Philibert, Count de Gramont (1621–1707), was a French courtier and soldier, known as the protagonist of the Mémoires written by Anthony Hamilton (his brother-in-law).

Philibert's paternal grandmother, Diane d'Andouins, comtesse de Guiche, was "la belle Corisande," one of the mistresses of Henry IV.

He refused the ecclesiastical life, however, and joined the army of Prince Thomas of Savoy, then in 1643 besieging Trino in Piedmont.

[9][10] He went to England where he found at the court of Charles II an atmosphere congenial to his talents for intrigue, gallantry and pleasure.

From all these small diplomatic missions he succeeded in obtaining considerable profits, being destitute, and having no scruples whenever money was in question.

On 31 December 1688 Count Gramont was made a knight of the Order of the Holy Spirit in a ceremony performed in the Chapel of the Château de Versailles.

His wife gave him two children, daughters both: Both were maids-of-honour to Maria Anna Victoria of Bavaria, whom the Grand Dauphin married in 1680.

[citation needed] Count Gramont was 80 years old when he supplied his brother-in-law, Anthony Hamilton, with the material for his Mémoires.

The account of Gramont's early career was doubtless provided by himself, but Hamilton was probably more familiar with the history of the court of Charles II, which forms the most interesting part of the book.

Moreover, Gramont, though he had a reputation for wit, was no writer, and there is no reason to suppose that he was capable of producing a work that remains a masterpiece of style and of witty portraiture.

His biographer Hamilton was far superior as a writer to Count Gramont, but he relates the story of his hero without comment, and no condemnation of the prevalent code of morals is allowed to appear, unless by an occasional touch of irony.

The portrait is drawn with such skill that the count, despite his biographer's candour, imposes by his grand air on the reader much as he appears to have done on his contemporaries.

His scandalous tongue knew no restraint, and he was a privileged person who was allowed to state even the most unpleasing truths to Louis XIV.

Fontenelle, then censor of the press, refused to license the book from considerations of respect to the strange old man, whose gambling, cheating and meanness were so ruthlessly exposed.