Elisabeth de Gramont
Encyclopedia
NEE
NEE is a political protest group whose goal was to provide an alternative for voters who are unhappy with all political parties at hand in Belgium, where voting is compulsory.The NEE party was founded in 2005 in Antwerp...
de Gramont; 23 April 1875 – 6 December 1954) was a French
French people
The French are a nation that share a common French culture and speak the French language as a mother tongue. Historically, the French population are descended from peoples of Celtic, Latin and Germanic origin, and are today a mixture of several ethnic groups...
writer of the early 20th century, best known for her long-term lesbian
Lesbian
Lesbian is a term most widely used in the English language to describe sexual and romantic desire between females. The word may be used as a noun, to refer to women who identify themselves or who are characterized by others as having the primary attribute of female homosexuality, or as an...
relationship with Natalie Clifford Barney
Natalie Clifford Barney
Natalie Clifford Barney was an American playwright, poet and novelist who lived as an expatriate in Paris....
. A descendant of Henry IV of France
Henry IV of France
Henry IV , Henri-Quatre, was King of France from 1589 to 1610 and King of Navarre from 1572 to 1610. He was the first monarch of the Bourbon branch of the Capetian dynasty in France....
, Élisabeth de Gramont had grown up among the highest aristocracy
Aristocracy
Aristocracy , is a form of government in which a few elite citizens rule. The term derives from the Greek aristokratia, meaning "rule of the best". In origin in Ancient Greece, it was conceived of as rule by the best qualified citizens, and contrasted with monarchy...
; when she was a child, according to Janet Flanner
Janet Flanner
Janet Flanner was an American writer and journalist who served as the Paris correspondent of The New Yorker magazine from 1925 until she retired in 1975. She wrote under the pen name "Genêt"...
, "peasants on her farm... begged her not to clean her shoes before entering their houses". She looked back on this lost world of wealth and privilege with little regret, and became known as the "red duchess" for her support of socialism
Socialism
Socialism is an economic system characterized by social ownership of the means of production and cooperative management of the economy; or a political philosophy advocating such a system. "Social ownership" may refer to any one of, or a combination of, the following: cooperative enterprises,...
.
She was a close friend, and sometimes critic of writer Marcel Proust
Marcel Proust
Valentin Louis Georges Eugène Marcel Proust was a French novelist, critic, and essayist best known for his monumental À la recherche du temps perdu...
, whom she had met on June 9, 1903. In her youth, Élisabeth de Gramont was a strikingly pretty woman. Opinionated, outspoken, she became openly bisexual by the turn of the century, despite being married.
Early life
She was born Antonia Corisande Élisabeth de Gramont in Nancy, France. Called 'Lily', she was the daughter of the Duc de GramontDuc de Gramont
The Duke of Gramont is a senior French peerage. It was created in 1643. The dukedom also holds the titles Peer of France, Prince de Bidache, Sovereign of Bidache, Count of Guiche and Louvigny, Viscount of Aster, Baron d'Andouins and of Hagetmau...
and his wife, née Princesse Isabelle de Beauvau-Craon
Beauvau family
The Beauvau family was a historic family originating in Anjou. The Beauvau du Rivau branch was rooted in Brittany and produced two bishops of Nantes, whilst the Beauvau-Craon branch was established in Lorraine....
. She was a granddaughter of Agenor, duc de Gramont
Agenor, duc de Gramont
Antoine Alfred Agénor, Duc de Gramont was a French diplomat and statesman.He was born at Paris of one of the most illustrious families of the old noblesse, a cadet branch of the viscounts of Aure, which took its name from the Seignory of Gramont in Navarre...
. Her mother died giving birth to her, and her father remarried to the wealthy Marguerite de Rothschild.
Natalie Barney
Natalie Barney and Duchess de Clermont-TonnerreClermont-Tonnerre
Clermont-Tonnerre is the name of a French family, members of which played some part in the history of France, especially in Dauphiné, from about 1100 to the French Revolution. Sibaud, lord of Clermont in Viennois, who first appears in 1080, was the founder of the family...
first met in the spring of 1909, became lovers on May 1, 1910, a date that became their anniversary. Although neither were faithful to the other sexually, they were devoted to one another for their entire lives. She was married to Philibert, duc de Clermont-Tonnerre and had two daughters in 1909, when she met Natalie Barney. Her husband is said to have been violent and tyrannical, but there is little confirmation to that. The Duchesse accepted Barney's nonmonogamy—perhaps reluctantly at first—and went out of her way to be gracious to Barney's other lovers. For example, she always included Romaine Brooks
Romaine Brooks
Romaine Brooks, born Beatrice Romaine Goddard , was an American painter who worked mostly in Paris and Capri. She specialized in portraiture and used a subdued palette dominated by the color gray...
, another of Barney's lovers, when she invited Barney to vacation in the country.
On June 20, 1918, the two filed an "unofficial" but, at least to them, binding "marriage contract". The contract stated, in part;
- "After nine years of life together, joys and worries shared, and affairs confessed. For the survival of the bond that we believe-and wish to believe-is unbreakable, since at its lowest level of reciprocal emotionalism that is the conclusion reached. The union, sorely tried by the passing years, failed doubly the faithfulness test in its sixth year, showing us that adultery is inevitable in these relationships where there is no prejudice, no religion other than feelings, no laws other than desire, incapable of vain sacrifices that seem to be the negation of life..."
In essence, the contract was a contract that would bind them together, at least in their own minds, but did not bind them to being only with one another sexually. The contract was honored by both until death separated them.