Godefroy de La Tour d'Auvergne

Godefroy de La Tour d'Auvergne (Godefroy Charles Henri; 26 January 1728, Paris 3 December 1792) was a member of the House of La Tour d'Auvergne, the Sovereign Dukes of Bouillon. He was subsequently the penultimate Duke of Bouillon succeeding his father in 1771.

Godefroy
Duke of Bouillon
Portrait du Duc de Bouillon,[1] Jean-François Colson, 1775, musée de l'Ancien Évêché (Évreux)
Born(1728-01-26)26 January 1728
Died3 December 1792(1792-12-03) (aged 64)
Château de Navarre, Évreux, France
SpouseLouise Henriette Gabrielle de Lorraine
IssueJacques-Léopold, Duke of Bouillon
Charles Louis Godefroi, Prince of Auvergne
Names
Godefroy Charles Henri de La Tour d'Auvergne
HouseLa Tour d'Auvergne
FatherCharles Godefroy de La Tour d'Auvergne
MotherMaria Karolina Sobieska

Biography

The younger of two children, he was born to the Duke and Duchess of Bouillon in 1728. He had an older sister, Marie Louise (1725–1793) who later married the Prince of Guéméné.

Styled the Prince of Turenne as the heir apparent to Bouillon, he married Princess Louise Henriette Gabrielle de Lorraine on 27 November 1743. She was a member of the house of Lorraine and a great grand daughter of Henri, Count of Harcourt. The couple had four children in all before Louise Henriette Gabrielle died in 1788; three children pre-deceased them. The widower Duke married again in 1789 to Marie Françoise Henriette de Banastre (1775–1816), a girl who was some forty-seven years younger than he. No children were produced from the marriage.

He served with distinction in the Seven Years' War. In 1748 he was made a maréchal de camp. He was elected to the Royal Academy of Sculpture and Painting in 1777. In just three months, he squandered almost a million livres on his mistress, an opera singer, thus bringing his family to the verge of ruin.

He died at the Château de Navarre on the eve of Revolution and was succeeded by his eldest son Jacques, who was an invalid. Jacques was the last Duke of Bouillon, the title being abolished during the French Revolution. The Princes of Guéméné today claim the Duchy of Bouillon as their own due to the marriage of Marie Louise (his only sibling) and Jules de Rohan, Prince of Guéméné. He has no known descendants.

Issue

Ancestry

References and notes

  1. Base Joconde: Reference no. 07030002445, French Ministry of Culture. (in French)
  2. Jacques Leopold Charles Godefroy, prince de Bouillon, is shown playing a hurdy-gurdy, whilst his younger brother, Charles Louis Godefroy, prince d'Auvergne, is shown playing with a marmot on a ribbon.
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