Frédéric Maurice de La Tour d'Auvergne, Duke of Bouillon was ruler of the independent principality of Sedan, and a general in the French royal army.
Background
Born in Sedan, Ardennes, he was the son of Henri de La Tour d'Auvergne, Duke of Bouillon, Prince of Sedan and Elisabeth of Orange-Nassau. He became Duke of Bouillon, and Prince of Sedan, Jametz, and Raucourt (now in Ardennes, France) at the death of his father in 1623.
Career
He was appointed governor of Maastricht in the United Provinces in 1629. In 1635 the Duke of Bouillon came into the service of King Louis XIII of France, and was appointed maréchal de camp (brigadier general). He was deprived of his offices in the United Provinces after engaging in negotiations with Spain (the arch-enemy of the United Provinces) in 1637.
Along with the Louis de Bourbon, comte de Soissons, he conspired against Cardinal Richelieu, and with the support of Spanish troops he and the comte de Soissons defeated the French royal troops sent after them at the Battle of La Marfée, outside of Sedan, in 1641. Later he submitted to King Louis XIII and Richelieu, and he was promoted to the rank of lieutenant general in command of the French army of Italy (1642). During this misfortune, he promised to cede the strategic border principalities of Sedan and Raucourt to France.
He died at Pontoise, near Paris, in 1652 and was buried in Évreux.