ROHAN, FAMILY. — Of Breton origin, tracing its lineage to ALAIN, viscount of R. (Morbihan), documented in 1105. During the reign of Louis XII, PIERRE de R. (d. 1513) became very powerful, rivaling Cardinal d'Amboise.
HENRI, Duke of R., b. in 1579 at Blain Castle in Brittany, soon led bands of Huguenots in conflict with Catholics. After the Peace of Vervins, he traveled extensively to study peoples and lands, completing his classical education. His favorite author was Plutarch, and he dreamed of emulating ancient heroes. Henry IV took a liking to him and married him to Marguerite de Béthune, daughter of his minister Sully; thus he was made Duke and Peer of France (1603). Appointed governor of St-Jean-d'Angély, he exploited this position after Henry IV's death to establish a center for Huguenot military organization. At the Huguenot Assembly of Saumur, he became an enthusiastic and ardent representative of opposition to the Regent. Yet he showed a desire for reconciliation and knew how to secure advantages by negotiating with the Court. In 1615, during the Huguenot uprising called by the Assembly of Nîmes, he commanded the insurgents in Languedoc and Guyenne; after the Peace of Loudun, in the resumption of arms, R. was again in the forefront. He attended the Assembly of La Rochelle in 1620; during the siege of Montauban he negotiated with Luynes, but while other leaders yielded to royal blandishments, he remained in the field with Condé until the Peace of Montpellier. When Richelieu violated the treaty, R. toured the southern provinces urging war. He was in agreement with the Duke of Buckingham but did not hesitate to ally 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 retired to Venice and then Padua. In 1634 Richelieu recalled him to royal 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 join 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, b. in Paris on 26 Aug. 1674; he was canon of Strasbourg, doctor at the Sorbonne in 1699; in 1701 he was named coadjutor to Cardinal Fürstenberg, bishop of Strasbourg, and succeeded him on 10 Apr. 1704. Proposed by Louis XIV, he was created cardinal by Clement XI on 18 May 1712 and in 1713 was named grand almoner; in 1722 he entered the Council of Regency and crowned Louis XV. He took part in four conclaves. A wealthy and generous prince, he assembled a celebrated library and was an academician of France. He defended the bull Unigenitus (v.) against the Paris archbishop Cardinal de Noailles (v.), accepting the latter’s belated retraction. He died in Paris on 19 July 1749, and for the rest of the century the cardinalate and the bishopric of Strasbourg remained in his family.
(from M. Lopelmann, Die Liederhandschrift des Cardinals de R., Göttingen 1801, pl. facing pp. 26 and 17) Rohan family — Title page with miniature and ballad by Alain Chartier and coat of arms of the House of R. French School, 15th century — Strasbourg, ms. 78 B. 17. I. $22^7$.
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 Ptolemais 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 see on 23 Sept. 1756, belonged to the princely branch of Guémené; b. 24 May 1697, he had been a Knight of Malta. He was created cardinal by Clement XIII on 23 Nov. 1761, 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. 1947.
LOUIS-RENÉ-EDOUARD de R.-SOUBISE, b. 25 Sept. 1734, became coadjutor of Strasbourg as titular bishop of Canopus on 24 March 1760; academician of France in 1761, in 1772 he was sent as French ambassador to Vienna, from which he was recalled in 1774 for his ostentatious and worldly conduct. He was named 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 the pseudo-confessor de La Motte-Valois, in order to win favor with Marie Antoinette, whom he despised, he played a leading part in the Affair of the Diamond 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 deputy of the clergy to the Estates-General. He opposed the Revolution, refused the Civil Constitution of the Clergy (1790), and took refuge in the German part of his diocese, where he became a great protector of French émigrés and conducted himself more virtuously than in the past. In obedience to the Concordat of 1801 he resigned his see. He died at Ettenheim on 16 Feb. 1948.
LOUIS-FRANÇOIS-AUGUSTE, prince of Léon, duke of R.-Chabot, cardinal, b. 29 Feb. 1788 at Paris, d. 8 Feb. 1833 at Chenecy (Doubs). He was first appointed chamberlain to Napoleon’s sister Pauline and later to Caroline Murat. After the Restoration he stood beside the Duke of Angoulême. In November 1816 he succeeded his father as a peer of France and Duke of R.-Chabot. The loss of his wife, the Countess of Sèrent, under especially painful circumstances shook him and led him in 1819 to enter the Seminary of Saint-Sulpice; he was ordained priest in 1822 and became vicar-general of Paris. In 1823 he went to Rome as chamberlain to Cardinal de la Fare; he sought the cardinalate for himself, but Leo XII, also on account of the candidate’s youth, refused to accede. Instead, in June 1828 he was preconized Archbishop of Auch and then transferred on 15 December of the same year to the see of Besançon. Pius VIII created him cardinal on 5 July 1830. While he was in Paris awaiting the presentation of the red hat, the July Revolution broke out, bringing Louis-Philippe to the throne. Escaping the popular fury that accused him of Bourbon sympathies, he went to Belgium and Switzerland and appealed to Cardinal Odescalchi, whose friend he was, to defend him before the Pope against the campaign of calumny conducted by the French ambassador at the Holy See. In December 1830 he came to Rome to take part in the Conclave and, together with Odescalchi, helped secure the election of Mauro Cappellari. Gregory XVI, at his first Consistory held on 28 February 1831, assigned him the titular church of Santa Trinità dei Monti. Declared deprived of his peerage for refusing the oath to the new king, he returned to his diocese in May 1832 and died before he reached his forty-fifth year while attending the sick during a cholera outbreak.