ROHAN, HENRI, Duc DE (1579-1638), French soldier, writer and leader of the Huguenots, was born at the château of Blain, in Brittany, in 1579. His father was Rene II., count of Rohan (1550-86). Henri appeared at court and in the army at the age of sixteen, and was a special favourite with Henry IV., after whom, failing the house of Conde, he might be said to be the natural chief of the French Protestants. Having served till the peace of Vervins, he travelled for some time. On his return to France he was made duke and peer at the age of twenty-four, and two years later (1603) married Marguerite de Bethune, the duc de Sully's daughter. He fought from time to time in the royal army, and it was not till the decree for the restitution of church property in the south threw the Bearnese and Gascons into open revolt that Rohan appeared as a rebel. His ability and constancy contributed to the happy issue of the war for the Huguenots, and brought about the treaty of Montpellier (1623). Rohan renewed the war when the compact of Montpellier was broken. Again a hollow peace was patched up, but it lasted but a short time, and Rohan undertook a third war (1627-29), the first events of which are recounted in his celebrated Memoirs. After the peace he made his way to Venice, where his hosts wished to make him their general-in-chief, a design not executed owing to the peace of Cherasco (1631). At Venice he wrote his Memoirs; at Padua, Le Parfait Capitaine. Rohan returned to the French service, and was entrusted with the war in the Valtelline (1633). But Rohan was still considered dangerous to France, and
was soon again in retirement. At this time he wrote his Traite du gouvernement des treize cantons. Rohan fought another Val telline campaign, but without the success of the first, for the motives of France were now held in suspicion. The unfortunate commander retired to Geneva and thence went to the army of Bernhard of Saxe-Weimar. He received a mortal wound at the battle of Rheinfelden on Feb. 28, 1638, and died at the abbey of Konigsfeld, canton Berne, on April 13.
Rohan's Memoires sur les choses qui se sont passees en France, etc., rank amongst the best memoirs of the 16th and 17th centuries. The first three books which deal with the civil wars appeared in 2644; the fourth, containing the narrative of the Valtelline campaigns, not till 1758. His famous book on the history and art of war, Le Parfait Capitaine, appeared in 1631 and subsequently in 1637 and 1693 (see also Quincy, Art de la guerre, Paris, 1741). The Memoirs may be conveniently found in the collection of Michaud and Poujoulat, vol. 19.
See Fauvelet de Foix, Histoire du Duc Henri de Rohan (1667) ; Schybergson, Le Duc de Rohan et la charte du parti protestant en France (188o) ; • Biihring, Venedig, Gustaf Adolf, und Rohan (Halle, 1885) ; Laugel, Henri de Rohan, son role politique et militaire (1889) ; Veraguth, Herzog Rohan und seine Mission in Graubiinden (Berne, 1894) ; and Shadwell, Mountain Warfare.