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Louis Auguste, Duke of Maine

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Louis Auguste
Legitimé de France
Duke of Maine
Louis Auguste in 1695
Spouse Anne Louise Bénédicte de Bourbon
Issue
Louis Auguste, Prince of Dombes
Louis Charles, Count of Eu
Louise Françoise, Mademoiselle du Maine
Full name
Louis Auguste de Bourbon, Légitimé de France
House House of Bourbon
Father Louis XIV of France
Mother Françoise-Athénaïs de Mortemart, Marchioness of Montespan
Born 31 March 1670(1670-03-31)
Château de Saint-Germain-en-Laye, France
Died 14 May 1736(1736-05-14) (aged 66)
Château de Sceaux, France
Burial Église, Sceaux, France

Louis Auguste de Bourbon, Legitimé de France (Saint-Germain-en-Laye, 31 March 1670 – Sceaux, 14 May 1736) was the eldest legitimised son of the Louis XIV of France and his maîtresse-en-titre, Madame de Montespan. He was given the title Duke of Maine.

Contents

[edit] Biography

Louis-Auguste de Bourbon was born at the Château de Saint-Germain-en-Laye on 31 March 1670. He was named Louis after his father[1] and Auguste after the Roman Emperor Augustus[1] A similar naming process was used with his brothers Louis-César and Louis-Alexandre.

Immediately after his birth, Louis-Auguste was placed in the care of one of his mother's acquaintances, the widowed Madame Scarron, who took him to live in a house on rue de Vaugirard, near the Luxembourg Palace in Paris. His siblings, Louis-César (later comte de Vexin) and Louise-Françoise (Mademoiselle de Nantes) were also brought there after their birth. In 1674, the three children were joined by their newborn sister Louise Marie Anne de Bourbon (Mademoiselle de Tours). Their mother, living with the king at Versailles, rarely saw her children, and Madame Scarron took the place of mother in Louis-Auguste's affections.

On 19 December 1673, when Louis-Auguste was three years old, Louis XIV legitimised his children by Madame de Montespan by with letters patent from the Parlement de Paris. At this time, Louis-Auguste received the title of duc du Maine. His siblings Louis-César and Louise-Françoise also received titles at the same time.

By the time of his legitimisation, it became clear that one of his legs was shorter than the other. The following spring, Madame Scarron took him to consult a famous quack at Antwerp. The king instructed the governess to travel incognito with his son as they journeyed beyond the French frontier. For the occasion, Madame Scarron and her charge travelled as the marquise de Surgeres and her invalid son from Poitou. The visit was a failure. The next year, the pair made another unsuccessful trip. This time to the waters of Bareges, a little town in sight of the Pyrenees.

The young duc du Maine's greatest enemy at court became his father's sister-in-law, the duchesse d'Orléans, known at court as Madame. In her famous correspondence describing life at Versailles, Madame claimed that du Maine was not the son of the king:

I can readily believe that the comte de Toulouse is the King's son; but I have always thought that the duc du Maine is the son of Terme [a member of the court], who was a false knave, and the greatest tale-bearer in the Court[2]

In 1674, at the age of four, Louis-Auguste and his siblings were officially introduced to the court at Versailles. In the same year, he was made a colonel-general of the Swiss Guards. He was also made the Grand Maître de France, a title later held by his future brother-in-law, the duc de Bourbon.

He was present at the birth of his youngest sister, Françoise-Marie de Bourbon, at the Château de Maintenon in May 1677. Though du Maine's favourite sister was Louise-Françoise (Mlle de Nantes), Françoise-Marie always adored her oldest brother. Neither sister, however, would support him in his endeavours after the death of their father in 1715.

Louis XIV did not hide his love for the young du Maine, his favourite son, showering him with gifts and titles, and hiring the best tutors for him. The maréchal du Luxembourg, a famous military strategist, was put in charge of the child's military training. Despite this, Louis-Auguste never became more than a mediocre soldier.

In 1680, the king officially made his son a prince de Bourbon, bestowing upon him an even higher legitimate status at court. In addition to these titles, the king and Madame de Montespan blackmailed the king's first cousin, the wealthy La Grande Mademoiselle, to cede some of her estates and titles to the duc du Maine in return for the liberation of her imprisoned lover, the duc de Lauzun. As a result, Louis-Auguste became the comte d'Eu, prince de Dombes and duc d'Aumale. He also received the governorship of Languedoc and was awarded the Order of the Holy Spirit.

In April 1684, Louis-Auguste had the honour of representing France at the wedding of the Duke of Savoy to Louis-Auguste's first cousin Anne Marie d'Orléans. This greatly annoyed his aunt, Madame, since she coveted the honor for her too young son, Anne Marie's younger half-brother. Anne Marie eventually became the maternal grandmother of Louis XV of France.

In 1688, Louis Auguste was made a capitaine général des galères (General of Galleys).

[edit] Marriage

As all of his legitimised siblings had married into families of royal blood, it was decided that he too should make a prestigious marriage. Several potential brides were discussed. Among them was his first cousin, Élisabeth Charlotte d'Orléans, the only unmarried daughter of his uncle, Monsieur, and his enemy, Madame. Also considered were the unmarried granddaughters of the famous military leader, the Grand Condé. While Élisabeth Charlotte was horrified at any possible social disgrace in her daughter marrying a bastard, the Prince of Condé was willing to overlook the discrepancy in social status.

As a result, the duc du Maine was asked to choose among the three unmarried daughters of the duc d'Enghien and his wife, Anne Henriette of Bavaria. Louis-Auguste indicated a preference for Louise Bénédicte, Mademoiselle de Charolais, over her sisters, Anne Marie, Mademoiselle de Condé and Marie Anne, Mademoiselle de Montmorency (later duchesse de Vendôme). Mademoiselle de Condé was quite upset, as she had her heart set on marrying du Maine:

Monsieur le Prince had three daughters for him [du Maine] to choose from, and an extra quarter of an inch of stature made him prefer the second. All three were extremely small; the eldest [Anne Marie] was beautiful, and full of sense and wit. The incredible constraint, to say the least of it, in which the strange temper of Monsieur le Prince kept everyone who was subject to his yoke, made the choice of her sister a cause of bitter heartburning to her[3]

On 19 May 1692, Louis-Auguste and Anne Louise Bénédicte were married in a ceremony at the Palace of Versailles. Presided over by the Cardinal de Bouillon, the guest of honour was the exiled James II of England, who had been a guest at his sister's wedding to the duc de Chartres in February of the same year. Madame de Montespan, who had fallen out of favour with the king after the Affaire des Poisons, did not attend her son's wedding. The duc du Maine received a gift of 1 million livres from his father at his wedding. His bride was given a hundred thousand livres in cash, with clothes and jewels worth an additional two hundred thousand livres.

The marriage proved very unhappy. Louise Bénédicte felt disgraced by her marriage to a Légitimé de France and, as a result, deliberately sought both to openly humiliate and to be a source of embarrassment to her husband. She was often unfaithful. As the groom and bride were both physically handicapped (Louise Bénédicte had a bad right arm and Louis had a lame leg), people at court snickered:

Voici l'union d'un boiteux et d'une manchote. Ah, le beau couple![4]

Although the couple was never to be overly close, the couple eventually had three children that grew to adulthood. Both parents doted on their children. Their only surviving daughter, with whom both remained close throughout their lives, was baptised at Versailles on 9 April 1714. Mademoiselle du Maine was given the name of name of her aunt, Louise-Françoise de Bourbon, known at court as Madame la Duchesse. Madame la Duchesse had grown up with the duc du Maine under the care of Madame de Maintenon.

In 1707, Madame de Montespan died, and the duc du Maine inherited a large portion of her fortune. He received the Château de Clagny which had been built for her by his father near the château at Versailles. Unlike his younger siblings, the duke did not express any emotion or remorse at the loss of his mother, as he considered Madame de Maintenon to have been more of a mother to him throughout his youth.

[edit] Prince du Sang

In July 1714, in fear that his direct line would die out, Louis XIV raised Louis-Auguste and his younger brother, the comte de Toulouse, to the rank of princes du sang, putting them in line to succeed to the French throne, in case that the legitimate line of the House of Bourbon should die out.

This controversial decision was made because three heirs to the throne had died in a single year, leaving only one legitimate candidate with an unquestionable claim to the throne, the king's great-grandson, the four-year old duc d'Anjou.

After Anjou, the succession was questionable. The two main candidates were King Philip V of Spain, a grandson of Louis XIV and uncle to the duc d'Anjou, who had renounced his claim to the French crown by treaty, and Philippe d'Orléans, duc d'Orléans, Louis XIV's legitimate nephew. Because of the King of Spain's renunciation, the duc d'Orléans was Louis' next male heir. The fear, however, was that his accession would be challenged by Spain and its Bourbon king.

By raising his legitimised sons to the rank of princes du sang, Louis XIV hoped to continue his own line on the French throne and at the same time prevent a war of succession with Spain and a civil war in France. However, the controversial royal decision angered the legitimate French princes, especially the prince de Condé and the duc d'Orléans.

In August 1715, Louis XIV's health deteriorated drastically. On 22 August, he was unable to attend a troop parade in the gardens of Versailles, and he ordered the duc du Maine to take his place at this event. This public display of the Maine's "promotion" greatly concerned his rival, the duc d'Orléans.

[edit] The Cellamare Conspiracy

On 1 September 1715, Louis XIV died. His last will and testament gave the regency to both the duc d'Orléans and the duc du Maine. However, the next day, the duc d'Orléans ensured the annulment of Louis XIV's will in the Parlement de Paris.

Displeased with Orléans' actions, Louis-Auguste, pressured by his ambitious wife, joined in the Cellamare Conspiracy in the hope of transferring the regency to King Philip V of Spain, who was the uncle of the young king Louis XV. The plot was named after Antonio del Giudice, Duke of Giovinazzo, Prince of Cellamare, the Spanish ambassador to the French court. After the conspiracy was discovered, du Maine was arrested and imprisoned in the fortress of Doullens, and his wife was exiled to Dijon.

In 1720, the couple was pardoned by the Council of the Regent and was allowed to return to court. After their release from imprisonment in 1720, Louise Bénédicte made an effort to reconcile with her husband, whom she had talked into joining the plot. She remarked:

I owe a full and rightful explanation to M. le Duc du Maine which is more precious to me than my own liberty or life[5]

After the release, Louis-Auguste and his wife led a more subdued, compatible life at the Château de Sceaux, where his wife created a little court attended by popular literary figures of the day. The château had originally been bought by Louis XIV for his beloved son.

Louise Bénédicte on several occasions tried to marry off their children. First, she tried to marry their son, Louis Auguste de Bourbon, heir to the fortune of the House of Boubon du Maine, to his first cousin Charlotte Aglaé, Mademoiselle de Valois, the daughter of the duc du Maine's younger sister, Françoise-Marie de Bourbon. The young Mademoiselle de Valois refused, however, much to the annoyance of the proud Louise-Bénédicte. The duchess was none too happy to find out that Charlotte Aglaé had also considered the hand of another cousin, Charles de Bourbon, the son of Monsieur le Duc, Louise Bénédicte's brother, and Madame la Duchesse, du Maine's other sister.

Later, Louise-Bénédicte tried to marry off the rather unattractive Mademoiselle du Maine twice. First, she offered her daughter's hand to one Monsieur de Guise. That marriage never materialised. The duchess then offered the poor girl to the widowed prince de Monaco, who was often at Versailles. Despite offering a large dowry to both men, neither wanted an ugly wife. Mademoiselle du Maine eventually died in 1743, alone and single, at the age thirty-five. She was buried at the Église at Sceaux.

It was at Sceaux that the duke died on 14 May 1736 at the age of sixty-six. Louis XV allowed Louise-Bénédicte to keep her apartments at Versailles next to that of her daughter's Mademoiselle du Maine. The apartments overlooked the Orangérie. Her son's also had apartments at court but both preferred to stay in the country hunting.

The House of Bourbon-Maine became extinct at the death of his eldest son, the prince de Dombes, in 1775.

The large Maine fortune was inherited by their cousin, the duc de Penthièvre, the only son of du Maine's younger brother, Louis-Alexandre de Bourbon, comte de Toulouse.

[edit] List of Honours

  • Legitimised (légitimé de France) 20 December 1673;
  • Given the title of duc du Maine (1673) and made colonel général des Suisses et Grisons 1674;
  • Captain of the Gardes Suisses 3 February 1674;
  • Colonel of the Regiment of Infantry of Turenne 13 August 1675;
  • Declared a Prince de Bourbon January 1680;
  • Declared prince de Dombes and comte d'Eu 2 February 1681;
  • Declared governor of Languedoc 29 May 1682;
  • Declared chevalier des Ordres du roi 2 June 1686;
  • Named général des galères and the Lieutenant General of the Seas 15 September 1688;
  • Marshal de camp 2 April 1690;
  • Lieutenant général on 3 April 1692;
  • Married Louise Bénédicte de Bourbon;
  • Colonel of the regiment of the 'Royal-Carabiniers' 1 November 1693;
  • Made a Peer of France 1694;
  • Made Grand Master of the Artillery 10 September 1694;
  • Declared a Prince du sang 29 July 1714;
  • Declared Superintendent of the education of Louis XV September 1715;
  • Stripped of the rank of prince du sang by his cousin the Régent de France July 1717;
  • Died 14 May 1736

[edit] Issue

[edit] Siblings

[edit] Ancestry

[edit] Titles, styles, honours and arms

[edit] Titles and styles

  • 31 March 1670 – 19 December 1673 Louis Auguste de Bourbon
  • 19 December 1673 – July, 1714 His Highness,[6] Louis Auguste de Bourbon, Légitimé de France, Duke of Maine
  • July, 1714 – July, 1717 His Serene Highness Louis Auguste de Bourbon, Légitimé de France, Duke of Maine
  • July, 1717 – 14 May 1736 His Highness Louis Auguste de Bourbon, Légitimé de France, Duke of Maine

[edit] References and notes

  1. ^ a b Athénaïs:The Real Queen of France by Lisa Hilton, p.153
  2. ^ Memoirs of the duchesse d'Orléans
  3. ^ ^ Lewis. L, W, The Sunset of the Splendid Century, Life and times of the duc du Maine 1670-1736, New York, 1953, p.120
  4. ^ Lewis. L, W, The Sunset of the Splendid Century, Life and times of the duc du Maine 1670-1736, New York, 1953, p.140
  5. ^ Je dois une justification authentique à M. le Duc du Maine, qui me tient infiniment plus à cœur que ma liberté et que ma propre vie. (Prince de Condé site)[citation needed]
  6. ^ ib. Spanheim, Ézéchiel, pp. 100-105, 323-327.
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[edit] See also

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Louis Auguste de Bourbon (1670–1736)


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