House of Beauharnais
Encyclopedia
The House of Beauharnais or Beauharnois is a French noble house. It is now represented by the Duke of Leuchtenberg, descendant in male line of Eugène de Beauharnais.

History

Originating in Brittany
Brittany
Brittany is a cultural and administrative region in the north-west of France. Previously a kingdom and then a duchy, Brittany was united to the Kingdom of France in 1532 as a province. Brittany has also been referred to as Less, Lesser or Little Britain...

, the Beauharnais (or Beauharnois) became established in the 14th century in Orléans
Orléans
-Prehistory and Roman:Cenabum was a Gallic stronghold, one of the principal towns of the Carnutes tribe where the Druids held their annual assembly. It was conquered and destroyed by Julius Caesar in 52 BC, then rebuilt under the Roman Empire...

. When that city was besieged in 1429, Jehan Beauharnais played a role in its defence and by doing so witnessed to the process of Joan of Arc
Joan of Arc
Saint Joan of Arc, nicknamed "The Maid of Orléans" , is a national heroine of France and a Roman Catholic saint. A peasant girl born in eastern France who claimed divine guidance, she led the French army to several important victories during the Hundred Years' War, which paved the way for the...

's rehabilitation. The Beauharnais provided the kingdom with soldiers and magistrates, and contracted alliances in several spheres, including that of the university of law in Orléans. In the 16th century, there were Beauharnais in Orléans as magistrates, merchants, canons and other professions.

From the end of the 16th century to the end of the 17th, the offices of president and of lieutenant général
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....

 to the bailliage and siège présidial of Orléans were handed down hereditarily through the Beauharnais family. The most eminent of these magistrates was Francis IV de Beauharnais
Francis IV of Beauharnais
Francis IV of Beauharnais , squire, sieur of la Grillère and sieur de la Boische, was a French nobleman. His father was Jean de Beauharnais , maître d'Hôtel ordinaire du roi...

, sieur of la Grillère (at Vouzon
Vouzon
Vouzon is a commune in the Loir-et-Cher department in central France.-See also:*Communes of the Loir-et-Cher department...

, Loir-et-Cher), born in Orléans in 1630, and dying there in 1681.

At the end of the 17th century, the office of lieutenant général du bailliage d'Orléans was ceded to an allied branch, the Curaults. The most eminent of the Beauharnais thus turned to careers in the navy and the colonial administration in the Americas. Another François de Beauharnais
François de Beauharnois de la Chaussaye, Baron de Beauville
François de Beauharnois de la Chaussaye, Baron de Beauville or François de Beauharnais de La Boëche / Boische was a French naval and colonial administrator in France itself and in New France, and a member of the House of Beauharnais.-Family:François de Beauharnais was the son of a lawyer in the...

 (1665–1746) became intendant of New France
New France
New France was the area colonized by France in North America during a period beginning with the exploration of the Saint Lawrence River by Jacques Cartier in 1534 and ending with the cession of New France to Spain and Great Britain in 1763...

 (i.e. Canada), where a seigneurie was granted him in 1707. His nephew, Francis V de Beauharnais
Francis V of Beauharnais
François V de Beauharnais was a French nobleman, soldier, politician, colonial governor and admiral. He was baron de Beauville, marquis de la Ferté-Beauharnais, chef d'escadre des armées royales, and governor of the French colony of Martinique...

, was made chef d'escadre des armées royales, then governor of Martinique.

The Beauharnais of Orléans were also great landholders thanks to their many seigneuries in the region. In the 15th century they were seigneurs of la Chaussée (or Miramion), fief of the parish of Saint-Jean-de-Braye
Saint-Jean-de-Braye
Saint-Jean-de-Braye is a commune in the Loiret department in north-central France.-References:*...

, in the suburbs of Orléans. They also had interests at Sologne
Sologne
Sologne , a region of north-central France extending over portions of the départements of Loiret, Loir-et-Cher and Cher...

 until the early 16th century, and Guillaume de Beauharnais held the estate of Villechauve, at Sennely
Sennely
Sennely is a commune in the Loiret department in north-central France. Sennely was carefully studied by Professor Bouchard and the subject of a chapter in "After the Black Death."...

. Some years later, the Beauharnais acquiring the neighbouring seigneurie of la Grillère, at Vouzon, with they held until the beginning of the 18th century (when it passed, by the marriage of a female Beauharnais, to the Choiseul-Gouffier family).

On 20 April 1752, Francis V, marquis de Beauharnais (1714–1800), governor of Martinique
Martinique
Martinique is an island in the eastern Caribbean Sea, with a land area of . Like Guadeloupe, it is an overseas region of France, consisting of a single overseas department. To the northwest lies Dominica, to the south St Lucia, and to the southeast Barbados...

, maternal great-grandfather of the future Napoleon III of France
Napoleon III of France
Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte was the President of the French Second Republic and as Napoleon III, the ruler of the Second French Empire. He was the nephew and heir of Napoleon I, christened as Charles Louis Napoléon Bonaparte...

, bought the seigneurie of La Ferté-Avrain, in Sologne. He was raised to a marquis by letters patent dated July 1764 with the title of La Ferté-Beauharnais
La Ferté-Beauharnais
La Ferté-Beauharnais is a commune in the Loir-et-Cher department of central France.-See also:*Communes of the Loir-et-Cher department...

, a name the commune still bears (département of Loir-et-Cher).

Genealogy

Partial genealogy (male and female lines)
  • William I Beauharnais
  • William II Beauharnais
  • Jean Beauharnais
  • William III Beauharnais
  • William IV Beauharnais
  • Francis I of Beauharnais, seigneur of Miramion.
  • François II de Beauharnais
    Francis II of Beauharnais
    Francis II of Beauharnais was a French magistrate. He was seigneur of La Grillière, the first president to the Présidial of Orléans , lieutenant général to the bailliage of Orléans, and a Third Estate député at the Estates General of 1614....

    (died 1651), first president of the Présidial d'Orléans (en 1598) and lieutenant général au bailliage ; Third Estate député at the States General
    French States-General
    In France under the Old Regime, the States-General or Estates-General , was a legislative assembly of the different classes of French subjects. It had a separate assembly for each of the three estates, which were called and dismissed by the king...

     of 1614 ; seigneur of la Grillère, at Vouzon (Loir-et-Cher).


Married to Anne Brachet ; 7 children, including
  • Jean de Beauharnais (1606–1661), maître d'Hôtel ordinaire du roi;


Married to Marie Mallet ; 3 children including
  • François de Beauharnais
    Francis IV of Beauharnais
    Francis IV of Beauharnais , squire, sieur of la Grillère and sieur de la Boische, was a French nobleman. His father was Jean de Beauharnais , maître d'Hôtel ordinaire du roi...

    , écuyer, sieur de la Boische.


Married in 1663 to Marguerite Françoise Pivart de Chastullé ; 14 children, including
  • Claude de Beauharnais (1680–1736), seigneur de Beaumont ; capitaine des vaisseaux du roi, chevalier de Saint-Louis.


Married to Renée Hardouineau ; 2 sons
  • I. François de Beauharnais
    Francis V of Beauharnais
    François V de Beauharnais was a French nobleman, soldier, politician, colonial governor and admiral. He was baron de Beauville, marquis de la Ferté-Beauharnais, chef d'escadre des armées royales, and governor of the French colony of Martinique...

    (1714–1800), marquis de La Ferté-Beauharnais
    La Ferté-Beauharnais
    La Ferté-Beauharnais is a commune in the Loir-et-Cher department of central France.-See also:*Communes of the Loir-et-Cher department...

     (from 1764) ; chef d'escadre
    Chef d'escadre
    In the ancien Régime French Navy, the rank of chef d'escadre was equivalent to the present-day rank of rear admiral. It was replaced in 1791 by the rank of "contre-amiral" ....

     des armées royales ; governor of Martinique.


Married twice -
  1. his cousin Marie-Anne Pivart de Chastullé
  2. Marie-Euphémie Tascher de la Pagerie.


Two children from his first marriage:
    • A. François de Beauharnais
      Francis VI of Beauharnais
      Francis, marquis of Beauharnais , was a French nobleman. He was the son of Francis V of Beauharnais, baron de Beauville, marquis de La Ferté-Beauharnais, and of his wife Henriette Pyvart de Chastillé...

      (1756–1823), marquis de La Ferté-Beauharnais
      La Ferté-Beauharnais
      La Ferté-Beauharnais is a commune in the Loir-et-Cher department of central France.-See also:*Communes of the Loir-et-Cher department...

      .
    • B. Alexandre François Marie de Beauharnais (1760–1794), vicomte de Beauharnais ; noble député from the bailliage of Blois to the Estates General
      Estates-General of 1789
      The Estates-General of 1789 was the first meeting since 1614 of the French Estates-General, a general assembly representing the French estates of the realm: the nobility, the Church, and the common people...

       of 1789 ; général en chef of the Armée du Rhin
      Armée du Rhin
      The Army of the Rhine is the overall name for one of the main French Revolutionary armies, that operated in the German theater along the River Rhine...

       in 1793 ; guillotined in 1794.

In 1779 married Marie-Josèphe-Rose (known as "Joséphine") Tascher de la Pagerie. Two children :
      • 1. Eugène Rose de Beauharnais
        Eugène de Beauharnais
        Eugène Rose de Beauharnais, Prince Français, Prince of Venice, Viceroy of the Kingdom of Italy, Hereditary Grand Duke of Frankfurt, 1st Duke of Leuchtenberg and 1st Prince of Eichstätt ad personam was the first child and only son of Alexandre, Vicomte de Beauharnais and Joséphine Tascher de la...

        (1781–1824), prince français
        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...

        , viceroy of Italy, prince of Venice
        Venice
        Venice is a city in northern Italy which is renowned for the beauty of its setting, its architecture and its artworks. It is the capital of the Veneto region...

        , grand-duke of Frankfurt
        Frankfurt
        Frankfurt am Main , commonly known simply as Frankfurt, is the largest city in the German state of Hesse and the fifth-largest city in Germany, with a 2010 population of 688,249. The urban area had an estimated population of 2,300,000 in 2010...

        , duke of Leuchtenberg
        Leuchtenberg
        Leuchtenberg is a municipality in the district of Neustadt in Bavaria in Germany, essentially a suburb of nearby Weiden in der Oberpfalz, and a historical region in Old Germany governed by the Landgrave of Leuchtenberg....

         and prince of Eichstätt
        Eichstätt
        Eichstätt is a town in the federal state of Bavaria, Germany, and capital of the District of Eichstätt. It is located along the Altmühl River, at , and had a population of 13,078 in 2002. It is home to the Katholische Universität Eichstätt-Ingolstadt, the lone Catholic university in Germany. The...

        .
        • a. Joséphine Maximilienne Eugènie Napoléone de Beauharnais
          Josephine of Leuchtenberg
          Joséphine of Leuchtenberg was Queen consort of Sweden and Norway as the wife of King Oscar I...

          (1807–1876), princess of Bologne, duchess of Galliera, duchess of Leuchtenberg, queen of Sweden and of Norway.
          • i. Charles Louis Eugène Bernadotte
            Charles XV of Sweden
            Charles XV & IV also Carl ; Swedish and Norwegian: Karl was King of Sweden and Norway from 1859 until his death....

            (1826–1872), king of Sweden and Norway (grandson of general Bernadotte, founder of the dynasty).
          • ii. Gustave Bernadotte (1827–1852), prince of Sweden and duke of Uppland
            Uppland
            Uppland is a historical province or landskap on the eastern coast of Sweden, just north of Stockholm, the capital. It borders Södermanland, Västmanland and Gästrikland. It is also bounded by lake Mälaren and the Baltic sea...

            .
          • iii. Oscar Frédéric Bernadotte
            Oscar II of Sweden
            Oscar II , baptised Oscar Fredrik was King of Sweden from 1872 until his death and King of Norway from 1872 until 1905. The third son of King Oscar I of Sweden and Josephine of Leuchtenberg, he was a descendant of Gustav I of Sweden through his mother.-Early life:At his birth in Stockholm, Oscar...

            (1829–1907), king of Sweden and Norway.
          • iv. Charlotte Eugénie Auguste Amélie Albertine Bernadotte (1830–1889), princess of Sweden.
          • v. Charles Nicolas Auguste Bernadotte (1831–1873), prince of Sweden and duke of Dalécarlie.
        • b. Eugénie Hortense Auguste de Beauharnais
          Eugénie de Beauharnais
          Eugénie Hortense Auguste Napoléone, known as Eugénie de Beauharnais, princess of Leuchtenberg was a Franco-German princess. She was the second daughter of Eugène de Beauharnais and Princess Augusta of Bavaria, and a member of the house of Beauharnais...

          (1808–1847), duchess of Leuchtenberg and princess of Hohenzollern-Hechingen.
        • c. Auguste Charles Eugène Napoléon de Beauharnais (1810–1835), duke of Leuchtenberg, prince of Eichstätt
          Eichstätt
          Eichstätt is a town in the federal state of Bavaria, Germany, and capital of the District of Eichstätt. It is located along the Altmühl River, at , and had a population of 13,078 in 2002. It is home to the Katholische Universität Eichstätt-Ingolstadt, the lone Catholic university in Germany. The...

          , infante of Portugal and duke of Santa-Cruz.
        • d. Amélie Auguste Eugénie Napoléone de Beauharnais (1812–1873), duchess of Leuchtenberg and empress of Brazil.
          • i. Marie Amélie Augusta Eugénie Joséphine Louise Théodelinde Héloïse Françoise de Bragance (1831–1853), princess of Brazil.
        • e. Théodelinde Louise Eugénie Auguste Napoléone de Beauharnais
          Théodolinde de Beauharnais
          Théodolinde de Beauharnais, Princess of Leuchtenberg, Countess of Wurttemberg was a Franco-German princess.- Biography :...

          (1814–1857), duchess of Leuchtenberg, countess of Württemberg
          Württemberg
          Württemberg , formerly known as Wirtemberg or Wurtemberg, is an area and a former state in southwestern Germany, including parts of the regions Swabia and Franconia....

           and duchess of Urach.
        • f. Caroline Clotilde de Beauharnais (1816–1816).
        • g. Maximilien Joseph Eugène Auguste Napoléon de Beauharnais (1817–1852), duke of Leuchtenberg, prince of Eichstätt
          Eichstätt
          Eichstätt is a town in the federal state of Bavaria, Germany, and capital of the District of Eichstätt. It is located along the Altmühl River, at , and had a population of 13,078 in 2002. It is home to the Katholische Universität Eichstätt-Ingolstadt, the lone Catholic university in Germany. The...

           and duke in Russia with the style "your imperial highness".

      • 2. Hortense Eugénie Cécile de Beauharnais
        Hortense de Beauharnais
        Hortense Eugénie Cécile Bonaparte , Queen Consort of Holland, was the stepdaughter of Emperor Napoleon I, being the daughter of his first wife, Joséphine de Beauharnais. She later became the wife of the former's brother, Louis Bonaparte, King of Holland, and the mother of Napoleon III, Emperor of...

        (1783–1837), queen of Holland
        Kingdom of Holland
        The Kingdom of Holland 1806–1810 was set up by Napoleon Bonaparte as a puppet kingdom for his third brother, Louis Bonaparte, in order to better control the Netherlands. The name of the leading province, Holland, was now taken for the whole country...

        .
        • a. Charles Louis Napoléon Bonaparte (1808–1873), French emperor

  • II. Claude de Beauharnais (1717–1784), comte des Roches-Baritaud.
    • A. Claude de Beauharnais (1756–1819), comte des Roches-Baritaud, first married Adrienne de Lezay-Marnésia
      • Stéphanie (1789+1860) imperial princess, in 1806 married Charles II, grand duke of Baden, presumed mother of Gaspard Hauser.

Members by marriage

  • Fanny de Beauharnais
    Fanny de Beauharnais
    Fanny de Beauharnais, née Marie-Anne-Françoise Mouchard, was a French lady of letters. She was the mother of French politician Claude de Beauharnais...

    (1738–1813), French poet, wife of Claude de Beauharnais (1717–1784).
  • Joséphine de Beauharnais
    Joséphine de Beauharnais
    Joséphine de Beauharnais was the first wife of Napoléon Bonaparte, and thus the first Empress of the French. Her first husband Alexandre de Beauharnais had been guillotined during the Reign of Terror, and she had been imprisoned in the Carmes prison until her release five days after Alexandre's...

    (1763–1814), French empress, wife of Alexandre de Beauharnais (1760–1794) then of Napoleon I of France
    Napoleon I of France
    Napoleon Bonaparte was a French military and political leader during the latter stages of the French Revolution.As Napoleon I, he was Emperor of the French from 1804 to 1815...

    .

Members of the Beauharnois house

  • François de Beauharnois de la Chaussaye, Baron de Beauville
    François de Beauharnois de la Chaussaye, Baron de Beauville
    François de Beauharnois de la Chaussaye, Baron de Beauville or François de Beauharnais de La Boëche / Boische was a French naval and colonial administrator in France itself and in New France, and a member of the House of Beauharnais.-Family:François de Beauharnais was the son of a lawyer in the...

     (grandson of Jean de Beauharnais (1606-1661) )
  • Charles de la Boische, Marquis de Beauharnois
    Charles de la Boische, Marquis de Beauharnois
    Charles de la Boische, Marquis de Beauharnois was a French Naval officer who served as Governor of New France from 1726 to 1746.Charles had two brothers who also impacted the history of New France...

     (grandson of Jean de Beauharnais (1606-1661) )
  • Claude de Beauharnois de Beaumont et de Villechauve
    Claude de Beauharnois de Beaumont et de Villechauve
    Claude de Beauharnois de Beaumont et de Villechauve was a French naval officer from a prominent French family with significant connections to the history of New France. A brother, François de Beauharnois was intendant of New France from 1702 to 1705...

    (grandson of Jean de Beauharnais (1606-1661) )

Sources

  • A. Pommier, "Recherches sur les Beauharnais du XVIIe siècle à Orléans", dans Bulletin de la Société historique et archéologique de l'Orléanais, t. XXIII, n° 235 (1937).
  • R. Gallon, Les Beauharnais, Orléans, La Galerie des Ventes d'Orléans, 1979.
  • Christian Poitou, "Napoléon III et la Sologne", dans La Sologne et son passé, 9, Bulletin du Groupe de Recherches Archéologiques et Historiques de Sologne, t. XIII, n° 2, avril-juin 1991.
  • Philippe de Montjoulvent , Les Beauharnais, 1-Les grands ancêtres, Paris, Editions Christian, 2005 (569 p.)
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