Marie Charlotte de La Tour d'Auvergne (Marie Sophie Charlotte; 20 December 1729,

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 ...

– 6 September 1763), was a French noblewoman and 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 ...

. Married into the House of Beauvau, a powerful family originating in Anjou, she had a daughter at the age twenty, and died of smallpox at the age of thirty three. The present

Duke of Mouchy Duke of Mouchy () was a hereditary title in the peerage of Spain, accompanied by the dignity of Grandee and granted in 1747 by Ferdinand VI to Philippe de Noailles, a French military officer. After failure of the 1st Duke's successors in inheri ...

branch of the Noailles family are descended from her.

Early life and ancestry

Born at the Hôtel de Bouillon in Paris to Emmanuel Théodose de La Tour d'Auvergne (1668–1730), sovereign

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 ...

, and his last wife Louise Henriette Françoise of Lorraine; she was the couple's only child. Her mother was a daughter of Joseph of Lorraine, Count of Harcourt. Her father was a son of

Godefroy Maurice de La Tour d'Auvergne Godefroy Maurice de La Tour d'Auvergne, Duke of Bouillon (21 June 1636 – 26 July 1721) was a French nobleman and member of the House of La Tour d'Auvergne, one of the most important families in France at the time. He married Marie Anne Manc ...

and his wife,

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 ...

, the latter was a niece of

Cardinal Mazarin Jules Mazarin (born Giulio Raimondo Mazzarino or Mazarini; 14 July 1602 – 9 March 1661), from 1641 known as Cardinal Mazarin, was an Italian Catholic prelate, diplomat and politician who served as the chief minister to the Kings of France Lou ...

and an infamous hostess in her day. Marie Charlotte was styled as ''Mademoiselle de Château-Thierry'' from birth. When her older half sister Anne Marie Louise, ''Mademoiselle de Bouillon'' was married to Charles de Rohan, Prince of Soubise in 1734, as the most senior unmarried

princess Princess is a title used by a female member of a regnant monarch's family or by a female ruler of a principality. The male equivalent is a prince (from Latin '' princeps'', meaning principal citizen). Most often, the term has been used for ...

of the La Tour d'Auvergne family, she was styled ''Mademoiselle de Bouillon'' until her marriage. A first cousin included '' Antoine de Vignerot du Plessis'', son of her aunt Élisabeth Sophie of Lorraine and the famous womanizer

Armand de Vignerot du Plessis Armand refer to: People * Armand (name), list of people with this name *Armand (photographer) (1901–1963), Armenian photographer *Armand (singer) (1946–2015), Dutch protest singer *Sean Armand (born 1991), American basketball player *Armand, ...

Duke of Richelieu Duke of Richelieu () was a title of French nobility. It was created on 26 November 1629 for Armand Jean du Plessis de Richelieu (known as Cardinal Richelieu) who, as a Catholic clergyman, had no issue to pass it down to. It instead passed to hi ...

Biography

Her father died in 1730, leaving her mother a widow at twenty-three. Her mother died in 1737. As such she became the ward of her uncle Louis Henri, Count of Évreux (''comte d'Évreux''). In 1741, her maternal uncle Louis de Lorraine-Harcourt was a proposed candidate for the hand of the 12-year-old, but the marriage never materialised and he died childless in 1747. She married Prince Charles Juste de Beauvau-Craon, a member of the wealthy

Beauvau family The House of Beauvau was the name of a historic French nobility, French noble family originating in Duchy of Anjou, Anjou, whose members held significant political and military positions in Kingdom of France, France, Spain and the Holy Roman Emp ...

of the

Duchy of Lorraine The Duchy of Lorraine was a principality of the Holy Roman Empire which existed from the 10th century until 1766 when it was annexed by the kingdom of France. It gave its name to the larger present-day region of Lorraine in northeastern France ...

, on 3 April 1745. Her sister in law (her husband's sister) was the famous '' marquise de Boufflers''. Her daughter married Philippe Louis de Noailles, son of

Philippe de Noailles Philippe de Noailles, comte de Noailles and later prince de Poix, duc de Mouchy, and duc de Poix ''à brevêt'' (27 December 1715 in Paris27 June 1794 in Paris), was a younger brother of Louis de Noailles, and a more distinguished soldier than his ...

and Anne d'Arpajon, lady-in-waiting to

Marie Antoinette Marie Antoinette (; ; Maria Antonia Josefa Johanna; 2 November 1755 – 16 October 1793) was the last List of French royal consorts, queen of France before the French Revolution and the establishment of the French First Republic. She was the ...

. She died of

smallpox Smallpox was an infectious disease caused by Variola virus (often called Smallpox virus), which belongs to the genus '' Orthopoxvirus''. The last naturally occurring case was diagnosed in October 1977, and the World Health Organization (W ...

at the Hôtel de Beauvau-Craon, her husband's town house in Lunéville, Lorraine. She and her daughter were heading to Paris from Lorraine when Marie Charlotte caught the illness. Notwithstanding the utmost care, she succumbed to the illness; at the time she was arranging the proposed marriage between her daughter Louise and

Armand Louis de Gontaut Armand Louis de Gontaut (), duc de Lauzun, later duc de Biron, and usually referred to by historians of the French Revolution simply as Biron (13 April 174731 December 1793), was a French soldier and politician, known for the part he played in t ...

, Duke of Lauzun. Lauzun and Louise never married and were both greatly affected by the death of Marie Charlotte – the two were in love – and with the death of Marie Charlotte, Lauzun lost his most valuable ally, regarding a union with Louise and himself. Her daughter was placed in the Abbey of Port Royal in

where she remained till her marriage in 1767. After her death, her husband married again in 1764 to Marie Charlotte Sylvie de Rohan-Chabot, a cousin of Charles de Rohan, Prince of Soubise.

Issue

# Anne ''Louise'' Marie de Beauvau, ''Mademoiselle de Beauvau'' (1 April 1750 – 20 November 1834) married Philippe Louis de Noailles, ''Prince de Poix'', later

and had issue.

Ancestry

References and notes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Tour Dauvergne, Marie Charlotte De La 1729 births 1763 deaths Nobility from Paris Marie Charlotte 18th-century French nobility Marie Charlotte Deaths from smallpox in France