Louis de Pardaillan de Gondrin (1707–1743)


Louis de Pardaillan de Gondrin, Duke of Antin, was a French courtier, freemason and male-line great-grandson of Madame de Montespan.

Biography

He was born at Versailles in 1707 to Louis de Pardaillan de Gondrin, marquis de Gondrin, and his wife, Marie Victoire de Noailles, one of the 20 children of Anne Jules de Noailles and Marie Françoise de Bournonville. His father was a member of the House of Pardaillan de Gondrin, an old noble family of Gascon origin. His maternal cousins included the Duke of Noailles and the Duke of La Vallière.
The elder of two children, Louis was known as the marquis de Gondrin from 1712 when his father died unexpectedly at the age of 23. In 1722, his grandfather, Louis Antoine, the only legitimate son of Madame de Montespan, resigned the Duchy of Antin and gave it to his grandson who was fifteen at the time. On 29 October 1722, he married Françoise Gillonne de Montmorency, a granddaughter of François Henri de Montmorency, Duke of Luxembourg and Marshal of France. The couple had four children, one son and three daughters. His son never married and died in Breme during the Seven Years' War. His youngest daughter married into the Uzès family, one of the most senior peers in France, ranking immediately after the Princes of the Blood.
Louis's mother was remarried on 2 February 1723 to Louis Alexandre de Bourbon, Count of Toulouse, the youngest child of Louis XIV and Louis's great-grandmother La Montespan, in a secret ceremony. The marriage was announced only after the death of the Régent in December of the same year. As such, his half-brother was Louis Jean Marie de Bourbon, the duc de Penthièvre and single richest man in France prior to the revolution. His nephews included the prince de Lamballe.
He died at the age of 36 and was succeeded as Duke of Antin by his only son Louis. His wife outlived him by 25 years.

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