Henri Louis de Rohan had been born into one of the most distinguished families at the French court: that of Rohan. From an early age, he was seemingly destined for greatness. His immensely privileged birth, as the only son of the Prince de Guéménée, all but ensured that he would have a prominent position at court. At the age of 15, Henri Louis was married to his cousin, Victoire Armande Josèphe.
The two were set for a brilliant court career. The Prince de Guéménée was made Grand Chamberlain to Louis XVI in 1775; the charge was amongst the highest-ranking at court and carried both a considerable income and prestige. Meanwhile, his wife was given the equally impressive - and coveted - post of governess to the Children of France. By all appearances, the two should have been set for life and they certainly behaved as if they were. Fully enjoying her position, Victoire made it a habit to threw elaborate gaming parties where more money was gambled away.
Yet, in 1782, it all came crashing down. To the utter shock of both polite and impolite society, the Prince de Guéménée filed for bankruptcy. Most aristocratic families had some (or massive) debt but the debts incurred by the couple was truly enormous: 33 million livres. The sum remained the largest private bankruptcy of the entire Ancien Régime. Hitherto, it had been widely accepted that noblemen seldom paid their bills and even royalty had large debts, but these were typically protected by their very position in society. The bankruptcy showed the cracks in the foundation and must have rattled more than the couple themselves.
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| The Prince de Guéménée as a child |
But how on earth did the couple manage to get themselves into that financial state? The couple owned numerous magnificent estates, jewels, carriages etc. but it was soon revealed that most had been heavily mortgaged. At this time, credit was normal and the higher-ranking a person was, the more credit they were typically given. A person such as the Prince de Guéménée - with his high-office at court, his ancient surname and his titles - was given far more credit than most. The problem was that he had kept on borrowing money even while already heavily in debt; that was considered a type of fraud or even theft. However, eventually, such a system was bound to collapse when no money went the other way.
It quickly became public knowledge that Henri Louis had borrowed or owed money to practically everyone around him. Fellow aristocrats, tradesmen, bankers, craftsmen - even servants had been promised money that simply did not exist. In total, about 3000 creditors came forward when the bankruptcy was announced. The bankruptcy damaged hundreds of lives. Most of the people who were directly and most devastatingly affected had entrusted their savings or bonds to the care of the Prince de Guéménée. These ranged from famous figures such as Le Brun and the Duc de Lauzun to the peasants living on the prince's estates.
The case of the Duc de Lauzun underlines how the fall of one courtier often brought about that of another. Lauzun himself was deeply in debt, despite having a considerable fortune - the age-old paradox borne of the noble habit of never quite settling one's bills which let to mounting numbers of creditors. By 1780, a whole swarm of old creditors threatened to have Lauzun imprisoned if he did not pay up which he dearly did not want to. Instead, he made a decision which seemed clever at the time: he sold his landed estates to the Prince de Guéménée in return for life-long annuities of a staggering 80.000 livres per year. Thus, he could not be sued for the value of his land as he did not technically own it any longer. Yet, when Guéménée went bankrupt, that scheme floundered spectacularly.
Furthermore, life at court was infamously expensive. To keep up with the constantly changing fashions, the Princesse de Guéménée had apparently racked up bills at her shoemaker for 60.000 livres while her constant parties further drained her coffers. Some pointed out that certain positions at court outright came with an expectation of some sort of largesse. This could be an "open table" which was essentially a buffet available to those at court and paid for by the private coffers of the incumbent - or it could be frequent social gatherings, such as gambling parties. Meanwhile, her husband equally dug deep into his pockets to keep the appearances of splendour alive. In other words, their very lives at court had created a vicious cycle of constantly requiring more money to keep up with their obligations and appearances while simultaneously having no money to repay what had already been borrowed.
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| Cardinal de Rohan - the man who tried but failed to consolidate the Rohan- family's financial efforts |
The remaining Rohan-family scrambled to close ranks but also to save themselves - the fate of the Prince and Princesse was already sealed but there was no reason why the family should lose the immensely important courtly positions. Having failed at warding off the catastrophe by selling horses, jewels, art etc, they petitioned the king to transfer the positions to other members of the Rohan-clan; but they were refused. The Comtesse de Marsan (herself a Rohan by birth and Louis XVI's own former governess) even appealed to the king for Henri Louis' son to be given a survivancier for his post as Grand Chambellan. A survivancier was a document which essentially reserved the post in question for a relative of the current holder. She was ultimately denied and the king chose the Duc de Bouillon instead. Likewise, the efforts of the Cardinal de Rohan to gather the family resources failed.
Marie Antoinette eagerly bestowed the influential post of governess on the Duchesse de Polignac, one of her closest friends. Some thought it unkind of the sovereigns to turn their backs so publicly to two otherwise familiar faces; the Rohans, for one, grumbled. In a twist of fate, it would be a Rohan (the Cardinal de Rohan, and cousin of the Prince) who dealt Marie Antoinette's reputation its final deathblow due to his part in the Affair of the Diamond Necklace. Meanwhile, their direct rivals used both incidents to point out that clearly the Rohan-Guéménée could not be trusted.
Yet, it would be unfair to say that the monarchs did absolutely nothing to aid their former acquaintances. The family of Rohan-Guéménée had been given ownership of a port city called L'Orient, located in Brittany. This was one of the few ports in France authorised to trade directly with the newborn United States of America and thus had opportunity for considerable revenue. Louis XVI bought the port back (ironically since the king technically was master of it already) at an inflated price. Eventually, a deal was struck that the family would receive an annual rent of 480.000 livres. The whole affair show the odd mixture of medieval sense of honour and cold financial truths. One of the missives sent from the family to the king clearly suggests that the king should reward the family for their "willingness" to let go of one of their most profitable possessions. In other words, the family had acted honourably by ... attempting to sell of its property to pay back the debts the family itself had incurred.
At court, the couple was ruined - and not just financially. The scandal was immense and they were both obliged to resign their prestigious positions. Ironically, these would have been one of the few actual incomes they had but life at court was ruinously expensive. Henri Louis and Victoire were exiled to their private estates (him to the south, her to the north) and never regained former esteem. Although the end of their courtly life was surely a disgrace, it did not escape the notice of the public that while many of their smaller creditors were left destitute, they continued to live somewhat comfortably.
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| Victoire Armande |
Such a blatant double standard would have struck a nerve in a society increasingly waking up to the societal injustices of its time. While some ranted angrily at the arrogance of these "old families", others wittily quipped that it was a bankruptcy on a scale reserved only for royalty and the Rohans. The joke being that the Rohans claimed to descend from the Dukes of Brittany which would make them pseudo-royal. It would certainly not have been safe for Henri Louis to venture into Paris at this stage; it was said that it was impossible to walk through the capital without hearing the Prince's name being discussed in the most heated terms. As for the seemingly callousness of separating them, Henri Louis and Victoire had already been living separate lives for years.
The financial ruin of the Prince de Guéménée was not merely a private-turned-public disgrace. He had merely done as countless, if not most, other courtiers did but he had failed spectacularly. The deficits in the royal and aristocratic houses were well-known but the practice of continued credit based solely on the grandeur of France's oldest names had remained in place. However, the drastic fall from grace cast an unpleasant spotlight on an untenable financial situation in a country that was already spiraling financially.
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