ENGHIEN, Louis-Antoine-Henri de Bourbon-Conde, Due d’ (1772-1804), was the son of Henri-Louis-Joseph, prince of Condé, and of Louise-Marie-Thérèse-Bathil.le d’Orleans, and was born at Chantilly on the 2nd August 1772. He was educated privately by the Abbé Millot, and was trained in the art of war by his grandfather the prince of Condé, with whom he was present at the battle of St Omer in 1788. In 1789 he, along with the other members of his family, went into exile. In 1792 he joined the royalist forces under his father in Flanders, and on the dissolution of this army he served under his grandfather, and specially distinguished himself at the battle of Berstheim in 1793. In 1794 he was made knight of the order of St Louis, and from 1796 to 1799 he commanded the vanguard of his grandfather’s forces. When these were disbanded in 1801, he contracted a private marriage with the Princess Charlotte, niece of Cardinal de Rohan, and took up his residence near Ettenheim in Baden. Being suspected of concocting a plot against Napoleon Bonaparte, spies were placed to watch his movements, who reported, it is said falsely, that he was in the habit of making frequent secret journeys along with General Dumouriez. Bonaparte therefore thought it necessary to seize his papers, and on the 14th March 1804 caused his château to be surrounded by 400 gendarmes, who took the duke prisoner, and conducted him to Strasburg. After being brought to Paris on the 20th March, he was conducted to Vincennes, where he was tried by court martial, and without being found guilty of any definite charges, was on the morning of the 21st at four o’clock condemned to death as a traitor. Half-an-hour afterwards he was led out to execution, and as soon as he was dead he was thrown into a grave, which, ...in anticipation of his sentence, had been prepared beforehand. Upon Napoleon’s conduct in these arbitrary proceedings various interpretations have been put, but there are scarcely materials for forming a decisive judgment. It was in reference to the execution of the Due d'Enghien that Fouché made the remark which has passed into a proverb: “It was worse than a crime; it was a blunder.” After the Restoration the remains of the duke were removed to the chapel of the castle at Vincennes.
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