|
|
Fransk prins
og hærfører.
Louis-François
I (1717-1776)
His parents: Louis-Armand II and Louise-Elisabeth de Condé
His sister: Louise-Henriette.
He married Louise-Diane of Orléans, daughter of the Regent with
whom he will have one son, Louis-François II.
An adventurous lady, Stéphanie-Louise, presented herself as his
daughter but was never recognised.
He was the second son of his father. He adopted a military career and,
when the War of the Austrian Succession broke out in 1741, went to fight
in Bohemia. His services there led to his appointment to command the army
in Italy, where he distinguished himself by forcing the pass of Villafranca
and winning the Battle of Coni in 1744. In 1745 he was sent to check the
Imperialists in Germany and in 1746 was transferred to the Netherlands,
where some jealousy between Marshal de Saxe and himself led to his retirement
in 1747. In 1747 a faction among the Polish nobles offered him the crown
of that country, where owing to the feeble health of King Augustus III
a vacancy was expected. He won the personal support of Louis XV for his
candidature, although the policy of the French ministers was to establish
the House of Saxony in Poland, because the French dauphine was a daughter
of Augustus. Louis XV therefore began secret personal relations with his
ambassadors in eastern Europe, who were thus receiving contradictory instructions-a
policy known later as the 'secret du roi.' Although Louis-François
did not secure the Polish throne he remained in the confidence of the
King until 1755, when his influence was destroyed by the intrigues of
Mme de Pompadour, so that when the Seven Years' War broke out in 1756
he was refused the command of the Army of the Rhine and began the opposition
to the administration which caused Louis XV to refer to him as 'my cousin
the advocate.' In 1771 he was prominent in opposition to the chancellor
Maupeou. He supported the Parliaments against the ministry, was especially
active in his hostility to Turgot, and was suspected of aiding a rising
at Dijon in 1775. Conti inherited literary tastes from his father, was
a brave and skilful general, and a diligent student of military history.
His house, over which the Comtesse de Boufflers presided, was the resort
of many men of letters, and he was a patron of Jean-Jacques Rousseau and
Beaumarchais.
|
|