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- BIOGRAPHY
Louis Charles was born in the Louvre Palace on 25 December 1620, the only child of Charles Honoré d'Albert, 1.duc de Luynes, then commander of the Louvre, and Marie Aimée de Rohan, mademoiselle de Montbazon. Louis Charles became duc de Chevreuse through his mother's second marriage, to Claude de Lorraine, duc de Chevreuse. Through this marriage, Marie de Rohan acquired the duchy of Chevreuse on the duke's death, and gave it in 1663 to her son Louis Charles. From that time the titles of Duc de Chevreuse and Duc de Luynes were borne by the eldest sons of the d'Albert family, which had also inherited the title of Duc de Chaulnes on the extinction of the descendants of Honoré d'Albert in 1698. Like his father, Louis Charles was also a pair de France, and Grand Fauconnier de France, a position at court responsible for supervising the king's falconry, the breeding programme for the birds, and the organisation of hunts.
On 23 April 1641 Louis Charles married Louise Marie Seguier, marquise d'O, daughter of Pierre III Seguier, marquis d'O, and Marguerite de La Guesle, marquise d'O, dame de Chars. Louis Charles and Louise Marie had six children but only their son Charles Honoré, who became his father's heir, would have progeny. Louise died in 1651, and in October 1661 Louis Charles married Anne de Rohan, daughter of Hercule de Rohan, 2.duc de Montbazon, and Marie de Bretagne d'Avaugour. Louis Charles and Marie had seven children, five daughters and two sons, of whom three daughters would have progeny. Anne died 29 October 1684, and on 23 July 1685 Louis Charles married Marguerite d'Aligre, widow of Charles Bonaventure, marquis de Manneville, and daughter of Etienne II d'Aligre and Jeanne L'Huillier. This marriage did not result in progeny.
Several members of the family of Albert were distinguished in letters and science, including Louis Charles who was an ascetic writer and friend of the Jansenists. He and his mother Marie Aimée were close to the leading Jansenist Jean de Joncoux (1633-1691), who left the legal profession in 1663 to become the _intendant_ for Marie Aimée. He was the father of Françoise Marguerite de Joncoux, a key but elusive player in early eighteenth-century Jansenism.
Louis Charles died in Paris on 20 October 1690. Of the daughters from his second marriage, the one who attracted the most public interest was his youngest, Jeanne Geneviève, who married Joseph Ignace Scaglia, comte de Verua, but became the mistress of Vittorio Amadeo II, king of Sardinia, and had two children with him. Her daughter Vittoria Francesca di Savoia, marchesa di Susa, would marry Vittorio Amadeo de Savoie, prince de Carignano, a match arranged by her father.
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