Alain de Rohan
Duke of Montbazon
Alain Benjamin Arthur de Rohan (born January 8, 1853 in Budapest and died February 23, 1914 in Prague) was an Austro-Hungarian aristocrat and politician of French origin. Head of the House of Rohan from 1892 to his death, he was also a member of the upper house of the Austrian parliament (1893-1914) and a member of the Bohemian parliament (1901-1908). Alain de Rohan was the son of His Serene Highness Prince Arthur de Rohan Rochefort (1826-1895), major in the Austrian troops, knight of honor and devotion in the sovereign order of Malta and of the Countess Gabrielle de Waldstein Wartenburg (1827-1890). Coming from the French House of Rohan, he is the brother of Marie Berthe de Rohan, married to Charles de Bourbon, Duke of Madrid, head of the House of Bourbon from 1887 to 1909. Himself eldest of the House of Rohan, he is therefore also the brother-in-law of the eldest of the House of Bourbon. He is also the great-great-grandson of Henri Louis Marie de Rohan, prince of Guéméné, and his wife, Victoire de Rohan Soubise. An officer, he was captain in the landwehr of the Austrian Uhlans regiment. He was also a hereditary member of the House of Lords of Austria, chamberlain and knight of honor and devotion of the Sovereign Order of Malta.
The Musketeers of the military household of the King of France (Mousquetaires de la maison militaire du roi de France), also known as the Musketeers of the Guard (French: Mousquetaires de la garde) or King's Musketeers (Mousquetaires du roi), were an elite fighting company of the military branch of the Maison du Roi, the royal household of the French monarchy. They were founded in 1622 when Louis XIII furnished a company of light cavalry (the carabins, created by Louis' father Henry IV) with muskets. The Musketeers fought in battles both on foot (infantry) and on horseback (cavalry). They formed the royal guard for the king while he was outside of the royal residences (within the royal residences, the king's guard was the Garde du corps and the Gardes suisses). The Musketeers of the Guard wore an early type of military uniform with a tabard (known as soubreveste), indicating that they "belonged" to the King, and an embroidered white cross denoting the fact that they were formed during the Huguenot rebellions in support of the Catholic cause. Shortly after the Musketeers were established, a second company was founded to report to Cardinal Richelieu. At the cardinal's death in 1642, the company passed to his successor Cardinal Mazarin, who disbanded his Musketeers in 1646. He revived the Musketeers in 1657 with a company of 150 men. Upon Mazarin's death in 1661, the cardinal's Musketeers passed to Louis XIV. In 1664, the two companies were reorganized: one company took the name "Grey
Musketeers" (mousquetaires gris) from the color of their matched horses, while the second were called "Black Musketeers" (mousquetaires noirs), mounted on black horses. At roughly the same time, the size of the Musketeer companies was doubled. The Musketeers were among the most prestigious of the military companies of the Ancien Régime, and in principle membership in the companies was reserved for nobles. With the reforms of Michel le Tellier – which mandated a certain number of years of military service before nobles could attain the rank of officer – many nobles sought to do this service in the privileged Musketeer companies. In 1776, the Musketeers were disbanded by Louis XVI for budgetary reasons. Reformed in 1789, they were disbanded again shortly after the French Revolution. They were reformed on 6 July 1814.
The House of Rohan (Breton: Roc'han) is a Breton family of viscounts, later dukes and princes in the French nobility, coming from the locality of Rohan in Brittany. Their line descends from the viscounts of Porhoët and is said to trace back to the legendary Conan Meriadoc. Through the Porhoët family, the Rohans are related to the Dukes of Brittany, with whom the family intermingled again after its inception. During the Middle Ages, it was one of the most powerful families in the Duchy of Brittany. The Rohans developed ties with the French and English royal houses as well, and they played an important role in French and European history. The only surviving line of the family is the branch of Rohan-Rochefort, Dukes of Montbazon, Dukes of Bouillon and Austrian Princes of Rohan, who migrated in the early 19th century to what is now Austria. Following his marriage in 1645 with Marguerite de Rohan, only daughter of Henri II de Rohan, first Duke of Rohan (who died in 1638 with no male heir), Henri Chabot, a descendant of the eldest branch of the House of Chabot from Poitou, was made Duke of Rohan in
1648 and allowed to use the name of Rohan-Chabot instead of his own, thus giving rise to the House of Rohan-Chabot. Rohan-Rochefort family is a junior branch of the Rohan-Guéméné branch through Charles de Rohan-Guémené, a.k.a. Charles de Rohan-Rochefort (1693-1766), who took the title of Prince of Rochefort. The family of Rohan-Rochefort, which migrated to Austria in the early 19th century, is nowadays the last remaining branch of the House of Rohan. It holds the genuine titles of Duke of Montbazon (1588, France), Duke of Bouillon (1816, Congress of Vienna), Prince of Rohan and Prince of the Holy Roman Empire with the style of Serene Highness (Durchlaucht), confirmed in 1808 by Emperor Francis II for all the members of the family. The head of the family was a hereditary member of the Room of the Lords of Austria.
Awards: Collar of the Order of the Ermine, Insignia of the Distinguished Order of the Golden Fleece and Star the Royal Military and Hospitaller Order of Our Lady of Mount Carmel and Saint Lazarus of Jerusalem united.
