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Members of the Rohan family had filled the office of archbishop of Strassburg from 1704 - an office which made them princes of the Holy Roman Empire and the compeers rather of the German prince-bishops than of the French ecclesiastics. For this high office Louis de Rohan was destined from his birth, and soon after taking orders, in 1760, he was nominated coadjutor to his uncle, Constantine de Rohan-Rochefort , who then held the archbishopric, and he was also consecrated bishop of CanopusCanopus or Alpha Carinae is the brightest star in the southern constellation of Carina. A yellowish-white supergiant star, Canopus is the second brightest star in the sky with a visual magnitude of -0. It is located well into the southern hemisphere, at a. But he preferred the elegant life and the gaiety of Paris to his clerical duties, and had also an ambition to make a figure in politics.
He joined the party opposed to the AustriaAustria is a landlocked country in Central Europe, a federation of nine states. Austria is bordered by Germany and the Czech Republic to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to then alliance, which had been cemented by the marriage of the archduchess Marie AntoinetteElisabeth Vigee-Lebrun Marie Antoinette ( November 2, 1755 October 16, 1793) was Queen Consort of France. Daughter of Empress Maria Theresa of Austria of the Habsburg dynasty and her consort, the Emperor Francis I, she was married to the heir to the Frenc to the dauphin, later Louis XVILouis XVI of France ( August 23, 1754 January 21, 1793) succeeded his grandfather ( Louis XV of France) as King of France on May 10, 1774; he was crowned on June 11, 1775. His father, the Louis dauphin son of Marie Leszczynska, had died in 1765. Louis was. This party was headed by the duc d'Aiguillon, who in 1771Events January 22 Spain cedes the Falkland Islands to England. July 17 Massacre at Bloody Falls: Chipewyan chief Matonabbee traveling as the guide to Samuel Hearne on his arctic overland journey, massacre a group of unsuspecting Inuit. September 8 In Cali sent Prince Louis on a special embassy to ViennaThis article is about the city and federal state in Austria. For other places or things called Vienna, see Vienna (disambiguation). Vienna ( German: Wien [viːn]) is the capital of Austria, and also one of Austria's nine federal states Bundesland Wi to find out what was being done there with regard to the partition of PolandThe Partitions of Poland (more correctly the partitions of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth) happened in the 18th century and ended the existence of a Polish sovereign state. They involved Prussia, Russia and Austria dividing up the Polish lands between. Rohan arrived at Vienna in January 1772Events February 17 First partition of Poland, by Russia and Prussia, later including Austria May Watauga Association formed in East Tennessee as the first independent Anglo-American government. June 9 British vessel Gaspee is burned off of Rhode Island., and made a great noise with his lavish fêtes. But the empress Maria Theresa was implacably hostile to him; not only did he attempt to thwart her policy, but he spread scandals about her daughter Marie Antoinette, laughed at herself, and shocked her ideas of propriety by his dissipation and luxury.
On the death of Louis XV in 1774, Rohan was recalled from Vienna, and coldly received at Paris; but the influence of his family was too great for him to be neglected, and in 1777 he was made grand almoner , and in 1778 abbot of St. Vaast . In 1778 he was made a cardinal on the nomination of Stanislaus Poniatowski, king of Poland, and in the following year succeeded his uncle as archbishop of Strassburg and became abbot of Noirmoutiers and Chaise-Dieu . His various preferments brought him in an income of two and a half millions of livres; yet the cardinal was restless and unhappy until he should be reinstated in favour at court and had appeased the animosity which Marie Antoinette felt against him.
In pursuit of this object he fell into the hands of a gang of intriguers, the comtesse de Lamotte, the notorious Cagliostro and others, whose actions form part of the " affair of the diamond necklace." Rohan certainly was led to believe that his attentions to the queen were welcomed, and that his arrangement by which she received the famous necklace was approved. He was the dupe of others, and at the trial in 1786 before the parlement his acquittal was received with universal enthusiasm, and regarded as a victory over the court and the unpopular queen. He was deprived, however, of his office as grand almoner and exiled to his abbey of Chaise-Dieu.
He was soon allowed to return to Strassburg, and his popularity was shown by his election in 1789 to the Estates-General by the clergy of the bailliages of Haguenau and Weissenburg. He at first declined to sit, but the Estates-General, when it became the National Assembly, insisted on validating his election. But as a prince of the church in January 1791 he refused to take the oath to the constitution, and went to Ettenheim , in the German part of his diocese. In exile his character improved, and he spent what wealth remained to him in providing for the poor clergy of his diocese who had been obliged to leave France; and in 1801 he resigned his nominal rank as archbishop of Strassburg.