Charlotte Marguerite de Montmorency


Charlotte Marguerite de Montmorency was an heiress of one of France's leading ducal families, and Princess de Condé by her marriage to Henri de Bourbon. She almost became a mistress of Henry IV of France, but her husband escaped with her after the wedding and did not return to France until after King Henry's death.

Life

The daughter of Henri de Montmorency and his second wife, Louise de Budos, Charlotte lost her mother before she was five years of age. She was brought up under the care of her aunt Charlotte, widow of Charles, Duke d'Angoulême. In 1609, fifteen-year-old Charlotte-Marguerite wed the Prince of Condé in a glittering ceremony.
Along with many other French nobles, her husband bitterly opposed the rule of Marshal d'Ancre, who abandoned the policy of the late King Henry IV. In September 1616, Condé and Charlotte-Marguerite were arrested and imprisoned at Vincennes, where their daughter Anne Geneviève was conceived and born three years later, in 1619.
In 1632, Charlotte-Marguerite's only brother, Henri, Duke de Montmorency was executed for intriguing against Cardinal Richelieu. The title passed to her. She was buried at the Carmel du faubourg Saint-Jacques, a Carmelite convent in Paris.

Children

Her children with the Prince de Condé were:
  1. Anne Genevieve ; married Henri d'Orléans, Duke de Longueville.
  2. Louis, Prince of Condé, "le Grand Condé" ; married Claire-Clémence de Maillé-Brézé.
  3. Armand de Bourbon, Prince of Conti ; married Anne Marie Martinozzi.