ROHAN, FAMILY. — Originating in Brittany, tracing its lineage back to ALAIN, viscount of R. (Morbihan), documented in 1105. During the reign of Louis XII, PIERRE de R. (d. 1513), rival of Cardinal d'Amboise, became very powerful.
HENRI, duke of R., born in 1570 at the castle of Blain, in Brittany, was very soon at the head of bands of Huguenots fighting the Catholics. After the Peace of Vervins he travelled extensively in order to become acquainted with peoples and countries, completing his classical education. His favorite author was Plutarch, and he dreamed of imitating the heroes of antiquity. Henri IV was fond of him and married him to Marguerite de Béthune, daughter of his minister Sully; he thus made him duke and peer of France (1603). Appointed governor of St-Jean-d'Angély, after the death of Henri IV he took advantage of his position to create a center for Huguenot military organization. At the Assembly of the Huguenots at Saumur he became an enthusiastic and ardent representative of the opposition to the Regent. Yet he showed a desire for conciliation and knew how to secure advantages by negotiating with the Court. In 1615, during the Huguenot uprising called by the Assembly of Nîmes, he was commander of the insurgents in Languedoc and Guyenne; after the Peace of Loudun, when hostilities resumed, R. was once again in the front line. He attended the Assembly of La Rochelle in 1620; during the siege of Montauban he negotiated with Luynes, but while the other leaders surrendered to the royal blandishments, he remained in the field with Condé until the Peace of Montpellier. When Richelieu violated the treaty, R. travelled through the southern provinces urging them to war. He was in agreement with the duke of Buckingham, but did not hesitate to ally himself with the King of Spain, who promised him a substantial pension. After the Peace of Alais (1629), convinced that Richelieu was determined to destroy Huguenot power, he left the Kingdom and retired first to Venice and then to Padua. In 1634 Richelieu recalled him to the King’s service and entrusted him with the struggle against the Emperor in the Valtellina. Left without arms or money in 1637, he abandoned Switzerland and went to Alsace, to Bernard of Saxe-Weimar. Wounded in the attack on Rheinfelden, he died on 13 April 1638 at Königsfeld and was buried at St-Pierre in Geneva.
Francesco Cognasso
ARMAND GASTON de R.-SOUBISE, cardinal, born in Paris on 26 August 1674; he was a canon at Strasbourg and received his doctorate at the Sorbonne in 1699; in 1701 he was appointed coadjutor to Cardinal Fürstenberg, bishop of Strasbourg, and succeeded him on 10 April 1704. At the proposal of Louis XIV he was created cardinal by Clement XI on 18 May 1712, and in 1713 was appointed grand almoner; in 1722 he became a member of the regency council and crowned Louis XV king. He took part in four conclaves. A wealthy and generous prince, he assembled a celebrated library and was a member of the Académie française. He defended the bull Unigenitus (v.) in opposition to the archbishop of Paris, Cardinal de Noailles (v.), whose belated retraction he accepted. He died in Paris on 19 July 1749, and after him the cardinalate and the bishopric of Strasbourg remained in his family throughout the century.
ARMAND de R.-SOUBISE, born in Paris on 1 December 1717, canon of Strasbourg and rector of the University of Paris (1739); as titular bishop of Telemünde he became coadjutor of Strasbourg in 1742 and cardinal on 10 April 1747, upon the presentation of Charles Edward Stuart; he became bishop of Strasbourg on 19 July 1749, grand almoner, and a member of the Academy; he died at Saverne on 28 June 1756, at the age of 39.
LOUIS CONSTANTIN, who succeeded him in the bishopric on 23 September 1756, belonged to the princely branch of Guémenée; born on 24 May 1697, he had been a knight of Malta. He was created cardinal by Clement XIII on 23 November 1761; he became grand almoner and died in Paris on 11 March 1779. His brother ARMAND, canon of Strasbourg, was created cardinal and died on 28 August 1947.
LOUIS-RÉNÉ-EDOUARD de R.-SOUBISE, born on 25 September 1734, became coadjutor of Strasbourg as titular bishop of Canopus on 24 March 1760; a member of the Académie française in 1761, in 1772 he was sent as French ambassador to Vienna, from where he was recalled in 1774 because of his ostentatious and worldly conduct. He was appointed grand almoner and created cardinal by Pius VI on 1 June 1778; he became bishop of Strasbourg in 1779. Deceived by the adventurer Cagliostro and the pseudo-countess de La Motte-Valois, in an attempt to win the favor of Marie Antoinette, who despised him, he played a leading role in the affair of the necklace, for which he was publicly arrested, taken to the Bastille, and then exiled from Paris in 1786. He returned to his diocese and in 1789 was elected as a deputy of the clergy to the Estates-General. He opposed the Revolution, refused the Civil Constitution of the Clergy (1790), and found refuge in the German part of his diocese, becoming a great protector of the French émigrés and conducting himself better than in the past. In obedience to the Concordat of 1801 he resigned the diocese. He died at Ettenheim on 16 February 1948.
LOUIS-FRANÇOIS-AUGUSTE, prince of Léon, duke of R.-Chabot, cardinal, born on 29 February 1788 in Paris, died on 8 February 1833 at Chenecey (Doubs). Napoleon first appointed him chamberlain to his sister Pauline and then to Caroline Murat. After the Restoration he stood beside the duke of Angoulême. He succeeded his father in November 1816 as peer of France and duke of R.-Chabot. The loss of his wife, the countess of Sérent, in particularly painful circumstances, shook him and led him to enter the Seminary of Saint-Sulpice in 1819; he was ordained a priest in 1822 and became vicar general of Paris. In 1823 he was in Rome as conclavist to Cardinal de la Fare; he attempted to obtain the cardinalate, but Leo XII, partly because of the candidate’s young age, was unwilling to consent. Instead, in June 1828 he preconized him archbishop of Auch and then transferred him on 15 December of the same year to the see of Besançon. Pius VIII created him cardinal on 5 July 1830. While he was awaiting the imposition of the red hat in Paris, the July Revolution broke out, bringing Louis Philippe to the throne. Having escaped the popular fury directed against him as a supporter of the Bourbons, he went to Belgium and Switzerland; and he appealed to Cardinal Odescalchi, with whom he was friendly, to defend him before the Pontiff against the campaign of defamation conducted against him by the French ambassador to the Holy See. In December 1830 he came to Rome to take part in the Conclave and, together with Odescalchi, contributed to the election of Mauro Cappellari. Gregory XVI, at his first Consistory, held on 28 February 1831, conferred on him the title of the Most Holy Trinity of the Mountains. Declared deprived of his seat in the Chamber of Peers for refusing to swear the oath to the new King, he returned to his diocese in May 1832 and died, not yet forty-five, while caring for cholera patients.