COUNTS AND

See also:

• DUKES
• DUKES, LEOPOLD (1810-1891)

DUKES OF

See also:

• NEVERS

NEVERS  . Having formed part of the duchy of Burgundy, the county of Nevers (Nivernais) was given by Duke Henry I. in 987 to his stepson, Otto William, afterwards count of Macon, who five years later handed it over to his son-in-law Landri . The first house of the hereditary counts of Nevers originated in this Landri, and was brought to an end in 1192 by the death of Agnes, countess of Nevers, wife of Pierre de Courtenay (d . 1217) . The county subsequently passed by successive marriages into the houses of Donzy, Chatillon and Bourbon . Mahaut de Bourbon brought the county of Nevers, together with those of Auxerre and Tonnerre, to her husband Odo (Eudes), son of Hugh IV., duke of Burgundy, in 1248 . Her eldest daughter, Yoland, received the county of Nevers as her dowry when in 1265 she married Jean Tristan, son of King Louis IX . She became a widow in 1270, and in 1272 married Robert de Dampierre, who became count of Flanders . Her descendant by her second marriage, Marguerite, daughter and heiress of Louis II. de Male, count of Flanders, married successively two dukes of Burgundy, Philip I. de Rouvre and Philip II. the Bold . Philip (d . 1415), the third son of Philip the Bold, received the counties of Nevers and of Rethel and the barony of Donzy; his last male descendant, John, died in 1491 . The house of Cleves then inherited the Nivernais, which was erected into a duchy by King Francis I. for Francis of Cleves in 1539 .

In 1565 Louis de

Gonzaga (d . 1595), son of Frederick II., duke of Mantua, married Henrietta of Cleves, duchess of Nevers, and one of his descendants, Charles (d . 1665), sold the Nivernais to Cardinal Mazarin in 1659 . The cardinal devised it to his nephew Philippe Jules Mancini, whose descendants possessed it until the French Revolution . The last duke of Nivernais, Louis Jules Barbon Mancini Mazarini, died in 1798 .