Polignac family

Polignac family, French noble house important in European history.

From the 1050s and perhaps even from 860, the first viscounts of Polignac (in the modern département of Haute-Loire) were practically independent rulers of Velay, where the Loire River rises. Their ultimate heiress, Valpurge, was married in 1349 to Guillaume III de Chalençon, whose descendants assumed the Polignac name in 1421. The actual power of the house declined as feudalism broke down, but it maintained its exalted rank in the nobility; and in the ninth generation after Guillaume of Chalençon it emerged into political prominence with Melchior (b. Oct. 11, 1661, Puy, Fr.—d. April 3, 1742, Paris), known first as the abbé, then as the cardinal de Polignac. Early experienced in diplomatic affairs between France and Rome, the Abbé was sent as King Louis XIV’s ambassador to Poland in 1693. There he procured the abortive election of François Louis de Bourbon, Prince de Conti, as king of Poland in 1697. After a temporary disgrace, Melchior was elected to the French Academy in 1704. During the War of the Spanish Succession he played a major part in the negotiations at Gertruydenberg (1710) and at Utrecht (1712) before becoming a cardinal (creation in petto 1712, published 1713). He was exiled for participation in the Cellamare plot of 1718 but was French chargé d’affaires in Rome from 1724 to 1732 and was made archbishop of Auch in 1726. His long Latin poem, Anti-Lucretius, first printed in 1747, largely against Pierre Bayle’s philosophy, went through many editions and translations.

The cardinal’s grandnephew, Armand-Jules-François, Count de Polignac (b. 1743, Claye, Fr.—d. 1817, St. Petersburg, Russia), was married in 1767 to Yolande Martine Gabrielle de Polastron (1749–93). She became a great favourite of Queen Marie-Antoinette, and he was created Duke de Polignac (1780). Their influence was savagely denounced in pamphlets during the Revolution.

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Auguste-Jules-Armand-Marie de Polignac (b. May 14, 1780, Versailles, Fr.—d. March 2, 1847, Paris), the first duke’s second son, went from England back to France, with his elder brother Armand-Jules-Marie-Héraclitus (b. Jan. 17, 1771, Paris, Fr.—d. March 30, 1847, Saint-Germain-en-Laye), to conspire against Napoleon in 1804, but they were arrested. Released in 1813, Auguste-Jules was made a peer at the Bourbon Restoration (1815) but refused at first to take the constitutional oath because he thought it derogatory to the Holy See’s rights. For this the Holy See granted him the Roman title of prince (1820; recognized in France 1822). His ultramontanism and extreme royalism appealed to King Charles X, who appointed him minister of foreign affairs on Aug. 8, 1829, and prime minister on November 17. Responsible for the ordinances that provoked the July Revolution of 1830, he was arrested and, in December 1830, sentenced to life imprisonment. Released but banished in November 1836, he finally returned to France in 1845. The Bavarian monarchy in 1838 extended the title of prince to all his descendants; and, because his elder brother died childless, he inherited the ducal title as well just before his own death the same month. The counts de Polignac descend from the first duke’s third son, Camille-Melchior-Henri (1781–1855). One of them, Count Pierre (1895–1964), was the father of Prince Rainier III of Monaco.

Prince Edmond-Melchior (1834–1901), fifth son of Jules, was a composer. In 1893 he married Winnaretta Singer (1865–1943), who, as Princess Edmond de Polignac, was the outstanding Parisian patroness of avant-garde music in the first half of the 20th century.