Louise d'Aumont, ''duchesse d'Aumont, duchesse Mazarin et de La Meilleraye'', (Louise Félicité Victoire; 22 October 1759, in

Paris Paris () is the capital and 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), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

– 13 December 1826, in Paris) was a French Duchess and a

Princess of Monaco Princess is a regal rank and the feminine equivalent of prince (from Latin ''princeps'', meaning principal citizen). Most often, the term has been used for the consort of a prince, or for the daughter of a king or prince. Princess as a subst ...

by marriage to

Honoré IV, Prince of Monaco Honoré IV (Honoré Charles Anne Grimaldi; 17 May 1758 – 16 February 1819) was Prince of Monaco and Duke of Valentinois from 1814 to 16 February 1819. Because of his health, the state of affairs was managed by a regency of his brother Joseph ...

Life

Royal Monogram of Princess Louise d'Aumont of Monaco

She was the only child and daughter of Louis Marie Guy d'Aumont, Duke of Aumont (1732–1799), and Louise Jeanne de Durfort, ''duchesse Mazarin et de La Meilleraye'' (

, 1 September 1735 -

, 17 March 1781). Louise d'Aumont was a direct descendant of

Hortense Mancini Hortense Mancini, Duchesse de Mazarin (6 June 1646 – 2 July 1699), was a niece of Cardinal Mazarin, chief minister of France, and a mistress of Charles II, King of England, Scotland, and Ireland. She was the fourth of the five famous Mancini si ...

, the mistress of King

Charles II of England Charles II (29 May 1630 – 6 February 1685) was King of Scotland from 1649 until 1651, and King of England, Scotland and Ireland from the 1660 Restoration of the monarchy until his death in 1685. Charles II was the eldest surviving child of ...

, who was one of the two heirs of her uncle, King

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 ...

's chief minister

Cardinal Mazarin Cardinal Jules Mazarin (, also , , ; 14 July 1602 – 9 March 1661), born Giulio Raimondo Mazzarino () or Mazarini, was an Italian cardinal, diplomat and politician who served as the chief minister to the Kings of France Louis XIII and Louis X ...

. Also she was a descendant of

Michel Le Tellier Michel Le Tellier, marquis de Barbezieux, seigneur de Chaville et de Viroflay (19 April 1603 – 30 October 1685) was a French statesman. Biography Le Tellier was born in Paris to a Parisian magistrate, Michel III Le Tellier, and his wife, Clau ...

. She married Honoré, Hereditary Prince of Monaco, on 15 July 1777 in

. The couple had two children,

Prince Honoré V 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 ...

and Prince Florestan I. The marriage was arranged in order to give Monaco access to her great fortune. However, her family's assets were tied up in lawsuits, and Louise went into debt in Monaco because of her gambling and expensive wardrobe. The marriage between Louise and Honoré was unhappy, and they soon separated. In March 1793, Monaco was annexed to Revolutionary France, and the members of the former ruling dynasty became French citizens. In parallel, her brother-in-law, Prince Joseph of Monaco spend most of his time abroad to negotiate foreign loans, making him and his family suspect of being contra-revolutionary traitors. Joseph's wife Marie Thérèse de Choiseul was arrested in the absence of her spouse, as was his father, his brother and his sister-in-law, Louise. Louise and her children where rescued from prison by her family doctor, Desormeaux, who forged a release order from prison and hid them until the fall of

Maximilien Robespierre Maximilien François Marie Isidore de Robespierre (; 6 May 1758 – 28 July 1794) was a French lawyer and statesman who became one of the best-known, influential and controversial figures of the French Revolution. As a member of the Esta ...

. On 28 March 1794, Louise gave birth to an illegitimate daughter, Amélie Céleste Erodore d'Aumont (died 1820). The father of the child is believed to have been

Antoine de Montazet Antoine de Montazet (17 August 1713 – 2 May 1788) was a French theologian, of Jansenist tendencies, who became bishop of Autun and archbishop of Lyon. He was elected to the Académie française in 1756, but did not produce significant literary ...

, archbishop of

Lyon Lyon,, ; Occitan: ''Lion'', hist. ''Lionés'' also spelled in English as Lyons, is the third-largest city and second-largest metropolitan area of France. It is located at the confluence of the rivers Rhône and Saône, to the northwest of t ...

. The marriage of Honoré IV and Louise ended in divorce in 1798, giving Louise sole access of her fortune. Louise married secondly René François Tirnand-d'Arcis on 6 February 1801, and divorced him in 1803. Louise removed her eldest son from her will because he had an illegitimate child, and willed her entire fortune to her younger son, Florestan.Anne Edwards, ''The Grimaldis of Monaco'', 1992 Through their descent from Louise and her mother, the princely family of Monaco now lays claim to the wealth and estates bequeathed by Cardinal Mazarin, including the Duchy of Rethel, and the Principality of Château-Porcien.

Ancestry

References

Monaco: 1662 to 1815
retrieved 8 February 2007
World Roots
retrieved 8 February 2007 {{DEFAULTSORT:Aumont Mazarin, Louise D' Louise d'Aumont Mazarin House of Grimaldi 1759 births 1826 deaths Burials at the Cathedral of Our Lady Immaculate Aumont, Duchess of, Louise Hereditary Princesses of Monaco Burials at Père Lachaise Cemetery