Charles Honoré d'Albert, duc de Luynes

Château of Dampierre-en-Yvelines: domesticated Baroque built for the duc de Chevreuse by Jules Hardouin Mansart.

Charles Honoré d'Albert de Luynes (7 October 1646 – 5 November 1712) was a French nobleman and Duke of Luynes. He is best known as the Duke of Chevreuse till his father's death in 1690. He was a high-ranking French official under King Louis XIV.

Biography

The Duke of Chevreuse was the grandson of the Marie de Rohan, the infamous duchesse de Chevreuse and one of the leading members of the Fronde, and the son-in-law of Colbert. His wife was Jeanne Marie Colbert, with whom he had three children. He married Jeanne Marie in Paris on 3 February 1667.

His younger half sister was Jeanne Baptiste d'Albert de Luynes, the mistress of Victor Amadeus II of Sardinia.

The duc de Chevreuse was a private advisor of Louis XIV, and a sort of unofficial minister without portfolio. From 1698 until 1712 he was the non-residing governor of the province of Guienne (from the time of Louis XIV onwards the governorship of French provinces was essentially an honorific title and governors were not allowed to reside or even penetrate in their provinces).

Friend of the Duke of Beauvilliers and of the famous archbishop Fénelon, he maintained a steady exchange of correspondence with the latter. It is at the Duke of Chevreuse's estate in Chaulnes (Somme department) that Fénelon wrote his Tables de Chaulnes (1711).

Along with his friends, Chevreuse was a reformist in the circle of the Duke of Burgundy, petit dauphin, grandson of Louis XIV and heir to the throne, advocating a less centralised and absolute monarchy relying more on the aristocracy. His ideas were briefly applied after 1715 (see polysynody), although he did not live long enough to see it.

He died in Paris in 1712.

Issue

Honoré Charles d'Albert de Luynes (6 December 1669 – 13 September 1704) styled the Duke of Montfort then the Duke of Chevreuse; married Marie Anne Jeanne de Courcillon, daughter of Philippe de Dangeau and had issue;
Marie Anne d'Albert de Luynes (1671 – 17 September 1694) married Charles François de Montmorency-Luxembourg (son of François Henri de Montmorency) no issue;
Louis Auguste d'Albert de Luynes (22 December 1678 – 7 November 1744) married Marie Anne Romaine de Beaumanoir and had issue.