Marie Sophie de Courcillon

Marie Sophie de Courcillon (6 August 1713 – 4 April 1756) was a French salonniére, Duchess of Rohan-Rohan and Princess of Soubise by marriage. She was the granddaughter of Philippe de Courcillon, better known as the marquis de Dangeau. She was praised for being a cultured woman for the age and held a fashionable salon at the Hôtel de Soubise in Paris. She was painted by Nattier.

Marie Sophie
Princess of Rohan
Duchess of Pecquigny
Marie Sophie by Nattier
Born(1713-08-06)6 August 1713
France
Died4 April 1756(1756-04-04) (aged 42)
Paris, France
Burial
Église de La Merci, Paris
SpouseHercule Mériadec de Rohan
Charles François d'Albert d'Ailly
Full name
Marie Sophie de Courcillon
FatherPhilippe Egon de Corcillon
MotherFrançoise de Pompadour

Biography

Marie Sophie was the only child of Philippe Egon de Courcillon (1684–1709) styled as the marquis de Courcillon and his wife Françoise de Pompadour, Duchess of La Valette. Her paternal grandfather was Philippe de Courcillon, the famous marquis de Dangeau and memoir writer of the court of Louis XIV.

Through her paternal grandmother, Countess Sophia of Löwenstein-Wertheim-Rochefort,[1] she was a cousin of the ruling Landgraves of Löwenstein-Wertheim-Rochefort, originally a county of the Holy Roman Empire. Another first cousin was Ernest Leopold, Landgrave of Hesse-Rotenburg.

Her first cousins included Charles Philippe d'Albert de Luynes, Duke of Luynes; she was a second cousin Charles Louis d'Albert de Luynes another famous memoir writer of the court of Louis XV.

Mademoiselle de Courcillon was married twice. Firstly to Charles François d'Albert d'Ailly, son of Louis Auguste d'Albert de Luynes and Marie Anne Romaine de Beaumanoir. The couple married on 17 January 1729. She was thus known as the Duchess of Pecquigny.

The couple had a daughter who died young and little information exists.[2] Soon after, Louis Auguste himself died and Marie Sophie was a widow at the age of 17.

Her second husband was Hercule Mériadec de Rohan, Duke of Rohan-Rohan, son of François de Rohan, Prince de Soubise and the beautiful Anne de Rohan-Chabot. Hercule Mériadec was a widower, his first wife Anne Geneviève de Lévis dying in 1727. The couple were married in Paris on 2 September 1732.

The duke of Rohan-Rohan was a member of the House of Rohan and had the prestigious rank of Foreign Princes at Versailles. This entitled Marie Sophie, styled as the "Princess of Rohan" (Madame la princesse de Rohan) the style of Highness.

The bride was 44 years younger than the groom; Marie Sophie was closer to her daughter-in-law the Princess of Guéméné (1704–1780).

To celebrate the union, her husband commissioned Germain Boffrand to redecorate the interior of the Hôtel de Soubise, the Parisian townhouse of the Rohan's. She kept a fashionable salon at the hôtel.

In 1737,[3] it was she who presented Anne Marie Louise de La Tour d'Auvergne[3] to the court at Versailles. Anne Marie Louise was wife of Charles de Rohan, Prince of Soubise—grandson of Hercule Mériadec and his heir.

Her husband died in 1749 in Paris. She was the mistress of Duke de Richelieu, who lost his last wife, born Élisabeth Sophie de Lorraine in 1740. She died in Paris at the age of 42.

With her, the Courcillon family died out. She was buried on 7 April 1756 at the Église de La Merci in Paris,[4] the traditional burial place of the Soubise line of the House of Rohan in the presence of her late husband's grandchildren[4] and the Archbishop of Bordeaux, the Cardinal de Rohan.[4]

Titles and styles
  • 6 August 1713 – 17 January 1729: Mademoiselle de Courcillon
  • 17 January 1729 – 14 July 1731: The Duchess of Pecquigny
  • 14 July 1731 – 2 September 1732: The Dowager Duchess of Pecquigny
  • 2 September 1732 – 26 January 1749: Her Highness the Princess of Rohan
  • 26 January 1749 – 4 April 1756: Her Highness the Dowager Princess of Rohan

Ancestry

References and notes
  1. Sophia was a lady in waiting to Marie Anne Victoire of Bavaria, wife of le Grand Dauphin
  2. Dictionnaire de la noblesse. Googlebooks.org. Retrieved 2010-04-21.
  3. d'Albert Luynes, Charles Philippe (1860). Mémoires du duc de Luynes sur la cour de Louis XV (1735-1758) By Charles Philippe d'Albert de Luynes. Googlebooks.org. Firmin Didot frères, fils et cie. p. 495. Retrieved 2010-04-21. Marie Charlotte Sobieska.
  4. Cocula, Anne-Marie; Pontet, Josette. Itinéraires spirituels, enjeux matériels en Europe. Googlebooks.org. Retrieved 2010-04-21.
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