Rohan, Family

ROHAN, FAMILY. - Originating in Brittany, tracing 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., b. in 1570 at the castle of Blain, in Brittany, was very soon at the head of bands of Huguenots in conflict with the Catholics. After the Peace of Vervins he traveled extensively to learn about peoples and countries, completing his classical education. His favorite author was Plutarch, and he dreamed of imitating the heroes of antiquity. Henry IV felt sympathy for him and married him to Marguerite de Béthune, daughter of his minister Sully; thus he made him duke and peer of France (1603). Appointed governor of St-Jean-d'Angély, he took advantage of this, after the death of Henry IV, to create a center of Huguenot military organization. At the Huguenot Assembly of Saumur he made himself an enthusiastic and ardent representative of the opposition to the Regent. However, he showed a desire for conciliation and knew how to secure advantages by negotiating with the Court. In 1615, in the Huguenot uprising called by the Assembly of Nîmes, he was commander of the insurgents in Languedoc and Guyenne; after the Peace of Loudun, in the renewed resort to arms, R. was again in the front line. He was at the Assembly of La Rochelle in 1620; at the siege of Montauban he negotiated with Luynes, but while the other leaders surrendered to royal blandishments, he remained in the field with Condé, until the Peace of Montpellier. When Richelieu violated the treaty, R. rushed through the southern provinces, urging them to war. He was in agreement with the Duke of Buckingham, but did not hesitate to make an alliance with the King of Spain, who promised him a large pension. After the Peace of Alais (1629), convinced that Richelieu was determined to destroy Huguenot power, he left the Kingdom and withdrew 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 weapons and money in 1637, he abandoned Switzerland and went to Alsace to Bernhard of Saxe-Weimar. Wounded in the attack on Rheinfelden, he d. on 13 Apr. 1638 at Königsfeld and was buried at St-Pierre in Geneva.

Francesco Cognasso

ARMAND GASTON de R.-SOUBISE, cardinal, b. in Paris on 26 Aug. 1674; he was a canon at Strasbourg, a doctor at the Sorbonne in 1699; in 1701 he was appointed coadjutor of Cardinal Fürstenberg, bishop of Strasbourg, and succeeded him on 10 Apr. 1704. On the proposal of Louis XIV he was created cardinal by Clement XI on 18 May 1712, and in 1713 he was appointed grand almoner; in 1722 he became a member of the regency council and crowned King Louis XV. He took part in four conclaves. A rich and generous prince, he assembled a famous library and was a member of the Académie de France. He was a defender of 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, throughout the century, the cardinalate and the bishopric of Strasbourg remained in his family.

Pietro Sannazzaro

ARMAND de R.-SOUBISE, b. in Paris on 1 Dec. 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 Apr. 1747 on the presentation of Charles Edward Stuart; he became bishop of Strasbourg on 19 July 1749, grand almoner and 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 Sept. 1756, belonged to the princely branch of Guémenée; b. on 24 May 1697, he had been a knight of Malta. He was created cardinal by Clement XIII on 23 Nov. 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 Aug. 1762.

LOUIS-RÉNÉ-EDOUARD de R.-SOUBISE, b. on 25 Sept. 1734, became coadjutor of Strasbourg as titular bishop of Canopus on 24 March 1760; a member of the Académie de France in 1761, in 1772 he was sent as French ambassador to Vienna, from where he was recalled in 1774 for 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. Duped by the adventurer Cagliostro and by the pseudo-countess de La Motte-Valois, in order to gain the favor of Marie Antoinette, who despised him, he played a leading part in the Affair of the Necklace, for which he was publicly arrested, taken to the Bastille, then exiled from Paris in 1786. He returned to his diocese and in 1789 was 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-speaking part of his diocese, becoming a great protector of French émigrés and leading a better conduct than in the past. In obedience to the Concordat of 1801 he renounced the diocese. He died at Ettenheim on 16 Feb. 1803.

LOUIS-FRANÇOIS-AUGUSTE, prince of Léon, duke of R.-Chabot, cardinal, b. on 29 Feb. 1788 in Paris, d. on 8 Feb. 1833 at Chenecey (Doubs). By Napoleon he was first appointed chamberlain to his sister Pauline, then to Caroline Murat. After the Restoration he was at the side of the Duke of Angoulême. He succeeded his father in Nov. 1816 as peer of France and duke of R.-Chabot. The loss of his wife, the countess of Sérent, under particularly painful circumstances, shook him and led him to enter the Seminary of St. Sulpice in 1819; he was ordained priest in 1822 and became vicar general of Paris. In 1823 he was in Rome as conclavist of Cardinal de la Fare; he tried to obtain the cardinal's purple, but Leo XII, also because of the candidate's young age, would not consent. Instead, in June 1828 he preconized him archbishop of Auch and then transferred him on 15 Dec. of the same year to the see of Besançon. Pius VIII created him cardinal on 5 July 1830. While in Paris he was awaiting the imposition of the red biretta, the July Revolution broke out, which brought Louis Philippe to the throne. Having escaped the fury of the populace, which accused him of being a supporter of the Bourbons, he went to Belgium and Switzerland; and he turned to Cardinal Odescalchi, whose friend he was, so that he might defend him before the Pontiff in the campaign of defamation conducted against him by the ambassador of France to the Holy See. In Dec. 1830 he came to Rome to take part in the Conclave and, together with Odescalchi, contributed to the election of Mauro Cappellari. Gregory XVI, in his first Consistory held on 28 Feb. 1831, conferred on him the title of the Most Holy Trinity of the Mountains. Declared deposed from the Chamber of Peers for having refused the oath to the new King, he returned to his diocese in May 1832 and died not yet forty-five years old while tending to cholera patients.

Silvio Furlani