Battle of Honey Springs

Henri II de Bourbon, Prince of Condé (1 September 1588 – 26 December 1646) was the head of the senior-most cadet branch of the House of Bourbon for nearly all his life and heir presumptive to the King of France for the first few years of his life. Henri was the father of Louis, le Grand Condé, the celebrated French general.

Life

Henri was born in 1588, the third child and only son of Henri I, Prince of Condé and Charlotte Catherine de La Trémoille, daughter of Louis III de La Trémoille, Duke of Thouars.[1] His mother was in prison at Saint-Jean-d'Angély at the time, accused of killing her husband.[2] He had two older sisters, namely Catherine de Bourbon, his paternal half-sister who died unwed in 1595, and Éléonore de Bourbon, who in 1606 was married, aged 19, to 51-year-old Philip William, Prince of Orange.

Henri was a posthumous child, his father having died nearly six months before his birth. He therefore became Prince of Condé within weeks of his birth, as soon as he was recognized and confirmed by the King of France.

King Henry III of France died in August 1589, when Henri was less than one year old, and was succeeded by Henry IV of France, who was the first cousin of Henri's late father, and Henri's godfather. Less than a year later, the new King's uncle (Henri's great uncle) and initial heir, Cardinal Charles died. At this point, Henri, being the King's closest agnatic kin, became First Prince of the blood and heir presumptive to the throne of France, and remained so for twelve years, until the birth of the future Louis XIII of France in September 1601.[3] Henri was raised as a Catholic[4] at the insistence of Pope Clement VIII.[5] Henri's father and grandfather had been leaders of the Calvinist Huguenots. Henri's mother was in prison for six years, accused of poisoning her husband; she was later released.

Raised at court but never regarded as a favorite and seen with suspicion by Henry VII for his claims to the throne after the sons of the king. Henri grew into what his contemporary Bassompierre described as a "not amiable" young man who was quick to take offense.[6]

His position at court was also not strong due to his relative poverty and it was much damaged by the court intrigues of his mother wich led to her banishment from court[7]. Henri himself was made to deliver the bad news to his mother.

As a consequence he much preferred hunting and the military life as opposed to court life[8].

His appearance and personality was described by a contemporary as;

"Small and thin, he has very prominent facial features, as all those of the House of Bourbon usually do;  he is blond and has the lively French temperament.  I find him witty, but he is frivolous and often imprudent in the choice of his confidants.  He speaks Latin and Italian, has Spanish and speaks it a little;  he is well versed in sacred and secular letters, having had . Nicolas le Febvre as his tutor, and pushes his zeal for the Catholic religion very far.”  ̧

When in 1609 his marriage with Charlotte de Montmorency was arranged (allegedly because his uncle the king was infatuated with her and expected his nephew to be compliant with her becoming his mistress.) The wedding took place at the brides fathers home of Chantilly.

Afterwards instead of bringing his wife to court as the king had expected she was instead brought to first Chateau de Breteuil and then to Muret Henris home in the country where she remained under the supervision of her mother-in-law[6] . Charlotte wrote letters to her Montmorency relatives calling herself "la pauvre prisonniere" (lit. "the poor prisoner"

The kings demands becoming more adamant that he fetch his wife to court finally succeeded and Henri asked permission to do so wich the king happily granted . But instead Henri went to Muret where he had arranged a carriage and escaped with his wife to Brussels[9].

Some months later in February,1610[6] he was obliged to remove to exile in Milan where the Spanish government was more than happy to defy the French kings request to turn over the prince[10]. Henri took up residence in the palace of the viceroy of Milan Count of Fuentes who supplied him with a bodyguard.

Meanwhile in Brussels Charlotte, his wife encouraged by French diplomats[6] signed a petition asking for the dissolution of the marriage to the prince de Conde on the grounds of a disparity of temperament, inclinations and temperament. Henri opposed the divorce long enough that matters were subsequently resolved by the assassination of Henry VII.

Finally free to return to France he returned to Paris in July 1610 after the death of his uncle the king and was greeted by many nobles and the young king Louis XIII and the queen mother Marie de Medicis. Restored to grace he was reinstated at court.

From 1612 to 1616 he was Lieutenant General of New France. He was made governor of Berry but then was accused of wanting to become the king through a coup ,and although there were no concrete evidence to back this up, Richelieu, in the name of the Regent, had him arrested and imprisoned in the Bastille. He was joined by his wife who wanted to share her husbands captivity[11].

Because of bad health he was transferred to Chateau de Vincennes.Château of Vincennes,he could take exercise on the top of a thick wall built in the form of a gallery. Their first child was born during this time -a still born son and it was feared Charlotte would die too. The couple was not released until the birth of their daughter Genevieve.

Later, during the years 1611–38, Henri was second-in-line to the throne of France, behind Gaston, Duke of Orleans. This was the period between the death of Nicolas Henri, Duke of Orleans in November 1611 and the birth of the future Louis XIV of France in September 1638.

Marriage and issue

A portrait of Henri II, Prince of Conde.
Henri II, Prince of Condé, Grand Veneur de France.

In 1609, Henri married Charlotte Marguerite de Montmorency,[12] daughter of Henri I de Montmorency, Duke of Montmorency by his second wife, Louise de Budos.[13] In 1610, Marie de Médici, wife of King Henry IV, gave the Hôtel de Condé in Paris to Henri as part of a recompense for his agreeing to marry Charlotte. From then on, the Hôtel de Condé became the main residence of the Princes of Condé until 1764. Henri and Charlotte had three children, all of them protagonists of the Fronde, namely:

Reportedly, King Henry IV fancied Charlotte himself, and arranged the marriage with Condé in order to provide cover for an affair. However, Condé would have none of it, and escaped with his wife first to Brussels and later to Milan, both of which were under the rule of the House of Habsburg. The Condé affair became part of the international conflict known as the War of the Jülich Succession (one of the precursors to the Thirty Years' War).

Ancestry

References

Sources

  • Collins, James (2017). "Dynastic Instability, the Emergence of the French Monarchical Commonwealth and the Coming of the Rhetoric of "L'etat", 1360s to 1650s". In von Friedeburg, Robert; Morrill, John (eds.). Monarchy Transformed: Princes and their Elites in Early Modern Western Europe. Cambridge University Press.
  • Knecht, R.J. (1989). The French Wars of Religion, 1559-1598. Longman.
  • Pitts, Vincent J. (2009). Henri IV of France, his Reign and Age. The Johns Hopkins University Press.
  • Roche, Daniel (1967). "Aperçus sur la fortune et les revenus des princes de Condé à l'aube du XVIIIe siècle". Revue d'histoire moderne et contemporaine Année (in French). 14 (3).
  • Ward, A.W.; Prothero, G.W.; Leathes, Stanley, eds. (1911). The Cambridge Modern History. Cambridge University Press.
  • Williams, Hugh Noel (1912). The Love-affairs of the Condés: (1530-1740). Charles Scribner's Sons.
Henri II, Prince of Condé
Cadet branch of the House of Bourbon
Born: 11 September 1588 Died: 26 December 1646
French royalty
Preceded by Heir to the Throne
as Heir presumptive
9 May 1590 — 27 September 1601
Succeeded by
French nobility
Preceded by Prince of Condé
5 March 1588 – 26 December 1646
Succeeded by
Military offices
Preceded by Lieutenant General of New France
1612 – 8 October 1619
Succeeded by
Henri II de Montmorency,
admiral of France