Charles Honoré d'Albert de Luynes (7 October 1646 – 5 November 1712) was a French nobleman and Duke of Luynes. He is best known as the Duke of Chevreuse

Duke of Chevreuse

Duke of Chevreuse was a French title of nobility, elevated from the barony of Chevreuse in 1545. Originally created for Jean de Brosse, Duc d'Étampes, it was transferred in 1555 to Charles of Guise, the Cardinal of Lorraine, and became a possession of the House of Guise, becoming the title of the...

till his fathers death in 1690. He was also the Duke of Chaulnes. He was a high-ranking French

France

The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

 official under King Louis XIV

Louis XIV of France

Louis XIV , known as Louis the Great or the Sun King , was a Bourbon monarch who ruled as King of France and Navarre. His reign, from 1643 to his death in 1715, began at the age of four and lasted seventy-two years, three months, and eighteen days...

.

Biography

The Duke of Chevreuse was the grandson of the Marie de Rohan, the imfamous duchesse de Chevreuse and one of the leading members of the Fronde

Fronde

The Fronde was a civil war in France, occurring in the midst of the Franco-Spanish War, which had begun in 1635. The word fronde means sling, which Parisian mobs used to smash the windows of supporters of Cardinal Mazarin....

, and the son-in-law of Colbert

Jean-Baptiste Colbert

Jean-Baptiste Colbert was a French politician who served as the Minister of Finances of France from 1665 to 1683 under the rule of King Louis XIV. His relentless hard work and thrift made him an esteemed minister. He achieved a reputation for his work of improving the state of French manufacturing...

. His wife was Jeanne Marie Colbert, with whom he had three children. He married Jeanne Marie in Paris on 3 February 1667.

His younger half sister was Jeanne Baptiste d'Albert de Luynes

Jeanne Baptiste d'Albert de Luynes

Jeanne Baptiste d'Albert de Luynes, comtesse de Verrue was a French noblewoman and the mistress of Victor Amadeus II of Sardinia.-Biography:...

, the mistress of Victor Amadeus II of Sardinia

Victor Amadeus II of Sardinia

Victor Amadeus II was Duke of Savoy from 1675 to 1730. He also held the titles of marquis of Saluzzo, duke of Montferrat, prince of Piedmont, count of Aosta, Moriana and Nizza. Louis XIV organised his marriage in order to maintain French influence in the Duchy but Victor Amadeus soon broke away...

.

The duc de Chevreuse was a private advisor of Louis XIV, and a sort of unofficial minister without portfolio. From 1698 until 1712 he was the non-residing governor of the province

Provinces of France

The Kingdom of France was organised into provinces until March 4, 1790, when the establishment of the département system superseded provinces. The provinces of France were roughly equivalent to the historic counties of England...

 of Guienne (from the time of Louis XIV onwards the governorship of French provinces was essentially an honorific title and governors were not allowed to reside or even penetrate in their provinces).

Friend of the Duke of Beauvilliers and of the famous archbishop Fénelon

François Fénelon

François de Salignac de la Mothe-Fénelon, more commonly known as François Fénelon , was a French Roman Catholic archbishop, theologian, poet and writer...

, he maintained a steady exchange of correspondence with the latter. It is at the Duke of Chevreuse's estate in Chaulnes

Chaulnes

Chaulnes is a commune in the Somme department in Picardy in northern France.-Demography:-Culture:Chaulnes is noted for its cultural events, especially the heavy metal music festival "Killer Fest"...

 (Somme

Somme

Somme is a department of France, located in the north of the country and named after the Somme river. It is part of the Picardy region of France....

 département) that Fénelon wrote his Tables de Chaulnes (1711).

Along with his friends, Chevreuse was a reformist in the circle of the Duke of Burgundy, petit dauphin, grandson of Louis XIV and heir to the throne, advocating a less centralised and absolute monarchy relying more on the aristocracy. His ideas were briefly applied after 1715 (see polysynody

Polysynody

Polysynody was the system of government in use in France between 1715 and 1718 and in which each minister was replaced by a council....

), although he did not live long enough to see it.

He died in Paris

Paris

Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...

 in 1712.

Issue

1. Honoré Charles d'Albert de Luynes (6 December 1669 – 13 September 1704) styled the Duke of Montfort then the Duke of Chevreuse; married Marie Anne Jeanne de Courcillon, daughter of Philippe de Dangeau
   Philippe de Dangeau
   Philippe de Courcillon, Marquis de Dangeau was a French officer and author.Born in Dangeau, he is most remembered for keeping a diary from 1684 till the year of his death...
   
    and had issue;
2. Marie Anne d'Albert de Luynes (1671 – 17 September 1694) married Charles François de Montmorency-Luxembourg (son of François Henri de Montmorency) no issue;
3. Louis Auguste d'Albert de Luynes (22 December 1678 – 7 November 1744) married Marie Anne Romaine de Beaumanoir and had issue.

Ancestry