Louis Thomas | |||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Count of Soissons | |||||
Born |
Paris, France |
15 December 1657||||
Died | 14 August 1702 Near Landau |
(aged 44)||||
Spouse | Uranie de La Cropte de Beauvais | ||||
Issue Detail |
Maria Anna Victoria, Duchess in Saxony Emmanuel Thomas, Count of Soissons |
||||
|
|||||
House | House of Savoy (Carignan branch) | ||||
Father | Eugene Maurice, Count of Soissons | ||||
Mother | Olympia Mancini |
Full name | |
---|---|
Luigi Tommaso di Savoia |
Prince Louis Thomas of Savoy (Italian: Luigi Tommaso di Savoia; 15 December 1657 – 14 August 1702) was a Count of Soissons and Prince of Savoy. He was killed at the Siege of Landau at the start of the War of the Spanish Succession. There was speculation that he was an illegitimate child of Louis XIV.
Louis Thomas was the eldest son of Eugene Maurice, Count of Soissons and Olympia Mancini, as well as the oldest brother of Prince Eugene of Savoy. He married Uranie de La Cropte de Beauvais, whom Saint-Simon had once described as "radiant as the glorious morn". His daughter eventually inherited Eugene's estate. His maternal cousins included the Duke of Vendôme as well as the Duke of Bouillon and Louis Henri de La Tour d'Auvergne. His paternal cousins included Victor Amadeus I, Prince of Carignano and Louis William, Margrave of Baden-Baden.
After the death of his father and the flight of his mother to Brussels due to her involvement in the notorious Poison affair, Louis Thomas and Urania were charged, along with his paternal grandmother, with the rearing of his younger brothers. Eugene was never to forget the couple's loving surrogate parentage.
Louis Thomas obtained a commission as an officer in the French Army, but Louis XIV had amorous designs on his wife. Urania, however, spurned the king's romantic advances. Angered, Louis dismissed Louis Thomas from the army, and, when Louis Thomas sought a position abroad, terminated his pension and dues. In 1699, all but bankrupt, Louis Thomas sought the aid of his younger brother, Eugene, in Vienna. With Eugene's help, he obtained a commission in the Austrian Imperial Army.