Victor Amadeus I, Prince of Carignano

Victor Amadeus of Savoy, 3rd Prince of Carignano (1 March 1690 – 4 April 1741) was an Italian nobleman who was Prince of Carignano from 1709 to 1741. He was the son of Emmanuel Philibert of Savoy, Prince of Carignano and his wife, the Maria Angela Caterina d'Este.

Victor Amadeus I
Prince of Carignano
Prince of Carignano
Reign21 April 1709 – 4 April 1741
PredecessorEmmanuel Philibert
SuccessorLouis Victor
Born1 March 1690
Turin
Died4 April 1741(1741-04-04) (aged 51)
Turin
SpouseMaria Vittoria of Savoy
Issue
Detail
Anne Thérèse, Princess of Soubise
Louis Victor, Prince of Carignano
HouseSavoy-Carignano
FatherEmmanuel Philibert, Prince of Carignano
MotherMaria Angela Caterina d'Este

Biography

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Born in Turin, he was the third child of four and the eldest son.

Made a Knight of the Annunciation in 1696, he married, at Moncalieri on 7 November 1714, Marie Victoire Françoise of Savoy (1690–1766), legitimised daughter of Victor Amadeus II of Piedmont-Sardinia, King of Piedmont-Sardinia and of Jeanne Baptiste d'Albert de Luynes, Countess of Verrue.

His father-in-law showed affection for him but ended up depriving him, in 1717, of his 400,000 livres of annual income because of excessive spending. It was then that he ran away to France, at the end of 1718, in order to take possession of his inheritance.

Since he had lost the Château de Condé to Jean-François Leriget de La Faye when it was confiscated from his family by Louis XIV on 6 March 1719, he established himself in the hôtel de Soissons, which he transformed, with his wife who had followed him there, into a "sumptuous gaming house" which for a time sheltered the economist John Law. He died, ruined, and his hôtel was razed to construct in its place a grain-trading hall, now the site of the Bourse de commerce de Paris.

Next to his mother-in-law, Jeanne Baptiste d'Albert de Luynes, Countess of Verrue, he counted in the 1730s among the most influential amateurs and art collectors in Paris. He gathered in an important painting collection which was sold after his death in 1742 partly to Louis XV, King of France, and to August III of Poland, King of Poland and Elector of Saxony.

He had a passion for the Paris Opéra, and was named intendant of the Menus-Plaisirs by Louis XV. He brought about the disgrace of the tax farmer Alexandre Le Riche de La Poupelinière after he caught him in the company of his mistress, the actress Marie Antier.

Family

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Victor Amadeus' children were:

Ancestry

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References

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  • Virginie Spenlé: Torino – Parigi – Dresda. Le collezioni Verrua e Carignano nella Pinacoteca di Dresda, in: Le raccolte del principe Eugenio condottiero e intellettuale, Milano/Torino: Silvana Editoriale / La Veneria Reale 2012, S. 144–157, ISBN 978-8-83-662335-8