He was the eldest son of Princess Sophie Galitzine (1858–1883), and Paul d'Albert, 10th Duke of Chaulnes and Picquigny (1852–1881), who both died young.

[3][4][a] After the early death of both of his parents, Emmanuel and his sister were brought up in the home of their aunt, Yolande the dowager Duchess of Luynes.

She was the youngest daughter of Theodore Perry Shonts,[18] the President of the Panama Canal Commission who was then living at 1526 New Hampshire Avenue in Washington, D.C.[19][e] They married on 16 February 1908 at 132 East 35th Street, the home of the bride's father in New York City.

Emmanuel died from heart failure (reportedly due in part to an addiction to morphine pills), in the arms of his wife, on 24 April 1908 in his apartment in the Hotel Langham in the Rue du Boccador in Paris.

[26] The Duke was interred at his family's estate, Château de Dampierre,[27] where Theodora spent the beginning of her widowhood.