Louis III, Prince of Condé

Louis III de Bourbon, Prince of Condé (10 November 1668 – 4 March 1710) was a prince du sang as a member of the reigning House of Bourbon at the French court of Louis XIV.^[1] Styled as Duke of Bourbon from birth, he succeeded his father in 1709 as Prince of Condé (French pronunciation: [kɔ̃de]); however, he was still known by the ducal title. He was prince for less than a year.

Louis de Bourbon was born at the Hôtel de Condé in Paris on 10 November 1668 to Henri Jules de Bourbon, Prince of Condé and Anne Henriette of Bavaria, and the grandson of le Grand Condé.^[2]

One of nine children, he was his parents' eldest surviving son. His sister, Marie Thérèse de Bourbon, married François Louis, Prince of Conti in 1688. Another sister, Louise Bénédicte de Bourbon, would marry Louis Auguste, Duke of Maine, a legitimised son of Louis XIV, in 1692. His youngest sister, Marie Anne de Bourbon, much later married the famed general Louis Joseph de Bourbon.

He was made a Chevalier du Saint-Esprit in 1686, a colonel of the Bourbon-Infanterie Regiment later that same year, a maréchal de camp in 1690, and a lieutenant general in 1692. Upon the death of his father, he inherited all the Condé titles and estates.

In 1685, Louis married Louise Françoise de Bourbon, known at court as Mademoiselle de Nantes, a daughter of King Louis XIV of France and his mistress, Madame de Montespan.^[3][4] It came as a surprise to the royal court seeing the marriage between a prince du sang and an illegitimate daughter of the king. The head of the House of Condé, le Grand Condé, however, acquiesced to the socially inferior match in the hope of gaining favour with the bride's father, Louis XIV.

The seventeen-year-old duc de Bourbon was known at court as Monsieur le Duc. After the marriage, his wife assumed the style of Madame la Duchesse. Bourbon was frequently unfaithful to his fourteen year old wife, who, despite being initially heartbroken, eventually followed him in this path. Historian Jacques Bernot notes:^[5]

She learns that her husband is taking advantage of the Fontainebleau ladies with a few companions and gallop into the carriage to Paris to indulge in debauchery. The king, moved by her sorrow, sends her his physician and reproaches the equerry for not keeping a closer eye on the Duke of Bourbon.

Like his father, who became Prince of Condé in 1687, Bourbon led a typical, unremarkable life. In appearance, Bourbon was unimpressive in comparison with his wife, famed for her beauty.^[6] He was short in stature, and a macrocephalic with a bilious complexion. Bourbon was also noted for his lack of intelligence, as well as being notoriously malevolent and offensive.^[1] Saint-Simon described Bourbon as:^[7]

... a man considerably shorter than the shortest men, who, without being fat, was stout all over, with a surprisingly large head and a frightening face; it was said that he was a dwarf of Madame la Princesse. He was lividly yellow, almost always looking furious, but at the same time so proud, so audacious that it was hard to get used to him. [...] He had wit, was well-read, retained some of an excellent education, and even displayed politeness and grace when he chose to; but he very rarely chose to. He had neither the avarice, nor the injustice, nor the baseness of his ancestors; but he possessed all their valor and showed application and intelligence in war. He also had the malice and all the cunning to increase his rank through subtle usurpations, and even more audacity and impetuosity than they did in attacking.

Bourbon was prince de Condé for just over a year, dying only eleven months after his father. Like his father, and his paternal great-grandmother Nicole du Plessis,^[8] Bourbon was deemed insane several years before his death, "making horrible faces", as one historian noted. Bourbon died in 1710 at the age of 41.

Source:^[4][9]

1. Marie Anne Éléonore de Bourbon, Mademoiselle de Bourbon (22 December 1690 - 30 August 1760); became a nun.^[10]
2. Louis Henri I, Prince of Condé (18 August 1692 - 27 January 1740); married Marie Anne de Bourbon and had no issue. He later married Landgravine Caroline of Hesse-Rotenburg and had issue.
3. Louise Élisabeth de Bourbon (22 November 1693 – 27 May 1775); married Louis Armand, Prince of Conti and had issue.
4. Louise Anne de Bourbon, Mademoiselle de Charolais (23 June 1695 - 8 April 1758); died unmarried.
5. Marie Anne de Bourbon (16 October 1697 - 11 August 1741); secretly married Louis de Melun, Duke of Joyeuse.
6. Charles, Count of Charolais (19 June 1700 - 23 July 1760); secretly married Jeanne de Valois Saint Remy (descendant of Henri II of France) and had illegitimate issue.
7. Henriette Louise de Bourbon, Mademoiselle de Vermandois (15 January 1703 - 19 September 1772); died unmarried.
8. Élisabeth Alexandrine de Bourbon, Mademoiselle de Sens (15 September 1705 - 15 April 1765); died unmarried.
9. Louis, Count of Clermont (15 June 1709 - 16 June 1771); died unmarried.

• Sternberg, Giora (June 2014). Status Interaction During the Reign of Louis XIV. OUP Oxford. ISBN 978-0-19-964034-8.
• Townend, William (1858). The Descendants of the Stuarts. An Unchronicled Page in England's History. 2. Ed., with Add.
• Murray Lane, Henry (1911). The Royal Daughters of England and their Representatives. London Constable and Company, Ltd.
• Bernot, Jacques (2004). Mademoiselle de Nantes, fille préférée de Louis XIV (in French). Nouvelles Editions Latines. ISBN 978-2-7233-2042-9.
• Prime, Temple (1903). Notes Relative to Certain Matters Connected with French History: On the Feudal Nobility, the Appanage and the Peerage; on the Surnames of Collateral Branches of the House of France.--Bourbon, as a Surname in the Royal House, Extinct in 1830; Account of Some Lines Founded by Princes of the Royal House; Account of Four Lines of Princes Descended Illegitimately from the Royal House; Account of the Branches of the House of Lorraine which Settled in France. De Vinne Press.
• von Ammon, Christoph Heinrich (1768). Genealogie ascendante jusqu'au quatrieme degre inclusivement de tous les Rois et Princes de maisons souveraines de l'Europe actuellement vivans [Genealogy up to the fourth degree inclusive of all the Kings and Princes of sovereign houses of Europe currently living] (in French). Frederic Guillaume Birnstiel.

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