House of Rohan
Rohan is a French aristocratic family with considerable influence on the history of the country. It was - next to the house and the house Clisson Laval - the most powerful family of Brittany.
General
The Rohan lead her family back to the Breton kings. However, only certain thing is that they are descended from the Viscount of Porhoët. In the Middle Ages, the Viscount de Rohan allies repeatedly with the Dukes of Brittany, last 1407 1603 head of the family was appointed to the Duc de Rohan. ; about his only daughter Marguerite, the poitevinischen the nobles Henri Chabot married in 1645, the title passed to the house Chabot, which took the name Rohan - Chabot, despite the resistance of Rohan. A member of the younger line was his son was appointed Duke of Montbazon and peer of France in 1594 already in 1570 for Prince de Guéméné. Meanwhile, younger son again received in 1667 the title of Prince de Soubise.
In the 18th century, followed by four cardinals from the Rohan family to each other as prince-bishops of Strasbourg. The French Revolution then brought the end of the Rohan in France; today's French Rohan are members of the house of Rohan - Chabot.
The origins
The Rohan come from the Viscounts of Porhoët from, and - the Familiengenealogen Pierre- Hyacinthe Morice de Beaubois (Dom Morice ) following - from the mythical king of Brittany Conan Meriadoc. The oldest known family member is Guethenoc who built the castle of Josselin, which is already counted for the Rohan family, although it was his great-grandson bore the name.
Guethenoc is the father of Josselin, who participated in the Norman conquest of England and the Battle of Hastings. He was awarded lands in Bedfordshire, Buckinghamshire and Gloucestershire, including the city of Caerwent. He died in 1074.
Josselins son Eudon I of Porhoët ( † after 1092 ) married Emma de Leon, daughter of the Viscount of Léon; whose sons were the viscount Geoffroy, Josselin and Alain I de Rohan, Vicomte de Castelnoec († 1128 ). Geoffroy's son Eudon II of Porhoët was 1148-1156 Duke of Brittany as regent for his wife Bertha. Geoffroy's second son was Alain I de la Ceoche which is detected from 1172 in England and died there in 1190. His descendants are the La Zouche, extinct 1799.
Alain I, the youngest, is the builder of the castle Rohan, after he called himself now, and the progenitor of the Rohan family. His son Alain II de Rohan ( † after 1168 ) was the first title Vicomte de Rohan.
The Rohan in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance
Ten generations led the Rohan family this title before Alain IX. de Rohan († 1462 ), the county Porhoët back was the grandson of Olivier de Clisson V.. With his grandson Jacques I de Rohan, the line went out but then 1527th
At the same time, however, began the rise of the descendants of a cousin Alain IX. , The Lords of Guéméné Louis I de Rohan († 1457 ), which emerged from the second marriage of her grandfather Jean I de Rohan. With the sons of Louis I., this branch divided into two lines, the line Rohan Guéméné ( 1570 Prince de Guéméné, 1594 Duc de Montbazon ) and the line Rohan Gié (Pierre I de Rohan: 1485 Prince de Rohan, 1603 Duc de Rohan ).
The " Princes étrangčres "
The Rohan used from the 17th century, their (alleged ) origin to rise not just in a princely rank, but as Princes étrangčres to get a rank that surpassed even the the dukes and peers. Their goal was, first, to prove the sovereignty of the old Breton Kings, on the other hand their direct descent from them - hence the use of the first name Mériadec in the family.
Both statements are not obvious and even controversial. The Rohan tried to substantiate their point of view by genealogists as Dom Morice, but also simply to enforce by their power and wealth, thus distorting the story in their favor - an otherwise common practice in the families of the ancien régime. The Rohan secured their claim and their positions by
- Marriage alliances with the other " foreign princely families " ( from Lorraine (House Châtenois ), the Duchy of Bouillon (La Tour d' Auvergne ), the Condé )
- Survey of their land to principalities ( Guéméné, Soubise, Pays de Léon ), as well as the appeal to bishops of Strasbourg and thus imperial princes, and
- Their proximity to the kings Louis XIV ( Madame de Soubise ), Louis XV. ( Maréchal de Soubise ) and Louis XVI. ( Madame de Marsan, the sister of Marshal and educator of the king's sisters, and Madame de Guéméné, the governess of the children of Louis XVI. ).
The prince-bishops of Strasbourg
In the 18th century, followed by four cardinals from the family of Rohan as prince-bishops of Strasbourg each other:
- Armand Gaston Maximilien de Rohan I. - Soubise (1674-1749), 1704 Bishop of Strasbourg, 1713 Grand Almoner of France
- Armand II François Auguste de Rohan - Soubise (1717-1756)
- Louis César Constantin de Rohan Guéméné (1697-1779) and
- Louis René Édouard de Rohan Guéméné (1734-1803), 1777 Grand Almoner of France
Other important church leaders of the time of the family were:
- Armand Jules de Rohan Guéméné (1695-1762), archbishop of Reims, the Louis XV. crowned,
- Ferdinand Maximilien de Rohan Mériadec Guéméné (1738-1813), 1769-1781 Archbishop of Bordeaux, the first chaplain of the Empresses Josephine and Marie Louise
Bankruptcy and emigration
On the eve of the French Revolution, in 1783, Jules Hercule Mériadec de Rohan went, prince de Guéméné, in bankruptcy, a scandal that in 1785 only by the involvement of his brother, the Cardinal Louis René Édouard de Rohan, was exceeded in the collar affair. The bankrupt the family emigrated to Austria, where it soon became naturalized. In 1816 his grandson from the Congress of Vienna was awarded because of the relationship with the family of La Tour d' Auvergne, the old title of Duc de Bouillon. 1820 bought Charles Alain de Rohan et al the Bohemian dominions Sychrov Svijany, Český Dub and Turnov, of which, inter alia, the crude stone on the ridge near Liberec testifies. On 1 January 1834 he acquired jun by Ignaz Falge. the rule Lomnice and the Good Čistá.
At the extinction of the line in 1846, the younger branch of the Rohan Guéméné, the Prince of Rochefort, the title of Prince Rohan, Prince de Guéméné, Duc de Montbazon and Duc de Bouillon, etc., and inherited the Bohemian estates, which they in 1945 in the wake of the Beneš decrees but lost again.
Rohan Gué de l' Isle and Rohan Poulduc
The branch Rohan Gué de l' Isle was built around 1270 with a younger son of Alain VI. de Rohan and is named after Saint- Étienne- du- Gué -de- l'Isle. He went out 1554th From him, the little-known branch Rohan Poulduc split (or Rohan Poldu ), who is named after Pouldu in Pontivy, now part of Saint -Jean- Brévelay. The best-known members of this family is Emmanuel de Rohan - Polduc, Grand Master of the Order of Malta from 1775 to 1797. He went out in 1800.