[The health of cardinal Gaston de Rohan. The sickness, the diplomat in the noble class of the 17th century?].

The few elements concerning health and medicine discovered during the exhaustive study of the numerous documents evoking the Rohan family are presented here. They concern essentially Gaston de Rohan (1674-1749). Born in Paris the 27th of June 1674, son of François de Rohan, Prince of Soubise, lieutenant-general of the French royal army, and of Anne Julienne de Rohan-Chabot, Gaston de Rohan was elected canon of the great-chapter in Strasbourg in 1690, then coadjutor of the Prince-bishop of Strasbourg in 1701. He became Prince-bishop of Strasbourg in 1704 and cardinal in 1712. He died in Paris the 19th of July 1749. The "gout" of the cardinal is omnipresent in the life of this man of the Church. Moreover, gout imposes upon the life of this statesman, preventing him from going to a given place which doesn't fill him with enthusiasm. His gout also allows to impose etiquette, since it obliges to go at the cardinal place, who receives. The illness becomes non diplomatic, but diplomacy.