal disease at the Château de Louveciennes, leaving a young widow and no heir[2],[3] .
[edit] After Death
All of the Bourbon-Penthièvre wealth and land holdings were to be inherited upon the death of their father in 1793 by his younger sister, Louise Marie Adélaïde de Bourbon-Penthièvre. She had married Louis Philippe II d'Orléans, duc de Chartres, one of her mother's Orléans cousins in 1769. She became the duchesse d'Orléans upon the death of her father-in-law in 1785, almost ten years after the death of her brother.
[edit] Ancestry
[edit] References
- ^ Baron Barclay de Latour, Jean Léon Barclay Dupuy (1967). Paradoxe de la Noblesse Française, in collaboration with Joseph Schermack (in French), Paris: Éditions Émile-Paul, page 100.
- ^ G. Lenotre, Le Château de Rambouillet, six siècles d'histoire, Calman-Lévy, Paris, 1930, reedited by Denoël, Paris, 1984, chapt. Le prince des pauvres
- ^ Michel de Decker, La Princesse de Lamballe, mourir pour la reine, Librairie académique Perrin, Paris, 1979
[edit] Titles
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Louis-Alexandre de Bourbon, prince de Lamballe
Cadet branch of the House of Bourbon
Born: September 6 1747 Died: May 6 1768 |
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| French nobility | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by Louis Jean Marie de Bourbon-Penthièvre, duc de Penthièvre |
prince de Lamballe 1747–1768 |
Succeeded by N/A |
