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François, prince de Conti

François, prince de Conti (1558 - 1614), the third son of the marriage between Louis of Bourbon, first prince of Condé, with Eleanor de Roye in 1551, was given the, title of marquis de Conti, and between 1581 and 1597 was elevated to the rank of a prince.

Conti, who belonged to the older faith, appears to have taken no part in the wars of religion until 1587, when his distrust of Henry, third duke of Guise, caused him to declare against the League, and to support Henry of Navarre, afterwards Henry IV of France. In 1589 after the murder of Henry III of France, he was one of the two princes of the blood who signed the declaration recognizing Henry IV as king, and he continued to support Henry, although on the death of, Charles cardinal de Bourbon in 1590 he himself was mentioned as a candidate for the throne.

In 1605 Conti, whose first wife Jeanne de Coeme, heiress of Bonnétable, had died in 1601, married the beautiful and witty Louise Marguerite (1574-1631), daughter of Henry duke of Guise and Catherine of Cleves, whom, but for the influence of his mistress Gabrielle d'Estrée, Henry IV would have made his queen.

Conti died in 1614. His only child Marie having predeceased him in 1610, the title lapsed. His widow followed the fortunes of Marie de 'Medici, from whom she received many marks of favour, and was secretly married to François de Bassompierre, who joined her in conspiring against Cardinal Richelieu. Upon the exposure of the plot the cardinal exiled her to her estate at Eu, near Amiens, where she died. The princess wrote Aventures de la cour de Perse, in which, under the veil of fictitious scenes and names, she tells the history of her own time.

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