Senior Line: Counts of Auvergne and Boulogne
Although various La Tours are mentioned in the documents from the 11th and 12th century, the family history remains unclear until the 13th century, when they owned the lordship of la Tour in the county of Auvergne, hence the name.
The medieval family was related through marriages to other notable dynasties of the French South, including Ventadour, La Rochefoucauld, and Levis-Mirepoix.
The la Tours d'Auvergne maintained close ties with the Avignon popes, and many of them became bishops and cardinals, particularly after 1352, when Guy de la Tour married Marthe Rogier of Beaufort, Popes Gregory XI's niece and Clement VI's grand niece. Their son Bertrand IV of la Tour (1375–1423) married a rich heiress, Marie I, Countess of Auvergne, in 1389, with their son Bertrand V de la Tour succeeding to the counties of Auvergne and of Boulogne in 1437.
Bertrand V's grandson Jean III of la Tour d'Auvergne (1467–1501) was the last medieval count of Auvergne, Boulogne, and Lauraguais. By his marriage to Jeanne of Bourbon-Vendôme, he left two daughters:
- The eldest daughter, Anne of la Tour d'Auvergne, married John Stuart, duke of Albany, however she died childless.
- The youngest, Madeleine of la Tour d'Auvergne, married Lorenzino de Medici and gave birth to Catherine de' Medici, who inherited both Auvergne and Boulogne due to the death of the childless Anne. Catherine also became Queen of France.
John's elder sister, Jeanne de la Tour d'Auvergne, married Aymar de Poitiers. They were the grandparents of Diane de Poitiers, mistress of Henry II, King of France.
The cadet line of this family, extinct in 1497, also owned the lordship of Montgascon. Anne of la Tour d'Auvergne, the last of her race and heiress to this lordship, married three times:
- firstly, in 1506, to Charles of Bourbon, count of Roussillon.
- secondly, in 1510, to John of Montmorency, lord of Chantilly.
- thirdly, in 1518, to her distant cousin, Francis II of la Tour, viscount of Turenne. For her issue by the last marriage, see below.
Read more about this topic: House Of La Tour D'Auvergne
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