Charlotte de Rohan

Charlotte de Rohan (Charlotte Godefride Élisabeth; 7 October 1737 – 4 March 1760) was a French aristocrat who married into the House of Condé, a cadet branch of the ruling House of Bourbon, during the Ancien Régime. She was Princess of Condé by her marriage. She has no known descendants today as her grandson, heir to the Condé family, died without children and her daughter remained childless. Charlotte was praised for being a cultured and attractive princess of her age. Early life Charlotte Godefride Élisabeth de Rohan was born on 7 October 1737 in Paris. Her father was Charles de Rohan, Prince de Soubise, a great friend of King Louis XV of France. Her mother was Anne Marie Louise de La Tour d'Auvergne. Anne Marie Louise was a granddaughter of Marie Anne Mancini, one of the famous Mazarinettes. Through Marie Anne Mancini, Charlotte was a cousin of both Prince Eugene of Savoy and Louis Joseph de Bourbon, two famous generals during the reign of Louis XIV. Anne Marie Louise was also the great-great-granddaughter of Madame de Ventadour, the governess of King Louis XV as a small child. Charlotte was born at the Hôtel de Soubise in Paris, the townhouse of the Rohan family in the fashionable Marais. She had a younger half-sister, Victoire Armande Josèphe de Rohan. Victoire would later become the governess of the future king, Louis de France. Victoire was also a cousin of Queen Marie Antoinette's ill-fated friend, the princesse de Lamballe. As the House of Rohan claimed descent from the Dukes of Brittany, Charlotte and her family were accorded the rank of princes étrangers at the French court with the corresponding style of Highness. In 1739, she was created Marchioness of Gordes and Countess of Moncha, both of which she received from her mother when she died. In 1745, she was made the Viscountess of Guignen in her own right. In her dowry, she was given the Lordship of Annonay, which she passed onto the Bourbons.