Louis Charles de Saint-Albin (Paris, 5 April 1698 - Paris 9 April 1764), also called Abbé d'Orléans, was Bishop of Laon and Archbishop of Cambrai.
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Biography edit
Louis Charles was the illegitimate son of French Regent and nephew of Louis XIV, Philipp d'Orléans and the opera dancer Florence Pellerin (1660-1716). However, his father legitimized him in 1708.[1] He was on good terms with his grandmother Liselotte of the Palatinate, although she otherwise did not appreciate bastards. She was even present at his Rigorosum at the Sorbonne.[2]
Like all of his legitimate and illegitimate children, Duke Philip also looked after Louis Charles appropriately and appointed him Abbot of Saint-Ouen Abbey, Rouen and on 6 October 1721, Bishop and Duke of Laon and Peer of France. After the death of the minister Guillaume Dubois, Charles de Saint-Albin took up the now vacant dignity of Archbishop and Duke of Cambrai on 17 October 1723. The consecration was carried out by Armand Gaston Maximilien de Rohan, Cardinal-Archbishop of Strasbourg.[3] However, Saint-Albain hardly stayed in his diocese, but mostly at the court of Louis XV.
Louis Charles de Saint-Albin is immortalized in a painting by Hyacinthe Rigaud, now in the Getty Center, Los Angeles.[4] He is buried in the Saint Sulpice Church in Paris.
References edit
- ^ Les favorites royales
- ^ Dirk von der Cruysse, Madame sein ist ein ellendes Handwerck, Liselotte von der Pfalz, 14. Aufl. 2015, S. 597 f.
- ^ Catholic Hierarchy
- ^ Getty Museum