Henri, Prince of Condé

Who was Henri, Prince of Condé?

Henri de Bourbon-Condé was a French Prince du Sang and Huguenot general like his more prominent father, Louis I, Prince of Condé.

Henri was the eldest son of Louis of Bourbon-Condé and Eléanor de Roucy de Roye. Of the eight children in his family, he and his brother François, Prince of Conti were the only ones to have issue. He had a younger half-brother, Charles, Count of Soissons, from his father's second marriage. His first cousin became King Henry IV of France.

He married twice, first to his cousin, Marie of Cleves. Her mother was his father's sister. Marie was a great beauty, and supposedly King Henry III of France had plans to break up their marriage in order to marry her himself, but she died of complications from childbirth before he could do so. With Marie, Henri had one child:

Catherine, Marquise d'Isles

Secondly, Henri married his second cousin once removed, Charlotte Catherine de La Tremoille, daughter of Louis III de La Trémoille and granddaughter of Anne de Montmorency. They had at least two children:

Eleanor, married in 1606 to Philip William, Prince of Orange

Henry II, Prince de Condé