Ferdinand Maximilien Mériadec de Rohan

Who was Ferdinand Maximilien Mériadec de Rohan?

Ferdinand Maximilien Mériadec de Rohan was an Archbishop of Bordeaux starting in 1769, and Prince-Archbishop of Cambrai from 1781. He was the son of Hercule Meriadec de Rohan, prince de Guéméné and Louise-Gabrielle Julie de Rohan; brother of cardinal de Rohan, and Jules, prince de Guéméné.

Mériadec was a chaplain of the Empress Joséphine de Beauharnais. He served as prior and doctor of the Sorbonne and provost of the church of Strasbourg before being crowned archbishop of Bordeaux on 26 December 1769. He remained there only a short time before leaving Bordeaux for the Cambric archbishop's palace, and died in Paris in 1813.

His mistress was Charlotte Stuart, Duchess of Albany, illegitimate daughter of Prince Charles Edward Stuart, with whom he had three children, including Charles Edward Stuart, Count Roehenstart. Lacking legitimacy or permission, Charlotte was unable to marry. Thus, she otherwise sought a protector and provider. Probably unbeknownst to her father, Prince Charles Edward Stuart, she became the mistress of Mériadec – related by blood to the house of Stuart as well as Bourbon and Lorraine – who was also unable to marry legitimately, having entered the Church as a younger son of a noble house. By him, she had three children: two daughters, Marie Victoire and Charlotte, and finally a son Charles Edward. Her children were kept secret, and remained largely unknown until the 20th century. When Charlotte eventually left France for Florence shortly after her son's birth, she entrusted the children into the care of her mother, Clementina Walkinshaw, and it appears that few, and certainly not her father, knew of their existence.