Suzanne Henriette of Lorraine

Suzanne Henriette de Lorraine (1 February 1686 – 19 October 1710) was a member of the House of Lorraine, Duchess of Mantua by marriage to Ferdinand Charles Gonzaga. Her spouse was the last Gonzaga duke of Mantua. Biography Suzanne Henriette was the penultimate daughter of Charles de Lorraine, Duke of Elbeuf and his third wife Françoise de Montault de Navailles (1653-1717), daughter of Philippe de Montaut-Bénac, Duke de Navailles. Her two older half brothers, Henri and Emmanuel Maurice were successively dukes of Elbeuf and she was known as Mademoiselle d'Elbeuf. Henri Jules, Prince de Condé (son of le Grand Condé) had proposed his daughter Marie Anne, Mademoiselle de Montmorency as a bride for Ferdinando Carlo Gonzaga, ruler of the Duchies of Mantua and Montferrat (known in France as Charles de Gonzague.), but that alliance was not realized. Ferdinando's first wife and cousin, Anna Isabella Gonzaga, died in August 1703, leaving him childless. Although the Lorraine-Elbeufs were reckoned among the princes etrangers at the court of France, as a cadet branch of a non-reigning cadet branch (Guise) of the House of Lorraine, it was not their custom to marry crowned heads. Nevertheless, Ferdinando Carlo Gonzaga, Duke of Mantua and Montferrat sought Suzanne Henriette's hand in pursuit of a dynastic alliance with another reigning ducal house under French influence. Mlle. d'Elbeuf married the Duke in Milan, to which she had been conducted by her grandmother Catherine Henriette de Bourbon.