Nicolas de Neufville de Villeroy
Encyclopedia
Marshal of France
The Marshal of France is a military distinction in contemporary France, not a military rank. It is granted to generals for exceptional achievements...
. He was marquis then (from 1651) 1st duke of Villeroy and (from 1663) peer of France, marquis d'Alincourt and lord of Magny, and acted as governor of the young Louis XIV. His son François
François de Neufville, duc de Villeroi
François de Neufville, 2ème duc de Villeroy was a French soldier.-Biography:Villeroy was born in Lyon into noble family which had risen into prominence in the reign of Charles IX....
succeeded him as duke. He was the lover of Catherine-Charlotte de Gramont
Catherine-Charlotte de Gramont
Catherine Charlotte de Gramont was a French noblewoman and Princess of Monaco as the wife of Louis I of Monaco and a mistress of Louis XIV of France.-Biography:...
.
Life
He was the son of Charles de Neufville (1566–1642), marquis de Villeroy et d'Alincourt, and his second wife, Jacqueline de Harlay de Sancy.Nicolas de Neufville studied at the court of Louis XIII
Louis XIII of France
Louis XIII was a Bourbon monarch who ruled as King of France and of Navarre from 1610 to 1643.Louis was only eight years old when he succeeded his father. His mother, Marie de Medici, acted as regent during Louis' minority...
as an enfant d’honneur. In 1615, he was made governor of the Lyonnais
Lyonnais
The Lyonnais is a historical province of France which owes its name to the city of Lyon.The geographical area known as the Lyonnais became part of the Kingdom of Burgundy after the division of the Carolingian Empire...
under his father's supervision - an effective governor, he served in that post until his father's death in 1642. He served in Italy with Lesdiguières and was promoted to marshal of France
Marshal of France
The Marshal of France is a military distinction in contemporary France, not a military rank. It is granted to generals for exceptional achievements...
on 20 October 1646 thanks to being the protege of cardinal Jules Mazarin.
In March 1646, the queen-mother made marshal de Villeroy governor of Louis XIV
Louis XIV of France
Louis XIV , known as Louis the Great or the Sun King , was a Bourbon monarch who ruled as King of France and Navarre. His reign, from 1643 to his death in 1715, began at the age of four and lasted seventy-two years, three months, and eighteen days...
, under Mazarin's authoritym chosen as "surintendent for the government and conduct of the king". It is difficult to attribute him any good or bad influence in the young king's education. He was made duke of Villeroy in September 1651 and admitted to the peerage of France
Peerage of France
The Peerage of France was a distinction within the French nobility which appeared in the Middle Ages. It was abolished in 1789 during the French Revolution, but it reappeared in 1814 at the time of the Bourbon Restoration which followed the fall of the First French Empire...
in 1663. He served as Grand Master of France
Grand Master of France
The Grand Master of France was, during the Ancien Régime and Bourbon Restoration in France, one of the Great Officers of the Crown of France and head of the "Maison du Roi", the king's royal household...
at Louis XIV's coronation and was made a knight of the Order of the Holy Spirit
Order of the Holy Spirit
The Order of the Holy Spirit, also known as the Order of the Knights of the Holy Spirit, was an Order of Chivalry under the French Monarchy. It should not be confused with the Congregation of the Holy Ghost or with the Order of the Holy Ghost...
on 31 December 1661. Louis XIV also made him head of the Conseil royal des finances in 1661, a role (of particular importance at the time of the suppression of the surintendance des finances, but becoming largely honorific) he held until his death.
Hotel de Villeroy
In 1640 Nicolas de Villeroy builds a Hôtel ParticulierHôtel particulier
In French contexts an hôtel particulier is an urban "private house" of a grand sort. Whereas an ordinary maison was built as part of a row, sharing party walls with the houses on either side and directly fronting on a street, an hôtel particulier was often free-standing, and by the 18th century it...
on 34 rue des Bourdonnais in the center of Paris in the district of les Halles. The House is built on the grounds of a former mansion already belonging to the Villeroy family.
The beautiful courtyard of the building was frequently visited by the young King Louis XIV who lived in the nearby Palais Royal
Palais Royal
The Palais-Royal, originally called the Palais-Cardinal, is a palace and an associated garden located in the 1st arrondissement of Paris...
and played there as a child with his brother Prince Philippe d´Orleans.
Family
Nicolas married on 11 July 1617 to Madeleine de Blanchefort de Créquy.They had four children:
- Charles de Neufville de Villeroy (died 1645), marquis d'Alincourt
- François de Neufville de Villeroy (1644–1730), 2nd duc de Villeroy
- Françoise de Neufville de Villeroy (died 1701) married: (1) Just, comte de Tournon (†1644) (2, 1646) Henri, duc de Chaulnes (†1653), then (3) Jean Vignier, marquis d'Hauterive
- Catherine de Neufville de Villeroy (1639–1707), in 1660 married Louis de Lorraine-Armagnac (1641–1718), comte d'Armagnac, de Charny and de Brionne