Emmanuel de Crussol d'Uzès

Emmanuel Jacques Géraud Marie de Crussol d'Uzès, 15th Duke of Uzès (19 July 1927 – 8 September 1999) was a French aristocrat who worked in Morocco as a chemical engineer.

The Duke of Uzès
Born	Emmanuel Jacques Géraud Marie de Crussol d'Uzès 19 July 1927 Paris, France
Died	8 September 1999 (aged 72) Montpellier, France
Spouse(s)	Carolyn Baily Brown ​ ​ (m. 1946; div. 1947)​ Margaret, Princess d'Arenberg ​ ​ (m. 1968; died 1977)​
Children	1
Parent(s)	Géraud de Crussol d'Uzès Evelyn Anne Gordon

Early life

Emmanuel was born in Paris on 19 July 1927 as heir to the dukedom of Uzès, the oldest and premier dukedom in France which had been created by King Charles IX in 1565.[lower-alpha 1][2] He was the only son of Géraud François Marie Paul de Crussol d'Uzès (1897–1929), styled Duke of Crussol, and the former Evelyn Anne Gordon (1897–1947), who married in France in 1921.[3] His father died in 1929, just two years after his birth and before he succeeded to the dukedom of Uzès, and his mother died in 1947.[4]

His maternal grandparents were Scotch-American millionaire John Gordon and Rosalie Georgina (née Murray) Gordon of New York and London.[5][6] His maternal aunt was Vera Seton (née Gordon) Guthrie, Lady Swettenham, the second wife of Sir Frank Swettenham.[4] His paternal grandparents were Louis Emmanuel de Crussol, 14th Duke of Uzès and, his first wife, Thérèse d'Albert de Luynes (a daughter of the 10th Duke of Chaulnes and Sophie, Princess Galitzine).[7][8] His grandfather, who married the American Josephine Angela in 1939 after his divorce from Thérèse,[9] was the second son of Emmanuel de Crussol, 12th Duke of Uzès and the former Anne de Rochechouart de Mortemart (who inherited the Château de Boursault and a large fortune from her great-grandmother, Madame Clicquot Ponsardin, the founder of the Veuve Clicquot).[10] His grandfather's elder brother was the 13th Duke of Uzès (who died in 1893 during an expedition in Africa),[11] and his grandfather's two sisters both married Dukes, Simone to Honoré d'Albert, 10th Duke of Luynes,[1] and Mathilde to François de Cossé Brissac, 11th Duke of Brissac.[12]

As his father predeceased him, he inherited the dukedom upon his grandfather's death in 1943.[13]

Education and career

The Château du Duché in Uzès.

The Duke attended boarding school at École des Roches in Normandy and St. Paul's in New Hampshire before graduating from the Portsmouth Priory School in Portsmouth, Rhode Island.[14] He served with the First Hussars of the Second Regiment, French Army, and with the Military Attaché's office at the French Embassy in Washington.[14]

He spoke English, French and Spanish fluently, and had lived in the United States, France, Morocco, Egypt and the Dominican Republic liked to vacation in Austria and Switzerland and visit England where he stayed at Claridge's. When in England, he would go shooting at the Duke of Rutland's estate and visit the Maharaja of Jaipur at Ascot. The Duke owned a four-bedroom apartment in Paris (off the Avenue Foch in the 16th arrondissement), a home in Rabat, and his family's ancestral castle, the Château du Duché, in the town of Uzès.[2][lower-alpha 2]

A chemical engineer, he lived primarily in Rabat, where he managed several companies in Morocco.[2] Although he held no formal role within the French government, he took on assignments during the Algerian War and represented France unofficially to his friends in North African governments. The Duke, who considered himself a liberal, "supported President Charles de Gaulle's decision to get out of Algeria for both practical and idealistic reasons" stating "After all, it was a colonial occupation, and, of course, oppressive".[2]

Personal life

On 18 July 1946, the Duke was married to Carolyn Baily Brown (b. 1925) in Raleigh, North Carolina. A daughter of Col. Edward Fisher Brown,[15] and sister of producer David Brown, Carolyn had been educated at the Brearley School in New York and studied art at Columbia and Stanford University.[14] Before the marriage was annulled in Paris in 1947, they were the parents of:[3]

• Nathalie de Crussol d'Uzès (b. 1947)

After their divorce, Carolyn remarried to Geoffrey Carpenter Doyle (a grandson of architect James Edwin Ruthven Carpenter Jr.) of Santurce, Puerto Rico and Southampton, New York,[3][16] in 1949.[17]

Second marriage

On 5 July 1968, he was married to Margaret "Peggy" (née Bedford) Bancroft d'Arenberg at the Villa Taylor in Morocco by Si Jilali Chajai, the Pasha of Marrakech, with Man Singh II (the Maharaja of Jaipur and Indian Ambassador in Madrid) as the Duke's best man and Madeline, the Countess de Breteuil as Peggy's attendant. The only other attendant at the wedding was Jean Guillon, the French counsel at Marrakech.[3] Peggy, the only child of Standard Oil director Frederick Henry Bedford Jr.,[18] was divorced from the American textile executive Thomas M. Bancroft Jr. (with whom she had a daughter) in 1960, and widowed from the French Prince Charles d'Arenberg in 1967.[19][20]

While the Duke was in Morocco, Peggy died in a car crash while en route back to their home in Paris after attending a ball at the home of real estate developer Robert de Balkany near Rambouillet in 1977.[21]

The Duke died on 8 September 1999 at Montpellier in Hérault, France.[22] Upon his death, his cousin Louis de Crussol d'Uzès (the son of his uncle, Emmanuel, Marquis of Crussol), became the 16th Duke of Uzès.[13]

See also

• Viscounts and Dukes of Uzès

References

Notes

1. The viscounty of Uzès became a duchy by letters patent of Charles IX issued at Mont-de-Marsan in May 1565. The dukes were included in the peerage of France from 1572, and if the Kingdom of France existed today, they would rank immediately after the Princes of the Blood.[1]
2. Upon the death of his great-grandmother Anne de Rochechouart de Mortemart, the Dowager Duchess of Uzès, in 1933,[10] "the string of castles, a private island, and thousands of acres were sold."[2]

Sources

1. of), Melville Amadeus Henry Douglas Heddle de La Caillemotte de Massue de Ruvigny Ruvigny and Raineval (9th marquis (1914). The Titled Nobility of Europe: An International Peerage, Or "Who's Who", of the Sovereigns, Princes and Nobles of Europe. Harrison & Sons. p. 960. Retrieved 26 June 2020.
2. Thomas Jr, Robert Mcg (14 December 1969). "What It Means to Be the Premier Duke in the French Republic". The New York Times. Retrieved 27 June 2020.
3. Times, Special to The New York (6 July 1968). "Peggy d'Arenberg Wed to Duke". The New York Times. Retrieved 26 June 2020.
4. "Duchess De Crussol". The New York Times. 11 December 1947. Retrieved 27 June 2020.
5. "MISS GORDON WEDS DUKE OF CRUSSOL; New York Girl's Marriage to Son of Duchess D'Uzes Followed by French Festival. MAY BE RANKING DUCHESS". The New York Times. 11 October 1921. Retrieved 27 June 2020.
6. "The News from England". The Jewelers' Circular. Jewelers' Circular Company: 81. 1921. Retrieved 27 June 2020.
7. "A NOTABLE MATCH: The Duke d'Uzes Soon to Be Married. OLDEST DUCHY IN FRANCE. Mme. de Luynes Will Be the Bride. Interesting Bits of Family History". The San Francisco Call. 10 December 1893. p. 15. Retrieved 27 June 2020.
8. Annuaire de la noblesse de France et des maisons souveraines de l'Europe (in French). Bureau de la publication. 1903. Retrieved 26 June 2020.
9. "Duchess D'Uzes". The New York Times. 10 September 1966. Retrieved 26 June 2020.
10. "DUCHESS D'DZES IS DEAD IS PARIS; Famous Dowager, Long Leader of French Society, Aided Move to-Restore Throne. ACTIVE IN MANY FIELDS A Sculptor, Novelist, Dramatist and Patron of the Arts, She Was Always a Glamorous Figure". The New York Times. 4 February 1933. Retrieved 26 June 2020.
11. Vassor, Bernard (8 July 2008). "Duchess of Uzes, NEE Adrienne Marie-Anne-Clementine Victurnienne ROCHECHOUART-MORTEMART". Retrieved 2015-03-27.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
12. Anne Marie Timoléon François Cossé-Brissac (duc de, 1868-1944), Bibliothèque nationale de France
13. "The House of Crussol - Chateau du Duché d'Uzès entre mer et Cévennes. Cité médiévale, le Duché (XIème - XVIIIème siècle) propose une étonnante promenade dans l'Histoire Uzès,Povence,Chateau, Duc de Crussol, Duché, Ducale, Gard, Pont du Gard, vin, cave à vin". www.uzes.com. Le Duché. Retrieved 27 June 2020.
14. TIMES, Special to THE NEW YORK (19 July 1946). "CAROLYN B. BROWN, DUKE OF UZES WED; Cathedral of the Sacred Heart in Raleigh, N.C., Is Scene of Their Marriage". The New York Times. Retrieved 26 June 2020.
15. "Edward Brown, of National Dairy, Ex-Officer, Active in Health and Welfare Work, Dies". The New York Times. 17 May 1973. Retrieved 27 June 2020.
16. "Daughter to Mrs. G.C. Doyle". The New York Times. 22 August 1956. Retrieved 27 June 2020.
17. "MRS. BROWN BRIDE OF GEOFFREY DOYLE; Daughter of Col. and Mrs. E. F. Brown Wed to Grandnephew of Bishop Ernest Stires". The New York Times. 5 August 1949. Retrieved 27 June 2020.
18. "F. H. BEDFORD JR., OIL OFFICIAL, DEAD; A Director of Jersey Standard, He Was President of Atlas Supply Company Here". The New York Times. 4 December 1952. Retrieved 26 June 2020.
19. "Secret Marriage Of Mrs. Bancroft Announced Here; Daughter of Standard Oil Aide Wed Dec. 29 to Prince d'Arenberg". The New York Times. 7 February 1961. Retrieved 26 June 2020.
20. Times, Special to The New York (26 June 1968). "Princess d'Arenberg Engaged to Duke". The New York Times. Retrieved 26 June 2020.
21. Nemy, Enid (18 October 1977). "DUCHESS D'UZES DIES IN AN AUTO ACCIDENT: U.S. Born Socialite is Killed After A Party Near Paris--Was Wife of France's Premier Duke". The New York Times. Retrieved 26 June 2020.
22. Gross, Michael (2006). 740 Park: The Story of the World's Richest Apartment Building. Broadway Books. p. 303. ISBN 978-0-7679-1744-5. Retrieved 27 June 2020.