Guy Auguste de Rohan-Chabot
Guy Auguste de Rohan-Chabot known as the comte de Chabot, often referred to as Chevalier de Rohan, was a French nobleman most notable for an altercation with Voltaire.
Early life
Guy-Auguste was born on 18 August 1683. He was the son of Louis de Rohan-Chabot, Duc de Rohan, Prince de Leon and Marie Élisabeth du Bec-Crespin de Grimaldi, Marquise de Vardes.Altercation with Voltaire
Guy-Auguste is mostly remembered for an altercation with the young Voltaire in 1725, in which both men insulted each other. He then arranged for his servants to assault Voltaire while he watched from his carriage. When Voltaire then exercised his right to demand that Guy-Auguste face him in a duel, the Rohan family obtained a lettre de cachet from French King Louis XV and used this warrant to force Voltaire first into imprisonment in the Bastille and then into exile in Great Britain. Ironically, this exile proved to be of great importance to Voltaire's development as a philosopher; his exposure to the more limited constitutional monarchy of England and its emphasis on the protection of civil rights as opposed to the absolute and unrestrained rule of the French kings marked many of his later political writings.Personal life
On 7 February 1729, Guy Auguste married Yvonne Sylvie du Breil de Rays. Before her death on 15 July 1740, he fathered a daughter and two sons:- Marie Sylvie Alias Charlotte de Rohan-Chabot, who married Jean Baptiste Louis de Clermont d'Amboise, Marquis de Reynel and Marquis de Montglas.
- Louis Antoine Auguste de Rohan-Chabot, who married Élisabeth Louise de La Rochefoucauld. After her death in 1786, he married Adélaïde Suzanne de Vismes, widow of Jean-Benjamin de La Borde and daughter of Pierre-Martin de Vismes and Marie-Louise Legendre, in 1798.Charles Rosalie de Rohan-Chabot, Count of Jarnac, who married Guyonne Hyacinthe de Pons Saint Maurice, a daughter of Charles Philippe de Pons Saint-Maurice. After her death in 1761, he married Elisabeth Smith.
He died on 13 September 1760 in Paris, France. His son, Louis Antoine, succeeded Guy Auguste's father as the Duke of Rohan as did his grandson, Alexandre, Duke of Rohan.