Godefroy de La Tour d'Auvergne (Godefroy Charles Henri; 26 January 1728,

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), ma ...

– 3 December 1792) was a member of the

House of La Tour d'Auvergne La Tour d'Auvergne () was a noble French dynasty. Its senior branch, extinct in 1501, held two of the last large fiefs acquired by the French crown, the counties of Auvergne and Boulogne, for about half a century. Its cadet branch, extinct in 1802, ...

, the Sovereign

Duke Duke is a male title either of a monarch ruling over a duchy, or of a member of royalty, or nobility. As rulers, dukes are ranked below emperors, kings, grand princes, grand dukes, and sovereign princes. As royalty or nobility, they are rank ...

s of

Bouillon Bouillon can refer to: Food * Bouillon (broth), a simple broth ** Court-bouillon, a quick broth * Bouillon (soup), a Haitian soup * Bouillon (restaurant), a traditional type of French restaurant **Bouillon Chartier, a bouillon restaurant foun ...

. He was subsequently the penultimate

Duke of Bouillon The Duchy of Bouillon (french: Duché de Bouillon) was a duchy comprising Bouillon and adjacent towns and villages in present-day Belgium. The state originated in the 10th century as property of the Lords of Bouillon, owners of Bouillon Cast ...

succeeding his father in 1771.

Biography

The younger of two children, he was born to the Duke and

Duchess of Bouillon There have been duchesses of Bouillon, in present-day Belgium, since the tenth century. Lady of Bouillon Ardennes-Bouillon dynasty, ?-1100 :''Sold to the Bishopric of Liège'' House of La Marck, ?-1588 House of La Tour d'Auvergne, 1594� ...

in 1728. He had an older sister,

Marie Louise Marie Louise or Marie-Louise may refer to: People *Marie Louise of Orléans (1662–1689), daughter of Philippe I, Duke of Orléans, queen consort of Charles II of Spain *Marie Louise of Hesse-Kassel (1688–1765), daughter of Charles I, Landgrave ...

(1725–1793) who later married the

Prince of Guéméné Prince of Guémené is a title of French nobility associated with the fiefdom of Guémené-sur-Scorff in Brittany and held within the House of Rohan. The fiefdom was bought on 26 May 1377, for 3,400 '' sous d'or'' by Jean de Rohan, Viscount of Roha ...

. Styled the ''Prince of Turenne'' as the heir apparent to Bouillon, he married Princess

Louise Henriette Gabrielle de Lorraine Louise of Lorraine (Louise Henriette Gabrielle; 30 December 1718 – 5 September 1788) was a French noblewoman and member of the House of Lorraine. She married into the House of La Tour d'Auvergne and was Duchess of Bouillon. Biography Born ...

on 27 November 1743. She was a member of the

house of Lorraine The House of Lorraine (german: link=no, Haus Lothringen) originated as a cadet branch of the House of Metz. It inherited the Duchy of Lorraine in 1473 after the death without a male heir of Nicholas I, Duke of Lorraine. By the marriage of Fra ...

and a great grand daughter of

Henri, Count of Harcourt Henri de Lorraine (20 March 1601 – 25 July 1666, Royaumont Abbey), known as ''Cadet la Perle'', was a French nobleman. He was count of Harcourt, count of Armagnac, count of Brionne and viscount of Marsan. He was the younger son of Charles I, ...

. 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 The Seven Years' War (1756–1763) was a global conflict that involved most of the European Great Powers, and was fought primarily in Europe, the Americas, and Asia-Pacific. Other concurrent conflicts include the French and Indian War (175 ...

. 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 In political science, a revolution (Latin: ''revolutio'', "a turn around") is a fundamental and relatively sudden change in political power and political organization which occurs when the population revolts against the government, typically due ...

and was succeeded by his eldest son

Jacques Ancient and noble French family names, Jacques, Jacq, or James are believed to originate from the Middle Ages in the historic northwest Brittany region in France, and have since spread around the world over the centuries. To date, there are over ...

, who was an invalid. Jacques was the last Duke of Bouillon, the title being abolished during the

French Revolution The French Revolution ( ) was a period of radical political and societal change in France that began with the Estates General of 1789 and ended with the formation of the French Consulate in coup of 18 Brumaire, November 1799. Many of its ...

. The

Princes of Guéméné A prince is a male ruler (ranked below a king, grand prince, and grand duke) or a male member of a monarch's or former monarch's family. ''Prince'' is also a title of nobility (often highest), often hereditary, in some European states. Th ...

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.

Gallery

File:Tombstone of Karolina Sobieska de Bouillon.JPG, Tombstone of his mother, ''

Charlotte Charlotte ( ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of North Carolina. Located in the Piedmont region, it is the county seat of Mecklenburg County. The population was 874,579 at the 2020 census, making Charlotte the 16th-most populo ...

'' at the

Saint Kazimierz Church St. Kazimierz Church ( pl, Kościół św. Kazimierza) is a Roman Catholic church in Warsaw's New Town at '' Rynek Nowego Miasta 2'' (New Town Market Place, no. 2). History St. Casimir Church was originally the Kotowski Palace, residence of th ...

Warsaw Warsaw ( pl, Warszawa, ), officially the Capital City of Warsaw,, abbreviation: ''m.st. Warszawa'' is the capital and largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the River Vistula in east-central Poland, and its population is officia ...

Image:Louise de Lorraine, princesse de Turenne par Nattier.jpg, ''Louise de Lorraine, princesse de Turenne'' by

Jean-Marc Nattier Jean-Marc Nattier (17 March 1685 – 7 November 1766) was a French painter. He was born in Paris, the second son of Marc Nattier (1642–1705), a portrait painter, and of Marie Courtois (1655–1703), a miniaturist. He is noted for hi ...

(1746)
Versailles, Musée national du Château et des Trianons Image:Drouais, François-Hubert - The Children of the Duc de Bouillon - 1756.jpg, ''The Children of the Duke of Bouillon dressed as Montagnards'' Jacques Leopold Charles Godefroy, prince de Bouillon, is shown playing a

hurdy-gurdy The hurdy-gurdy is a string instrument that produces sound by a hand-crank-turned, rosined wheel rubbing against the strings. The wheel functions much like a violin bow, and single notes played on the instrument sound similar to those of a vi ...

, whilst his younger brother, Charles Louis Godefroy, prince d'Auvergne, is shown playing with a marmot on a ribbon. by

François-Hubert Drouais François-Hubert Drouais (Paris, 14 December 1727 – Paris, 21 October 1775) was a leading French portrait painter during the latter years of Louis XV's reign.For a history of the Drouais family, see Prosper Dorbec (1904, 1905) and Camille Gabill ...

(1756)
Private collection

Issue

* ''Jacques'' Leopold Charles Godefroy de La Tour d'Auvergne (15 January 1746 – 7 February 1802) married Hedwig of Hesse-Rotenburg, grand daughter of Ernest Leopold of Hesse-Rotenburg and

Eleonore of Löwenstein-Wertheim-Rochefort Eleanor () is a feminine given name, originally from an Old French adaptation of the Old Provençal name ''Aliénor''. It is the name of a number of women of royalty and nobility in western Europe during the High Middle Ages. The name was introd ...

; no issue; *Charles Louis Godefroi de La Tour d'Auvergne, Prince of Auvergne (22 September 1749 – 23 October 1767) never married; *Louis Henri de La Tour d'Auvergne, Duke of Albret (20 February 1753 – 7 March 1753) died in infancy; *X de La Tour d'Auvergne (3 April 1756) stillborn daughter.

Ancestry

References and notes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Tour dAuvergne, Godefroy De La 1728 births 1792 deaths Nobility from Paris Godefroy Military personnel from Paris Dukes of Bouillon Grand Chamberlains of France People of Byzantine descent 18th-century peers of France