Stuart connections - 2

Stuart connections to Jersey - 2 La Tour d'Auvergne This article appeared in the Annual Bulletin of La Société Jersiaise in 2021. It was the first of three articles by Marie-Louise Backhurst on somewhat tenuous links of the Stuart royal family to the island

Bonnie Prince Charlie’s granddaughter

‘I live in a damp farmhouse near La Tour d’Auvergne.’ So wrote Victoire, Comtesse d’Auvergne on 16 July 1826 to Louis de Clercq, the family banker in Paris.

She had come to Jersey shortly after May 1825 and was to stay in the Island for three years. But who exactly was she and what is the story of her life?

Of the three people with Stuart connections mentioned in the Société Jersiaise Bulletin for 2021 she is the only one who was definitely a descendant of the Stuart kings.

Victoire Adelaide Roehenstart was born in Paris about 1780, an illegitimate daughter of Charlotte Stuart, the daughter, who was herself illegitimate, of Prince Charles Edward Stuart, known as Bonnie Prince Charlie. Victoire’s father was Ferdinand de Rohan, Bishop of Bordeaux and Cambrai.

What follows is a complicated story which has been rather like a jigsaw puzzle, involving much research over many years in Jersey, England, France and the Czech Republic.

Charlotte Stuart and her children Charlotte Stuart, Duchess of Albany, the illegitimate daughter of Prince Charles Edward Stuart (1720-1788) and Clementina Walkinshaw (c1720-1802) was baptised in Liege on 29 October 1753. She had a liaison with Prince Ferdinand Maximilien Rohan (1738-1813), the Bishop of Bordeaux, later of Cambrai and then, for three months, of Liege.

By him, Charlotte had three children all born in Paris: two daughters Charlotte Amelie Maximilienne (born c1779), Victoire Adelaide (born c1780) and a son, baptised in 1784 as August Maximilien (but who called himself Charles Edward).

Rohan family

In documents the surname Roehenstart, a mixture of Rohan and Stuart, was used by the children. In researching them it became apparent that their lives were closely entwined with those of the Rohan family and it is in the Rohan family archives that much of the new evidence has been found.

Charlotte, her children and mother seem to have lived at the Convent of the Visitation in rue St Jacques, Paris and also at a property in Antony in the southwest of Paris which belonged to Prince Ferdinand.

In 1784 a lonely Prince Charles Edward Stuart requested that his daughter, whom he had not seen for nearly 25 years, should join him in Italy. She had only recently given birth to her son, so she did not go to Florence until October.

Charles died on 31 January 1788, leaving Charlotte in Rome to settle his affairs. Charlotte’s correspondence to her mother from Italy is in the Bodleian Library .

In the letters she mentions her children, but in a covert manner, referring to them as les fleurs dans mon jardin. She expressed her concern about one daughter, whom she calls V, and who was ill but later recovered. Other than sending them her love there is very little reference to them.

Charlotte's death

Charlotte died of cancer in Bologna on 17 November 1789, having never seen her children again. In her will she left money to her ‘relatives who are in need’ but did not expressly name them.

The French Revolution was to cause the dispersion of the children, their grandmother and their father. Clementine left Paris in October 1791 and went to Chambéry, in the Savoie (then not part of France), probably leaving just before the invasion of the Savoie by French troops on 23 September 1792. She then moved to Fribourg (now in Switzerland) where she remained until her death in 1802, never seeing her grandchildren again.

It is not known exactly where her grandchildren lived during this period. August Maximilien (Charles Edward) her grandson wrote a letter from Munich in about 1794 which was addressed to his great uncle, Cardinal Henry Stuart, Duke of York.

Victoire d'Auvergne

Victoire, in a letter written in 1820, says that she had run about the world for ten years and it is likely that this refers to the period around 1791-1801. It is possible during this time that the children were in Koblenz, Munich, Jegleva (now in Lithuania), London and, perhaps, Edinburgh

It seems that the sisters may have been in different places to their brother. Their father, Ferdinand was Prince Bishop of Liege for only three months from 8 September until 10 December 1790 He returned to Cambrai and left France in May 1791 and then moved a great deal, mainly in Germany and Italy.

Other members of the Rohan family were in Germany and later in Bohemia. It seems likely that the girls may have returned to Paris about 1801. Their brother had joined the Austrian Army and then lived in Germany and Russia.

Charlotte’s daughters both married in Paris in 1804. On 9 August 1804 Charlotte Amélie Maximilienne married Jean Louis Luglien Cousin de la Morliére, (born 1763) from Montdidier, Somme. Jean held a tax administrative post in Huy in the principality of Liege.

It was here on 28 November 1806 that Charlotte Amélie Maximilienne gave birth to a stillborn son; very shortly afterwards she died. Jean never remarried and in his will dated 1840 he averred that he had no children and left his estate to his niece.

Marriage

Victoire, the second daughter, married on 14 November 1804 at St Roch, Paris, a French doctor, Pierre Joseph Marie de Saint Ursin (1763-1818) (his surname was originally just Marie; as Marie is a very common name it seems that he added ‘de Saint Ursin’).

On their marriage certificate Victoire is described as the daughter of Maximilien Roehenstart and Clementine

Pierre, the son of an advocate born in Chartres in 1763, was a doctor who trained at the University of Caen. He married Melanie Rotrou and they had a daughter, Alexandrine Claudine Egerie, born at Chartres in 1793. Pierre and Mélanie then divorced, divorce being legal in France between 1792 and 1816.

On 8 June 1809 Pierre and Victoire’s only child, Theodore Frederic, was born in Paris.

Pierre had a distinguished career, becoming the chief doctor for the French Army in the North of France. He seems to have moved to Paris about 1802 and then became editor of the Gazette de Sante. He was also a gourmand, belonging to the Caveau des Gourmands. He was the author of several books on medical matters, including L’Ami des Femmes (The Friend of Women, which was dedicated to the Empress Josephine Bonaparte. After his marriage to Victoire, the couple lived in Paris, but in 1812 Pierre was recalled to military service and was sent with the French Army on the campaign to Moscow.

He worked in a hospital in Vilnius, was taken prisoner and went to St Petersburg, where he received praise for his work from the Russian Emperor, Alexander 1. After Waterloo he worked at an army hospital in Calais where he died in 1818. His death certificate shows his widow as Dame Victoire Adelaide Roehenstart.

Victoire applied to the Service Historique de l’Armée de Terre <ref. Couturier, Un médecin dans la tourmente Marie Saint Ursin (1763-1818). Bulletin de la Societe archéologxque d’Eure er Loir No 41 2eme trimestre 1994. The military dossier of Dr Pierre joseph Marie SaintUrsin is conserved at the Service Historique de l’Armée de Terre at Vincennes, dossier Officiers de Santé 924</ref> for a pension, but this was denied as he had served in the Army for just a few months short of the required ten years.

In his will Pierre left his succession, including property in Chartres, to his wife and son.

Letters from the widowed Victoire Marie de Saint Ursin to Prince Louis de Rohan

In the Rohan family archive in Decin, Czech Republic, there are three letters from the recently widowed Victoire Adelaide all signed with her married surname Marie de Saint Ursin. These letters addressed to her cousin Prince Louis de Rohan (1768-1836, younger brother of Charles de Rohan, Duke of Montbazon, and brother of Princess Charles, date between about 1818 and about 1823. In two of the letters she refers to her mother, Charlotte, Duchess of Albany and her mother’s uncle, Cardinal Henry Stuart, Duke of York.

In the first letter, dated 31 December, probably 1819, she expresses her sadness at being widowed and that she hopes to find a way of using her education to find herself in a better situation. The second letter of 1 December 1821 talks about Prince Ferdinand, whom she describes as her guardian, and his visit to her mother’s uncle, the Cardinal Duke of York.

Prince Ferdinand had on many occasions expressed his sorrow to Madame Princess Charles that he had sufiered in not being able to reimburse my brother and me the 60,000 Francs that he had received for us (at Rome) from Cardinal the Duke of York, the uncle of our mother.

At the death of Prince Ferdinand, the Prince comforted himself with the thought that he had left me the legacy for the protection of his illustrious family, I have always taken care to deserve it. I have courage and I hope only to be able to use the education which I have received to give lessons to young people.

The final letter is undated, but likely to be written in 1822:

I accept with much gratitude your discussion with the Ambassador to

Naples, your eloquent goodness will certainly make him take an interest in me, could you please kindly ask him to have an audience with me. I would consider it to a very good sign to be presented to the Ambassador; if he is not a young man he might have known Charlotte Stuart Duchess ofAlbany, if that supposition is correct then I would entirely rely on the protection of the Prince to throw into the conversation a few words which might arouse the interest of the Ambassador. the appalling position that I find myself in has deprived me of all pride... but so far the daughter of the Duchess ofAlbany would rather sufi‘er than beg. Madame the Princess Charles has certainly informed Monsieur the Duke of Montabazon (her brother) that the Prince Ferdinand confirmed to him that he had died regretting not being able to reimburse the 60,000 francs which he had received in Rome from the Duke of York, uncle of the Duchess of Albany, part of this sum was received when he was exiled

Victoire had obviously been left in a poor financial situation after the death of her husband. She tried to help herself by teaching at a convent called Les Dames Anglaises, in Paris. One of Princess Charles’ daughters, Princess Gasparine, married in Prague in January 1822 and Victoire accompanied her there.

Inquiry about Victoire

In 1821 a curious letter was written by Louise of Stolberg Gedern, Countess of Albany (1752-1824), the widow of Prince Charles Edward Stuart. She had married Charles in 1772, but they had no children. After several violent physical attacks by him on her, she left him and was officially separated.

She was an intelligent woman and avid letter writer. She lived with her lover, Count Vittorio Alfieri, a playwright, in Florence. One of her correspondents was Gabriel Froment, Baron Castille (1747-1826). He was a friend of Prince Ferdinand de Rohan and had married, second, Ferdinand’s great niece, Herminie de Rohan, a sister of Gasparinei. Louise wrote to the Baron inquiring for information on a Madame de Saint-Verin:

Tell me who exactly is this Madame de Saint-Verin, daughter of Lady Charlotte Stuart. Tell me if this Lady Stuart is the daughter of the late Duchess ofAlbany. Her children are by Prince Ferdinand.

It is not clear why Louise had only just heard of Victoire; perhaps through one of her many correspondents. But Louise had already met Victoire’s brother. The Baron’s reply to Louise’s letter has not yet been found. However in October Louise wrote again:

Thank you for having enlightened me about the children of the Duchess of Albany. The one (Charles Roehenstart, Victoire’s brother) that I saw (in 1815) here was very short of money. On leaving here he went to Vienna, and not knowing what to do, it was thought that he had killed himself. He told me numerous stories; he said he was the legitimate son of the Duchess and that his grandmother was the wife of my husband. From what you have told me his sister was much happier.”

Second Marriage of Victoire Adelaide née Roehenstart=

The Rohan family letters, in Decin, Czech Republic, include several more also addressed to Prince Louis de Rohan, signed by Victoire, but using her maiden name, Roehenstart.

At some time, probably in early 1823, Victoire wrote that she had met a British naval officer, Captain Corbet James d’Auvergne, a Jerseyman.

Perhaps by chance, Victoire had met someone who was very closely connected to the affairs of the Rohan family. James (as he was known) had been governor of Heligoland; the grateful inhabitants gave him a silver teapot. He commanded a ship patrolling the seas between Jersey and France; one such command was the Severn which, in a storm, ran aground just south of Mont Orgueil in 1804.

He owned the house now known as Gouray Lodge and helped his brother with the French Royalist refugees in the Island during the French Revolution. Unfortunately, too much entertaining led to him being declared bankrupt and the house was sold.

James’ older half-brother, Admiral Philippe d’Auvergne, (1754-1816) had been adopted by Godefroy d’Auvergne, Due de Bouillon, whose son, Jacques Leopold, was childless. The Duchy of Bouillon (now in Belgium) was taken over by the French during the French Revolution; eventually the Duchy was restored and Philippe went there to establish his claim, but in 1815 the Congress of Vienna decided that it should be given to Charles, Duke of Montbazon, the son of Henri de Rohan and grandson of Jules de Rohan, brother of Victoire’s father.

Philippe was to be compensated with £3,000. After his death in 1816 this money was supposed to have been paid to his half-brother, Edward, who lived in Fareham, Hampshire; he had died childless in 1820 and this may explain James’s presence in Paris, as he was heir to his brother.

James d’Auvergne and Victoire were married at the British Embassy in Paris on 29 November 1823, as described in the diary of Dr Jonas Asplin .

Dr Asplin had met Victoire whom he described, confusingly, as the Princess d’Ursane ‘the granddaughter of the Pretender’ and her son ‘is very like our present King, George IV’. He was a witness at their wedding and a guest at the wedding lunch.

James was not a well man and Dr Asplin attended to him regularly. By January 1825 James d’Auvergne’s health had deteriorated further. As Dr Asplin wrote:

On February 2 1825 was sent for to Prince d’Auvergne and found him sinking very fast; he died later that day. 1825. February 4 Rode to the Rue St Lazarre and called on the Princess d'Auvergne, the funeral of the Prince is to take place tomorrow at two. 1825, February 5 ‘Funeral of Prince d’Auvergne. Capt Galloway and Capt Wright and Dr Tait RN were the only persons with myself who attended the body to the church of Saint Marie where the Rev Forster met us, and the body was then put in a vault under the church till it is to he sent to England

Dr Asplin noted on 15 May 1825 that 'The Princess d’Auvergne is gone to England.' Victoire went to London, presumably accompanied by the coffin. It was probably put in St Margaret’s Westminster, where his brother Philippe had been buried. In James’s English will, proved on 13 May 1825 she is described as ‘Victory, my dearly beloved wife’. <refThe National Archive (TNA) Prerogative Court of Canterbury PROB 11 Quire 255 folio 33. Proved 13 May 1825.</ref>

Letters of Victoire Adélaide, 1825-1831

Recently-found letters in the Archives Nationales de France date from 1825 to 1832. They were written by Victoire, but signed Victoria, Comtesse d’Auvergne, and addressed to Louis-Francois de Clercq (1764-1838), who was the Rohan family banker.

In these letters Victoire dealt with financial affairs but also told M de Clercq where she was living and what her son, Theodore, was doing. In August 1825 she remarked that in Jersey one can live on half what it costs in England.

After London she travelled to Jersey where she was dealing with James’ estate, but although he may have inherited the money due to his brother, he appears to have had many debts. On 2 October 1825 Victoire mentioned that his personal items that had been kept at rue de Rivoli had to be sold to pay for his debts.

James’ sisters and niece were not welcoming to Victoire: on 4 December 1825 she wrote about 'the serene members of the family, whom I love, without perhaps any chance of receiving their affection'.

She first lived in lodgings in St Helier, but in 1826 she moved to a damp farmhouse near La Tour d’Auvergne, which is now La Hougue Bie. The tower had been built by Admiral Philippe d’Auvergne on top of the chapel. In a letter from Jersey dated 16 February 1827 Victoire said that she was not well and that she had too many creditors. She had been teaching at a local school run by a Miss Bichard and also attended church services at an Evangelical church.

On 16 March 1827 she wrote about money that Prince Ferdinand had got from her mother’s uncle, the Duke of York. Later she inquired about assets in St Dominigue (now Haiti). It seems that Ferdinand had always told his children that he was merely their guardian and that their father was actually his older brother, Admiral Louis-Armand de Rohan, who was guillotined in 1794.

However, the dates of their births do not fit with his career; perhaps Victoire and Charles never knew who their real father was. Ferdinand, who died in 1813, became a count of the Empire in 1808, having been personal chaplain to the Empress Josephine and to Marie Louise, Napoleon’s second wife.

In a letter dated 20 August 1827 Victoire mentioned Prince Charles Edward Stuart and her mother, the Duchess of Albany. By 2 December 1827 Theodore had become a pupil at the College Henri-Quatre in Paris; he had spent his holidays with his uncles-in-law in Chartres and Chateaudun.

He had not yet chosen a profession, perhaps, his mother later surmised, because of a lack of work at college. On 1 March 1828 Victoire wrote: ‘I have had to leave Jersey to return to France’. Before doing soon 15 April 1828 she appeared as ‘Dame Victoire Adélaide Roehen Stuart veuve de Corbet James Dauvergne’, in the Royal Court of Jersey to disentangle her assets from her husband’s debts.

She left the Island for Saint Malo on 20 April 1828; the paddle steamer Ariane was late, so there were lots of goodbyes.

Victoire mentioned her great uncle, the Cardinal Duke of York, in a letter of 3 October 1828 and complained of ‘the slander to which I have been most unfairly subjected’ and added, ‘The Princes (de Rohan) refused to pay me the money owed to me in order to force me to leave France’.

On 21 December 1829 she told de Clercq that Theodore, her son, was going to be ordained as a deacon in the order of St Sulpice: ‘He wants to give up the world so as to look after the sick better‘. The final letter in this collection is dated 31 January 1831; Victoire wrote that Theodore ‘has persevered in entering into the seminary of St Sulpice at Issy on Christmas Day 1828’. Theodore received the tonsure on 19 December 1829 and was ordained as a deacon on 22 December 1832, after which he left the seminary. As an ordained deacon he would have taken vows of celibacy.

Theodore had inherited some property from his father which he gave to his mother. In the index to the Répertoire des Formalités Hypothécaires 1841-1846 for the city of Chartres, Victoire Adelaide Roehen Start is stated to be living in Chateaudun; she is described as the widow of Pierre Joseph Marie de Saint Ursin, and of Jacques Dauvergne. The document says that Theodore had died in Castres, Tarn on July 7 1838.

As a deacon he had been teaching since at least 1836 at a minor seminary in St Pons de Thomieres, Herault. In his will he left three quarters of his wealth to Monseigneur Jean-Rémi Bessieux, the head of the seminary. Two years after Theodore’s death his mother gave the remaining quarter share to the same priest. In 1842 Monseigneur Bessieux went as a missionary to Gabon, West Africa. It is not yet known where or when Victoire died, although it was not in Chateaudun or Chartres.

• Stuart connections - 1 - The first article in the series