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, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

– 3 December 1792) was a member of the

House of La Tour d'Auvergne A house is a single-unit residential building. It may range in complexity from a rudimentary hut to a complex structure of wood, masonry, concrete or other material, outfitted with plumbing, electrical, and heating, ventilation, and air c ...

, the

Sovereign ''Sovereign'' is a title that can be applied to the highest leader in various categories. The word is borrowed from Old French , which is ultimately derived from the Latin">-4; we might wonder whether there's a point at which it's appropriate to ...

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

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 fou ...

. He was subsequently the penultimate

Duke of Bouillon The Duchy of Bouillon () was a duchy comprising Bouillon, Belgium, 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 Castle. Crusad ...

succeeding his father in 1771.

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 Marie Louise or Marie-Louise is a French feminine given name, compound given name. In other languages, it may take one of several alternate forms: * Maria Luiza (Bulgarian, Portuguese) * Maria Luisa (Italian, Spanish) * Maria Luise (German) * Mari ...

(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 ''Sou (coin), sous d'or'' by Jean de Rohan, Viscou ...

. 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 The House of Lorraine () 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 Francis of Lorraine to Maria Ther ...

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 The Seven Years' War, 1756 to 1763, was a Great Power conflict fought primarily in Europe, with significant subsidiary campaigns in North America and South Asia. The protagonists were Kingdom of Great Britain, Great Britain and Kingdom of Prus ...

. In 1748 he was made a maréchal de camp. In 1747, he succeeded his father as

Grand chamberlain of France The Grand Chamberlain of France () was one of the Great Officers of the Crown of France, a member of the ''Maison du Roi'' ("King's Household"), and one of the Great Offices of the Maison du Roi during the Ancien Régime. It is similar in name ...

, a ceremonial position he would hold unitil 1775. He was elected to the Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture 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 the French Revolution and was succeeded by his eldest son

Jacques Jacques or Jacq 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 one hundred identified noble families related t ...

, 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.

Gallery

File:Tombstone of Karolina Sobieska de Bouillon.JPG, Tombstone of his mother, '' Charlotte'' at the Saint Kazimierz Church in

Warsaw Warsaw, officially the Capital City of Warsaw, is the capital and List of cities and towns in Poland, largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the Vistula, River Vistula in east-central Poland. Its population is officially estimated at ...

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 Painting, 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-turned crank, rosined wheel rubbing against the strings. The wheel functions much like a violin (or nyckelharpa) bow, and single notes played on the instrument sound similar ...

, 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. His clientele included the French royal family and nobility, foreign aristocracy, f ...

(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; 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 Dukes of Château-Thierry