Louis III, Prince of Condé


Louis III de Bourbon, Prince of Condé was a prince du sang as a member of the reigning House of Bourbon at the French court of Louis XIV. Styled as Duke of Bourbon from birth, he succeeded his father in 1709 as Prince of Condé ; however, he was still known by the ducal title. He was prince for less than a year.

Biography

Louis de Bourbon was born at the Hôtel de Condé in Paris on 10 November 1668 to Henri Jules de Bourbon, Prince of Condé and Anne Henriette of Bavaria, and the grandson of le Grand Condé.
One of nine children, he was his parents' eldest surviving son. His sister, Marie Thérèse de Bourbon, married François Louis, Prince of Conti in 1688. Another sister, Louise Bénédicte de Bourbon, would marry Louis Auguste, Duke of Maine, a legitimised son of Louis XIV, in 1692. His youngest sister, Marie Anne de Bourbon, much later married the famed general Louis Joseph de Bourbon.
He was made a Chevalier du Saint-Esprit in 1686, a colonel of the Bourbon-Infanterie Regiment later that same year, a maréchal de camp in 1690, and a lieutenant general in 1692. Upon the death of his father, he inherited all the Condé titles and estates.

Marriage

In 1685, Louis married Louise Françoise de Bourbon, known at court as Mademoiselle de Nantes, a daughter of King Louis XIV of France and his mistress, Madame de Montespan. It came as a surprise to the royal court seeing the marriage between a prince du sang and an illegitimate daughter of the king. The head of the House of Condé, le Grand Condé, however, acquiesced to the socially inferior match in the hope of gaining favour with the bride's father, Louis XIV.
The seventeen-year-old duc de Bourbon was known at court as Monsieur le Duc. After the marriage, his wife assumed the style of Madame la Duchesse. Louis was frequently unfaithful to his fourteen year old wife, who, despite being initially heartbroken, eventually followed him in this path. Historian Jacques Bernot notes:
She learns that her husband is taking advantage of the Fontainebleau ladies with a few companions and gallop into the carriage to Paris to indulge in debauchery. The king, moved by her sorrow, sends her his physician and reproaches the equerry for not keeping a closer eye on the Duke of Bourbon.
Like his father, who became Prince of Condé in 1687, Louis led a typical, unremarkable life. In appearance, he was unimpressive in comparison with his wife, famed for her beauty. He was short in stature, and a macrocephalic with a bilious complexion. He was also noted for his lack of intelligence, as well as being notoriously malevolent and offensive. Saint-Simon described Bourbon as:
... a man considerably shorter than the shortest men, who, without being fat, was stout all over, with a surprisingly large head and a frightening face; it was said that he was a dwarf of Madame la Princesse. He was lividly yellow, almost always looking furious, but at the same time so proud, so audacious that it was hard to get used to him. He had wit, was well-read, retained some of an excellent education, and even displayed politeness and grace when he chose to; but he very rarely chose to. He had neither the avarice, nor the injustice, nor the baseness of his ancestors; but he possessed all their valor and showed application and intelligence in war. He also had the malice and all the cunning to increase his rank through subtle usurpations, and even more audacity and impetuosity than they did in attacking.

Prince of Condé

Louis was prince de Condé for just over a year, dying only eleven months after his father. Like his father, and his paternal great-grandmother Nicole du Plessis, Louis was deemed insane several years before his death, "making horrible faces", as one historian noted. Bourbon died in 1710 at the age of 41.

Issue

Source:
  1. Marie Anne Éléonore de Bourbon, Mademoiselle de Bourbon ; became a nun.
  2. Louis Henri I, Prince of Condé ; married Marie Anne de Bourbon and had no issue. He later married Landgravine Caroline of Hesse-Rotenburg and had issue.
  3. Louise Élisabeth de Bourbon ; married Louis Armand, Prince of Conti and had issue.
  4. Louise Anne de Bourbon, Mademoiselle de Charolais ; died unmarried.
  5. Marie Anne de Bourbon ; secretly married Louis de Melun, Duke of Joyeuse.
  6. Charles, Count of Charolais ; secretly married Jeanne de Valois Saint Remy and had illegitimate issue.
  7. Henriette Louise de Bourbon, Mademoiselle de Vermandois ; died unmarried.
  8. Élisabeth Alexandrine de Bourbon, Mademoiselle de Sens ; died unmarried.
  9. Louis, Count of Clermont ; died unmarried.