House of Rohan

The House of Rohan (Breton: Roc'han) is a Breton family of viscounts, later dukes and princes in the French nobility, coming from the locality of Rohan in Brittany. Their line descends from the viscounts of Porhoët and is said to trace back to the legendary Conan Meriadoc. Through the Porhoët family, the Rohans are related to the Dukes of Brittany, with whom the family intermingled again after its inception. During the Middle Ages, it was one of the most powerful families in the Duchy of Brittany. The Rohans developed ties with the French and English royal houses as well, and they played an important role in French and European history.
The only surviving line of the family is the branch of Rohan-Rochefort, Dukes of Montbazon, Dukes of Bouillon and Austrian Princes of Rohan, who migrated in the early 19th century to what is now Austria.
Following his marriage in 1645 with Marguerite de Rohan, only daughter of Henri II de Rohan, first Duke of Rohan (who died in 1638 with no male heir), Henri Chabot, a descendant of the eldest branch of the House of Chabot from Poitou, was made Duke of Rohan in 1648 and allowed to use the name of Rohan-Chabot instead of his own, thus giving rise to the House of Rohan-Chabot.
The family of Rohan claimed descent from the first kings of Brittany, and even from the legendary ruler Conan Meriadoc.
The Rohans were descended from the Viscounts of Porhoët. According to J.-P. Soubigou, the first known viscount, Guethenoc (fl. 1028), was probably Viscount of Rennes as well and connected to the nobility of the Loire region, but he could have belonged to a Breton line holding estates around Josselin, where he built a castle.
Guethenoc's son Josselin I († 1074) took part in the Norman Conquest of England. He was granted lands in Bedfordshire, Buckinghamshire and Gloucestershire, as well as the town of Caerwent. He was the father of Mainguy, Bishop of Vannes, and Odo I, Viscount of Porhoët, Rohan and Guéméné († after 1092), who married Anne of Léon and had several sons – Geoffrey, who inherited the viscounty of Porhoët, and Alain I the Black (1084–1147), Viscount of Rohan and Castelnoec (fl. 1127), who built the castle of Rohan and was the first member of the House of Rohan.
From the 12th century to the 15th century, the Rohans kept securing and increasing their estates through marriages, acquisitions, inheritances, bequests and exchanges. Thus they became rivals of the Dukes of Brittany all through the Middle Ages, according to their interest, sometimes carrying out the most important charges of the Duchy faithfully, sometimes rebelling, as John II of Rohan did in the last years of Breton independence. The "great viscount", then more powerful than ever, controlled nearly 200,000 Bretons on about a fifth of the Breton territory. The heart of the viscounty of Rohan is made of the rohannais triangle (the three large fortresses of La Chèze, Josselin and Pontivy) whose center is the village of Rohan, the family's nominal fief whose castle is abandoned in favor of the other three.
To counter the power of the immense fiefs of the Rohan and Rieux families, which divided the Armorican peninsula into two equal parts, the Breton dukes denied them access to the coasts and blocked them in the eastern part of the duchy through the fortresses of the Marches of Neustria#Breton March, whose main strongholds were Rennes and Nantes. The Rohans, then unpopular in a very Breton-tradition environment, were neutralized for the time being, and struck back only with the French army's direct support during the campaign of 1487 in the French–Breton War, which was marked by internal divisions among the barons of Brittany (Rohan, Rieux, Laval...) who constantly changed sides. In winter 1487–1488, John II was encircled by the ducal troops: his strongholds of La Chèze, Josselin, Rohan and Pontivy fell one after another in March 1488. The viscount was still coveting the ducal crown for his son but failed. In 1491, the marriage between Anne of Brittany and Charles VIII initiated the annexation of the duchy to the French crown, a union that was permanently ratified in 1532.
The Rohan family married several times into the Breton ducal family, the last time in 1407.
Henry II of Rohan chose Pontivy as the capital city of his fief. The chief of the Protestant party during Marie de' Medici's regency Louis XIII's reign, he was one of the greatest captains of his time.
In the 17th century, members of the Rohan family began to use their genealogy and their power at the French Court to obtain the rank of prince étranger, thus coming second after the princes du sang before all dukes and peers. Their aim was to prove that the former Kings of Brittany effectively ruled and that the Rohans are directly descended from them.
These two assertions were difficult to establish at the time and are not used in the 21st-century historiography. The Rohans then applied themselves to giving credence to this version through historians such as Dom Morice, but also through favour, forcing and violating history if needed. The Rohans had to force their claims through thanks to forged evidence (a common practice in these aristocratic families in the ancien régime).
This operation remained uncertain, the Dukes and peers of France being watchful, and the Rohans secured their position through other means: alliances with other families of princes étrangers exclusively (Lorraine, La Tour d'Auvergne and Condé), elevation of their estates into principalities, legally or not (Guéméné, Soubise, Lordship of Léon), accession to the Bishopric of Strasbourg, giving them the rank of Prince of the Empire, and the use of royal favor and their closeness to the kings (Louis XIV and Madame de Soubise, Louis XV and the Marshal of Soubise, Louis XVI and Madame de Marsan, governess of the Children of France).
In spite of attacks from rival families, the Rohans managed to base their power and impose their historical and genealogical views, which provided them with positions allowing them to secure their power and credit at Court. The greatest closeness to the King was then acquired and could not be questioned any more.
The family of Rohan has a long documented history, with close ties to the Dukes of Brittany.
For more detailed branches, see below.
This branch was descended (c. 1375) from John I (1324–1396), Viscount of Rohan, and his wife Joan of Évreux (a.k.a. Joan of Navarre) (1339–1409).
It is named after the town of Guémené-sur-Scorff (Morbihan).
This branch of Rohan-Guéméné still exists through its junior branch, the Rohan-Rochefort family.
This family is a junior branch of the Rohan-Guéméné branch through Charles de Rohan-Guémené, a.k.a. Charles de Rohan-Rochefort (1693–1766), who took the title of Prince of Rochefort.
The family of Rohan-Rochefort, which migrated to Austria in the early 19th century, is nowadays the last remaining branch of the House of Rohan. It holds the genuine titles of Duke of Montbazon (1588, France), Duke of Bouillon (1816, Congress of Vienna), Prince of Rohan and Prince of the Holy Roman Empire with the style of Serene Highness (Durchlaucht), confirmed in 1808 by Emperor Francis II for all the members of the family. The head of the family was (since 1861) a hereditary member of the House of Lords of Austria.
This family descended from the Rohan-Guéméné branch in 1630, with the estates of Soubise (in Poitou) and the Parc-Soubise (in Mouchamps, Vendée) coming from the Rohan-Chabot family through an alliance between the two branches.
Charles de Rohan-Soubise, a.k.a. the Marshal of Soubise (1715–1787), Prince of Soubise and Marshal of France, and his daughter Charlotte Godefride Élisabeth de Rohan-Soubise (1737–1760), wife of the Prince of Condé Louis V Joseph de Bourbon-Condé (1736–1818), belonged to this branch of the family.
From 1717 onward, the head of this branch was styled Duke of Rohan-Rohan. For Hercule Mériadec de Rohan-Soubise (1669–1749), the estate of Frontenay-l'Abattu (département of Deux-Sèvres, Poitou) was erected in 1717 into a pairie-duché called the Duchy of Rohan-Rohan, to differentiate it from the title of Duke of Rohan held by the House of Rohan-Chabot.
This branch became extinct in the Rohan-Guéméné family in 1807.
This family is descended from the Rohan-Guéméné branch in 1541. It is named after the town of Gyé-sur-Seine (Aube).
Peter II of Rohan-Gié (†1525) married in 1517 Anne of Rohan (1485–1529) heiress of the eldest branch, and through this marriage became Viscount of Rohan, Lord of Léon and Count of Porhoët. His son, René of Rohan-Gié (1516–1552) married in 1534 Isabeau of Albret, a.k.a. Isabeau de Navarre (1512–1570) and was the father of René II, Viscount of Rohan and Lord of Léon († 1586) head of the Protestant party in France.
This branch became extinct in 1638 with Henry II of Rohan first Duke of Rohan (1603), who married Marguerite de Béthune (1595–1660), daughter of Maximilien I de Béthune-Sully (1559–1641). His only daughter Marguerite de Rohan (1617–1684) married in 1645 Henri Chabot (1615–1655) and gave birth to the Rohan-Chabot family.
The Rohan-Gué-de-l'Isle branch is a junior branch said to be descended (c. 1270) from Alan VI (1232–1304), Viscount of Rohan, and his second wife Thomasse of La Roche-Bernard (c. 1245 – after 1304). It is named after the estate of Saint-Étienne-du-Gué-de-l'Isle (Côtes-d'Armor).
The branch was extinct around 1530.
Also called Rohan-Pouldu. This little-known branch is a junior branch of the Rohan-Gué-de-l'Isle branch and appeared around 1500. It was named after the estate of Pouldu near Pontivy (nowadays Saint-Jean-Brévelay). Its best-known member is Emmanuel de Rohan-Polduc, Magister Magnus of the Knights Hospitaller from 1775 to 1797.
The branch became extinct in 1800.
This branch is said to be descended from Josselin of Rohan, son of Alan III, Viscount of Rohan and his second wife Françoise de Corbey around 1185, but its filiation has not been proven. It became extinct around 1494. Named after the estate of Montauban-de-Bretagne near Rennes. Several Seneschals and Marshals of Brittany belonged to this branch.
This branch became extinct in the Rohan-Guéméné branch in 1494.
The House of Rohan-Chabot is the eldest branch of the Chabot family, from Poitou. It is descended from the House of Rohan in female line through the marriage of Marguerite de Rohan (1617–1684) (only daughter and heiress of Henry II, Duke of Rohan) with Henri Chabot (1616–1655), from the eldest branch of the Chabot de Jarnac family, in 1645. Henri Chabot was created Duke of Rohan in 1648 by Louis XIV, and his descendants bear the name Rohan-Chabot.
Several members of the Rohan-Guéméné family migrated to Sychrov Castle in northern Bohemia, then part of the Austrian Empire, and were naturalized. After this branch became extinct in 1846, the princes of Rohan-Rochefort younger branch inherited the properties in Bohemia but were deprived of them in 1945, following the Beneš decrees. They also inherited the titles Serene Highness, Prince of Rohan, Prince of Guéméné, Prince of Rochefort and Prince of the Holy-Roman-Empire (in Austria until 1919), Duke of Rohan-Rohan, Duke of Montbazon with the Peerage of France attached to it, and Duke of Bouillon.
There were three Grand Almoners of France, eight Knights of the Order of the Holy Spirit, two Marshals of France, and three members of the Académie Française in the family.
The mascles on the arms of the House of Rohan refer to crystal twinnings, which are large crystals of chiastolite (andalusite) that develop in Ordovician schists. They are almost square-sectioned prisms. These stones, which were for centuries called "mascles", abound in the Salles de Rohan, so much that the Viscounts of Rohan, stricken by their beauty and the likeness with the lozenge, put seven mascles or on their coat of arms; their descendants added two more in the middle of the 16th century.
Used by Geoffrey of Rohan between 1216 and 1222: gules, seven mascles or, 3, 3, 1.
Used by Henry I of Rohan between 1552 and 1575. The change from the old arms to the modern ones can be explained by the change of the shape of shields from the 14th century: the base is now flat, not pointed, and the empty space is filled by two new mascles.
A plus: battle cry which may mean "without more", that is to say, without superior, reminding the Rohans' claim to be the second most important Breton noble family after the Ducal family, or "even more", which would be an invitation to always surpass themselves is Alan IX's personal motto, often attributed to the whole family. It is symbolized by the letter A topped with a Ducal crown accompanying the mascles on the coat of arms.
Another, apocryphal motto, modelled on that of the House of Coucy, is often attributed to the Rohans: Duc je ne daigne, Roi je ne puis, Prince de Bretaigne, de Rohan je suis (Duke I will not, King I cannot, Prince of Brittany, of Rohan I am) or more often: Roi ne puis, duc ne daigne, Rohan suis (King I cannot, Duke I will not, Rohan I am). Roland Barthes will use this model in a joke: Then all writers will say: "Insane I cannot, Sane I will not, neurotic I am.".
Another motto: Rather dead than soiled (Latin: Potius mori quam foedari) which is the motto of the old Dukes of Brittany, the Rohans having been their heirs presumptive since 1532 and the treaty of perpetual Union between Brittany and France.
The members of the Rohan family were first styled viscount of Porhoët, the viscount of Rohan and were granted the following titles:
The family's many branches held the titles of Prince de Léon, Prince de Montauban, Prince de Rochefort, etc. although none of these titles were genuinely created.