Louis François, Prince of Conti

Louis François I
Prince of Conti
File:Portrait of Louis François of Bourbon by Alexis Simon Belle.jpg
Prince of Conti
Reign	4 May 1727 – 2 August 1776
Predecessor	Louis Armand II, Prince of Conti
Successor	Louis François II, Prince of Conti
Born	(1717-08-13)13 August 1717 Paris, France
Died	Paris, France
Spouse	Louise Diane d'Orléans (m. 1732; d. 1736)
Issue	Louis François II, Prince of Conti
Full name Louis François de Bourbon
House	Bourbon-Conti
Father	Louis Armand II, Prince of Conti
Mother	Louise Élisabeth de Bourbon
Religion	Roman Catholicism
Signature

Louis François de Bourbon, or Louis François I, Prince of Conti (13 August 1717 – 2 August 1776), was a French nobleman, who was the Prince of Conti from 1727 to his death, following his father, Louis Armand II de Bourbon. His mother was Louise Élisabeth de Bourbon, the daughter of Louis III, Prince of Condé and Louise Françoise de Bourbon, legitimized daughter of King Louis XIV of France. His younger sister, Louise Henriette de Bourbon, was the mother of Philippe Égalité. As a member of the reigning House of Bourbon, he was a Prince du Sang.

Biography

Louis François I de Bourbon was born in Paris.

In 1731, he married Louise Diane d'Orléans, Mademoiselle de Chartres (the first-cousin of his mother Louise Élisabeth, through her mother), who was the youngest daughter of Philippe II, Duke of Orléans (the Régent of France during the minority of King Louis XV of France) and his wife, Françoise-Marie de Bourbon, daughter of King Louis XIV and Madame de Montespan.

His marriage was organised by his mother, the Dowager Princess of Conti, and future mother-in-law, the Dowager Duchess of Orléans. However, Louis François's wife died giving birth to a stillborn child at the Château d'Issy in 1736. He then stayed at the Château de L'Isle-Adam, near Paris. In 1740, he proposed the king marriage between himself and the king's second daughter Henriette of France (1727–1752), but was turned down by the king.

Military career

Louis François pursued a military career, and when the War of the Austrian Succession broke out in 1741, he accompanied the Duke of Belle-Isle to Bohemia. His services there led to his command of the army in Italy, where he distinguished himself by forcing the pass of Villafranca and winning the battle of Coni in 1744.

In 1745, he was sent to check the Austrians in Germany. In 1746, he was transferred to the Netherlands, where conflicts with the Maréchal de Saxe led to his retirement in 1747 to the Château de L'Isle-Adam.

In 1760, he bought a famous Burgundy vineyard which at that time bore the name of La Romanée, at a high price. After the purchase, he added his own name to the vineyard, which since has been known as Romanée-Conti. The wine from this vineyard is one of the world's most expensive.

Candidate for the Polish throne and court influence

In that same year, a faction of Polish nobles offered Conti the throne of Poland, where King Augustus III was expected to die soon. Conti was able to win the personal support of Louis XV of France for his candidacy. However, the policy of the king's ministers was to establish the ruling house of Saxony upon the throne in Poland, as Louis XV's daughter-in-law, Marie-Josèphe of Saxony, was a daughter of the ailing Augustus. As a result of this conflict, Louis XV began secret communications with his ambassadors at certain influential foreign courts that were in direct opposition to the official communications being sent to those same ambassadors by his ministers. The system of couriers used to relay the king's secret messages developed later into a spy-network known as the Secret du Roi.

Although Conti did not secure the Polish throne, he did remain in the confidence of the king until 1755, when his influence was destroyed by the intrigues of the king's mistress, Madame de Pompadour. His relationship with Louis XV deteriorated so, that when the Seven Years' War broke out in 1756, Conti was refused the command of the army of the Rhine. Angry, he began opposing the royal government, which caused Louis to refer to him as, "my cousin, the advocate".

In 1771, Conti took the lead in opposing the chancellor, Maupeou. He supported the parlements against the government and was especially hostile to Turgot. Due to the intensity of his anti-government feelings, he was suspected of aiding an uprising which took place in Dijon in 1775.

Later life

He was exiled from court, and following involvement in a Frondiste association with Protestants and with the affairs of Parlement, Conti settled into stylish retirement as Grand Prior of the Knights of the Order of Malta, resident at the Palais du Temple in Le Marais.

Conti went on to accumulate a vast and celebrated art collection, housed in a special gallery at the Temple, mostly collected during the last twenty years of his life. This was dispersed by auction between April and June 1777, a sale which retained an impact on the Parisian art market through the following decade. His collection included Michel Barthélemy Ollivier's English Tea Served in the Salon des Glaces at the Palais du Temple, dated 1764, showing the infant Mozart at the clavichord (now in the Palace of Versailles).

Conti inherited literary tastes from his father, was a brave and skillful general, and a diligent student of military history. His mistress, the cultivated Comtesse de Boufflers (1725–1800), presided over a salon at his home in Paris, which attracted many men of letters. Through his mistress, he became a patron of Jean Jacques Rousseau.

He was succeeded by his son, Louis François Joseph (1734–1814), who was the last person to bear the Prince of Conti title.

Issue

Name	Portrait	Lifespan	Notes
Louis François Joseph de Bourbon Prince of Conti		1 September 1734 - 13 March 1814	Born in Paris, he was known as the "Count of La Marche" before succeeding as Prince of Conti; married his first cousin, Maria Fortunata d'Este, the daughter of Francesco III d'Este, Duke of Modena and Charlotte Aglaé d'Orléans, the sister of his mother; had no legitimate issue; died in Barcelona, Spain, at the age of 79.
X de Bourbon	100px	26 September 1736	Born at the Château d'Issy, the child was a stillbirth, whose mother died after the birth.

References

•  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: