Birth and background Aglaé Angélique Gabrielle de Gramont was born on 17 January 1787, at Versailles. Her parents,
Aglaé de Polignac and
Antoine Louis Marie de Gramont, 8th Duke of Gramont married on 11 July 1780. Her maternal grandparents,
Yolande de Polastron, courtier and favourite of
Marie Antoinette, and
Jules de Polignac, 1st Duke of Polignac were of noble origin. Her maternal great-grandparents,
Diane Adélaïde Zéphirine Mancini and
Louis Heraclius de Polignac descended from the
House of Noailles.
Early life Following the outset of the
French Revolution, Aglaé and her family fled to
Edinburgh, Scotland, where they lived at the
Palace of Holyroodhouse. On 30 March 1803 her mother, aged 34, died in an accidental house fire in her apartment at eight o'clock in the morning.
Marriage In 1804, at the age of 17, a year after her mother's death, Aglaé married
Major General Alexander Lvovich Davydov at
Petersburg, Russia. The union resulted in the birth of 4 children; Ekaterina (1805–1882), Yuliania (born and died 1807), Elizaveta (1810–1882), and Vladimir (1816–1886). In the 1820s, Aglaé left her husband, and went in pursuit to
France alongside her daughters. She remarried in 1835 to
Horace François Bastien Sébastiani de La Porta; however, the marriage remained childless. == Issue ==