Héraclius de Gramont, 9th Duke of Gramont

One of his elder sisters, Aglaé-Angélique-Gabrielle (1787-1842) married firstly Count Aleksandr Lvovich Davydov (or Davidoff), who died 1833, and was ancestor of the Marquesses of Gabriac; the Dowager Countess Davidoff married secondly Count Horace Sébastiani de La Porta.

When the French Revolution broke out, in the year of his birth, the De Gramont family left France for various parts of Europe: including Britain, Italy, Austria as well as Russia.

Héraclius de Gramont joined his father in Mittau, who was serving with Louis XVIII, before being commissioned at the age of nine in the Tauride Grenadier Regiment.

Accorded the courtesy title of duc de Guiche in 1813, he returned to England to complete his education before serving under the Duke of Wellington later in the Peninsular Wars.

After the fall of Napoleon, his military career continued to prosper and he was appointed lieutenant-general in the French Army in 1823 and, in 1830, later accompanied King Charles X to exile in Scotland.