Charles-Just de Beauvau
Encyclopedia
Charles Juste de Beauvau (10 September 1720 – 21 May 1793), 2nd Prince of Beauvau
(1754), Marshal of France
(1783) was a French scholar, nobleman and general. The son of Marc de Beauvau
, he was also brother to Madame de Boufflers
and through her uncle to the poet Stanislas de Boufflers
.
, capital of the Duchy of Lorraine. His family were the most powerful in Lorraine after the ruling Duke of Lorraine.
His mother, Anne Marguerite de Ligneville, was the mistress of Leopold, Duke of Lorraine
, husband of Élisabeth Charlotte d'Orléans (niece of Louis XIV). He was the thirteenth of twenty children.
He married twice; firstly on 3 April 1745 to Marie Charlotte de La Tour d'Auvergne
(20 December 1729–6 September 1763), daughter of Emmanuel Théodose de La Tour d'Auvergne
and his last wife Louise Henriette Françoise de Lorraine
. The couple had one child who married into the Noailles family. His first wife Marie Charlotte died of Smallpox
aged 33.
Marie Charlotte died in 1763. The next year, on 14 March, he married again; this time to Marie Charlotte Sylvie de Rohan-Chabot, a cousin of Charles, Prince of Soubise
. The couple had no children Marie Charlotte Sylvie outliving her husband till 1807.
He entered military service for France and was made a lieutenant of the Calvary on 10 December 1738; colonel of the guard (Lorraine) on 1 May 1740 and distinguished himself under the leadership of the Duke of Belle-Isle at the Siege of Prague
in 1742. Created a Brigadier on 16 May 1746 he was later created a Field marshal
on 10 May 1748. He was later elevated to Lieutenant General
on 28 December 1758. He gained further distinction in 1762 while serving in Spain
.
He was named the Governor of Languedoc
on 12 June 1747, he was later created the governor of Provence
.
A Grandee of Spain, first class from 11 May 1754, he became a Knight of the Order of the Holy Spirit
, the highest decoration in Ancien régime France (1 January 1757).
He had dealings with the Académie française
. He kept a fashionable salon, keeping company with the likes of Jean Devaines
, the philosopher Jean-François Marmontel
, the poet Jean François de Saint-Lambert
as well as his nephew Stanislas de Boufflers
.
He was created a Marshal of France in 1783. In 1789, he served in the Secretary of State for War
for six months. A supporter of reforms, he was untroubled by the French Revolution
and died in his bed at the height of the Reign of Terror
.
The maréchal de Beauvau, died at the hôtel de Beauvau, his Parisian residence on the Place Beauvau
, named after him. The hôtel was built by the architect Nicolas Le Camus de Mézières
around 1770 for Charles Juste. The hôtel de Beauvau has housed the Ministry of the Interior since 1861. He owned the Château du Val at Saint-Germain-en-Laye
, a property later acquired by Benjamin Franklin
.
His nephew Marc Étienne Gabriel de Beauvau (1773–1849) became the next Prince of Beauvau.
The present Noailles duc de Mouchy
is a direct descendant of Charles Juste.
and had issue.
Beauvau family
The Beauvau family was a historic family originating in Anjou. The Beauvau du Rivau branch was rooted in Brittany and produced two bishops of Nantes, whilst the Beauvau-Craon branch was established in Lorraine....
(1754), Marshal of France
Marshal of France
The Marshal of France is a military distinction in contemporary France, not a military rank. It is granted to generals for exceptional achievements...
(1783) was a French scholar, nobleman and general. The son of Marc de Beauvau
Marc de Beauvau-Craon (1679-1754)
Marc de Beauvau Prince of Craon, Beauvau and of the Holy Roman Empire, grandee of Spain was a French nobleman....
, he was also brother to Madame de Boufflers
Marie Françoise Catherine de Beauvau-Craon
Marie Françoise Catherine de Beauvau-Craon, marquise de Boufflers , commonly known as Madame de Boufflers, was a French noblewoman...
and through her uncle to the poet Stanislas de Boufflers
Stanislas de Boufflers
Stanislas Jean, chevalier de Boufflers was a French statesman and writer.-Biography:He was born near Nancy, Meurthe-et-Moselle, the son of Louis Franois, marquis de Boufflers. His mother, Marie Catherine de Beauveau Craon, was the mistress of Stanislas Leszczynski, and the boy was brought up at...
.
Biography
Charles Juste was born at the Hôtel de Beauvau-Craon in LunévilleLunéville
Lunéville is a commune in the Meurthe-et-Moselle department in France.It is a sub-prefecture of the department and lies on the Meurthe River.-History:...
, capital of the Duchy of Lorraine. His family were the most powerful in Lorraine after the ruling Duke of Lorraine.
His mother, Anne Marguerite de Ligneville, was the mistress of Leopold, Duke of Lorraine
Leopold, Duke of Lorraine
Leopold , surnamed the Good, was Duke of Lorraine and Bar from 1690 to his death.-Early life:Leopold Joseph Charles Dominique Agapet Hyacinthe was the son of Charles V, Duke of Lorraine, and his wife Eleonora Maria Josefa of Austria, a half-sister of Leopold I, Holy Roman Emperor.At the time of...
, husband of Élisabeth Charlotte d'Orléans (niece of Louis XIV). He was the thirteenth of twenty children.
He married twice; firstly on 3 April 1745 to Marie Charlotte de La Tour d'Auvergne
Marie Charlotte de La Tour d'Auvergne
Marie Charlotte de La Tour d'Auvergne was a French noblewoman and member of the House of La Tour d'Auvergne. Married into the House of Beauvau, a powerful family originating in Anjou, she had a daughter aged twenty and died of smallpox at the age of thirty three...
(20 December 1729–6 September 1763), daughter of Emmanuel Théodose de La Tour d'Auvergne
Emmanuel Théodose de La Tour d'Auvergne (1668–1730)
Emmanuel Théodose de La Tour d'Auvergne was a French nobleman and ruler of the Soveriegn Duchy of Bouillon. He was the son of Godefroy Maurice de La Tour d'Auvergne and his wife Marie Anne Mancini...
and his last wife Louise Henriette Françoise de Lorraine
Louise Henriette Françoise de Lorraine
Louise Henriette Françoise de Lorraine was a French noblewoman and member of the House of Guise, a cadet branch of the House of Lorraine...
. The couple had one child who married into the Noailles family. His first wife Marie Charlotte died of Smallpox
Smallpox
Smallpox was an infectious disease unique to humans, caused by either of two virus variants, Variola major and Variola minor. The disease is also known by the Latin names Variola or Variola vera, which is a derivative of the Latin varius, meaning "spotted", or varus, meaning "pimple"...
aged 33.
Marie Charlotte died in 1763. The next year, on 14 March, he married again; this time to Marie Charlotte Sylvie de Rohan-Chabot, a cousin of Charles, Prince of Soubise
Charles, Prince of Soubise
Charles de Rohan , duke of Rohan-Rohan, seigneur of Roberval, and marshal of France from 1758, was a military man, a minister to the kings Louis XV and Louis XVI, and a notorious libertine. The last male of his branch of the House of Rohan, he was also the great grandfather to the duc d'Enghien,...
. The couple had no children Marie Charlotte Sylvie outliving her husband till 1807.
He entered military service for France and was made a lieutenant of the Calvary on 10 December 1738; colonel of the guard (Lorraine) on 1 May 1740 and distinguished himself under the leadership of the Duke of Belle-Isle at the Siege of Prague
Siege of Prague (1742)
The 1742 Siege of Prague was an extended blockade of the Bohemian capital Prague during the War of the Austrian Succession. French forces first under the command of de Broglie were surrounded by a large Austrian army in June 1742...
in 1742. Created a Brigadier on 16 May 1746 he was later created a Field marshal
Field Marshal
Field Marshal is a military rank. Traditionally, it is the highest military rank in an army.-Etymology:The origin of the rank of field marshal dates to the early Middle Ages, originally meaning the keeper of the king's horses , from the time of the early Frankish kings.-Usage and hierarchical...
on 10 May 1748. He was later elevated to Lieutenant General
Lieutenant General
Lieutenant General is a military rank used in many countries. The rank traces its origins to the Middle Ages where the title of Lieutenant General was held by the second in command on the battlefield, who was normally subordinate to a Captain General....
on 28 December 1758. He gained further distinction in 1762 while serving in Spain
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
.
He was named the Governor of Languedoc
Languedoc
Languedoc is a former province of France, now continued in the modern-day régions of Languedoc-Roussillon and Midi-Pyrénées in the south of France, and whose capital city was Toulouse, now in Midi-Pyrénées. It had an area of approximately 42,700 km² .-Geographical Extent:The traditional...
on 12 June 1747, he was later created the governor of Provence
Provence
Provence ; Provençal: Provença in classical norm or Prouvènço in Mistralian norm) is a region of south eastern France on the Mediterranean adjacent to Italy. It is part of the administrative région of Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur...
.
A Grandee of Spain, first class from 11 May 1754, he became a Knight of the Order of the Holy Spirit
Order of the Holy Spirit
The Order of the Holy Spirit, also known as the Order of the Knights of the Holy Spirit, was an Order of Chivalry under the French Monarchy. It should not be confused with the Congregation of the Holy Ghost or with the Order of the Holy Ghost...
, the highest decoration in Ancien régime France (1 January 1757).
He had dealings with the Académie française
Académie française
L'Académie française , also called the French Academy, is the pre-eminent French learned body on matters pertaining to the French language. The Académie was officially established in 1635 by Cardinal Richelieu, the chief minister to King Louis XIII. Suppressed in 1793 during the French Revolution,...
. He kept a fashionable salon, keeping company with the likes of Jean Devaines
Jean Devaines
Jean Devaines was a French state bureaucrat and journalist. He was a relation of Eusèbe de Salverte and a friend of Julie de Lespinasse.-External links:*...
, the philosopher Jean-François Marmontel
Jean-François Marmontel
Jean-François Marmontel was a French historian and writer, a member of the Encyclopediste movement.-Biography:He was born of poor parents at Bort, Limousin...
, the poet Jean François de Saint-Lambert
Jean François de Saint-Lambert
Jean François de Saint-Lambert was a French poet and military officer, but he is most remembered for his involvement in two love affairs....
as well as his nephew Stanislas de Boufflers
Stanislas de Boufflers
Stanislas Jean, chevalier de Boufflers was a French statesman and writer.-Biography:He was born near Nancy, Meurthe-et-Moselle, the son of Louis Franois, marquis de Boufflers. His mother, Marie Catherine de Beauveau Craon, was the mistress of Stanislas Leszczynski, and the boy was brought up at...
.
He was created a Marshal of France in 1783. In 1789, he served in the Secretary of State for War
Secretary of State for War (France)
The Secretary of State for War was one of the four or five specialized secretaries of state in France during the Ancien Régime. The position was responsible for the Army and for overseeing French border provinces...
for six months. A supporter of reforms, he was untroubled by the French Revolution
French Revolution
The French Revolution , sometimes distinguished as the 'Great French Revolution' , was a period of radical social and political upheaval in France and Europe. The absolute monarchy that had ruled France for centuries collapsed in three years...
and died in his bed at the height of the Reign of Terror
Reign of Terror
The Reign of Terror , also known simply as The Terror , was a period of violence that occurred after the onset of the French Revolution, incited by conflict between rival political factions, the Girondins and the Jacobins, and marked by mass executions of "enemies of...
.
The maréchal de Beauvau, died at the hôtel de Beauvau, his Parisian residence on the Place Beauvau
Place Beauvau
The Place Beauvau is a public square in the 8th arrondissement of Paris, at the intersection of the Rue du Faubourg-Saint-Honoré, the Avenue de Marigny, the Rue des Saussaies, and the Rue de Miromesnil...
, named after him. The hôtel was built by the architect Nicolas Le Camus de Mézières
Nicolas Le Camus de Mézières
Nicolas Le Camus de Mézières was a French architect and theoretician. He was born and died in Paris. He published several works on architectural and related subjects, including Architecture of Expression, and The Theatre of Desire at the End of the Ancien Régime; Or, The Analogy of Fiction with...
around 1770 for Charles Juste. The hôtel de Beauvau has housed the Ministry of the Interior since 1861. He owned the Château du Val at Saint-Germain-en-Laye
Saint-Germain-en-Laye
Saint-Germain-en-Laye is a commune in the Yvelines department in the Île-de-France in north-central France. It is located in the western suburbs of Paris from the centre.Inhabitants are called Saint-Germanois...
, a property later acquired by Benjamin Franklin
Benjamin Franklin
Dr. Benjamin Franklin was one of the Founding Fathers of the United States. A noted polymath, Franklin was a leading author, printer, political theorist, politician, postmaster, scientist, musician, inventor, satirist, civic activist, statesman, and diplomat...
.
His nephew Marc Étienne Gabriel de Beauvau (1773–1849) became the next Prince of Beauvau.
The present Noailles duc de Mouchy
Philippe François Armand Marie de Noailles
Philippe François Armand Marie de Noailles, Duc de Mouchy, Prince-Duc de Poix was a cadet of the French ducal house of Noailles , and second in succession to the senior title, son of Henry Antoine Marie de Noailles, Duc de Mouchy, Prince-Duc de Poix, and of Marie de La Rochefoucauld...
is a direct descendant of Charles Juste.
Issue
Anne Louise Marie de Beauvau, Mademoiselle de Beauvau (1 April 1750 – 20 November 1834) married Philippe Louis de NoaillesPhilippe Louis de Noailles
Philippe-Louis-Marc-Antoine, comte de Noailles, prince-duc de Poix, and 2nd Spanish and 1st French duc de Mouchy , was a French soldier, and politician of the Revolution....
and had issue.