Henri Jules, Prince of Condé

Henri Jules de Bourbon (29 July 1643, in Paris – 1 April 1709, in Paris, also Henri III de Bourbon) was prince de Condé, from 1686 to his death. At the end of his life he suffered from clinical lycanthropy and was considered insane.

Henri Jules
Prince of Condé
Portrait of Henri Jules de Bourbon
Born(1643-07-29)29 July 1643
Paris, Kingdom of France
Died1 April 1709(1709-04-01) (aged 65)
Paris, France
Spouse
​
​
(m. 1663)​
IssueMarie Thérèse, Princess of Conti
Louis, Prince of Condé
Anne Marie, Mademoiselle de Condé
Louise Bénédicte, Duchess of Maine
Marie Anne, Duchess of Vendôme
Names
Henri Jules de Bourbon
HouseBourbon-Condé
FatherLouis le Grand Condé
MotherClaire-Clémence de Maillé
ReligionRoman Catholicism
SignatureHenri Jules's signature

Biography

Henri Jules was born to Louis II de Bourbon, Prince de Condé in 1643. He was five years younger than King Louis XIV of France. He was the sole heir to the enormous Condé fortune and property, including the Hôtel de Condé and the Château de Chantilly. His mother, Princess Claire-Clémence de Maillé-Brézé, was a niece of Cardinal Richelieu. He was baptised at the Église Saint-Sulpice, Paris on his day of birth. For the first three years of his life, while his father was duc d'Enghien, he was known at court as the duc d'Albret.

Henri Jules' four surviving daughters, Gobert.

Upon the death of his grandfather, he succeeded to his father's courtesy title of duc d'Enghien. As a member of the reigning House of Bourbon, he was born a prince du sang and styled as Monsieur le Duc.

Throughout much of his life, Henri Jules was mentally unstable. He was a short, ugly, debauched, and brutal man not only "repulsive in appearance", but "cursed with so violent a temper that it was positively dangerous to contradict him".[1] He was well educated but had a malicious character.

Trained as a soldier, in 1673 he was made official commander of the Rhine front, but in name only, as he lacked the military ability of his father. A possible bride considered for him at this time was his distant cousin, Élisabeth Marguerite d'Orléans, daughter of Gaston d'Orléans, but the marriage did not materialise.

He eventually married the German princess Anne Henriette of Bavaria in the chapel of the Palais du Louvre in Paris in December 1663. The bride was the daughter of Edward, Count Palatine of Simmern and the political hostess Anna Gonzaga. The couple had ten children, only half of whom lived to adulthood. The young princess was noted for her pious, generous and charitable nature. Many at court praised her for her solicitude towards her disagreeable husband. Despite her good qualities, Henri Jules often beat his quiet wife during his rages.

In addition, he had an illegitimate daughter by Françoise-Charlotte de Montalais. The child was known variously as Julie de Bourbon, Julie de Gheneni (anagram of Enghien, aka de Guenani), or Mademoiselle de Châteaubriant. She was legitimised in 1693 at 25 years of age. She died on 10 March 1710, at age 43.

Henry Jules was succeeded by his only surviving son, Louis III de Bourbon.

Ancestry

Issue
NamePortraitLifespanNotes
Marie Thérèse de Bourbon
Princess of Conti		 1 February 1666 –
22 February 1732		 Born in Paris and known as Mademoiselle de Bourbon in her youth, she married her cousin François Louis, Prince of Conti and had issue; she was briefly titular Queen of Poland in 1697.
Henri de Bourbon
Duke of Bourbon		 5 November 1667 –
5 July 1670		 Died in childhood.
Louis de Bourbon
Duke of Bourbon
Prince of Condé		 10 November 1668 –
4 March 1710		 Born in Paris, he became the heir apparent of his father on his brother's death in 1670; he married Louise-Françoise de Bourbon, légitimée de France a daughter of Louis XIV; the couple had issue.
Anne de Bourbon
Mademoiselle d’Enghien		 11 November 1670 –
27 May 1675		 Died in childhood.
Henri de Bourbon
Count of Clermont		 3 July 1672 –
6 June 1675		 Born at Saint-Germain-en-Laye and died at the age of two in Paris.
Louis Henri de Bourbon
Count of La Marche		 9 November 1673 –
21 February 1677		 Born in Paris, he died at the age of three in the same city.
Anne Marie Victoire de Bourbon
Mademoiselle d'Enghien
Mademoiselle de Condé		 11 August 1675 –
23 October 1700		 Born in Paris, she died at the age of 25 at the Château Asnières.
Anne Louise Bénédicte de Bourbon
Duchess of Maine		 8 November 1676 –
23 January 1753		 Born in Paris, she was known as Mademoiselle d’Enghien and then Mademoiselle de Charolais during her youth; she married another illegitimate child of Louis XIV, Louis Auguste de Bourbon, duc du Maine; the couple had issue.
Marie Anne de Bourbon
Duchess of Vendôme		 24 February 1678 –
11 April 1718		 Born in Paris, she was known as Mademoiselle de Montmorency and then Mademoiselle d’Enghien during her youth; she married her cousin, Louis Joseph de Bourbon, duc de Vendôme; the couple had no issue and Marie Anne died at the Hôtel de Vendôme.
N de Bourbon
Mademoiselle de Clermont		 17 July 1679 –
17 September 1680		 Born and died in Paris.

References
  1. Williams, H. Noel (1912). "Love Affairs of the Condé family". pp. 268–280.

Media related to Henri Jules, Prince of Condé at Wikimedia Commons

This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.