Louis Henri, Duke of Bourbon (Louis Henri Joseph; 18 August 1692 – 27 January 1740), was a French nobleman and politician who served as Prime Minister of France from 1723 to 1726. As a member of the reigning House of Bourbon, he was a prince du sang.
Louis Henri was the second child and eldest son of Louis III, Prince of Condé, and Louise Françoise de Bourbon, the eldest daughter of King Louis XIV and his mistress Madame de Montespan. Following the death of his father in 1710, he became head of the Bourbon-Condé cadet branch of the House of Bourbon. As such, he was entitled to be known as Prince of Condé, but he used the title Duke of Bourbon instead and was known at court as Monsieur le Duc. After his maternal grandfather died in 1715, Louis Henri became a member of the regency council led by Philippe II, Duke of Orléans, the regent for the new minor king Louis XV.
In 1723, Louis Henri succeeded the Duke of Orléans as chief minister to Louis XV. He negotiated the King's marriage to the Polish princess Marie Leszczyńska. In 1726, Louis XV dismissed Louis Henri as chief minister and replaced him with Cardinal de Fleury. Louis Henri died at his manor, the Château de Chantilly, in 1740. His titles were inherited by his 4-year-old son, Louis Joseph.
Early years Louis Henri was born at Versailles, the eldest son of Louis III, Prince of Condé and Louise Françoise de Bourbon, the eldest legitimised daughter of Louis XIV and his maîtresse-en-titre, Madame de Montespan. He was styled at birth Duke of Enghien, and as congratulations for his birth, his grandmother Madame de Montespan gifted his mother her finest pearl and diamond parure for her daughter.
He was the great-grandson of Louis de Bourbon, le Grand Condé, and ranked as a prince du sang. Following the death one after the other of the heirs to the throne of France in the early 18th century (except for the duc d'Anjou, great-grandson of Louis XIV and future king as Louis XV) Bourbon was third in the order of succession to the throne, being preceded for a time only by Philippe, the 2nd duc d'Orléans who became regent, and the latter's son, Louis d'Orléans, duc de Chartres.
He was described in a contemporary description of him as:
Satirical pamphlets directed against royalty were a common form of literature and the chronicles left by courtiers were influenced by rivalries or prejudice, so he may not have looked so bad. Based on collaborating evidence from other sources, however, it is probably safe to assume that he was tall, and not plump.Bernier, p. 22.
It is fairly certain he only had the use of one eye: "He was disfigured by an accident which befell him while hunting, when the Duke of Berry put out one of his eyes," probably before he was twenty-five.
Regency In September 1715, Philippe d'Orléans, who had just become regent for the 5-year-old king Louis XV, appointed the then 23-year-old duc de Bourbon to his first Regency Council, the highest consultative body in the French government during the king's minority (equivalent to the Conseil d'en-haut, appointed by adult kings).
In 1718, he replaced Louis-Auguste de Bourbon, duc du Maine as superintendent of the king's education. This happened at the Regency Council meeting of 26 August, at which Maine and Louis-Alexandre de Bourbon, Comte de Toulouse, legitimised sons (princes légitimés de France) of Louis XIV, were demoted in rank.Gooch, p. 36.Guizot, pp. 20–21, but Guizot says the council meeting took place on the 24th.Jones, p. 47, says Villeroi, not Bourbon received control of the king's education.Shennan, p. 43 confirms the date, 26th, but doesn't say who became superintendent of education. The actual instruction of the young king was not much disturbed however, since it was mostly done by his old and trusted tutor, André-Hercule de Fleury, Bishop of Fréjus, who remained in place.
Many of the surviving descriptions of the duke's personality are highly uncomplimentary. They fall under the general categories greed, bad manners, stupidity.Gooch, pp. 50–51.Jones, p. 79.Kitchin, p. 392.Lavisse, p. 78.Perkins, p. 52. For example, Barbier said he "had a very limited mind, knows nothing, and only likes pleasure and hunting."Barbier, Journal historique et anecdotique, vol. I, p. 192. In Jones, p. 79. He was described as pretending to like hunting to ingratiate himself with the king.
Prime minister The Regency ended when Louis XV reached the age of majority, thirteen, in February 1723. Cardinal Dubois, who had been the Regent's premier ministre, remained in that capacity for the king. However, Dubois died in August 1723. Thereupon the former regent became the king's premier ministre, until his own death the following 2 December. Bourbon rushed to see the king that very evening and requested the prime ministership. Cardinal de Fleury, who was present at the meeting, recommended acceptance, and Louis XV indicated his assent by a silent nod. Guizot says that Louis "sought in his perceptor's [tutor's] eyes the guidance he needed".Guizot p. 50. G. P. GoochGooch p. 44. and PerkinsPerkins p. 52. also said that Fréjus acquiesced in the appointment. Jones, on the other hand, says that Fréjus was not there; also that after the meeting, in order to protect his own influence with the king, which was great, Fréjus got the king to agree never to hold discussions with Bourbon unless he too was present. This was an unusual, and for Bourbon, eventually an intolerable situation. Orléans had been able to see the king whenever he wanted. Within a few years Fréjus was able to assume control of the government himself.
To assess why the king — or Fréjus — chose, or allowed, Bourbon to become premier ministre, says the French lawyer and writer d'Angerville, writing in 1781:
One of Bourbon's first moves as prime minister was to replace d'Argenson, the minister of police, with Nicolas Ravot d'Ombreval, who was a relative of Bourbon's mistress, the marquise de Prie. This gave Bourbon control of press censorship, and also gave him control of much of the mail.Bernier, p. 47.
He made the first promotion to the rank of Marshal of France since 1715 — and made some new appointments to France's highest chivalric order, the Order of the Holy Spirit (Ordre du Saint-Esprit). The recipients were almost all supporters of Monsieur le Duc.
Persecution of Protestants
The persecution of the Huguenots under the reign of Louis XIV was stopped by the regent, despite those who continued to advocate rigour in the treatment of the Protestants. Prominent among these was the Archbishop of Rouen, Louis III de La Vergne de Tressan, Grand Almoner of France during the Regency. He argued with both the regent and his most influential minister, Cardinal Dubois, in favour of severe measures against Protestants. They rejected his ideas.
When Bourbon came to be prime minister, however, the bishop found in him a more receptive audience, and he was given the go-ahead to draw up a general law against heresy.
King's affairs One of the most notable achievements of the Duke's premiership was the arrangement of the King's marriage. The King had been betrothed to Mariana Victoria, the infanta of Spain, daughter of the Spanish king, in 1721, when she was just three years old, and the French king only eleven. By 1724, the king was fourteen but the infanta was still a decade away from child-bearing age. Some felt that this was too long for France to wait for an heir. This was especially so because, if Louis XV died without an heir, it was feared that, armed with a hereditary right he had renounced when he became king of Spain, Philip V de Bourbon, who had recently abdicated the Spanish throne, would ignore the Treaty of Utrecht and claim the French throne, thus plunging France and Spain into conflict with the other European powers.
It appears that by the summer of 1724,Bernier, p. 50. the marquise de Prie, and possibly also Monsieur le Duc, were considering breaking Louis XV's engagement with the infanta, despite the great offence this would cause Spain, and finding him a wife who might provide the country with an heir at an earlier date."The Duke of Bourbon asked Philip to make the husband of Mme de Prie a grandee, a title which would have descended to a child Bourbon had by her. If this request had been granted, the infanta would probably not have been sent away..." ― Letter of Stanhope. Perkins p. 58, footnote 1.
By, at latest, the winter of 1724, replacement of the infanta was being considered.Perkins p. 58, footnote 2. Candidates included the Duke's sisters, especially Mademoiselle de Vermandois. Mme de Prie was opposed to this choice because it would give the duchesse de Bourbon, Vermandois and the duke's mother too much influence.D'Angerville, pp. 39–40. The duchess and Mme de Prie did not like each other. Furthermore, Fréjus was opposed to Louis marrying anyone from the Bourbon-Condé branch of the royal family.Perkins, p. 60.
In April 1725, the seven-year-old infanta was sent back to Madrid — Louis did not even say goodbye to her.Jones, p. 80. A new candidate was sought urgently because, should Louis die with no heir, and assuming Philippe V of Spain did not seize the throne, then it would pass to the new duc d'Orléans, son of the deceased regent; the House of Orléans and the House of Condé were rivals, so this would cast Monsieur le Duc into the political wastelands.Bernier, p. 51.Guizot, p. 58.Perkins, pp. 57–58.
Prominent among these was a daughter of George II of Great Britain. The prize was offered to her if she would consent to become a Catholic.Affaires Etrangères d'Angleterre, 1725, p. 350. In Perkins, p. 60. However that would have caused great difficulties for her father, as he was occupying the British throne mainly because he was Protestant, whereas his rival, James Stuart, was Catholic; he had to politely decline the offer of France to his daughter.
Another prominent contender was the grand duchess, later empress, Elizabeth of Russia. Others on the list included the Princess Anne Charlotte of Lorraine; a princess of Savoy who was Louis XV's first cousin, and the Landgravine Caroline of Hesse-Rotenburg.
Marie Leszczynska The choice finally made was the daughter of the deposed king of Poland. Her name was Marie Leszczyńska; her father, Stanislaus, had occupied the Polish throne from 1704 with the backing of Charles XII of Sweden. He lost it after five years because his sponsor was beaten by Peter the Great of Russia, at Poltava. Stanislaus had found refuge, first in Germany, then in France, where the regent had given him a house at Wissembourg in Alsace, a pension of fifty thousand livres, irregularly paid, and, as a sign of respect, a few regiments of soldiers as an honour guard; they, along with a handful of retainers who had followed the forsaken king in his wanderings, comprised his bare little court. "His property in Poland had been confiscated and his wife's jewels pawned.
Marie did not have a reputation for great beauty or intelligence, but she was not ugly, was healthy as well as kind, generous, and calm. She had already been thought of as a wife for the duc de Bourbon. Now he and Mme de Prie decided she would be ideal for the King. On 31 March 1725, the Council met and agreed that the offer would go to Marie Leszczyńska. On 27 May, the name of the Queen-to-be was made public.
The young duc d'Orléans stood in for the bridegroom during the marriage by procuration, which took place in the cathedral of Strasbourg, and was officiated by the Cardinal de Rohan, bishop of Strasbourg and Grand Almoner of France. The bride and groom were wed in person at Fontainebleau.
Bourbon remained prime minister until his dismissal in 1726 in favour of the young king's tutor, Cardinal Fleury.