Herminie de La Brousse de Verteillac (July 28, Paris, France – April 13, 1926, 7th arrondissement of Paris) was a French poet, Princesse de Léon (1872–1893) then Duchesse de Rohan (1893–1926).
Early life
Daughter of Charles César Augustin de La Brousse de Verteillac, Baron de La Tour Blanche, and his second wife, Marie Henriette de Leuze, she is the granddaughter of François Gabriel Thibault de La Brousse, Marquis de Verteillac.
Career
The Princesse de Léon quickly became a world-famous personality, dividing her time between the Hôtel de Verteillac (renamed Hôtel de Rohan), 35 boulevard des Invalides in Paris, the Château de Josselin (Morbihan) and the Chalet des Fées in Pontaillac, built by her father, the Marquis de Verteillac, on the Défé estate he had acquired in 1865.
In her Paris salon, she entertained literary figures, notably Robert de Montesquiou, who dedicated one of the poems in Le Chef des odeurs suaves to her. A passionate poet, she published three successive collections: Lande fleurie (1905), Les Lucioles (1907) and Souffles d'Océan (1911). A member of the Société des poètes français, she founded a poetry prize. She gave numerous literary lectures in Paris, Brussels and the provinces. She was also a painter.[1]
Her doll collection forms the basis of the Musée de la Poupée, opened in 1984 in the former stables of the Château de Josselin.[3]
Personal life
Photograph of her husband, the Duke of Rohan, 1890
On June 26, 1872, Herminie de Verteillac married Alain de Rohan-Chabot (1844–1914), Prince of Léon, who became the 11th Duke of Rohan on his father's death in 1893. They had five children:
Josselin de Rohan Chabot (1879–1916),[11] 12th Duke of Rohan who was killed during World War I;[12] he married Marguerite-Marie de Rohan-Chabot, a daughter of Auguste de Rohan-Chabot, in 1906.
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