ROHAN (LOUIS-RENE-ÉDOUARD DE). "I CAN SAY THAT FOR 8 YEARS - Lot 230

Lot n° 230
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ROHAN (LOUIS-RENE-ÉDOUARD DE). "I CAN SAY THAT FOR 8 YEARS - Lot 230
ROHAN (LOUIS-RENE-ÉDOUARD DE). "I CAN SAY THAT FOR 8 YEARS I CULTIVATED MY FIELDS UNDER ENEMY CANNON FIRE...". Letter signed "le cardinal de prince de Rohan" to Baron de Castille. Ettenheim [in Germany, between Strasbourg and Freiburg], November 17, 1802. One p. 1/3 in-4, address on spine, red wax seal; autograph apostille from addressee; marginal tear to address leaf due to opening without damage to text. CARDINAL DE ROHAN'S GERMAN EXILE. " ... I thank you... for your letter... and I also thank you for the interesting details you give me about everything that concerns you; this does justice to my very sincere and genuine interest. As a good father, you have placed your children in two good educational establishments. This is the most beautiful gift you could give them, and the most cherished occupation for one who has the good fortune to enjoy paternal bliss. I congratulate you on knowing the charm of rural occupations. This enjoyment has been a great resource for me, and I can say that for 8 years I have cultivated my fields under enemy cannon fire, whose bollocks ploughed the land where the plough cut the furrow; and in the evening bollocks were brought back to the field where they had hidden; and on this occasion, I saw how everything is a habit in man, and that we get used to everything, because the bourgeois of the countryside went daily to cultivate their land and made a game of the passage of the cannonballs. I must also make it a game to be ON THE eve of being stripped by peace of what I was able to keep during the war; but unfortunately this game is all at a loss for me, and the uncertainty about the results of the compensation determined by the deputation's conclusions is a real torment. BESIDES, I MUST REFRAIN FROM ANY COMPLAINT, SINCE I HAVE THE CERTAINTY OF HAVING SOMETHING ASSURED; AND SO MANY FELLOW WRECKERS, (STARTING WITH THE KING) WHO DO NOT HAVE THIS ADVANTAGE. I see with great pleasure in your letter that, after having had the misfortune of being in prison for so long, you have at least saved a few scraps of your fortune, and that you have enough to live on as a family man...". Gabriel-Joseph de Froment d'Argilliers (1747-1826) had remarried Herminie de Rohan-Guéméné, princesse de Rohan-Rochefort. ONE OF THE MISLEADING PROTAGONISTS OF THE COLLIER AFFAIR, LOUIS-RENE-ÉDOUARD DE ROHAN (1734-1803) was the son of the Duc de Montbazon and had a promising early career: Appointed coadjutor to his uncle, the prince-bishop of Strasbourg, in 1759, he entered the Académie française in 1760, and was made ambassador to Vienna in 1771, as he was of high birth, spoke German and his bishopric included parishes in France and in the land of the Empire (on both sides of the Rhine). Undiplomatic as he was, however, he displeased both Courts and was recalled in 1774. Despite this, thanks to the support his name attracted, he was made Grand Chaplain of France (1777), Cardinal (1778) and, on the death of his uncle in 1779, became the titular Prince-Bishop of Strasbourg: the wealth of his bishopric's revenues enabled him to live lavishly, and to maintain a brilliant Court where, for example, the Count of Cagliostro frequented. Like Cagliostro, he was involved in the "Collier" affair, which tarnished the queen's reputation, and was arrested in 1785, acquitted in 1786, and allowed to return to his bishopric of Strasbourg in 1789. During the French Revolution, he fled to Ettenheim, in the German part of his diocese, in June 1790, and took his ecclesiastical duties to heart. Although he twice had to flee the French armies (1796 and 1799), he remained outside France on his own land, while two constitutional bishops succeeded one another in Strasbourg.
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