Role French statesman Preceded by Vicomte de Martignac Parents Yolande de Polastron | Succeeded by Duc de Broglie Political party Ultra-royalist Name Jules Polignac | |
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Born 14 May 1780Versailles ( 1780-05-14 ) Died March 2, 1847, Paris, France Similar People Yolande de Polastron, Prince Edmond de Polignac, Winnaretta Singer, Isaac Singer, Isabella Eugenie Boyer | ||
Children Prince Edmond de Polignac | ||
Prince Jules Auguste Armand Marie, Count of Polignac ([ʒyl.də.pɔ.li.ɲak] ; 14 May 1780 – 2 March 1847), then briefly 3rd Duke of Polignac in 1847, was a French statesman, ultra-royalist politician after the Revolution and prime minister under Charles X, just before the 1830 July Revolution which overthrew the senior line of the Bourbon dynasty.
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Biography
Born in Versailles, Jules was the younger son of Jules, 1st Duke of Polignac, and Gabrielle de Polastron, a confidante and favourite of Queen Marie-Antoinette. Due to his mother's privileged position, the young Jules was raised in the environment of the court of Versailles, where his family occupied a luxurious suite of thirteen rooms. His sister, Aglaé, was married to the duc de Guîche at a young age, helping to cement the Polignac family's position as one of the leaders of high society at Versailles.
In 1789, the outbreak of the French Revolution, Jules's mother and her circle were forced to flee abroad due to threats against their lives. Gabrielle had been one of the most consistent supporters of absolutism and bequeathed these political sympathies to her son following her death in 1793.
Marriages
Jules married twice. He married firstly, in 1816 at London to Barbara Campbell (Ardneaves House, Islay 22 Aug 1788-Saint-Mandé 23 May 1819), a young Scotswoman, who later returned with him to France, with whom he had two children:
After her death in 1819, he married in London on 3 June 1824 Charlotte, Comtesse de Choiseul, widow of Comte Cesar de Choiseul (d 1821), née Honourable (Maria) Charlotte Parkyns (St.Marylebone 6 Jan 1792-1/2 Sep 1864). She was the youngest child (of six children) and daughter of Thomas Parkyns, 1st Baron Rancliffe (created 1795) and his wife Elizabeth Anne James, and sister of George Augustus Anne Parkyns, Lord Rancliffe and Henrietta, Lady Rumbold (1789-1833) wife of Sir William Rumbold, 3rd Bt. in 1824. He had met her while she was renewing her passport at the London embassy, and he was Ambassador (1823-1829). They had 5 children, of whom two were born while their father was (comfortably) in prison.:
The couple's marriage was annulled by the French Chamber of Peers, but Jules and Charlotte went to England after his release 1836, and renewed their vows before the French consul in 1837.
Returning to France, which was then ruled by Napoleon Bonaparte, Jules continued in his zealous loyalty to the exiled Royal Family. In 1804, a year after his sister's death, Jules was implicated in the conspiracy of Cadoudal and Pichegru to assassinate Bonaparte, and was imprisoned until 1813. After the restoration of the Bourbons, he was rewarded with various honours and positions. He held various offices, received from the pope his title of "prince" in 1820, and in 1823 King Louis XVIII made him ambassador to Great Britain. A year later, his mother's former friend ascended the throne as King Charles X. Polignac's political sympathies did not alter and he was one of the most conspicuous ultra-royalists during the Restoration era.
At the time, it was rumoured that Polignac supported ultra-royalist policies because he thought he was receiving inspiration from the Virgin Mary. There is little historical evidence for this story, however. There is no mention of such motivation in Polignac's personal memoirs or in the memoirs of the Restoration court.
On 8 August 1829 Charles X appointed him to the ministry of foreign affairs and in the following November Polignac became president of the council, effectively the most powerful politician in France. His appointment was considered a step towards overthrowing the constitution and Polignac, with other ministers, was held responsible for the decision to issue the Four Ordinances, which were the immediate cause of the revolution of July 1830.
Upon the outbreak of revolt he fled, wandering for some time among the wilds of Normandy before he was arrested at Granville. At his trial before the chamber of peers he was condemned and sentenced to 'perpetual' imprisonment at the château in Ham. But he benefited by the amnesty of 1836, when the sentence was commuted to exile. During his captivity he wrote Considerations politiques (1832). Afterwards, he spent several years in exile in England before being permitted to re-enter France on condition that he never again take up his abode in Paris.
From his second marriage to Maria-Charlotte, Jules de Polignac had fathered seven children, including Prince Ludovic de Polignac (1827-1904), a lieutenant-colonel in the French Army who participated in the colonization of Algeria; Prince Camille Armand Jules Marie, Prince de Polignac (1832-1913), a major-general in the Confederate Army during the American Civil War and Prince Edmond de Polignac (1834-1901), a composer, musical theorist and proponent of the octatonic scale.
Jules died at St. Germain in 1847 of the effects of his imprisonment; about one month prior he had assumed the title of Duc de Polignac upon the death of his older brother, Armand, who had died without children.
Comte Pierre de Polignac, later Prince Pierre, Duke of Valentinois father of Rainier III of Monaco and therefore the entire current princely family is descended from a different and cadet branch of the de Polignac family which has the comital rank only. Pierre was the youngest son, descended from the youngest son of the first Duke of Polignac.