Everything about Cardinal De Rohan totally explained
Louis René Édouard, cardinal de Rohan (
September 25,
1734 –
February 16,
1803),
prince de Rohan-Guemenée, was a
French bishop of Strasbourg (then
Strassburg), politician,
cardinal of the
Roman Catholic Church, and cadet of the
Rohan family (which traced its origin to the kings of
Brittany). He was born in
Paris.
Biography
Members of the Rohan family had filled the office of bishop of Strasbourg since 1704, an office which made them princes of the
Holy Roman Empire and the compeers rather of the
German prince-bishops than of the French ecclesiastics. Louis de Rohan was destined for this high office from birth. Soon after taking orders, in
1760, he was nominated coadjutor to his uncle,
Constantine de Rohan-Rochefort, who then held the bishopric, and he was also appointed
titular bishop of
Canopus, Egypt. But he preferred the elegant life and the gaiety of Paris to his clerical duties, and had also an ambition to make a figure in politics. In 1761 he was elected to seat 36 of the
Academie Française.
Édouard was a member of the
political party opposed to the
Austrian alliance. This party was headed by the
duc d'Aiguillon, who, in
1771, sent
Prince Louis on a special
embassy to
Vienna to find out what was being done there with regard to the
partition of Poland. Rohan arrived at Vienna in January 1772, and made a great noise with his lavish charitable festivals. But the empress
Maria Theresa was hostile to him; not only did he attempt to thwart her policy, but he also spread scandals about her daughter,
Marie Antoinette.
On the death of
Louis XV in 1774, Rohan was recalled from Vienna, and coldly received in Paris; but the influence of his family was too great for him to be neglected, and in
1777 he was made
grand almoner, and in
1778, abbot of
St. Vaast. In 1778 he was made a cardinal on the nomination of
Stanislaus Poniatowski (the king of
Poland). In
1779, Édouard succeeded his uncle,
Constantine de Rohan-Rochefort, as bishop of Strasbourg, though he spent much of his career working in Paris, as he preferred an elegant lifestyle to his clerical duties; also in 1779, Édouard became abbot of
Noirmoutiers and
Chaise-Dieu. Even with his favourable status, the cardinal was restless and unhappy, seeking to appease the animosity which Marie Antoinette felt against him.
In pursuit of this object he fell into the hands of a gang of intriguers, the
comtesse de Lamotte, the notorious
Cagliostro and others, whose actions form part of the "
affair of the diamond necklace". Rohan was certainly led to believe that his attentions to the queen were welcomed, and that his arrangement by which she received the famous necklace was approved. He was the dupe of others, however, and at the trial in
1786 before the
parlement his acquittal was received with universal enthusiasm, and regarded as a victory over the court and the unpopular queen. He was deprived, however, of his office as grand almoner and exiled to his abbey of Chaise-Dieu in June. He was accompanied there by his then-secretary,
Louis Ramond de Carbonnières; Rohan wished to visit the thermal spas of the
Pyrenees, and the following year they both spent the summer and the autumn in
Barèges, where Ramond commenced his geological investigations.
Rohan was soon allowed to return to Strasbourg, and his popularity was shown by his election in
1789 to the
Estates-General by the clergy of the
bailliages of
Haguenau and
Wissembourg. He at first declined to sit, but the Estates-General, when it became the
National Assembly, insisted on validating his election. However, as a prince of the church in January 1791, he refused to take the
oath to the constitution, and went to
Ettenheim, in the German part of his
diocese. In exile his character improved, and he spent what wealth remained to him in providing for the poor clergy of his diocese who had been obliged to leave France; and in
1801 he resigned his nominal rank as bishop of Strasbourg.
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