House of Richelieu

Establishing themselves during Louis XIII, as the king's prime minister, Cardinal Richelieu set his family up amongst the leading families of France. As a cardinal, the first Duc de Richelieu had no children of his own to inherit the title and lands. Instead, he designated his brother's grandson as his heir.

Despite the celebrity of the name, the family was not as numerous in ducal incumbents as others - primarily due to how late in the ancien régime they were raised to the ducal class and the advanced ages of those who were granted that title.

1. Armand-Jean de Vignerot du Plessis & (1) Anne Poussard de Fors, (2) Anne-Marguerite d'Acigné, (3) Marguerite-Thérèse Rouillé

Armand-Jean was the son of François de Vignerot, who himself was the nephew of Cardinal Richelieu. Prior to assuming his great-uncle's title, he was both governor of Havre and General of the Galleys. His taste for high-living meant that he was quickly overcome with debt; he had to sell his generalcy of the galleys for 200.000. Throughout his life, his reckless financial decisions decimated his family's coffers which meant that every time he managed to get a lucrative appointment he would eventually have to sell it.

His first wife, Anne de Fors, was 21 years old when they married and already a widow. Despite being married for 35 years, the couple never had any children. When she died in 1684, this meant that the heir-less Armand-Jean had to remarry.

The second choice was Anne-Marguerite whose year of birth is unknown. She quickly fell pregnant and provided her husband with four children:

• Marie-Catherine-Armande, Comtesse de Clermont
• Élisabeth-Marguerite-Armande, nun
• Marie-Gabrielle-Élisabeth, nun
• Louis-François-Armand, Duc de Richelieu

Dying when her youngest child was just two years old, Anne-Marguerite left her widower free to remarry. Once more he chose a widow, this time by the name of Marguerite-Thérése. Her previous husband had been a Noailles whom she had had three daughters with - the youngest of which happened to be Anne Catherine de Noailles.

Armand-Jean and Marguerite-Thérèse had no children.

Armand-Jean

Marguerite-
Thérèse

2. Louis-François-Armand de Vignerot du Plessis de Richelieu & (1) Anne Catherine de Noailles, (2) Élisabeth Sophie de Lorraine, (3) Jeanne de Lavaulx

Louis-François-Armand was one of the most characteristic people of Louis XV's court. A notorious womanizer, remarkably intelligent and gifted on the battlefield, the Duc de Richelieu was perfect for a French courtier. He spent 22 years in the army where he reached the rank of Maréchal de France; at court, he managed to maintain the friendship of Louis XV, even after refusing Madame de Pompadour's marriage proposal for her daughter.

One might think that a man of the world such as Louis-François-Armand would be more focused on food, women and warfare than any more scholarly pursuits. Yet, he maintained a firm friendship with Voltaire and held seats at both the Académie Française and Académie des Sciences.

His first marriage was to Anne Catherine de Noailles, a member of the powerful court clan. The couple married while Louis XIV was still on the throne; the bride and bridegroom were both 15. After just five years of marriage, Anne Catherine died unexpectedly.

Considering that he was in prime marrying age - and without an heir - it is rather surprising that it took eighteen years for another marriage to be arranged. The new bride was from the house of Lorraine and had originally been betrothed to Paul II Esterházy but that match never materialised. Even though Élisabeth Sophie was marrying a duke, the house of Lorraine was considered to be far outranking the rather newly ducal house of Richelieu.

The couple had two children:

• Louis-Antoine-Sophie, Duc de Fronsac & Duc de Richelieu
• Jeanne-Sophie, Comtesse Pignatelli

In an eerily similar story to his first marriage, Élisabeth Sophie died after just four years of marriage. 

Jeanne de Lavaulx had been married to a man more than twenty years her senior in 1764. Her first husband had made a fortune in the trade with the Far East before that venture went terribly wrong. Jeanne herself was considered to be stunningly beautiful and with a sound mind; she had had four children by her first husband when he died in 1772 during a diplomatic trip abroad.

Jeanne and Louis-François-Armand had actually had a chance encounter years before they were married. The Duc de Richelieu's carriage had broken down on the Pont-Neuf and the Comte and Comtesse de Lavaulx offered him a ride home. By this time in his life, the Duc de Richelieu was already notorious for his success with women; but, as he lamented, it was becoming unseemly to continue having affairs - without the respectability of also having a wife. 

At the time of their marriage in 1772, Jeanne was 36 years old while her new husband was 76. Despite the staggering age-difference there appear to have been genuine affection between them; when her husband died in 1788, Jeanne was noted to be grief-stricken. 

Louis-François-Armand

Jeanne - after the death of 
her husband

3. Louis-Antoine-Sophie de Vignerot du Plessis de Richelieu & (1) Adélaide-Gabrielle d'Hautefort, (2) Marie Antoinette de Galliffet

Born in 1736, Louis-Antoine-Sophie was brought up at court as his father's only male heir. When he reached a marriageable age, it was he whom Madame de Pompadour settled on for a match for her daughter, Alexandrine. Horrified at such a low mésalliance, the father of the prospective bridegroom claimed that as his wife was of the princely house of Lorraine; therefore, he needed approval from the head of the house. When Alexandrine died while still in her childhood, that matter was settled without further embarrassment for the Richelieu-family.

Louis was the last First Gentleman of the Chamber to the king. He had inherited the office from his father in 1756 and held it until 1791.

Adélaide-Gabrielle was the daughter of the Marquis d'Hautefort and granddaughter of the Duc d'Harcourt. The couple had a single child, together:

• Armand Emmanuel, Duc de Richelieu

Sadly, she died just three years after their marriage. 

Louis-Antoine-Sophie waited nine years before he remarried. The bride was somewhat of an odd choice considering that the bridegroom was a duke. Marie Antoinette de Galliffet was the daughter of a count but not of a particularly great family. 

She had two children by her Richelieu-husband:

• Armande-Marie, Marquise de Montcalm-Gozon
• Armande-Simplicie-Gabrielle, Marquise de Jumilhac

Louis-Antoine-Sophie

Interesting facts/anecdotes:

• Louis-Antoine-Sophie had accumulated quite an impressive amount of titles and positions - as the only male heir of his family, he did not have to share. Besides Duc de Richelieu, he was Duc de Fronsac, Prince de Montagne, Marquis de Pont-Courlay, Comte de Cognac, Baron de Barbezieux, de Coze and Saugeon, First Gentleman of the King's Bedchamber, Maréchal de Camp and Lieutenant-General
• The family died out as late as 1952
• Armand-Jean had originally been on the side of the Condé during the Fronde but was eventually accepted back into the fold
• Speaking of Armand-Jean, he was amongst Louis XIV's tennis partners but apparently not a very apt one - he lost 25 of his precious paintings in a match with the Sun King
• Louis-François-Armand was - as mentioned - a notorious womanizer. Amongst his conquests were two daughters of the regent, the marquise du Châtelet, the princesse de Rohan, the baronne de Tencin etc.

Prince de Lamballe: "Mort de débauches"

Louis Alexandre de Bourbon was the son of the Duc de Penthièvre and became known as the Prince de Lamballe during his short life-time. Born as the heir of one of the greatest fortunes in France, the young man quickly discovered that he had the world at his feet. His wealth procured him anything he wanted and his rank protected him from any dire consequences of his actions - despite, of course, to his health. 

Already as a young man, his father worriedly watched Louis Alexandre fall into bad society. He had always been a restless person - even as a child. As an adolescent, he would often steal out of his father's château going no-one-knew-where. A story goes that his father even had him followed but when the "spy" was noticed by Louis Alexandre, he threatened to beat him unless he convinced the worried Duc de Penthièvre that all was well. Naturally, with such a high-profile youth going astray, rumours began swirling - one had it that the prince had married a peasant girl he had encountered on his wanderings.

It was with this concern that he chose a suitable bride for his 19-year old son: Marie Thérèse Louise of Savoy, who became Princesse de Lamballe in 1767. The young lady - known primarily for her close relationship with Marie Antoinette and her grisly death - was a picture book image of piety and sweetness. 

Initially, the plan worked. For weeks, the Prince de Lamballe settled to a life with his pretty, young wife but soon became unbearably bored. To the great scandal of the court, he eloped with Mademoiselle de La Chassaigne. The mademoiselle was employed as a dancer and singer in the opera and gleefully enjoyed the lavishness of her aristocratic lover. Meanwhile, his wife was left to deal with the humiliation on her own. 

Louis Alexandre

Mademoiselle de La Chassaigne was certainly not the only young lady of dubious repute with whom the prince was intimate. She fell pregnant which prompted the Duc de Penthièvre to send her abroad - apparently, the prince de Lamballe did not care enough to go after her. Yet, if his dutiful wife had hoped for a reunion, she was disappointed. Shortly after the departure of Mademoiselle de La Chassaigne, another woman made her appearance. Whereas La Chassaigne had been sweet but simple, Mademoiselle de La Forêt was not quite as pliable. She understood the benefits of having a very rich lover and he knew that to keep her, he was to shower her with jewels. Such gifts were expensive and his own debts were mounting. 

While aristocratic men have been giving their mistresses jewels for centuries, few dared to follow in the Prince de Lamballe's footsteps. If Mademoiselle de La Fôret had wondered at the exquisite quality of her new diamonds, she need only have looked to her lover's wife. Upon her marriage, the Princesse de Lamballe had been given some simply outstanding pieces of jewellery - now they adorned the prince's mistress.

Jewels of such quality were bound to be reported missing. While the Prince de Lamballe did not hesitate to inform his wife of what he had done, he was less forthcoming with his father. The Duc de Penthièvre initiated an investigation which promptly led to Mademoiselle de La Fret fleeing - with the diamonds. It was not until she discovered that she, too, was pregnant with the prince's child, that she returned. Outraged, the Duc de Penthièvre promised to take care of the child but she was never to see his son again.

He is also known to have also taken Mademoiselle La Cour as his mistress; she was his reigning favourite when he died. By then, his personal debts were out of control, helped along by excessive gambling.

While he was the heir to a vast fortune, he did not yet possess it. So, with his unlimited spending and expensive tastes, he soon ran into debt. That was not uncommon for noblemen - rather the norm than otherwise - but he went so far as to sell his wife's diamonds to get the creditors off his back. The utter lack of remorse for his actions is clearly shown in Louis Alexandre's behaviour. Merely weeks after the scandal of Mademoiselle de La Fôret, he disappeared - twice. Both times, his father's agents found him in "undesirable" company. Such company was not curable by simply removing the prince from his surroundings; a good deal of them were aristocrats themselves, including the Duc de Chartres.

His lifestyle quickly exhausted him and drove his health over the edge. Besides the early signs of syphilis, he had also had a terrible fall from his horse while hunting. The injury was bad enough to require surgery so he was sent to the countryside to recuperate. In May 1768, he was back at his estate of Louveciennes but terribly ill. His syphilis was now wreaking havoc on his body and mind. Worn out by a lifetime of excess, Louis Alexandre died on 6 May at the age of just 20. Quite tellingly, he had been nursed personally by his wife in whose arms he died.