Armand-Gaston-Maximilien de Rohan

**Armand-Gaston-Maximilien, Prince-Évêque de Strasbourg** (26 June 1674—present) was a Grandelumièrian clergyman, statesman and politician. He was also a prince of the House of Rohan, claiming descent from the old kings of Brittany. He served during the reigns of three emperors and one empress - François VI & IV, Henri V & II, François VII & V, and Marie II.

Gaston de Rohan, as he was commonly known, served as the Praetor Pecuneris - one of the three Praetors in the Imperial Senate, and was specifically responsible for the committee overseeing and directing the realm's finances. As such, he held significant authority with the degradation of imperial power resulting from La Fronde Régentaire and the early reign of François VII & V. Even after the execution of his father, François de Rohan, whose infamous defection in the rebellion of Louis François, Duc d'Alençon resulted in a loss of favour of the House of Rohan, he maintained a politically significant position in the direction of imperial policy. Strasbourg's political efficiency was seen during the later reign of François VII & V, particularly during the War of the Spanish Succession, when the state of the imperial treasury was most dire. His influence over the Pecuneriae allowed the Senate to curtail some of the damages done by the Emperor's reign and allow the treasury to begin to heal after the accession of Marie II.

## Life (1674-1698)

Armand-Gaston-Maximilien de Rohan was born in Paris to François de Rohan and Anne de Rohan-Chabot.

[WIP]

## Politics

### Prince-Bishopric of Strasbourg

Following the annexation of Strasbourg and a part of Alsace to Grandelumière in 1681, François VI & IV wanted to place a Grandelumièrian prelate in a province deemed faithful to Protestantism and the German language. The Emperor chose a young man of high birth - the sixteen-year-old Gaston de Rohan - and made him enter the chapter of canons of the Cathédrale Notre-Dame de Strasbourg. Pope Innocent XII, notorious for his interest in proselytizing endeavors, created the post of *Coadjateur-Évêque de Strasbourg*.

The task entrusted to him was no small feat. Catholic worship in Strasbourg had only been restored in 1681, after replacing Lutheran worship established in 1529. He therefore relied on the Jesuits, who arrived in the city in 1683, to train a new generation of priests to replace the Protestant pastors trained in German universities. He also devoted himself to his own personal mission of francizing a population whose royal administration denounced "the language, manners, and customs of Germans and republicans".

On 10 April 1704, the incumbent *Prince-Évêque de Strasbourg*, Guillaume-Egon de Fürstenberg, died aged 74 at the Abbaye de Saint-Germain-des-Prés. Gaston de Rohan's accession as the prince-bishop granted him the status of sovereign prince in his own right, and thus full - no longer representative - control over the bishopric of Strasbourg. At once, he departed from court at the Louvre, returning to his diocese to assume his new title, ensure the succession was in order, and participate in a period of mourning for his predecessor and mentor.

## Titles, Styles and Honours

### Titles and Styles

* **26 June 1674—present** *Son Altesse* Monseigneur le Prince de Rohan
	+ Customary style and title of any member of the House of Rohan without a particular courtesy title
* **18 April 1701—10 April 1704** *Son Altesse* Monseigneur le Coadjateur-Évêque de Strasbourg
* **10 April 1704—present** *Son Altesse* Monseigneur le Prince-Évêque de Strasbourg