François V de Beauharnais, Marquis de La Ferté-Beauharnais (16 January 1714, La Rochelle â 18 June 1800, Saint-Germain-en-Laye) was a prominent French nobleman, whose life spanned military, political and colonial spheres.
He was seigneur de Beaumont et de Bellechauve, baron de Beauville, 1st marquis de la Ferté-Beauharnais, chef d'escadre des armées royales, and governor of the French colony of Martinique. He was the son of Claude de Beauharnais, sieur de Beaumont et de Bellechauve (1674-1738), and his wife, Renée Hardouineau de Landanière (1696-1766).
In 1752, he acquired the château of La Ferté-Avrain. In recognition of his service to the crown, King Louis XV elevated his estate to a marquisate, officially naming him Marquis de La Ferté-Beauharnais in July 1764.
On 13 September 1751, at Blois, François de Beauharnais married Marie Anne Henriette Françoise Pyvart de Chastullé (17 March 1722 â 5 October 1766). They had three children:
On Henriette's death, François de Beauharnais in 1796 married Marie Euphémie Désirée Tascher de la Pagerie (1739âÂÂ1803), an aunt of Josephine de Beauharnais.
In 1751, he was made chef d'escadre des vaisseaux du roi, then governor of Martinique. On 20 April 1752, he acquired the château de La Ferté-Avrain, which had recently been rebuilt. In recognition of his services to France, on 7 July 1764 Louis XV promoted him to the status of marquis, allowing him to raise his lands at La Ferté-Avrain into the marquisat. From then on, La Ferté-Avrain was called La Ferté-Beauharnais after him.
François V de Beauharnais is the ancestor of Nicolas of Leuchtenberg, Napoleon III and the current royal houses of Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Luxembourg, and Belgium through Josephine of Leuchtenberg, later Queen of Sweden.