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Henri II d'Orléans
Duke of Longueville
In office 1595–1663
Prince of Neuchâtel
In office 1595–1663
Personal details
Born	6 April 1595
Died	11 May 1663
Spouses	Louise de Bourbon Anne Geneviève de Bourbon
Children	7, including Marie and Charles Paris d'Orléans, Duke of Longueville
Parents	Henri I d'Orléans, duc de Longueville (father) Princess Catherine Gonzaga (mother)

Henri II d'Orléans, duc de Longueville or Henri de Valois-Longueville (6 April 1595 – 11 May 1663), a legitimated prince of France (of royal descent) and peer of France, served as governor of Picardy, then of Normandy, and was a major figure during the Fronde.

Life

He was the only son of Henri I d'Orléans, duc de Longueville and Princess Catherine de Nevers who belonged to the influential Gonzaga family.

As an opponent of Concino Concini, the favourite of Marie de' Medici, he joined the plot mounted in 1616 by Henri II of Bourbon-Condé, during which his forces occupied the city of Péronne, Concini's last remaining stronghold in Picardy. In 1619, he gave the governorship of Picardy to Louis XIII's favorite, Charles d'Albert, duc de Luynes, obtaining in exchange that of Normandy. In the summer of 1620, he joined the revolt of Marie de Medici, but the Parliament of Rouen and the city of Dieppe, which he besieged, remained loyal to the king. Longueville was suspended from his duties for a few months.

Longueville headed the French delegation in the talks that led to the Treaty of Westphalia which ended the Thirty Years War (1648). During the peace proceedings, his insistence on being called Altesse, added to the conflict regarding ambassadorial titles.

In his role as sovereign prince of Neuchâtel, and acting as antagonist of the Habsburg power rather than as liberal benefactor, he succeeded in obtaining formal exemption from the Holy Roman Empire for all cantons and associates of the Swiss Confederacy.

In 1642 he married Anne Geneviève de Bourbon; his brother-in-law was Louis II de Bourbon, Prince de Condé, leader of the aristocratic party in the Fronde. After the Peace of Rueil (11 March 1649) had ended the first phase of the civil war, Mazarin's sudden arrest of the Grand Condé, his brother the prince de Conti and their brother-in-law the duc de Longueville, on 14 January 1650 precipitated the next phase of the Fronde, the Fronde des nobles.

Family

He married his first wife Louise de Bourbon in Paris on 10 April 1617, their children were:

• Marie (1625–1707), who married Henri II, Duke of Nemours
• Louise (1626–1628)
• X (1634–1634)

After his first wife's death, he married Anne Geneviève de Bourbon in 1642, their children were:

• Charlotte Louise, Mademoiselle de Dunois (1644–1645)
• Jean Louis Charles d'Orléans, Duke of Longueville (1646–1694)
• Marie Gabrielle (1646–1650)
• Charles Paris d'Orléans, Duke of Longueville (1649–1672).

Notes

1. He was also duc d'Estouteville and of Coulommiers, sovereign prince of Neuchâtel and Valangin, prince de Châtellaillon, comte de Dunois.

References

1. ^ Hillman 2014, p. 8.
2. ^ Ward, Prothero & Leathes 1911, p. xii.
3. d'Aubigné 2007, p. 367.
4. Lord 1903, p. 135.
5. Kettering 2008, p. 99.
6. Cook & Broadhead 2006, p. 22.
7. Croxton 2013, p. 107.
8. May 2017, p. 87.
9. Mousnier 1970, p. 497-498.

Sources

• d'Aubigné, Agrippa (2007). Fanlo, Jean-Raymond; Ferrer, Véronique; Fragonard, Marie-Madeleine; Schrenck, Gilbert (eds.). Œuvres complètes: Écrits politiques. Champion.
• Cook, Chris; Broadhead, Philip (2006). The Routledge Companion to Early Modern Europe, 1453-1763. Routledge.
• Croxton, Derek (2013). Westphalia: The Last Christian Peace. Springer.
• Hillman, Jennifer (2014). Female Piety and the Catholic Reformation in France. Routledge.
• Kettering, Sharon (2008). Power and Reputation at the Court of Louis XIII: The Career of Charles D'Albert, Duc de Luynes (1578-1621). Manchester University Press.
• Lord, Arthur Power (1903). The Regency of Marie de Médicis: A Study of French History from 1610 to 1616. New York: Henry Holt and Company.
• May, Niels F. (2017). "Stage sovereignty or aristocratic values? Diplomatic ceremonial at the Westphalian peace negotiations (1643-1648)". In Sowerby, Tracey A.; Hennings, Jan (eds.). Practices of Diplomacy in the Early Modern World c.1410-1800. Routledge.
• Mousnier, R. (1970). "French Institutions and Society 1610-61". The New Cambridge Modern History. Vol. 4, The Decline of Spain and the Thirty Years War. Cambridge University Press.
• Ward, A.W.; Prothero, G.W.; Leathes, Stanley, eds. (1911). The Cambridge Modern History. Vol. XIII. Cambridge at the University Press.

External list

• Liste des ducs de Longueville

• 1595 births
• 1663 deaths
• Dukes of Longueville
• 17th-century peers of France
• Princes of Neuchâtel