Anne Geneviève de Bourbon

Anne Geneviève de Bourbon (28 August 1619 – 5 April 1679) was a French princess who is remembered for her beauty and amours, her influence during the civil wars of the Fronde, and her final conversion to Jansenism.

Biography

Early life

Anne Geneviève was the only daughter of Henri de Bourbon, Prince of Condé, and his wife Charlotte Marguerite de Montmorency, and the sister of Louis, Grand Condé. She was born in the prison of the Château of Vincennes into which her father and mother had been thrown for opposition to Marshal d'Ancre, the favourite of Marie de' Medici, who was then regent during the minority of Louis XIII.

She was educated with great strictness in the convent of the Carmelites in the Rue Saint-Jacques in Paris. Her early years were clouded by the execution of Henri of Montmorency, her mother's only brother, for intriguing against Richelieu in 1632, and that of her mother's cousin the Count François de Montmorency-Bouteville for duelling in 1635; but her parents made their peace with Richelieu, and being introduced into society in 1635 she soon became one of the stars of the Hôtel de Rambouillet, at that time the center of all that was learned, witty, and gay in France.

"The Goddess of Peace and Concord"

Anne Geneviève de Bourbon, impersonation of Peace and Concord, by Anselm van Hulle.

In 1642, she was married to Henri II d'Orléans, Duke of Longueville, governor of Normandy, a widower twice her age (his first wife Louise de Bourbon had died in 1637). The marriage was not happy. After Richelieu's death, her father became chief of the council of regency during the minority of Louis XIV, her brother Louis won the great victory of Rocroi in 1643, and the duchess became of political importance. In 1646, she accompanied her husband to Münster, where he was sent by Mazarin as chief envoy, and where she charmed the German diplomats who were negotiating the treaty of Westphalia and was addressed as the "goddess of peace and concord".

La Fronde

On her return, she fell in love with the Duke of La Rochefoucauld, the author of the Maxims, who made use of her love to obtain influence over her brother, and thus win honors for himself. She was the guiding spirit of the first Fronde, when she brought over Armand de Bourbon, Prince de Conti, her second brother, and her husband to the malcontents, but she failed to attract Condé himself, whose loyalty to the court overthrew the first Fronde. It was during the first Fronde that she lived at the Hôtel de Ville and took the city of Paris as godmother for the child born to her there. The peace did not satisfy her, although La Rochefoucauld won the titles he desired. The second Fronde was largely her work, and in it she played the most prominent part in attracting to the rebels first Condé and later Turenne. In the last year of the war, she was accompanied into Aquitaine by the Duke of Nemours, an intimacy which gave La Rochefoucauld an excuse for abandoning her, and to immediately return to his former mistress the duchesse de Chevreuse.

Jansenism: a Refuge from Disgrace

Thus abandoned, and in disgrace at court, the Duchess betook herself to religion. She accompanied her husband to his government at Rouen, and devoted herself to good works. She took for her spiritual director the Abbé Antoine Singlin (1607–1664), famous in the history of Port-Royal. She chiefly lived in Normandy until 1663, when her husband died, and she came to Paris.

There she became more and more Jansenist in opinion, and her piety and the remembrance of her influence during the disastrous days of the Fronde, and above all the love her brother, the great Condé, bore her, made her conspicuous. The king pardoned her and in every way showed respect for her. She became the great protectress of the Jansenists; it was in her house that Antoine Arnauld, Pierre Nicole and Noël Lalane, author of De la Grâce victorieuse, were protected; and to her influence must be in great part attributed the release of Louis-Isaac Lemaistre de Sacy, from the Bastille, the introduction of Simon Arnauld, marquis de Pomponne into the ministry and of Arnauld to the king.

Her famous letters to the pope are part of the history of Port-Royal, and as long as she lived the nuns of Port-Royal des Champs were left in safety. Her elder son resigned his title and estates, and became a Jesuit under the name of the Abbé d'Orléans, while the younger, after leading a debauched life, was killed leading the attack in the passage of the Rhine in 1673.

As her health failed, she hardly ever left the convent of the Carmelites in which she had been educated. On her death in 1679, she was buried with great splendor by her brother Condé, and her heart, as she had directed, was sent to the nuns of the Port-Royal des Champs.

Authorities on the Duchess

The chief authority for Madame de Longueville's life is a little book in two volumes by Villefore the Jansenist, published in 1738. Victor Cousin has devoted four volumes to her, which, though immensely diffuse, give a vivid picture of her time. See also Sainte-Beuve, Portraits des femmes (1840). Her connection with Port-Royal should be studied in Arnauld's Memoirs, and in the different histories of that institution.

Children

Charlotte Louise, Mademoiselle de Dunois (1645-1664).
Jean Louis Charles d'Orléans, Duke of Longueville (1646-1694).
Marie Gabrielle (1646-1650).
Charles Paris d'Orléans, Duke of Longuveille (1649-1672).

References

This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "^{article name needed}". Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.

Princesses of the Blood

Generations start from the children of Charles de Bourbon, Duke of Vendôme

1st generation	Marie Marguerite, Duchess of Nevers Madeleine, Abbess of Sainte Croix de Poitiers Catherine, Abbess of Soissons Renée, Abbess of Chelles Léonore, Abbess of Fontevraud

2nd generation	Madeleine Catherine, Duchess of Lorraine Marguerite Madeleine Catherine

3rd generation	Catherine Éléonore, Princess of Orange Marie Louise, Duchess of Longueville Marie, Princess of Carignan

4th generation	Anne Geneviève, Duchess of Longueville

5th generation	none

6th generation	Marie Louise Élisabeth, Duchess of Berry Louise Adélaïde, Abbess of Chelles Charlotte Aglaé, Duchess of Modena Louise Élisabeth, Queen of Spain Philippine Élisabeth, Mademoiselle de Beaujolais Louise Diane, Princess of Conti Marie Thérèse, Princess of Conti Anne, Mademoiselle d’Enghien Anne Marie, Mademoiselle de Condé Louise Bénédicte, Duchess of Maine Marie Anne, Duchess of Vendôme Marie Anne, Duchess of Bourbon Louise Adélaïde, Mademoiselle de La Roche-sur-Yon

7th generation	Louise Marie Marie Anne Éléonore, Abbess of Saint-Antoine-des-Champs Louise Élisabeth, Princess of Conti Louise Anne, Mademoiselle de Charolais Marie Anne, Mademoiselle de Clermont Henriette Louise, Mademoiselle de Vermandois Élisabeth Alexandrine, Mademoiselle de Sens Louise Henriette, Duchess of Orléans Louise Marie Adélaïde, Duchess of Orléans Marie Louise, Mademoiselle de Penthièvre

8th generation	Bathilde, Duchess of Bourbon

9th generation	Marie, Mademoiselle de Bourbon Louise Adélaïde, Abbess of Remiremont Adélaïde, Princess of Orléans

10th generation	Louise, Queen of the Belgians Marie, Princess Alexander of Württemberg Françoise* Clémentine, Princess of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha

Authority control	WorldCat Identities VIAF: 56602992 LCCN: nr2004018637 ISNI: 0000 0001 0903 4731 GND: 143325094 SUDOC: 071015248 BNF: cb11335874d (data)

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