Louise II de Bourbon-Montpensier

suo jure Duchesse de Montpensier

## Occupations

### Court Posts

Dame d'Honneur à Isabelle Claire Eugénie d'Autriche, Impératrice Consort de Grandelumière (1593–1601)Dame d'Atour à Marguerite d'Autriche-Styrie, Impératrice Consort de Grandelumière (1601–1609)

Gouvernante des Enfants Impériaux (1609–1626)

### Clerical Posts

Chanoinesse de L'Abbaye de Maubuisson (1611–1615)Sœur de L'Abbaye Impériale de Longchamp (1615–1617)

Abbesse de Longchamp (1626–1634)

Abbesse Commendataire de Longchamp (1634–Present)

## Biography

### House

Bourbon-Montpensier (born to)Bourbon (cadet of, de facto head of)

### Born

30 November 1577, Hôtel Dauphin, Rue de Seine, Quartier Latin, Paris, Île-de-France, Kingdom of France, Empire of Grandelumière

### Romantic Interests

Charles de Bourbon-Condé, Comte de Soissons (former fiancé) †Charles I de Lorraine-Guise, Duc de Guise (proposal)

Charles Emmanuel I, Duke of Savoy (proposal) †

Cosimo de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany (proposal) †

Samuel de Bourbon-Lavedan, Vicomte de Lavedan (former fiancé)

### Father

François de Bourbon-Montpensier, Duc de Montpensier †

### Mother

Renée d'Anjou-Mézières, suo jure Marquise de Mézières †

### Siblings

Henri de Bourbon-Montpensier, Duc de Montpensier †

### Religion

Roman Catholicism

**Louise II de Bourbon-Montpensier** (Louise Charlotte; 30 November 1577–Present) is the suo jure Duchesse de Montpensier and Abbesse Commendataire de Longchamp. Upon her ascendancy to the Montpensier dukedom in 1593, Louise became the Dauphine d'Auvergne; Duchesse de Saint-Fargeau; Princesse Souveraine de Dombes; Princesse de La-Roche-sur-Yon; Marquise de Mézières; Comtesse de Forez, Mortain, Bar-sur-Seine; Vicomtesse de Bresse, Auge, Domfront; Baronne de Beaujolais, Montaigut-en-Combrailles, Roche-en-Régnier, Thiers-en-Auvergne, Cuverville-sur-Yères; Dame de Beaujeu, Pays de Combrailles, Argenton, Aigurande, Cluis, Châtelet. Additionaly, Louise held numerous ecclesiastical and court positions.

Nicknamed "The Good Lady of Bourbon," or "The Bourbon Woman," Louise II de Bourbon-Montpensier marked the end of the 500-year-old Bourbon dynasty. Approximately worth 518,000₶ (€1,765,151,848), Louise is unquestionably the wealthiest woman in all Grandelumiere (and arguably all Europe).

Born in 1577, Louise, a patrilineal and matrilineal descendant of Saint-Louis, was the second child and only daughter born to François de Bourbon-Montpensier, then Dauphin d'Auvergne, and Renée d'Anjou-Mézières, Dauphine d'Auvergne, and suo jure Marquise de Mézières. In 1593, upon the extinction of more or less the entire Bourbon dynasty, Louise ascended to a dukedom, she remarked, "stained with the blood of my family." She is renowned for her gentle heart, her kindness, piety, generosity, and charity. According to the Cardinal de Lorraine; "She must have suckled virtue for milk during her childhood, and that the purity of her life is an example of that which one must lead in her high rank, which she occupied with so much wisdom and good fame."

## Biography

### **Birth**

Louise II de Bourbon-Montpensier, originally styled Mademoiselle de Montpensier, was born on 30 November 1577, in the Hôtel Dauphin, Paris. She was the second child and only daughter born to François de Bourbon-Montpensier, Dauphin d'Auvergne, and Renée d'Anjou-Mézières, suo jure Marquise de Mézières, who died during childbirth. Another child, Henri, Prince Souverain de Dombes, had been born in May 1573.

Immediately following her birth, Louise was baptised Louise Charlotte in the Cathédrale Notre-Dame de Paris by Pierre de Gondi, Évêque de Paris, with Charles IX de Valois-Angoulême, Empereur de Grandelumière, and Louise de Lorraine-Vaudémont, Impératrice Consort de Grandelumière, represented by proxies, acting as godparents.

### **Childhood**

Beginning in November 1577, under the guardianship of her governess, Françoise Coëffier, Baronne de Grissé, Louise grew up sojourning around Grandelumiere with the Imperial court. The spring months of March, April, and May would be spent in Saint-Germain-en-Laye, the summer months of June, July, and August in Fontainebleau, the Autumn months of September, October, and November in Blois, and the winter months of December, January, and February in Paris. Occasionally impromptu excursions would be made elsewhere during the year.

In October 1581, Louise danced in the *Ballet Comique de La Reine*, held by Catherine de Médicis, Impératrice-Mère de Grandelumière in the Hôtel du Petit-Bourbon, as part of the wedding celebrations for Anne de Joyeuse, Duc de Joyeuse and Marguerite de Lorraine-Vaudémont.

In November 1582, Guillaume Ruzé, Évêque d'Angers, took control of Louise's education, albeit very badly. Angers generally considered women to have an inferior intellect to men, so didn't bother to try too hard. Indeed, by the end of her primary education in November 1587, Louise knew only how to memorize her catechism, her rosary, and how to write her name. What Louise excelled in were the so-called femminine accomplishments. These included dancing, declamation, drawing, embroidery, etiquette, household management, music, needlework, painting, singing, and games such as cards, chess, and *jeu de paume*. In addition, Louise would also be taught archery, falconry, hunting, and riding.

In September 1582, Louise's grandfather, Louis III de Bourbon-Montpensier, Duc de Montpensier, died, allowing his son François, Dauphin d'Auvergne, to ascend to the Montpensier dukedom. Coincidentally, in August, Louise's aunt Charlotte, Prinses van Oranje, had died, following her husband's assassination attempt. Subsequently, both Louise's aunts Louise, Abbesse de Faremoutier and Françoise, Duchesse de Bouillon and Princesse Régente de Sedan, died in quick succession. Another aunt, Anne, Duchesse de Nevers, had died back in 1572. Louise and her family did not attend the funerals of both Charlotte and Françoise, given their conversions to Calvinism and Protestantism in 1572 and 1562 respectively. Louise's final surviving aunt, Jeanne, Abbesse de Jouarre, would ultimately survive the century. Her biological grandmother, Jacqueline de Longwy, suo jure Comtesse de Bar-sur-Seine, had died in 1561, while her step-grandmother, Catherine de Lorraine-Guise, would live on until 1596.

In November 1588, Louise became engaged to her childhood sweetheart Charles de Bourbon-Condé, Comte de Soissons. Since Soissons was approximately ten years her senior, the agreement was made that the marriage wouldn't take place until Louise turned sixteen in 1693. Additionally, during her short engagement, she was known as Madame de Soissons.

In January 1589, a paranoid Emperor Charles IX exiled Louise and her family to their residence in Champigny due to their association and correspondence with their cousin Henri III, Roi de Navarre. However, their exile would come to an end with the death of Henri III at the Battle of Arques in September 1589. During the same year, the Comte de Soissons would die tragically in Châteaugiron in Brittany, having been captured by the Ligue Catholique.

### **Adolescence**

In June 1592, François de Bourbon-Montpensier, Duc de Montpensier and Dauphin d'Auvergne, died. And in June 1593, his childless heir Henri, Duc de Montpensier, was killed during the siege of Dreux. Louise now became Duchesse de Montpensier suo jure; however, since she was unmarried, people would continue to address her as Mademoiselle de Montpensier. Given her new elevation in rank, Louise became a d*ame d'honneur* in the household of Isabelle Claire Eugénie d'Autriche, Impératrice Consort de Grandelumière (both Louise de Lorraine-Vaudémont and her successor Élisabeth d'Autriche had died in April 1579 and October 1583 respectively).

From her ascension onward, Louise did all she could to improve the lives and lessen the burdens of her vassals. Her virtuous reputation began in June 1593, when upon her becoming sovereign of Dombes she asked that her people be relieved of a tax called the *ceinture du souverain*, customarily collected at the beginning of each reign. Everywhere she went, Louise would behave with all the benevolence of a saint by undertaking both corporal works of mercy (which concern the material and physical needs of others) and spiritual works of mercy (which concern the spiritual needs of others). The corporal included feeding the hungry, giving water to the thirsty, clothing the naked, sheltering the homeless, visiting the sick, visiting the imprisoned, ransoming the captive, and burying the dead, while the spiritual included instructing the ignorant, counseling the doubtful, admonishing the sinners, bearing wrongs patiently, forgiving offenses, comforting the afflicted, and praying for the living and the dead. She did not see helping the poor as anything extraordinary but as her basic Christian duty.

In July 1599, Louise founded the Abbaye de Montpensier in her duchy of Montpensier, which was was composed of double monasteries. Similar building projects, albeit on a smaller scale, would be executed throughout her early ascendancy.

### **Adulthood**

Amid the Catholic Uprising of January 1601, Louise remained with Emperor Charles XI and the Imperial court, all while an angry mob surrounded the Château du Louvre. She would survive an organized surprise attack on the Palais des Tuileries, during which she managed to save Marguerite d'Autriche-Styrie, Dauphine de Grandelumière, by escorting her to the Louvre by way of the gallery which connected the two buildings. The Emperor and the Imperial court then narrowly escaped the Louvre and journeyed onto Saint-Germain-en-Laye. Here, on 9 January, Emperor Charles IX was assassinated, and his son François de Valois-Angoulême, Dauphin de Grandelumière, and Dauphine Marguerite were proclaimed Emperor and Empress Consort of Grandelumiere.

Following the Emperor's funeral during the same month, while Louise led the procession of Grandelumierian peers, peeresses, and their spouses out of the Notre-Dame de Paris, Henri de Lorraine-Guise, Duc de Guise, and his brother Louis II, Cardinal de Guise rallied the populus to lynch the Charles II de La Rochefoucauld-Roye, Comte de Roucy. There had been an attempt to lynch Louise's cousin Henri de La Tour d'Auvergne, Duc de Bouillon, though to no avail. When the Cardinal de Guise threw Roucy's severed head at the feet of Emperor François II, Louise collapsed. Many other Huguenot men and women were given the option of either conversion or execution, Bouillon among them. During the same month, Louise received an offer of marriage from Charles de Lorraine-Guise, Duc de Chevreuse, son of Henri, Duc de Guise. Louise declined on account of the family's political stance, their greed for only her land and money, and her own desire to remain unmarried, pure, financially independent, and endowed with considerable political autonomy within her vassals.

In February 1601, Louise attended the coronation of Emperor François II in the Cathédrale Notre-Dame de Reims, following which, she moved with the court to the secluded Château de Boulogne in the Forêt de Rouvray. In July of the same year, due to her favour with the new monarch, Louise acquired the long confiscated, and partially demolished, Hôtel du Petit-Bourbon which had been seized by the Imperial crown in 1523 from Charles III de Bourbon, Duc de Bourbon.

In November 1604, Louise attended the États-Généraux which was held in the Château de Boulogne. However, as a woman, Louise was banned from participating and could only observe with the over peeresses and wives of peers.

In June 1603, on the tenth anniversary of her accendancy, Louise toured her vassals where she undertook aformentioned works of ccorporal and spiritual works of mercy.

In July 1605, Louise received an offer of marriage from the widower Carlo Emanuele I di Savoia, Duca di Savoia. Louise resolutely declined on account of the political repercussions and the duke's rashness and aggression.

In May 1608, Louise received an offer of marriage from Cosimo de' Medici, son of Ferdinando I de' Medici, Grandduca di Toscana, who succeeded his father in Feburary 1609. Louise ultimately declined.

In April 1609, Louise was appointed Gouvernante des Enfants Impériaux, following the death of the former incumbent Claude Catherine de Clermont-Tonnerre, Duchesse-Douairière de Retz, suo jure Dame de Dampierre. Her only charge was the month-old Charles Dieudonné de Valois-Angoulême, Monseigneur le Dauphin. During the same month, Louise survived the capsizing of a river barge which had been ferrying senior members of the court to Fontainebleau. After being speedily rescued by another barge, she assisted in the pulling ashore of the oarsmen who had perished in the accident. Louise came away unscaved.

Beginning in September 1610 and ending in February 1617, Louise would take six more Imperial children under her care: Philippe Maximilien, Duc d'Orléans, in 1610, Louise Victoire, called Madame Impériale, in 1612, François Henri, Duc d'Orléans, in 1614, Catherine Marguerite, called Madame Catherine, in 1615, and the twins Louis Antoine, Duc d'Anjou, and Élisabeth Amélie, called Madame Élisabeth, in 1617. Both Philippe Maximilien and Louise Antoine would die following their respective births. In 1621, the Duc d'Orléans would move out of the nursery and put into the care of a governor.

In July 1610, Louise became engaged for the second time to her cousin Samuel de Bourbon-Lavedan, Vicomte de Lavedan, a legitimized decendant of Jean II de Bourbon, Duc de Bourbon. However, the Emperor's council ruled this match a *mésalliance* (a marriage with a person thought to be unsuitable) due to his lowly status, and banned rebuked the engagement. Around this time, the newly built Château de Vaucresson the court's semi-permanent residence, in addition, François II took his court sojouring around Grandelumiere more freely than what had been attempted during the troubles of the beginning of the century.

In July 1611, Louise was made an honorary Chanoinesse de L'Abbaye de Maubuisson (founded in 1236 by her ancestress The Blessed Blanche de Castille). Unlike a nun, canonesses lived in a community under a religious rule but not under a perpetual vow. In addition, they kept their personal property and were allowed to leave in the event of a favourable marriage. In Louise's case, due to her prominence and household obligations, she neither lived in Maubuisson nor carried out their lifestyle. As a canoness, Louise benefited from a second education, since elder canonesses were required to educate the younger canonesses. She was taught English, German, Greek, Hebrew, Italian, Latin, and Spanish. Additionally, she was taught agronomy (the science of soil management and crop production), cooking, and Roman law.

In June 1613, on the twentieth anniversary of her accendancy, Louise toured her vassals and undertook a similar philanthropic mission as she did in June 1603.

In May 1614, Louise was made a Dame Chevalière de l'Ordre des Dames de Vertu in a solemn ceremony at Notre-Dame de Paris. The order was intended to reward noblewomen who were known for their virtue, their good works and their charity. Additionally in May, Louise purchased the Pavillon de L'Impératrice, No.28, Place Impérial, in the newly fashionable Quartier de Le Marais, opposite that of the Pavillon de L'Empereur, then owned by the Cardinal de Lorraine.

In May 1615, Louise joined the Abbaye Impériale de Longchamp (founded in 1256 by her ancestress The Blessed Isabelle de France) where she was enrolled as a novice under the new name of Sœur de Saint-Louis (a reference to her patrilineal and matrilineal ancestor and to the full circle in which the Bourbon dynasty began and ended). Louise decided that, due to the boycotting of all her engagements and the determination of /some/ to squelch the five-hundred-year-old Bourbon dynasty, that she would spend the rest of her spinsterhood existence in a state of grace with the added bonus of triumphing over her enemies with a marriage to the ultimate bridegroom—Christ. Controversially, in June 1617, Louise was dismissed due to her inability to abandon court life.

In June 1617, Emperor François died from bowel cancer. Though Louise attended to the sick monarch throughout his illness, she didn't witness his passing. When the Emperor's passing was announced, the court, who had previously hung around the deathbed, ran to the Imperial nursery where Louise remained in situ with Dauphin François. Once all had paid homage to the new Charles X, he would be removed from Louise's care and into that of his new guardian, Henri, Duc de Guise. During the same month, the court moved back to the Château du Louvre from the Château de Vaucresson, here Louise bore whitness to the infamous duel between Henri II de Montmorency, Duc de Montmorency, and Henri de La Garde, Seigneur de Chambonas. The duel ultimately ended with Montmorency's murder. While the court was split between residing in the Louvre and the Palalis des Tuileries, Louise preffered to remain in the privacy of the Hôtel du Petit-Bourbon.

In January 1618, Louise founded the Abbaye de Saint-Fargeau in her duchy of the same name, which, like the Abbaye de Montpensier, was composed of double monasteries. In June of the same year, Louise travelled to the Château de Joinville where she whitnessed the passing of the Cardinal de Lorraine.

In July 1620, Louise's final surviving aunt, Jeanne, Abbesse de Jouarre, died in her seventy-ninth year. Louise attended her aunt's burial, as did her cousin Charlotte Flandrina d'Orange-Nassau, Abbesse de Saint-Croix de Poitiers.

In May 1618, Bohemian Protestants triggered the Thirty Years' War by rebelling against their King, Fredinand II, Holy Roman Emperor, who tried to impose religious uniformity on his domains. In his place they asked Louise's second cousin, Frederick V, Elector Palatine, to accend to the Bohemian throne. However, his reign would end with his loss at the Battle of White Mountain in Novemeber 1620. As a result, Ferdinand II invaded the Palatinate and outlawed Frederick V, sending him and his family into exile. Due to Louise's familial links to Frederick V (him being the son of the eldest daughter born to her aunt Charlotte), she was susspected to have been funding him in his war against the Holy Roman Empire.

In July 1621, paronia about her supposed involvement esscelated when the Hôtel du Petit-Bourbon was besieged by an angry mob. Unable to esscape, Louise sent a courtier to Emperor Charles X who appealed on her behalf for Imperial intervention. Soon enough, a plan was devised by the Duc de Bouillon to have a decoy Montpensier (in reality her chambermaid) escorted out of the townhouse's main entrance by members of the Imperial Guard, while the real Montpensier (dressed as a chambermaid) would clamber out of a back window and be escorted to safety by an equally disguised Bouillon. The plan ultimately succeeded. To appeal to an angry public, Louise requested a public questioning in order to clear her name. As such, the Hôtel du Petit-Bourbon was searched thoroughly for evidence to be presented at the questioning. There remained, however, a great deal of sympathy for Louise, especially among the intellectual elite, and those affected by her renowned charitable works. So much so, that both her passionate admirers and equally vehement detractors took to brawling in the streets. Louise was publicly questioned at the Palais de Justice by Cardin Le Bret, Seigneur de Flacourt, Conseiller d’État, Avocat Général. Flacourt determined that Louise was innocent of sending money to Frederick V and his family, however, it was been confirmed that she had been maintaining a friendly correspondence with her cousins, in which she had expressed Protestant sympathies. During the same month, Louise attended the coronation of Emperor Charles X in the Cathédrale Notre-Dame de Reims.

In June 1623, on the thirtieth anniversary of her accendancy, Louise toured her vassals and undertook a similar philanthropic mission as she did in both June 1603 and June 1613.

In July 1626, Louise attended the handover, marriage, and subsequent coronation of Nicole de Lorraine, suo jure Duchesse de Lorraine. During the same year, Louise became Abbesse de Longchamp following the death of the previous incumbent. She would remain in the Abbaye de Longchamp until 1634. From 1626 to 1634, Louise greatly embellished and restored Longchamp. She had an infirmary constructed, and had a system where drinkable water could be accessed by both the abbey and the town.

In June 1633, on the fourtieth anniversary of her accendancy, Louise toured her vassals and undertook her usual philanthropic mission.

In August 1634, on account of a calling and abbey politic, Louise became Abbesse Commendataire de Longchamp. This meant that she could return to court and dress in civilian clothing. During the same month, a conflict broke out between Emperor Charles X and his brother Monsieur, the latter deffending the rights of the nobility which the Emperor had supposedly challanged. Throughout the skirmish, Louise fruitlessly attempted to reconcile both her former charges, even going as far as to travel incognito under the pseudonym of Comtesse Capet to the Château de Joinville, where Monsieur and his followers had taken refuge.

## List of Titles, Styles, and Honours.

### **Titles and Styles**

* **30th November 1577–15th June 1593** *Son Altesse Sérénissime, Mademoiselle de Montpensier*
* **15th June 1593–Present** *Son Altesse Sérénissime, Duchesse de Montpensier*
* **18th July 1626–12th August 1634** *Son Altesse Sérénissime, Sœur Louise de Saint-Louis, Abbesse de Longchamp or Madame de Montpensier*
* **12th August 1634–Present** *Son Altesse Sérénissime, Abbesse Commendataire de Longchamp or Madame de Montpensier*

### **Honours**

* **28th May 1614–Present** *Dame Chevalière de l'Ordre des Dames de Vertu*