The title of Duke of Polignac (French: Duc de Polignac) was a French dukedom that was held by the Polignac family.
The title was originally created for Jules de Polignac in 1780 by brevet, which meant it was not hereditary. It was made heritable in 1783 according to masculine primogeniture. [1] In 1817, the holder was made a peer of France, granting him the right to sit in the Chamber of Peers of the Bourbon Restoration.
The third duke, Jules, a younger son of the first duke, was created (before his succession to the dukedom) a prince of the Papal States in 1820, authorised to bear the title in France in 1822, and granted the same title in the Kingdom of Bavaria in 1838, which extended it to his male-line descendants.[ citation needed ] Thus, the descendants of the third duke bear the title of Prince (Fürst) or Princess (Fürstin) de Polignac, while members of the family descended only from the first duke use the title of Comte or Mademoiselle de Polignac.
The wife of the first duke was the famous Yolande de Polastron, a favourite of Queen Marie Antoinette. The mathematician Prince Alphonse de Polignac, soldier Prince Camille de Polignac and composer Prince Edmond de Polignac were younger sons of the third duke. Princess Edmond de Polignac, wife of the last named, was the American heiress Winnaretta Singer. Pierre de Polignac, a great-great-grandson of the first duke, married Princess Charlotte, Duchess of Valentinois and was the father of Rainier III, Prince of Monaco.
Duke is a male title either of a monarch ruling over a duchy, or of a member of royalty, or nobility. As rulers, dukes are ranked below emperors, kings, grand princes, grand dukes, and sovereign princes. As royalty or nobility, they are ranked below princes and grand dukes. The title comes from French duc, itself from the Latin dux, 'leader', a term used in republican Rome to refer to a military commander without an official rank, and later coming to mean the leading military commander of a province. In most countries, the word duchess is the female equivalent.
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Jules Auguste Armand Marie de Polignac, Count of Polignac, then Prince of Polignac, and briefly 3rd Duke of Polignac in 1847, was a French statesman and ultra-royalist politician after the Revolution. He served as prime minister under Charles X, just before the July Revolution in 1830 that overthrew the senior line of the House of Bourbon.
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Jules de Polignac, 1st Duke of Polignac was a French nobleman and the husband of Yolande de Polastron, a confidante of Queen Marie Antoinette. He became the first Duke of Polignac in 1780. He died at the age of seventy one in Little Russia, where he was given a manor by Catherine the Great.
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