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Henri de Gramont, 13th Duke of Gramont

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Henri de Gramont
Duke of Gramont
Duke of Guiche, Prince of Bidache
Portrait of Gramont, by Philip de László, 1928
BornAntoine Agénor Henri Armand de Gramont
(1907-06-17)17 June 1907
Paris, France
Died12 December 1995(1995-12-12) (aged 88)
Les Lilas, France
Spouse
Odile d'Heudicourt de Lenoncourt
​
​
(m. 1949; died 1994)​
IssueAntoine de Gramont, 14th Duke of Gramont
HouseGramont
FatherArmand de Gramont
MotherÉlaine Greffulhe

Antoine Agénor Henri Armand de Gramont, 13th Duke of Gramont (17 June 1907 – 12 December 1995), known as the Duke of Guiche from 1925 to 1962, was a French aristocrat and landowner.

Early life

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Portrait of Henri as a child, by Philip de László, 1911

Henri was born in 8th arrondissement of Paris on 17 June 1907. He was the eldest son of Armand de Gramont, 12th Duke of Gramont (1879–1962),[1] and the former Countess Élaine Greffulhe. Among his siblings were twins Count Henri-Armand de Gramont and Count Jean Armand de Gramont, Count Charles de Gramont, and Countess Corisande de Gramont. His twin brothers married sisters, Élisabeth and Ghislaine Meunier du Houssoy, daughters of publisher Robert Meunier du Houssoy.[2]

His paternal grandparents were Agénor de Gramont, 11th Duke of Gramont and, his second wife, Baroness Marguerite de Rothschild (a daughter of Baron Mayer Carl von Rothschild, founder of the "Naples" branch of the Rothschild Family).[3][4] His paternal aunt, Élisabeth de Gramont, was a writer who married the 8th Duke of Clermont-Tonnerre.[5][6] His maternal grandparents were Count Henry Greffulhe and Princess Élisabeth de Riquet de Caraman-Chimay.[7]

Career

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The main façade of the Château de Vallière, with the entrance facing northeast

From 1925 until 1962, as the eldest son of the Gramont family and heir presumptive to the title of Duke of Gramont, he used the courtesy title Duke of Guiche. Upon his father's death in 1962,[8] he became the 13th Duke of Gramont. He was also known as the Prince of Bidache (the principality of Bidache maintained de jure sovereignty from 1570 until 1790 when, by royal edict, the territory of the principality was declared to be a part of France by Louis XVI, although his ancestor, Antoine de Gramont, wasn't ousted until 1793).[9]

Following his father's death, he inherited the Château de Vallière, which had been built by his grandfather in the Grand Parc in Mortefontaine in 1894.[10] Twenty years later, he sold the Château de Vallière and the Grand Parc in 1982 to Emir Mahdi Al Tajir, a billionaire Bahrana-Emirati businessman who served as Minister of Oil and the United Arab Emirates Ambassador to France from 1971 to 1908, while also serving as the United Arab Emirates Ambassador to United Kingdom from 1971 to 1987, where he bought Keir House.[11] The Charlepont stud farm, the Circuit de Mortefontaine [fr] site and the woods outside the park remained owned by the Gramont family.[12]

Personal life

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On 18 July 1949 at the Cathedral of Saint-Louis des Invalides in Paris, he married Odile Marguerite Marie Marthe Madelene Sublet d'Heudicourt de Lenoncourt (1914–1994), a daughter of Gérard Sublet d'Heudicourt de Lenoncourt and Thérèse Gautier Vignal (a daughter of Count Albert Gautier Vignal).[13] Together, they were the parents of:[14]

The Duke died at Les Lilas, a commune in the northern-eastern suburbs of Paris, on 12 December 1995.[16]

Descendants

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Through his eldest son Antoine, he was a grandfather of Antoine de Gramont, 15th Duke of Gramont (b. 2008).[16]

References

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  1. ^ "DUKE DE GRAMONT, PHYSICIST, 82, DIES; Aerodynamics Expert Was Developer of Microscope". The New York Times. 4 August 1962. Retrieved 18 September 2024.
  2. ^ Morgan, Ted (1972). The Way Up: The Memoirs of Count Gramont; a Novel. Putnam. p. 30. ISBN 978-0-399-10978-2. Retrieved 20 September 2024.
  3. ^ "Duchesse de Gramont Dead". The New York Times. 26 July 1905. Retrieved 29 June 2020.
  4. ^ Almanach de Gotha (in French). Johann Paul Mevius sel. Witwe und Johann Christian Dieterich. 1908. p. 330.
  5. ^ Bonald, Joseph Marie Jacques Ambroise de Bonald vicomte de (1912). Samuel Bernard, banquier du Trésor Royal et sa descendance (in French). Impr. Carrère. p. 60. Retrieved 18 September 2024.
  6. ^ Mension-Rigau, Eric (2 February 2011). L'ami du prince: Journal inédit d'Alfred de Gramont (1892-1915) (in French). Fayard. p. 237. ISBN 978-2-213-66502-3. Retrieved 18 September 2024.
  7. ^ Showalter, Elaine (13 July 2018). "French High Society During the Belle Époque". The New York Times. Retrieved 18 September 2024.
  8. ^ "Antoine-Agénor-Alfred, duke de Gramonte | French Diplomat, Minister, Politician". www.britannica.com. Britannica. 10 August 2024. Retrieved 18 September 2024.
  9. ^ Annuaire de la noblesse de France (in French). Au Bureau de la publication. 1910. pp. 81–82. Retrieved 18 September 2024.
  10. ^ Dunlop, Ian (1986). The Companion Guide to the Country Round Paris. Collins. p. 264. ISBN 978-0-00-216244-9. Retrieved 17 September 2024.
  11. ^ "Members of two billionaire Arab dynasties embroiled in £4 million divorce case". Tatler. 20 December 2019. Retrieved 17 September 2024.
  12. ^ Prévost-Marcilhacy, Pauline (1995). Les Rothschild: bâtisseurs et mécènes (in French). Flammarion. pp. 181–185. ISBN 978-2-08-012968-0. Retrieved 17 September 2024.
  13. ^ Furgaux, Robert (1 January 1979). Lenoncourt en Lorraine (in French). p. 25. ISBN 978-2-307-29537-2. Retrieved 20 September 2024.
  14. ^ Jaurgain, Jean de (1968). La Maison de Gramont, 1040-1967 ... (in French). les Amis du Musée pyrénéen, [place de l'Église,]. p. 656. Retrieved 20 September 2024.
  15. ^ van de Pas, Leo (1975). Histoire et Genealogie de la Maison de La Rochefoucauld. La Ricamarie: Martin, Georges. p. 75.
  16. ^ a b c Matoff, Susan (2015). Marguerite, Countess of Blessington: The Turbulent Life of a ... pp. 53, 69–70, 85–88, 83, 262. Retrieved 20 September 2024.
[edit]
French nobility
Preceded by
Duke of Gramont
1962–1995 		Succeeded by
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