On this day, a great noble lady, only 17 years old, dies in childbirth. M de Luynes, writing on the 20th, says:
“Madame la Princesse de Soubise died yesterday in Paris, at around midday.”
Commentary:
This Princesse de Soubise was born Anne-Marie-Louise de La Tour d’Auvergne in 1722, the only child of Emmanuel-Théodose, Duc de Bouillon, by his third wife. Her mother died 8 days after her birth. Bouillon is a tiny but independent duchy on France’s northern frontier, which gives its ruling family the status of foreign princes at the court of Versailles.
Pictured: A view of the facade of the Hôtel de Soubise in Paris, now home to the National Archives, my own photo taken in January, 2020.
The Prince and Princesse de Soubise were married in 1734 when she was 12 and he 19. Their first child, a daughter, is a month short of her second birthday. The son the princess dies giving birth to on this day in her husband’s family’s hôtel particulier in the capital is called the Comte de St-Pol. He will live only until 1742.
Pictured: Charlotte-Godefride-Élisabeth de Rohan-Soubise (1737-1760), Princesse de Condé, by Ribou.
The princess’s daughter will grow up to make a very grand match. She will marry the second-last Prince de Condé and become the mother of the last one. Like her mother and grandmother, she will die young. Unlike them, she will die of pneumonia rather than of complications in childbirth.
As for the Prince de Soubise, he will marry 2 more times.
The translation from the French is my own, as it always is unless I credit someone else. All images are my own or in the public domain unless otherwise indicated. If you have questions that I have not addressed in the commentary, please ask in the comments.
The last century has brought wonders to medicine and health, that if they were to appear at Versailles they might be condemned as magic.
In those days, you had more funerals than hot dinners, how many young lives lost.