Louis Antoine Henri de Bourbon-Conde,
Duc d'Enghien, (1772-1804)
Born 2 August 1772 Chantilly
Died 21 March 1804 Vincennes (executed)
Married 18 February 1804
Charlotte de Rohan-Rochefort, daughter of Charles Jules
Armand de Rohan, Prince de Rohan-Rochefort et de Montauban
and Marie Henriette Charlotte d'Orleans-Rothelin
Born 25 October 1767 Paris
Died 1 May 1841 Paris
S.P.
At the outbreak of the French Revolution, he emigrated with his father
and served in his grandfather's emigre army from 1792 until its dissolution
after the Treaty of Luneville in 1801. Secretly he married Charlotte de
Rohan-Rochefort and they settled at Ettenheim, in Baden,
just across the French border.
In 1804, Napoleon, then first consul, received intelligence that connected
the Duc d'Enghien with a conspiracy to overthrow him as planned by Cadoudal
and Pichegru. The report was false, but Napoleon ordered Enghien's arrest
and French gendarmes crossed the Rhine secretly and seized him.
He was brought to the castle of Vincennes near Paris where a court-martial
was hurriedly gathered to try him. He was then shot about a week after
his arrest. This execution, widely proclaimed as an
atrocity, ended all hope of reconciliation between Napoleon and the
royal house of Bourbon. The indignation throughout Europe provoked the
quote: "It's worse than a crime, it's a mistake."
Source: Leo van de Pas
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