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Louise Marguerite of Lorraine
Princess of Conti
Anonymous painting
Born	1588 Château de Blois, France
Died	30 April 1631 Château d'Eu, France
Burial	Collegiale Notre Dame et Saint Laurent, Eu, France
Spouse	François de Bourbon François de Bassompierre
Names Louise Marguerite de Lorraine
Father	Henri of Lorraine
Mother	Catherine of Cleves

Louise Marguerite of Lorraine, Princess of Conti (1588 – 30 April 1631) was a daughter of the Duke of Guise and a member of the House of Lorraine. She married François de Bourbon, titled the Prince of Conti. As such, after her marriage she was the Princess of Conti. She died without any surviving issue.

Biography

Louise Marguerite was born at the Château de Blois, present at Blois outside Paris. Her father was Henri of Lorraine, Duke of Guise, member of the House of Lorraine and her mother was Catherine of Cleves. She was the penultimate child of fourteen; her brother Claude, Duke of Chevreuse was the husband of Marie de Rohan, the infamous Frondeur. Her oldest brother Charles was the last Duke of Guise after the death of her father in 1588.

She was a member of the house of Guise, a cadet branch of the house of Lorraine which was the ruling family of the Duchy of Lorraine and Bar. As a Lorraine, she was a Foreign Princess at the French court.

She was named after her two godmothers; Louise in honour of Louise of Lorraine, wife of Henry III of France and Marguerite in honour of Marguerite de Valois, first wife of Henry IV. She grew up in the care of her mother and paternal grandmother, Anna d'Este.

Louise Marguerite was often considered to be a great beauty at court. She was also an intimate (as well as lover) of Henry IV of France her future cousin by marriage.

Her husband to be was François de Bourbon, styled the Prince of Conti. He was a son of Louis de Bourbon, Prince of Condé and his wife Eléanor de Roucy de Roye. François was a widower having lost his first wife Jeanne de Coësmes in 1601; that marriage remained childless despite the union being for twenty years.

The couple were married at the Château de Meudon outside Paris on 24 July 1605 and had been used to tie together the House of Lorraine with that of the ruling House of Bourbon. It had been said that Henry IV, the instigator of the marriage, had wanted to marry her himself but this is unlikely as when she came to court, Henry IV was already in love with Gabrielle d'Estrées and thus is widely disputed.

On 8 May 1610, the Princess of Conti gave birth to a daughter, baptised Marie, at the Palais du Louvre. This child was to be the only infant born to the couple but the girl died of twelve days after birth; the child was buried at the church of Saint-Germain-des-Prés.

The death of François' on 2 August 1614 was Louise Marguerite became a widow at the age of 26. With great zeal, she became devoted to the study of literature as well as a patron of many writers of her time, including François de Malherbe, Nicolas Renouard and Blaise de Vigenère.

She was a lady-in-waiting to Marie de' Medici as well as Anne of Austria.

She later married François de Bassompierre in a secret ceremony. The couple are said to have had a child from their union but little information exists. Having married Bassompierre, they lived together in disgrace, Louise Marguerite dying at the Château d'Eu.

She was buried at the Collegiale Notre Dame et Saint Laurent, at Eu, France.

She is credited as the author of a fictionalized account of the love life of Henry IV's court, reworked and published under various titles including Romant royal (1621), Advantures de la cour de Perse (1629), and Histoire des amours du grand Alcandre (1651).

Issue

• Marie de Bourbon (8 March 1610 – 20 March 1610) died in infancy.

Ancestry

See also

• Chalais conspiracy

References and notes

1. Spangler 2016, p. 272.
2. Jeanne was the mother of Anne de Montafié who in turn was the wife of Charles de Bourbon, Count of Soissons, François' half brother; Anne was mother of Marie de Bourbon, Princess of Carignan
3. DeJean 1991, p. 22-23.

Bibliography and sources

• DeJean, Joan E. (1991). Tender Geographies: Women and the Origins of the Novel in France. Columbia University Press.
• Spangler, Jonathan (2016). The Society of Princes: The Lorraine-Guise and the Conservation of Power and Wealth in Seventeenth-Century France. Routledge.
• Jean Baptiste Joseph Boulliot, Biographie ardennaise. Ou Histoire des Ardennais qui se sont fait remarquer par leurs écrits, leurs actions, leurs vertus ou leurs erreurs. Volume 2. Paris 1830, S. 147–149 (PDF; 21,8 MB).
• Hilarion de Coste, Les Éloges et les vies des reynes, des princesses, et des dames illustres en pieté, en courage & en doctrine, qui ont fleury de nostre temps, & du temps de nos peres. Volume 1. Cramoisy, Parigi 1647.
• Jean Chrétien Ferdinand Hoefer, Nouvelle biographie générale depuis les temps les plus reculés jusqu'à nos jours, avec les renseignements bibliographiques et l'indication des sources à consulter. Volume 11. Firmin Didot, Parigi 1856, S. 663 – 665 (PDF; 94,9 MB).

v t e Princesses of Lorraine
The generations start from the children of Réné II
2nd generation	Anne, Princess of Orange
3rd generation	Reneta, Duchess of Bavaria Dorothea, Duchess of Calenberg* Marie, Queen of Scotland Louise, Queen of France*
4th generation	Christine, Grand Duchess of Tuscany Antoinette, Duchess of Duchess of Jülich-Kleve-Berg Élisabeth, Electress Palatine Françoise, Duchess of Vendôme Catherine, Abbess of Remiremont* Louise Marguerite, Princess of Conti*
5th generation	Nicole, Duchess of Lorraine* Claude Françoise, Duchess of Lorraine Marguerite, Duchess of Orléans* Marie, Duchess of Guise*
6th generation	Anne Marie Thérèse, Abbess of Remiremont* Béatrice Hiéronyme, Abbess of Remiremont* Élisabeth, Princess of Epinoy* Marie, Princess of Monaco Charlotte, Mademoiselle d'Armagnac Suzanne Henriette, Duchess of Mantua
8th generation	Élisabeth Charlotte, Abbess of Remiremont* Élisabeth Thérèse, Queen of Sardinia* Anne Charlotte, Abbess of Remiremont* Louise Henriette Françoise, Duchess of Bouillon Élisabeth Sophie, Duchess of Richelieu Louise, Duchess of Bouillon
9th generation	Joséphine, Princess of Carignan
*died without issue

v t e Princesses of the Blood by marriage
The generations start from the children of François de Bourbon, Count of Vendôme, from whom are descended all legitimate Bourbons after the death in 1627 of Marie de Bourbon, last of the Montpensier branch of the dynasty.
1st generation	Françoise de Valois, Duchesse d'Alençon*
2nd generation	Jeanne d'Albret, Queen of Navarre Eléanor de Roucy de Roye Françoise d'Orléans-Longueville
3rd generation	Marie of Cleves Charlotte Catherine de La Trémoille Jeanne de Coëmes Louise Marguerite de Lorraine-Guise Anne de Montafié
4th generation	Charlotte Marguerite de Montmorency
5th generation	Claire-Clémence de Maillé-Brézé Anna Maria Martinozzi Laura Mancini
6th generation	Princess Palatine Anne Marie Anne de Bourbon, légitimée de France Marie Thérèse de Bourbon-Condé*
7th generation	Louise Françoise de Bourbon, légitimée de France
8th generation	Auguste of Baden-Baden Marie Anne de Bourbon-Conti* Princess Caroline of Hesse-Rotenburg Louise Élisabeth de Bourbon-Condé*
9th generation	Louise Henriette de Bourbon-Conti* Charlotte de Rohan Maria Caterina Brignole Louise Diane d'Orléans*
10th generation	Louise Marie Adélaïde de Bourbon-Penthièvre* Bathilde d'Orléans* Princess Maria Fortunata d'Este of Modena Maria Luisa, Princess of Lamballe
11th generation	Princess Maria Amalia of Naples and Sicily Charlotte de Rohan
* princess of the Blood in her own right as well as wife of a prince of the Blood

• Princesses of Conti
• 1588 births
• 1631 deaths
• House of Bourbon
• House of Lorraine
• House of Guise
• Princesses of Lorraine
• People from Blois
• Princesses of the Blood
• French ladies-in-waiting
• Court of Henry IV of France
• Court of Louis XIII
• Household of Marie de' Medici