Philibert Gramont, comte de

Philibert Gramont, comte de , 1621-1707, French courtier at the court of King Louis XIV. He fought with distinction in the early campaigns of the prince de Condé and at first followed Condé in the Fronde , but in 1654 he made his peace with the court, of which he was thereafter a chief member. Exiled (1662) for having attempted to rival Louis in a love affair, he went (1663) to the court of King Charles II of England. A prominent figure there, he married Elizabeth Hamilton, with whom he returned to France in 1664. It was to her brother, Anthony Hamilton , that the aged courtier gave the anecdotal material Hamilton used in writing Gramont's memoirs. The memoirs, although they reveal Gramont as a witty and insolent cad, are an invaluable source for the social history of his period. The spelling Grammont, always used in the title of the memoirs, is an old error.