The House of La Rochefoucauld is one of France's ancient noble families, with origins dating back to the 10th century.

In April 1622, Louis XIII elevated the County (comté) of La Rochefoucauld to a Duchy and Peerage by Letters Patent [fr] issued at Niort (registered September 4, 1631).

They were titled as Princes of Marcillac [fr] in the 16th century, while François VII, a close friend of Louis XIV, married Jeanne du Plessis-Liancourt (1644–1669).

The La Rochefoucauld family held numerous other titles and roles, including Marquises of (i) Montendre (§ Marquises of Montendre), (ii) Barbezieux, (iii) Surgères (§ Marquis of Surgères), and (iv) Bayers (§ Marquis of Bayers); and Counts of (i) Duretal, (ii) Roye, and (iii) Roucy; and Baron of Verteuil.

Family members were also prominent in the Catholic Church, producing cardinals and bishops; and two family members, Pierre-Louis of La Rochefoucauld-Bayers [fr; es; it; nl; pl] (1744–1792) and François-Joseph of La Rochefoucauld-Bayers [fr; es; it; nl; pl] (1736–1792), were massacred during the French Revolution and later beatified.

The family's ancestral seat, the La Rochefoucauld Castle [fr; es; nl; pt], has been in their possession since the 10th century.

Additionally, the La Rochefoucauld-Montbel family owned the Lascaux Cave at the time of their discovery and maintain ties to the Pellevoisin sanctuary, a site of Marian apparitions (reported supernatural appearances of the Virgin Mary - recognition by nihil obstat in 2024[3]) in France.

Authors have advanced, albeit with piecemeal evidence, that the first member of this family was Adémar, known as Amaury or Esmerin, by Viscounty of Limoges, or the son of the lord Hugh I of Lusignan.

His other brother, the youngest of three siblings, Frédéric Gaëtan (1779–1863), became Marquis of La Rochefoucauld-Liancourt, and, in 1793, married to Marie-Françoise de Tott.

His son, Alexandre Jules de La Rochefoucauld (1796–1856), was authorized by royal decree of 2 July 1840 to take the title of Duke of Estissac, however, this order was not followed by letters patent.

Count Bernard Gaston Mathieu Gilbert of La Rochefoucauld (1901–1944), the director Jean-Dominique Marie Henri of La Rochefoucauld-Guyon (1931–2011), along with daughters Sophie Nathalie Catherine Jeanne [fr] (born 1965) and Claire [fr] (born 1972) are descendants of this branch.

[25] The male line of this branch became extinct in 1940 upon the death of Raoul-Gustave Marie de La Rochefoucauld, Marquis of Bayers (1845–1940), who died without issue from his marriage to Élisabeth of Griffon-Sénéjac (1865–1928).

The female line ended with Victoria Françoise Anne Marie of La Rochefoucauld-Bayers (1880–1950), the daughter of a cousin of Raoul-Gustave, who died unmarried (and without issue).