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Biography
Henri de La Tour d'Auvergne, titular Duke of Bouillon and Prince of Sedan (jure uxoris), Count of Montfort and Negrepelisse, Viscount of Turenne, Castillon, and Lanquais) (28 September 1555 – 25 March 1623) was a member of the powerful House of La Tour d'Auvergne and a marshal of France.
Henri was born on 28 September 1555 at the castle of Joze in Auvergne, near Clermont-Ferrand. His parents were François de La Tour d'Auvergne, Viscount of Turenne and Eléonore de Montmorency, eldest daughter of Anne, 1st Duc de Montmorency.
In 1591 Henry IV helped him marry Charlotte de La Marck, heiress to the duchy of Bouillon and of the Principality of Sedan. Charlotte died in 1594 after giving birth to a son who did not survive[1].
On 16 April 1595 he married Elisabeth of Orange-Nassau, a daughter of William the Silent, by his third wife Charlotte de Bourbon. They had the following children:
- Frédéric-Maurice, duke of Bouillon
- Henri, marshal of France, better known as Turenne
- Louise, died young
- Marie, married Henri de la Trémoille, duke of Thouars
- Julienne-Catherine, married François de La Rochefoucauld
- Elisabeth, married Guy-Aldonce de Durfort, marquis of Duras
- Henriette-Catherine, married Amaury Goyon de la Houssaye
- Charlotte, died unmarried[1]
After the St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre in 1572 he participated in the Siege of La Rochelle (1572-1573), but subsequently re-converted to Protestantism. Compromised in the conspiracy of La Mole and Coconnat in 1574, he joined the party of the Malcontents headed by François, Duke of Alençon (younger brother of kings Charles IX and Henry III) in 1575.
In 1576 he joined the Protestant party of Henry of Navarre (the future Henry IV), negotiating the Peace of Nérac between Protestants and Catholics in 1579. Appointed lieutenant general of Upper Languedoc in 1580, he took part in the siege of Paris in 1590 after the accession of Henry IV to the throne, and conquered Stenay from the Catholic League in 1591.
Defeated at Doullens, Picardy in 1595 by Fuentes, governor of the Spanish Low Countries, he was sent to England to renew the alliance of France with Queen Elizabeth I of England in 1596. Compromised in the conspiracy of Biron in 1602, he fled to Geneva the following year and had to accept a French protectorate over his duchy of Bouillon in 1606.
At the death of Henry IV, he entered the Council of Regency during the minority of Louis XIII, and intrigued against Maximilien de Béthune, duc de Sully and Concini, the latter a favourite of the Queen Regent Marie de' Medici.
He died in Sedan in 1623.
Sources
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Histoire généalogique et chronologique de la maison royale de France, des pairs, grands officiers de la Couronne, de la Maison du Roy et des anciens barons du royaume.... Tome 4, par le Père Anselme de Sainte-Marie, continuée par Honoré Caille du Fourny, ed. la compagnie des libraires (Paris) 1726-1733. Page: 539 http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k760763/f546.image, consulté le 10 août 2017 via Gallica
