L a - b e a u t é - s a u v e r a - l e - m o n d e ~ D o s t o ï e v s k i

L a - b e a u t é - s a u v e r a - l e - m o n d e  ~  D o s t o ï e v s k i



Friday, November 28, 2014

Philippe de Bourbon, later duc de Vendôme, by Jacob Ferdinand Voet, circa 1670s



Philippe de Bourbon, duc de Vendôme (23 August 1655, Paris - 24 January 1727, Paris), called "Le Prieur de Vendôme" or "Le Grand Prieur", the fourth and last duc de Vendôme.

Born to Louis de Bourbon, second duc de Vendôme, and Laura Mancini, as the second of two surviving sons. Like most younger sons of the nobility he early made a career in the military. In time he was able to acquire the prestigious post of Grand Prior for France in the Order of Malta, with which he was able to attain numerous important commands, and would hold senior military positions throughout his life. During the Spanish War of Succession, Louis XIV briefly put him in command of French forces in Italy. But he was subsequently demoted to a position subordinate to that of his elder brother, Louis Joseph - then duc de Vendôme and a gifted commander - and served in that role during the remainder of the campaign.

His father had died when Philippe was only fourteen, and when his elder brother died, childless, in 1712, he inherited his family's ducal titles. But he had never married, and when he died fifteen years later at the age of seventy-one, the dukedom of Vendôme became extinct.


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Jacob Ferdinand Voet (circa 1639, Antwerp - circa 1689, Paris), Flemish Baroque portrait painter, the son of the painter Elias Voet. After training in Paris, he spent much time in Rome, then Florence and Turin, before returning to Antwerp in about 1684. Two years later, he returned to Paris, becoming court painter, and worked there until his death.



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