Louis de Melun,

Duke of Joyeuse The Viscounty of Joyeuse was elevated to a Duchy in 1581 by King Henry III of France for his favourite Anne de Joyeuse. House of Joyeuse *1581-1587 : Anne de Joyeuse (1560 † 1587), son of Guillaume de Joyeuse and Marie de Batarnay. *1587-1592 : ...

(October 1694 – 31 July 1724) was a French noble man. He was the Prince of Epinoy, Baron then Duke of

Joyeuse Joyeuse (; fro, Joiuse; meaning "joyous, joyful") was, in medieval legend, the sword wielded by Charlemagne as his personal weapon. A sword identified as Joyeuse was used in French royal coronation ceremonies since the 13th century, and is now ...

(1714) and

Peer of France The Peerage of France (french: Pairie de France) was a hereditary distinction within the French nobility which appeared in 1180 in the Middle Ages. The prestigious title and position of Peer of France (french: Pair de France, links=no) was ...

, Baron of Cysoing,

Antoing Antoing (; pcd, Antweon) is a city and municipality of Wallonia located in the province of Hainaut, Belgium. The municipality consists of the following districts: Antoing, Bruyelle, Calonne, Fontenoy, Maubray, and Péronnes-lez-Antoing. Hi ...

and Wiers, Earl of Saint-Pol, Viscount of Gand, châtelain de Bapaume, Lord of Villemareuil, of Vaucourtois and of Saint-Jean-les-Deux-Jumeaux.

Biography

Louis was the only son born to his parents. His sister Anne Julie Adélaïde de Melun was born in 1698 and was an ancestor of the future maréchal de Soubise, '' princesse de Condé''

Madame de Guéméné Victoire Armande Josèphe de Rohan, ''Princess of Guéméné'' (28 December 1743 – 20 September 1807) was a French noblewoman and court official. She was the governess of the children of Louis XVI of France. She is known better as ''Madame de G ...

and the murdered

duc d'Enghien Duke of Enghien (french: Duc d'Enghien, pronounced with a silent ''i'') was a noble title pertaining to the House of Condé. It was only associated with the town of Enghien for a short time. Dukes of Enghien – first creation (1566–1569) The ...

. His father died in 1704 of smallpox making the infant Louis the Prince of Epinoy. Ten years later he was also made ducal-peer of

. On 23 February 1716 he married Armande de La Tour d'Auvergne, daughter of Emmanuel Théodose de La Tour d'Auvergne and a grand daughter of the famous

Marie Anne Mancini Marie Anne Mancini, Duchess of Bouillon (1649 – 20 June 1714), was an Italian-French aristocrat and cultural patron, the youngest of the five famous Mancini sisters, who along with two of their female Martinozzi cousins, were known at the ...

. After being widowed in 1717, it was well known that he also contracted a secret marriage to

Marie Anne de Bourbon Marie Anne de Bourbon, ''Légitimée de France','' born Marie Anne de La Blaume Le Blanc, by her marriage Princess of Conti then Princess Dowager of Conti, ''suo jure'' Duchess of La Vallière and of Vaujours (2 October 1666 – 3 May 1739) ...

in 1719. Marie Anne, known as ''Mademoiselle de Clermont'' was a daughter of

Louis de Bourbon Louis de Bourbon may refer to: * Louis I, Duke of Bourbon (1279 – 1342), Count of Clermont-en-Beauvaisis and La Marche, and the first Duke of Bourbon * Louis II, Duke of Bourbon, called the Good (1337 – 1410), third Duke of Bourbon * Louis de ...

and Louise Françoise de Bourbon who was in turn an illegitimate daughter of

Louis XIV , house = Bourbon , father = Louis XIII , mother = Anne of Austria , birth_date = , birth_place = Château de Saint-Germain-en-Laye, Saint-Germain-en-Laye, France , death_date = , death_place = Palace of Vers ...

and

Madame de Montespan Madame may refer to: * Madam, civility title or form of address for women, derived from the French * Madam (prostitution), a term for a woman who is engaged in the business of procuring prostitutes, usually the manager of a brothel * ''Madame'' ( ...

. Marie Anne was also the head of the future Queen's household. Louis died in 1724, during a hunting party at Marie Anne's ancestral home, the

Château de Chantilly The Château de Chantilly () is a historic French château located in the town of Chantilly, Oise, about 50 kilometres (30 miles) north of Paris. The site comprises two attached buildings: the Petit Château built around 1560 for Anne de Montmor ...

. Naturally distraught, Marie Anne never married again. She was never to have any children. As Louis had no children with Armande either, the

county of Saint-Pol The county of Saint-Pol (or ''Sint-Pols'') was a county around the French city of Saint-Pol-sur-Ternoise (''Sint-Pols-aan-de-Ternas'') on the border of Artois and Picardy, formerly the county of Ternois. For a long time the county belonged to Fl ...

, as well as the principality of Joyeuse went to his eldest nephew, the young

Duke of Rohan Duke of Rohan is a title of French nobility, associated with the Breton region of Rohan. Duke of Rohan House of Rohan House of Chabot House of Rohan-Chabot ''The title ''prince de Léon'' is used a courtesy title until the succession of th ...

, who was a son of his sister Anne Julie.

Ancestry

References and notes

Sources

*M.-Fr. Dantine, Ch. Clémencet et al., ''L'art de vérifier les dates''..., vol. 12, impr. Valade, 1818 (réimpr. 4e), p. 413 *de la Chenaye-Desbois, ''Dictionnaire de la noblesse, contenant les généalogies, l'histoire''..., vol. X, impr. Antoine Boudet, Paris, 1775 (réimpr. 2e), p. 22 {{DEFAULTSORT:Louis, Duke of Joyeuse 17th-century French people 18th-century French people 1694 births 1724 deaths French princes

Louis Louis may refer to: * Louis (coin) * Louis (given name), origin and several individuals with this name * Louis (surname) * Louis (singer), Serbian singer * HMS ''Louis'', two ships of the Royal Navy See also Derived or associated terms * Lewis ( ...

House of Melun Princes of Epinoy Counts of Saint-Pol Peers created by Louis XIV