Louis Thomas, Count of Soissons

Louis Thomas
Count of Soissons
Louis Thomas, Count of Soissons.
Born	(1657-12-15)15 December 1657 Paris, France
Died	14 August 1702(1702-08-14) (aged 44) Near Landau
Spouse	Uranie de La Cropte de Beauvais
Issue Detail	Maria Anna Victoria, Duchess in Saxony Emmanuel Thomas, Count of Soissons
Names Luigi Tommaso di Savoia
House	Savoy-Carignano
Father	Eugene Maurice, Count of Soissons
Mother	Olympia Mancini

Prince Louis Thomas of Savoy (German: Ludwig Thomas von Savoyen, Graf von Soissons; Italian: Luigi Tommaso di Savoia; 15 December 1657 – 14 August 1702) was a Count of Soissons and Prince of Savoy. He was killed as Feldzeugmeister of the Imperial Army at the Siege of Landau at the start of the War of the Spanish Succession. There was speculation that he was an illegitimate child of Louis XIV.

Biography[]

Louis Thomas was the eldest son of Eugene Maurice, Count of Soissons and Olympia Mancini, as well as the oldest brother of Prince Eugene of Savoy. He married Uranie de La Cropte de Beauvais, whom Saint-Simon had once described as "radiant as the glorious morn". His daughter Princess Maria Anna Victoria of Savoy eventually inherited Eugene's estate.^{[citation needed]} His maternal cousins included the Duke of Vendôme as well as the Duke of Bouillon and Louis Henri de La Tour d'Auvergne. His paternal cousins included Victor Amadeus I, Prince of Carignano and Louis William, Margrave of Baden-Baden.^{[citation needed]}

After the death of his father and the flight of his mother to Brussels due to her involvement in the notorious Poison affair, Louis Thomas and Urania were charged, along with his paternal grandmother, with the rearing of his younger brothers. Eugene was never to forget the couple's loving surrogate parentage.

Louis Thomas obtained a commission as an officer in the French Army, but Louis XIV had amorous designs on his wife. Urania, however, spurned the king's romantic advances. Angered, Louis dismissed Louis Thomas from the army, and, when Louis Thomas sought a position abroad, terminated his pension and dues. In 1699, all but bankrupt, Louis Thomas sought the aid of his younger brother, Eugene, in Vienna. With Eugene's help, he obtained a commission in the Austrian Imperial Army.^{[citation needed]}

On 18 August Louis was killed by a French bomb at the Siege of Landau at the onset of the War of the Spanish Succession.^[1]

Issue[]

1. Princess Maria Anna Victoria of Savoy (1683–1763), Mademoiselle de Soissons; married Prince Joseph of Saxe-Hildburghausen, Duke in Saxony, son of Ernest, Duke of Saxe-Hildburghausen; had no issue.
2. Prince Louis Thomas of Savoy (1685–1695)
3. Princess Thérèse Anne Louise of Savoy (1686–1736); never married and had no issue.
4. Prince Emmanuel Thomas of Savoy (1687–1729); succeeded as Count of Soissons. He married Princess Maria Theresia of Liechtenstein and had issue.
5. Prince Maurice of Savoy (1690–1710)
6. Prince Eugene of Savoy (1692–1712)

Ancestry[]

References[]