Charles de Rohan, Prince de Soubise, was primarily noted for his renown on the battlefield but deserves some attention for his rather turbulent private life. A man of his standing was a prime target for the noble families of the court and he certainly did not lack for potential wives.
In 1733, he was betrothed to Anne Marie Louise de La Tour d'Auvergne - an 11-year old girl from an equally ancient family. The couple was married on 29 December 1734 when the bride had turned 12 years old; Charles himself was 19. At the time of his marriage his new wife had not yet been presented at court but that would be rectified in 1737; it is not quite clear whether Anne Marie Louise was already pregnant at this time. If not, she shortly became so and gave birth to a girl, Charlotte Élisabeth Godefride. The fifteen-year old mother fell pregnant again two years later when disaster struck.
Anne Marie Louise went into labour while staying at the Hôtel de Soubise, the private hotel of her husband. The very same hotel had just recently been refurbished with depictions of love in mythology by Boucher himself; whether the remodeling (and choice of motif) was her choice or that of her husband is not clear. She died giving birth to a son at just 17 years old; her boy was not baptised as he died at just three years of age.
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| Charles de Rohan |
Charles still needed a male heir but was still a man in his prime. He waited four years before marrying Anne Thérèse of Savoy who had grown up in Paris despite her Savoyard background. She was described as a rather reserved person who saw little of the world. Unlike her predecessor, Anne Thérèse had already passed through puberty when she married the prince. She was 24 years old upon their marriage in 1741 and became pregnant in 1743. She gave birth to a daughter who was named Victoire Armande Josèphe. She would later become the Princesse de Guéménée who notoriously suffered the greatest private bankruptcy in the ancien regime.
Anne Thérèse became pregnant again in late 1744 and went into labour on 5 April 1745. Sadly, she would not survive the ordeal and died that same day. It is unknown whether her child lived or even if it was a boy or a girl.
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| Anne Thérèse |
Frustrated by the continued lack of a male heir, Charles did not hesitate to look about for a new wife. Whereas he had had the decency to wait a few years after the death of Anne Marie Louise, he certainly did not this time. Charles remarried just six months after the death of Anne Thérèse.
Much like the princesses of Europe began side-eyeing Henry VIII when he came proposing, it is hard to imagine that any new candidate would not be slightly disturbed by the track-record of his unfortunate wives. The choice for Charles' third wife was a German: Victoria of Hesse-Rotenburg, whose named was "French-ified" into Victoire.
Victoire was 17 years old upon her marriage while Charles had reached 30. The marriage very quickly turned sour. Charles kept a string of mistresses (particularly with ballerinas) and before long, Victoire followed suit. That led to a remarkable scandal which erupted in 1757 or about 12 years after their marriage. By this point, the union had not produced any children and would remain childless. The relationship between the two appears to have broken down completely and Victoire attempted to leave France with her lover, Monsieur de Laval-Montmorency. However, she was arrested in Tournal as she had taken jewellery with her which was said to amount to 900.000 livres. Due to the laws of the time, any property she herself might have brought into the marriage immediately became her husband's property.
Having noticed that the jewels - and his wife - was missing, Charles had turned to Louis XV had her arrested before she could leave the country. Others claimed that Victoire had been supplying her brother - currently on the wrong side of a conflict with France - with privy information. Considering that she was in a prime position to intercept such information it might have been true. Typically, wives were not exiled even after the break-down of their marriages so there was likely a political motive, too.
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| Victorie of Hesse-Rotenburg |
It was apparent that any reconciliation was out of the question. As a further punishment, the king exiled Madame de Soubise from court which left her in a very unpleasant situation. Finally, an agreement was reached with her parents who accepted a pension of about 24.000 livres to basically take her back. Victoire promptly moved back to Germany and remained separated from her husband. Ironically, this seemingly shameful conclusion to their marriage might have been what saved her life.
Charles himself died in 1787, on the eve of the French revolution but Victoire was still very much alive. She outlived her husband by five years (dying on the exact same date) and would have been a prime target for the revolutionary mobs.
Charles' quick (and disastrous) remarriage to Victoire was undoubtedly a quest for the coveted male heir. Alas, he would never achieve his goal and the title died out with him. His marital life had definitely been a turbulent one; in the space of eleven years he had had married three wives and lost two.
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