Elizabeth, Comtesse De Gramont
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Elizabeth, comtesse de Gramont (''née'' Hamilton; 1641–1708), was an Irish-born courtier, first after the
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at the court of
Charles II of England Charles II (29 May 1630 – 6 February 1685) was King of Scotland from 1649 until 1651, and King of England, Scotland and Ireland from the 1660 Restoration of the monarchy until his death in 1685. Charles II was the eldest surviving child of ...
in
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and later, after her marriage to Philibert de Gramont, at the court of
Louis XIV , house = Bourbon , father = Louis XIII , mother = Anne of Austria , birth_date = , birth_place = Château de Saint-Germain-en-Laye, Saint-Germain-en-Laye, France , death_date = , death_place = Palace of Vers ...
where she was a lady-in-waiting to the French queen,
Maria Theresa of Spain Maria Theresa of Spain ( es, María Teresa de Austria; french: Marie-Thérèse d'Autriche; 10 September 1638 – 30 July 1683) was Queen of France from 1660 to 1683 as the wife of King Louis XIV. She was born an Infanta of Spain and Portugal a ...
. Known as "la belle Hamilton", she was one of the
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painted by
Peter Lely Sir Peter Lely (14 September 1618 – 7 December 1680) was a painter of Dutch origin whose career was nearly all spent in England, where he became the dominant portrait painter to the court. Life Lely was born Pieter van der Faes to Dutch ...
. She appears prominently in the ''Mémoires du comte de Grammont'', written by her brother Anthony.


Birth and origins

Elizabeth was born in 1641, in Ireland, probably at Roscrea, County Tipperary. She was the third of the nine children and the eldest of the daughters of George Hamilton and his wife Mary Butler. Her father was Scottish, the fourth son of
James Hamilton, 1st Earl of Abercorn James Hamilton, 1st Earl of Abercorn PC (S) (1575–1618) was a Scottish diplomat for James VI and an undertaker in the Plantation of Ulster, Ireland. Birth and origins James was born on 12 August 1575, probabl ...
, and would in 1660 be created baronet of Donalong and Nenagh. Her mother, Mary, was the third daughter of
Thomas Butler, Viscount Thurles Thomas Butler, Viscount Thurles (before 1596 – 1619) was the son and heir apparent of Walter Butler, 11th Earl of Ormond (1559 – 1633), whom he predeceased. He lived at the Westgate Castle in Thurles, County Tipperary. He was the father of ...
, and a sister of the future 1st Duke of Ormond. Her mother's family, the Butler dynasty, was
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and descended from Theobald Walter, who had been appointed Chief Butler of Ireland by King Henry II in 1177. Her parents had married in 1629. She had eight siblings, who are listed in her father's article. Both her parents were Catholic, but some relatives on her father's as on her mother's side were Protestant. Her grandfather, James Hamilton, 1st Earl of Abercorn, had been a Protestant, but her father and all her paternal uncles were raised as Catholics due to the influence of her paternal grandmother, Marion Boyd, a Scottish recusant. Some branches of the family were Protestant, such as that of her father's cousin Gustavus (1642–1723). Her mother's family, the Butlers, were generally Catholic with the notable exception of her maternal uncle, the future 1st Duke of Ormond. Her eldest brother, James, would turn Protestant when marrying Elizabeth Colepeper in 1661. Her younger brother Thomas seems to have made the same choice as he became a captain in the Royal Navy.


Irish wars

Her father served in the Irish army and fought for the royalists under the leadership of her uncle James Butler, the Earl of Ormond, in the
Irish Confederate Wars The Irish Confederate Wars, also called the Eleven Years' War (from ga, Cogadh na hAon-déag mBliana), took place in Ireland between 1641 and 1653. It was the Irish theatre of the Wars of the Three Kingdoms, a series of civil wars in the kin ...
(1641–1648) and the
Cromwellian conquest of Ireland The Cromwellian conquest of Ireland or Cromwellian war in Ireland (1649–1653) was the re-conquest of Ireland by the forces of the English Parliament, led by Oliver Cromwell, during the Wars of the Three Kingdoms. Cromwell invaded Ireland wi ...
(1649-1653) until he followed Ormond into French exile in 1651. In 1646 Elizabeth Hamilton, her mother and siblings lived in her father's house in Roscrea, County Tipperary, Munster. The town belonged, since 1642, to the
Irish Catholic Confederation Confederate Ireland, also referred to as the Irish Catholic Confederation, was a period of Irish Catholic self-government between 1642 and 1649, during the Eleven Years' War. Formed by Catholic aristocrats, landed gentry, clergy and military ...
. The area was peaceful as the Confederates had signed a cease-fire with the King in 1643 and the war with
Inchiquin Inchiquin ( ga, Inse Uí Chuinn) is a barony in County Clare, Ireland.Placenames Database of ...
's Parliamentarians, based in Cork, did not reach so far north in Munster. However, in September 1646
Rinuccini Rinuccini is a surname, and may refer to: *Giovanni Battista Rinuccini (1592–1653), an Italian archbishop. *Ottavio Rinuccini Ottavio Rinuccini (20 January 1562 – 28 March 1621) was an Italian poet, courtier, and opera librettist at the end of ...
, the papal nuncio, overthrew the Confederate Supreme Council in a coup d'état with help of Owen Roe O'Neill's Confederate Ulster Army. O'Neill led his army south to Kilkenny, the capital of the Confederates, where he arrived on the 16th. Rinuccini then took power appointing a new Supreme Council on the 26th. The Ulster army had a reputation for living off the inhabitants, even friendly ones, looting, and worse. On 17 September 1646 O'Neill, or more likely some of his troops without him, occupied Rosscrea. They massacred many of the town's inhabitants but spared Lady Hamilton and her children. In 1649, during the Cromwellian conquest of Ireland, her father was colonel of an infantry regiment and governor of Nenagh, west of Roscrea. He defended Nenagh Castle in November 1650 when it was attacked and captured by the Parliamentarian army under
Henry Ireton Henry Ireton ((baptised) 3 November 1611 – 26 November 1651) was an English general in the Parliamentarian army during the Wars of the Three Kingdoms, and the son-in-law of Oliver Cromwell. He died of disease outside Limerick in November 16 ...
on the way back from their unsuccessful siege of Limerick to their winter quarters at
Kilkenny Kilkenny (). is a city in County Kilkenny, Ireland. It is located in the South-East Region and in the province of Leinster. It is built on both banks of the River Nore. The 2016 census gave the total population of Kilkenny as 26,512. Kilken ...
.


French exile

Early in 1651, when she was about ten, her father followed Ormond into French exile. The family first went to
Caen Caen (, ; nrf, Kaem) is a commune in northwestern France. It is the prefecture of the department of Calvados. The city proper has 105,512 inhabitants (), while its functional urban area has 470,000,Elizabeth Preston, the Marchioness of Ormond. Her father and her elder brothers, James and George, were soon employed by Charles II in various functions. She then left for Paris with her mother, who would find shelter in the convent of the
Feuillantines The Feuillants were a Catholic congregation originating in the 1570s as a reform group within the Cistercians in its namesake Les Feuillants Abbey in France, which declared itself an independent order. In 1630 it separated into a French branch ( ...
, together with her sister Eleanor Butler, Lady Muskerry, while she was sent to boarding school at the abbey of Cistercian nuns of Port-Royal-des-Champs, near
Versailles The Palace of Versailles ( ; french: Château de Versailles ) is a former royal residence built by King Louis XIV located in Versailles, about west of Paris, France. The palace is owned by the French Republic and since 1995 has been managed, u ...
. This school had an excellent reputation and was ahead of its time by teaching in French rather than in Latin. She attended this school for seven or eight years, together with her cousin Helen Muskerry. The abbey also was a stronghold of
Jansenism Jansenism was an early modern theological movement within Catholicism, primarily active in the Kingdom of France, that emphasized original sin, human depravity, the necessity of divine grace, and predestination. It was declared a heresy by t ...
, a Catholic religious movement that insisted on earnestness and asceticism but which was later declared heretic for its position on
grace Grace may refer to: Places United States * Grace, Idaho, a city * Grace (CTA station), Chicago Transit Authority's Howard Line, Illinois * Little Goose Creek (Kentucky), location of Grace post office * Grace, Carroll County, Missouri, an uninco ...
and
original sin Original sin is the Christian doctrine that holds that humans, through the fact of birth, inherit a tainted nature in need of regeneration and a proclivity to sinful conduct. The biblical basis for the belief is generally found in Genesis 3 (t ...
. Having left school, she was associated with the court in exile of Henrietta Maria, the dowager queen, Charles I' s widow, who had fled to France in 1644 and had in 1657 moved to the Château de Colombes, near Paris. In March 1660 she met Sir John Reresby at the celebration of the Restoration organised by Henrietta Maria at the
Palais-Royal The Palais-Royal () is a former royal palace located in the 1st arrondissement of Paris, France. The screened entrance court faces the Place du Palais-Royal, opposite the Louvre. Originally called the Palais-Cardinal, it was built for Cardinal ...
in Paris.


Whitehall

She became a member of the English court at
Whitehall Whitehall is a road and area in the City of Westminster, Central London. The road forms the first part of the A roads in Zone 3 of the Great Britain numbering scheme, A3212 road from Trafalgar Square to Chelsea, London, Chelsea. It is the main ...
in 1661. She was admired as a great beauty and called "la belle Hamilton". She also became known for her judgement, charm and sensibility. She was seen as witty and careful with her words as she, reportedly, said no more than she thought. She also loved practical jokes and mischief. So she made fun of Margaret Bourke, a rich heiress, whom her cousin Lord Muskerry had married, by making her believe that she had been invited to a masquerade by the Queen and had to disguise herself as a Babylonian woman. This episode is told in the ''Mémoires du comte de Grammont''. She was much courted at Whitehall. First of all by the
Duke of Richmond Duke of Richmond is a title in the Peerage of England that has been created four times in British history. It has been held by members of the royal Tudor dynasty, Tudor and House of Stuart, Stuart families. The current dukedom of Richmond was ...
whom she rejected when she found out that he would not marry her without a dowry. She also resisted the advances of Henry Jermyn, 1st Baron Dover, though reputed irresistible. She was not tempted by the thirty thousand per year of the heir of Norfolk. She rejected Charles Berkeley, 1st Earl of Falmouth. When courted by the
Duke of York Duke of York is a title of nobility in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. Since the 15th century, it has, when granted, usually been given to the second son of English (later British) monarchs. The equivalent title in the Scottish peerage was Du ...
, the future King James II, she doubted the sincerity of his intentions as he had just married
Anne Hyde Anne Hyde (12 March 163731 March 1671) was Duchess of York and Albany as the first wife of James, Duke of York, who later became King James II and VII. Anne was the daughter of a member of the English gentry – Edward Hyde (later created ...
in 1660. Finally, in January 1663, appeared on the scene Philibert, chevalier de Gramont, a French exile. He was already forty years old and a younger half-brother of Antoine III, duc de Gramont. He had got into trouble at the French court by courting Mademoiselle Anne-Lucie de la Mothe-Houdancourt, on whom
Louis XIV , house = Bourbon , father = Louis XIII , mother = Anne of Austria , birth_date = , birth_place = Château de Saint-Germain-en-Laye, Saint-Germain-en-Laye, France , death_date = , death_place = Palace of Vers ...
had set his eyes. De Gramont quickly entered the English court's inner circle. Not much adaptation was needed as French was the predominant language at the Restoration court. Elizabeth admired his wit and gallantry and fell in love with him.


Marriage and children

Philibert married her in London late in 1663 or early in 1664. In March 1664, having heard of his marriage, Louis XIV wrote him a letter giving him permission to return. The couple had a son on 28 August old style, but he died as an infant. A famous anecdote is told about her marriage, which reverts the order of events by placing the marriage, which was according to this tale forced on de Gramont by her brothers, after the permission to return. It goes as follows: When in 1664 he was allowed to return to France, he left in haste, giving the impression that he would not honour his commitments. Her brothers George and Anthony, therefore, pursued and intercepted him on his way to Dover and pressured him to return and marry her. They asked him whether he had not forgotten something in London. He replied "Pardonnez-moi, messieurs, j'ai oublié d'épouser votre sœur." (Forgive me, Sirs, I have forgotten to marry your sister). He turned around, went back to London, and dutifully married her. The story is partly proven wrong since he married her before Louis allowed him to come back, but it could well be true that a bit of pressure from her brothers was needed. It has been said that this incident suggested to
Molière Jean-Baptiste Poquelin (, ; 15 January 1622 (baptised) – 17 February 1673), known by his stage name Molière (, , ), was a French playwright, actor, and poet, widely regarded as one of the greatest writers in the French language and world ...
his comedy ''Le mariage forcé'', first presented on 29 January 1664, but this idea clashes with the known dates. Elizabeth and Philibert had two daughters, who were maids-of-honour to
Maria Anna Victoria of Bavaria Maria Anna Christine Victoria of Bavaria (french: Marie Anne Victoire; 28 November 1660 – 20 April 1690) was Dauphine of France by marriage to Louis, Grand Dauphin, son and heir of Louis XIV. She was known as ''la Grande Dauphine''. The Da ...
, whom the
Grand Dauphin Louis, Dauphin of France (1 November 1661 – 14 April 1711), commonly known as Grand Dauphin, was the eldest son and heir apparent of King Louis XIV and his spouse, Maria Theresa of Spain. He became known as the Grand Dauphin after the birth of h ...
married in 1680. #Claude Charlotte (c. 1665 – 1739), married Henry Stafford-Howard, 1st Earl of Stafford. #Marie Élisabeth (1667–1729), became abbess in 1695 of the in Lorraine. The marriage of the elder daughter was childless and the younger was a nun. Philibert's cadet branch of the house of Gramont, therefore, ended here.


At the French court

She went with her husband to France and was appointed in 1667 ''
dame du palais The Dame du Palais, originally only Dame, was an historical office in the Royal Court of France. It was a title of a lady-in-waiting holding the official position of personal attendant on a female member of the French Royal Family. The position w ...
'' or lady-in-waiting to the French Queen,
Maria Theresa of Spain Maria Theresa of Spain ( es, María Teresa de Austria; french: Marie-Thérèse d'Autriche; 10 September 1638 – 30 July 1683) was Queen of France from 1660 to 1683 as the wife of King Louis XIV. She was born an Infanta of Spain and Portugal a ...
. At that time the French court was seated at the
Louvre The Louvre ( ), or the Louvre Museum ( ), is the world's most-visited museum, and an historic landmark in Paris, France. It is the home of some of the best-known works of art, including the ''Mona Lisa'' and the ''Venus de Milo''. A central l ...
in Paris, not yet at
Versailles The Palace of Versailles ( ; french: Château de Versailles ) is a former royal residence built by King Louis XIV located in Versailles, about west of Paris, France. The palace is owned by the French Republic and since 1995 has been managed, u ...
. At the court she was recognised as a woman of considerable wit and beauty. She also knew how to hold her own at the court of Louis XIV, being said to have "beak and claws". Her husband nevertheless pursued his gallant exploits to the close of a long life, being, said
Ninon de l'Enclos Anne "Ninon" de l'Enclos, also spelled Ninon de Lenclos and Ninon de Lanclos (10 November 1620 – 17 October 1705), was a French author, courtesan and patron of the arts. Early life Born Anne de l'Enclos in Paris on 10 November 1620,Sources als ...
, the only old man who could affect the follies of youth without being ridiculous. In 1679, at the death of his elder brother Henri, who had appointed him his heir, her husband became comte de Toulongeon. He did not want to change his name to Toulongeon, but changed it from ''chevalier de Gramont'' to ''comte de Gramont''. She was henceforth known as the ''comtesse de Gramont''. In 1679 she was pointed out as a client of
La Voisin Catherine Monvoisin, or Montvoisin, née ''Deshayes'', known as "La Voisin" (c. 1640 – 22 February 1680), was a French fortune teller, commissioned poisoner, and professional provider of alleged sorcery. She was the head of a network of for ...
, and was thereby incriminated in the ''affaire des poisons''. However, no action was taken against her. In May 1682 the French court moved its seat from the Louvre to the Palace of Versailles. In 1683 she lost her appointment as lady-in-waiting due to the queen's death. In 1684 Fénelon became a spiritual guide to her. In May 1690 the King assigned her an apartment in the Palace of Versailles that had been freed by the death of Charles de Sainte-Maure, duc de Montausier, the Dauphin's tutor. On 6 April 1694 N.S. her daughter Claude Charlotte, aged 29, married Henry Stafford-Howard, 1st Earl of Stafford, aged 46, who had fled to France with James II. The marriage was held at Saint-Germain-en-Laye. She thus became Lady Stafford. He had been made Earl Stafford by James II on 5 October 1688 and had, at the same time, changed his name from Howard to Stafford-Howard. As the earldom was created before James II's flight, it was a valid English peerage and not a Jacobite one. The marriage would remain childless and was not happy. In 1696, her husband fell gravely ill, and after he recovered, he followed her example and turned to devotion. In 1699, she fell into disgrace because of a visit she had paid to the abbey of Port-Royal-des-Champs. The king disliked the Jansenists. She had to beg his pardon. In May 1703, when she was 61, Louis XIV lent her a house near the end of the
Gardens of Versailles The Gardens of Versailles (french: Jardins du château de Versailles ) occupy part of what was once the ''Domaine royal de Versailles'', the royal demesne of the château of Versailles. Situated to the west of the palace, the gardens cover som ...
, called Les Moulineaux, which she renamed Pontalie. This name is explained in the story "Le Bélier", written by her brother Anthony, who derives it from "pont d'Alie" (Alie's bridge), Alie being the daughter of a druid who marries a Prince of Noisy (after nearby
Noisy-le-Roi Noisy-le-Roi () is a commune in the Yvelines department in the Île-de-France region in north-central France. Population Twin towns * Albion, Michigan, USA * Godella, Spain, since August 2006 See also *Communes of the Yvelines department ...
) in the story.


Death and timeline

Her husband died on 31 January 1707 in Paris. She died about a year later on 3 June 1708 in Paris.


Notes and references


Notes


Citations


Sources

* * * * * * * – 1643 to 1660 * * * – S to T (for Stafford) * – 1649 to 1664 * – Ab-Adam to Basing * * * * * * – 1684 to 1686 * – 1689 to 1691 * – 1706 to 1707 * – 1707 to 1709 * – England * – Scotland and Ireland * * – (for timeline) * – Princeps * * * * * – Commentary by Cyril Hughes Hartmann on Hamilton's Memoirs in Quennell's translation * * – GAR to GUE (for Gramont) * * * * * * * – Abercorn to Balmerino * * * * – 1703 * – 1706 to 1707 * – 1708 * * * – 1643 to 1660 and index *


External links


Elizabeth Hamilton as Saint Catherine by Peter Lely, one of his series of Windsor BeautiesThe lost Settlement of Dunnalong
{{DEFAULTSORT:Gramont, Elizabeth, comtesse de 1640 births 1708 deaths 17th-century Irish people 17th-century Irish women Affair of the Poisons Court of Charles II of England Daughters of baronets English countesses English ladies-in-waiting French ladies-in-waiting People from County Tyrone