French marriages with Russian nobles

[polignac]

I think that it would be interesting to star a topic about the marriages that happened between the french émigres in the early 1800s and the russian nobles.

I would like to know more about Aglae Angelique Gabrielle de Gramont, daugther of Aglae de Polignac de Gramont. She was a grandaugther to Gabrielle de Polignac, the famous lady-in-waiting of Marie Antoinette.

I've read in Vigée-Le-Brun memoirs that Aglae married with Aleksander Davidoff (?-1815) in 1805. Who was she and who was he?
 

[ashdean]

I think her sister Corisande was married to the English Earl of Tankerville...

[polignac]

Corisande was from her family but not her daugther or sister I think...

[Yseult]

I can provide you just a little information, Polignac.
I´m sure you know that Aglae of Polignac was a daughter of Jules François Armand, first Duke of Polignac, by his wife, Yolande Martine Gabrielle de Polastron. Aglae was born on 7 May 1768. When Aglae was so young, on 11 July 1780, was married, at Versailles, with Antoine de Gramont, duke of Guiche and Gramont. Aglae has a dowry of 800.000 livres, a wondreous amount of money provided by king Louis XVI; after the wedding, the girl was nicknamed "Guichette" by her relatives.
Aglae was delivered by her firstborn daughter, Corisande Armandine, in 1782. She had another daughter, Aglae Angelique, in 1787. The awaited son, Antoine, was born in 1789.
The French Revolution broke into pieces the glamorous way of life of the family. I have not info, but I know that Aglae of Polignac, the beautiful "Guichette", was dead in an accidental fire in 1803, when she was at Edimbourgh. She was just thirty-five years old.
Well...about her daughter Aglae of Gramont...I just can tell you that the great Aleksandr Puskhin knew her so well. The russian husband of Aglae, the elderly retired general Alexandr Davidoff, and his younger step-brother, Vassily Davidoff, were the owners of a great estate at Camenca. Our talented Puskhin wrotte that Alexandr Davidoff was "a second Falstaff". This mean, Alexandr Davidoff was: "voluptuous, coward, boastful, not stupid, funny, lachrymose and fat".
About Aglae of Gramont, Pushkin thought that the lady was really pretty, but frivolous and, above all the things, a coquette. Pushkin was enchanted by the daughter of Aleksandr and Aglae, Adele, aged twelve at these times.
I know that Aglae lose her russian husband in 1815. She remarried the famous corsican general Horace Sébastiani, count of La Porta. Horace was also a widow: his first wife, "Fanny" Franquetot de Coigny was dead when she gave birth to their first daughter, Françoise (also nicknamed Fanny) Alterice Rosalba.

[polignac]

Thank you for this information Yseult!! Thank you very much

[polignac]

By the way, when was Aleksandr Davidov born? I think he died in 1815 and that he was very much older than Aglaé...

[polignac]

The Davidovs were counts weren't they?

[hikaru]

This it from the book of GD Nikolay Mikhaylovich:
"  Aglae Antonovna Davydoff, 1787-1842, naquit a Versailles le 17 janvier 1787. Elle perdit sa mere de bonne heure, et son pere, le compte de Gramont, emigra et resta avec Louis 18 pendant son sejour en Russie. La jeune Aglae-Angelique-Gabrielle, " frivole et coquette, une vrai francaise, chercha dans le bruit des distractions le moyen de ne pas mourir d'ennui dans la barbare Russie", et finit par epouser a Mittau, en aout 1804, le colonel  de Chevaliers-Gardes Alexandre Lvowitch Davydoff (ne 1773). Les Davydoff habitaient le bourg de Kamenka, district de Tchiguirine; on ne s'ennuyait pas dans cette "petite Capoue": les invites mangeaient, buvaient, courtisaient Aglae et faisaient des gorges chaudes du bonhomme. Jeune heros, riche, d'une taille colossale et d'une force extraordinaire, Davydoff, avec son gout pour la vie large et luxueuse, etait bien le mari qu'il fallait: completement absorbe dans de questions gastronomiques, auteur meme d'une carte gastronomique de l'Europe, il laissait a sa jeune femme la plus entiere liberte; somnolent et obese, ses amis le nommaitent "le cornard majestaueux".
Devenue veuve en 1833, Aglae Davydoff partit pour la France et s'y remaria au marechal comte Sebastiani (1772-1851). Elle mourut a Paris le 21 fevrier 1842, a l'age de 55 ans. Elle avait eu de son mariage avec Davydoff un fils Vladimir , et deux filles qu'elle convertit au catholicisme: l'une Adele, mourut religieus catholique; l'autre, Catherine, epousa la marquis de Gabriac.

[hikaru]

I have found an information of another Polignac - Heraclus de Polignac. According GD Nicholas Mikhaylovitch, he was an bel emigrant , un amant of Elizabeth Alexandrovna Demidoff (1779-1818). He was an commandant du regiment d'Apcheron. As a farewell present, Polignac gave Elizabeth a  malachite watches.

[polignac]

Thank you. But was it Comte Heraclius Auguste Gabriel de Polignac (1788 - 1871) or Armand Marie Heraclius Jules de Polignac
second Duc de Polignac (1771 - 1847), Aglaya's uncle?

 

[hikaru]

In russian book there was only Herclus of Polignac . Maybe there  were both of them.

[polignac]

Well, thank you anyway 

[polignac]

Can anyone translate this please?

«  Koketke. Stihotvorenie obrashcheno k Aglae Antonovne Davydovoj, zhene A. L.
Davydova.  "Ves'ma   horoshen'kaya,   vetrenaya   i   koketlivaya,   kak   istaya
francuzhenka... - rasskazyval sovremennik, - ona  v  Kamenke  byla  magnitom,
privlekayushchim k sebe vseh  zheleznyh  deyatelej  aleksandrovskogo  vremeni.  Ot
glavnokomanduyushchih do kornetov - vse zhilo  i  likovalo  v  sele  Kamenke,  no
glavnoe - umiralo u nog prelestnoj Aglai" ("Russkaya starina",  1872,  t.  4,
str. 632).»

Thank you very much!

[hikaru]

Au temoingage de le fils de Denis Davydoff: "Aglae etait a Kamenka l'aimant qui attirait tous ces hommes de ger du glorieux temps d'Alexandre; depuis le commandants en chef jusqu'aux cornettes , on s'en donnait a coeur joie, a Kamenka,mais surtout on mourait aux pieds de la charmante Aglae"

Maybe Dostoevsky gave the name "Aglae" to  the one of the heroine of "Idiot" because of  he - Aglae Davydoffr?

[hikaru]

Pls reed " ces hommes des fer" above.
Et Poushkine composa effectivement la courte, mais mechante epigramme qui commence ainsi: "Un autre a pris mon Aglae"