Marie Charlotte de La Tour d'Auvergne

Marie Charlotte de La Tour d'Auvergne (Marie Sophie Charlotte; 20 December 1729, Paris – 6 September 1763.^[1]) was a French noblewoman and member of the House of La Tour d'Auvergne. Married into the House of Beauvau, a powerful family originating in Anjou, she had a daughter, aged twenty, and died of smallpox^[2] at the age of thirty three. The present Duke of Mouchy branch of the Noailles family are descended from her.^[1]

Biography

Born at the Hôtel de Bouillon in Paris^[3] to Emmanuel Théodose de La Tour d'Auvergne (1668–1730), sovereign Duke of Bouillon, and his last wife Louise Henriette Françoise of Lorraine; she was the couple's only child. Her mother was a daughter of Joseph of Lorraine, Count of Harcourt.

Her father was a son of Godefroy Maurice de La Tour d'Auvergne and Marie Anne Mancini, the latter was a niece of Cardinal Mazarin and an infamous hostess in her day.

Marie Charlotte was styled as Mademoiselle de Château-Thierry from birth. When her older half sister Anne Marie Louise, Mademoiselle de Bouillon was married to Charles de Rohan, Prince of Soubise in 1734, as the most senior unmarried princess of the La Tour d'Auvergne family, she was styled Mademoiselle de Bouillon until her marriage.

A first cousin included Antoine de Vignerot du Plessis, son of her aunt Élisabeth Sophie of Lorraine and the famous womaniser Armand de Vignerot du Plessis, duc de Richelieu.

Her father died in 1730,^[1] leaving her mother a widow at twenty-three. Her mother died in 1737.^[1] As such she became the ward of her uncle Louis Henri, Count of Évreux (comte d'Évreux).

In 1741, her maternal uncle Louis de Lorraine-Harcourt^[4] was a proposed candidate for the hand of the 12-year-old, but the marriage never materialised and he died childless in 1747.

She married Charles Juste de Beauvau, a member of the wealthy Beauvau family of the Duchy of Lorraine, on 3 April 1745.^[1] Her sister in law (her husband's sister) was the famous marquise de Boufflers. Her daughter married Philippe Louis de Noailles, son of Philippe de Noailles and Anne d'Arpajon, lady-in-waiting to Marie Antoinette.^[1]

She died of smallpox^[2] at the Hôtel de Beauvau-Craon, her husband's town house in Lunéville, Lorraine. She and her daughter were heading to Paris from Lorraine when Marie Charlotte caught the illness. Notwithstanding the utmost care,^[2] she succumbed to the illness; at the time she was arranging the proposed marriage between her daughter Louise and Armand Louis de Gontaut, Duke of Lauzun.

Lauzun and Louise never married and were both greatly affected by the death of Marie Charlotte – the two were in love – and with the death of Marie Charlotte, Lauzun lost his most valuable ally,^[2] regarding a union with Louise and himself. Her daughter was placed in the Abbey of Port Royal^[2] in Paris where she remained till her marriage in 1767.

After her death, her husband married again in 1764 to Marie Charlotte Sylvie de Rohan-Chabot, a cousin of Charles de Rohan, Prince of Soubise.

Issue

Anne Louise Marie de Beauvau, Mademoiselle de Beauvau (1 April 1750 – 20 November 1834) married Philippe Louis de Noailles, prince de Poix, later Duke of Mouchy and had issue.

Ancestry

Ancestors of Marie Charlotte de La Tour d'Auvergne

16. Henri de La Tour d'Auvergne, Duke of Bouillon

8. Frédéric Maurice de La Tour d'Auvergne, Duke of Bouillon

17. Countess Elisabeth of Nassau

4. Godefroy Maurice de La Tour d'Auvergne, Duke of Bouillon

18. Frederik, Count van den Bergh

9. Countess Eleonora van den Bergh

19. Françoise de Ravenel

2. Emmanuel Théodose de La Tour d'Auvergne, Duke of Bouillon

20. Pietro Mazzarini

10. Michele Lorenzo Mancini

21. Ortensia Bufalini

5. Marie Anne Mancini

22. Paolo Mancini

11. Girolama Mazzarini

23. Vittoria Capocci

1. Marie Charlotte de La Tour d'Auvergne

24. François Louis of Lorraine, Count of Harcourt

12. Alphonse of Lorraine, Count of Harcourt

25. Anne d'Ornano

6. Joseph, Count of Harcourt

26. Charles, Count of Brancas

13. Françoise de Brancas

27. Suzanne Garnier

3. Louise Henriette Françoise de Lorraine

28. Nicolas Jeannin de Castille, Marquis of Montjeu

14. Gaspard Jeannin de Castille, Marquis of Montjeu

29. Claude de Fieubet

7. Marie Jeannin de Castille, Marquise of Montjeu

30. Nicolas Dauvet, Count of Marets

15. Louise Diane Dauvet

31. Christine de Lantage, Dame of Vitry-le-Croisé

Titles, styles, honours and arms

Titles and styles

20 December 1729 – 29 December 1734 Her Highness Mademoiselle de Château-Thierry
29 December 1734 – 3 April 1745 Her Highness Mademoiselle de Bouillon
3 April 1745 – 6 September 1763 Her Highness the Princess of Beauvau

References and notes

1 2 3 4 5 6 van de Pas, Leo. "Marie Charlotte de La Tour d'Auvergne". Genealogics .org. Retrieved 2010-03-16.
1 2 3 4 5 Maugras, Gaston. The Duc de Lauzun and the Court of Louis XV. Googlebooks.org. Retrieved 2010-03-25.
↑ Previously the Hôtel de la Bazinière, then bought by her grandfather Godefroy Maurice de La Tour d'Auvergne; now an extension of the École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts
↑ d'Albert Luynes, Charles Philippe. Mémoires du duc de Luynes sur la cour de Louis XV (1735-1758) By Charles Philippe d'Albert de Luynes. Googlebooks.org. Retrieved 2010-04-21.