Updated on: August 11, 2025
Basic Information
| Field | Details |
|---|---|
| Full name | Charles Godefroi Sophie Jules Marie De Rohan |
| Born | July 28, 1748 (likely Paris) |
| Died | December 1748 (some records suggest January 19, 1749); age approximately 4–5 months |
| Biological father | Charles Edward Stuart (Bonnie Prince Charlie) |
| Mother | Marie Louise de La Tour d’Auvergne |
| Legal father / family that raised him | Jules Hercule Mériadec de Rohan, Prince de Guéméné (accepted as legitimate Rohan) |
| Burial | Couvent des Feuillants, Paris (historic cemetery, since disappeared) |
| Historical footprint | Infant life; remembered for family connections linking the Stuarts and the Rohans |
A brief life — how a few months can echo centuries
I confess there’s a certain hush I love in histories like this — the sort of quiet that sits after the orchestra’s last note. Charles Godefroi’s life was the briefest of interludes, a flicker of a human presence in a centuries-long drama of crowns, claims, and court intrigue. Born into the tangled aristocratic networks of mid-18th-century Europe, he arrived with royal names stacked like props on a dressing-room shelf: Stuart blood on one side, Rohan titles on the other. And then, very quickly, his scene ended.
I like to picture the period like an old costume drama — powdered wigs, carriages, salons where secrets glide across the room in courtly bows. In that mise-en-scène, a child’s birth has political scent as much as familial warmth; lineage is currency; legitimacy is both social and strategic. For Charles Godefroi, the politics and the tenderness were inseparable, and his acceptance by the Rohan household turned a potential scandal into a guarded arrangement—one of those small political accommodations that aristocratic life relies on.
The family web — Stuart, La Tour d’Auvergne, and Rohan
Family trees in this corner of Europe look less like tidy charts and more like a tapestry with overlapping threads. Here are the immediate nodes around Charles Godefroi — names that read like character cards in a historical novel.
| Person | Relationship | Short note |
|---|---|---|
| Charles Edward Stuart (Bonnie Prince Charlie) | Biological father | Jacobite claimant; a figure whose life was bound up with lost thrones and romantic legend. |
| Marie Louise de La Tour d’Auvergne | Mother | French noblewoman whose marriage to Jules de Rohan did not preclude an affair with the Stuart claimant. |
| Jules Hercule Mériadec de Rohan, Prince de Guéméné | Legal father | Husband who accepted the child into the Rohan name — a politically pointed choice. |
| Henri Louis Marie de Rohan | Half-brother | Member of the Rohan house with influential court positions; part of the financial and social backdrop. |
| Charlotte Stuart | Half-sister (by Charles Edward Stuart) | Another of the Stuart children who survived beyond infancy and carried her own complicated legacy. |
| James Francis Edward Stuart | Paternal grandfather | The Old Pretender; a living symbol of dynastic hopes and the ghost of a lost crown. |
These names matter because they make the child more than an anonymous infant — they tether him to the tremors of dynastic history. And though his lifespan was too short for deeds, the mere fact of his birth and naming became a ripple across those family waters.
Dates, numbers, and the arithmetic of remembrance
Because the life itself was brief, dates and numbers become the skeleton we climb around to feel the shape.
- July 28, 1748 — birth, the origin point that set a stray dynastic filament into motion.
- December 1748 or January 19, 1749 — reported death date(s), leaving the infant at about 4–5 months old.
- 1922–1996 — not relevant here; just a reminder that families live on and their stories get retold in other centuries. (I mention this only to nod at the way lineages extend beyond single lives.)
Those small figures — months, not years — remind me that history is often stitched of very short human moments and the long consequences they carry. The child’s burial at the Couvent des Feuillants places him in a vanished Paris: a city whose cemeteries, like sets, can be dismantled and reapportioned as later urban plans demand.
Legitimacy, acceptance, and social maneuvering
What fascinates me is not the infant himself — there isn’t enough for me to reconstruct personality — but the decision around him: an illegitimate son, biologically tied to a claimant to a lost throne, legally folded into one of France’s great noble houses. That acceptance by Jules de Rohan is a historical gesture with teeth.
In the aristocratic playbook, accepting such a child reduces scandal and preserves household stability. It also rewrites lineage, if only on paper: a child who might have been an embarrassment becomes, instead, a Rohan — name, status, and all. Those arrangements show how nobles negotiated private indiscretions without letting them become public fissures that could split reputations or political alliances.
Burial and the geography of absence
Burial places matter; they root the ephemeral into soil. The Couvent des Feuillants — now gone as a burial ground — once took in bodies of the aristocratic world and the small tragedies that came with it. Interred there as an infant, Charles Godefroi received a physical dignity that matched the social dignity his legal family conferred upon him. A small stone, a short inscription, the inevitable erosion of place over time — these are the human techniques we use to hold onto lives that otherwise vanish.
Cultural echoes — how an infant enters myth
It’s tempting to think that people who die as infants leave no trace, but in aristocratic set-pieces, even a name can travel. Charles Godefroi reappears as a footnote in genealogies, a character that scholars and storytellers mention when they want to dramatize the tangled relations between the Stuarts and Gallic nobility. Media and fiction that mine Jacobite romances — the Outlander-style fascination with Stuart-era intrigue — often breathe around these side-characters, using them to color scenes with authenticity. In short: an infant’s life becomes a seasoning in historical storytelling.
FAQ
Who was Charles Godefroi Sophie Jules Marie De Rohan?
He was an infant born July 28, 1748, biologically linked to Charles Edward Stuart and legally accepted into the Rohan family, who died at about 4–5 months of age.
Who were his parents?
His mother was Marie Louise de La Tour d’Auvergne, and his biological father was Charles Edward Stuart; Jules Hercule Mériadec de Rohan was the legal father who took him into the Rohan name.
Why is his birth historically notable?
His birth is notable because it tied Stuart blood to the powerful Rohan house and illustrated how aristocratic families managed illegitimacy and reputation.
Where was he buried?
He was buried at the Couvent des Feuillants in Paris, a burial ground that no longer exists in its original form.
Did he leave descendants or a personal legacy?
No — he died in infancy and left no descendants; his “legacy” is genealogical and symbolic rather than personal.
Is he mentioned in popular culture?
He primarily appears as a historical footnote in discussions of Stuart-era intrigue and in works inspired by that period, serving as background color rather than a central figure.
