ROHAN, LOUIS RENE EDOUARD, CARDINAL DE (1734-1803), prince de Rohan-Guemenee, archbishop of Stras bourg, a cadet of the great family of Rohan, was born at Paris on Sept. 25, 1734. After taking orders, in 176o, he was nomi nated coadjutor to his uncle, Constantine de Rohan-Roche fort, archbishop of Strasbourg, and he was also consecrated bishop of Canopus. But he preferred the gaiety of Paris to his clerical duties, and had political ambitions. He joined the party opposed to the Austrian alliance, which had been cemented by the marriage of the archduchess Marie Antoinette to the dauphin. This party was headed by the duc d'Aiguillon, who in 1771 sent Prince Louis on a special embassy to Vienna to find out what was being done there with regard to the partition of Poland. Rohan arrived at Vienna in Jan. 1772, and made a great noise with his lavish fetes. But the empress Maria Theresa was implacably hostile to him; not only did he attempt to thwart her policy, but he spread scandals about her daughter Marie Antoinette, laughed at Theresa, and shocked her ideas of propriety. On the death of Louis XV. in 1774, Rohan was re called from Vienna, and coldly received at Paris; but in 1777 he was made grand almoner, and in 1778 abbot of St. Vaast. In 1778 he was made a cardinal on the nomination of Stanislaus Poniatowski, king of Poland, and in the following year succeeded his uncle as archbishop of Strasbourg and became abbot of Noir moutiers and Chaise-Dieu.
In an attempt to procure his reinstatement at court he fell into the hands of the comtesse de Lamotte, the notorious Caglio stro and others, whose actions form part of the "affair of the diamond necklace" (see DIAMOND NECKLACE). Rohan certainly was led to believe that his attentions to the queen were wel comed, and that his arrangement by which she received the famous necklace was approved. He was the dupe of others, and at the trial in 1786 his acquittal was received with universal en thusiasm, and regarded as a victory over the court and the queen. He was deprived, however, of his office as grand almoner and exiled to his abbey of Chaise-Dieu. He was soon allowed to return to Strasbourg, and was elected to the states-general. As a prince of the church in Jan. 1791 he refused to take the oath to the constitution, and went to Ettenheim, in the German part of his diocese. He spent what wealth remained to him in provid ing for the poor clergy of his diocese who had been obliged to leave France; and in 1801 he resigned his nominal rank as arch bishop of Strasbourg. On Feb. 17, 1803, he died at Ettenheim. See the Memoires of his secretary, the abbe Georgel, of the baroness d'Oberkirch, of Beugnot, and of Madame Campan; also J. Munier Jolain, Le Cardinal Collier; lettres a . . . de Marie Therese (1918), and other works cited under DIAMOND NECKLACE.