View source for Guy Auguste de Rohan-Chabot

{{short description|Count of France}}
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'''Guy Auguste de Rohan-Chabot''' known as the ''comte de Chabot'' (18 August 1683 &ndash; 13 September 1760), often referred to as '''Chevalier de Rohan''', was a French nobleman most notable for an altercation with [[Voltaire]].
==Early life==
Guy-Auguste was born on 18 August 1683. He was the son of [[Louis de Rohan-Chabot]], [[Duc de Rohan]], Prince de Leon and Marie Élisabeth du Bec-Crespin de Grimaldi, Marquise de Vardes.<ref name="Sainte-Marie1879"/>
==Altercation with Voltaire==
Guy-Auguste is mostly remembered for an altercation with the young [[Voltaire]] in 1725, in which both men insulted each other. He then hired some thugs to assault Voltaire while he watched from his carriage. When Voltaire then exercised his right to demand that Guy-Auguste face him in a duel, the Rohan family obtained a [[lettre de cachet]] from French King [[Louis XV]] and used this warrant to force Voltaire first into imprisonment in the [[Bastille]] and then into exile in Great Britain.<ref name="Passionate Minds: Emilie du Chatelet, Voltaire, and the Great Love Affair of the Enlightenment">{{cite book|last=Bodanis|first=David|title=Passionate Minds: Emilie du Chatelet, Voltaire, and the Great Love Affair of the Enlightenment|year=2009|publisher=Crown Publishing Group|isbn=9780307237217|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8fdU_g_Hs-gC}}</ref> Ironically, this exile proved to be of great importance to Voltaire's development as a philosopher; his exposure to the more limited constitutional monarchy of England and its emphasis on the protection of civil rights as opposed to the absolute and unrestrained rule of the French kings marked many of his later political writings.
==Personal life==
On 7 February 1729, Guy Auguste married Yvonne Sylvie du Breil de Rays (1712–1740). Before her death on 15 July 1740, he fathered a daughter and two sons:<ref name="Sainte-Marie1879"/>
* Marie Sylvie Alias Charlotte de Rohan-Chabot (1729–1807), who married Jean Baptiste Louis [[Jacques de Clermont-d'Amboise|de Clermont d'Amboise]], Marquis de Reynel and Marquis de Montglas.<ref name="Sainte-Marie1879"/>
* [[Louis Antoine, Duke of Rohan|''Louis Antoine'' Auguste de Rohan-Chabot]] (1733–1807), who married Élisabeth Louise de La Rochefoucauld. After her death in 1786, he married Adélaïde Suzanne de Vismes, widow of [[Jean-Benjamin de La Borde]] and daughter of Pierre-Martin de Vismes and Marie-Louise Legendre, in 1798.<ref name="Sainte-Marie1879"/>
* ''Charles'' Rosalie de Rohan-Chabot (1740–1813), Count of [[Jarnac]], who married Guyonne Hyacinthe de Pons Saint Maurice, a daughter of Charles Philippe de Pons Saint-Maurice. After her death in 1761, he married Elisabeth Smith.<ref name="Sainte-Marie1879"/>
After his wife's death he married Lady Mary Apolonia Scolastica Stafford-Howard (1721–1769) on 25 May 1744. She was the daughter of [[William Stafford-Howard, 2nd Earl of Stafford]], ''de jure'' 3rd [[Baron Stafford]].
He died on 13 September 1760 in [[Paris]], [[France]]. His son, Louis Antoine, succeeded Guy Auguste's father as the [[Duke of Rohan]] as did his grandson, [[Alexandre, Duke of Rohan]].<ref name="Sainte-Marie1879"/>
===Descendants===
Through his son Charles Rosalie, he was a grandfather of Adélaïde Louise Guyonne de Rohan-Chabot (1761–1805), also known as Mademoiselle de Jarnac, who was the first wife of [[:fr:Boniface de Castellane (1758-1837)|Boniface Louis André de Castellane]] (parents of [[Marshal of France]] [[Boniface de Castellane]]). After Adélaïde died in 1805, Boniface married her cousin, another of Guy Auguste's granddaughters, [[Alexandrine Charlotte de Rohan-Chabot]], widow of [[Louis Alexandre de La Rochefoucauld, 6th Duke of La Rochefoucauld]].<ref name="Sainte-Marie1879">{{cite book |last1=Sainte-Marie |first1=Anselme de |title=Histoire généalogique et chronologique de la maison royale de France,... |date=1879 |publisher=Firmin Didot frères, fils et Cie |pages=231–232 |url=https://www.google.com/books/edition/Histoire_g%C3%A9n%C3%A9alogique_et_chronologique/TG-mmrVTTUEC&pg=PA232 |access-date=17 July 2024 |language=fr}}</ref>{{refn|group=lower-alpha|[[Alexandrine Charlotte de Rohan-Chabot]] was also the lover of [[William Short (American ambassador)|William Short]], the "adoptive son" of [[Thomas Jefferson]], who served as [[U.S. Ambassador to France]], the [[U.S. Ambassador to the Netherlands|Netherlands]], and [[U.S. Ambassador to Spain|Spain]]. Alexandrine and William exchanged hundreds of love letters.<ref>“William Short, Jefferson's Only "Son"”  The North American Review, September 1926, p. 471-486</ref>}}
==References==
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[[Category:Counts of France]]
[[Category:1683 births]]
[[Category:1760 deaths]]
[[Category:House of Rohan|Guy Auguste]]
[[Category:House of Rohan-Chabot|Guy Auguste]]
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