POLIGNAC, an aneitnt French family, which takes its name from a castlesaid to have been built in the 5th c., on a rock of the Cevennes, near Puy-en-Velay, in the depart ment of Haute-Loire, on the site of a Roman temple dedicated to Apollo, whence- according to certain rather credulous genealogists—the castle was originally called Apollianique, which Polignac is: inne% to be only a later corruption. The first of the Polignacs who acquired celebrity was MEncituut DE POLIGNAC, younger son of ARMAND, 16th MARQUIS DE POLIGNAC, and born at PlIy-en-VCIIty, OCt. 11, 1661. Destined by his parents for an ecclesiastical career, he received an excellent education at Paris in the colleges of Clermont and Harcourt. In the negotiations of cardinal de Bouillon with pope Alexander VIII. at Rome in 1689, the young but astute and insinuating abbe took. a principal part. In 1695 be was sent to Poland as French ambassador, when John Sobieski was dying, and diplomatized and intrigued so cunningly in favor of prince de Conti, that the latter was actually elected his successor. Events, however, frustrated this policy, and both Conti and Pagan had to leave Poland rather precipitately, in consequence of which the latter lost the royal favor. He now retired to his abbey at Bonport, where he spent the next four years, pertly occupied in the composition of a Latin poem entitled Anti-Lucretius, which was intended as a refutation of the skepticism of Bayle. It appears to be a very respectable and even able performance. In 1702— after a stroke of his usual neat ilattery—he was recalled to Versailles, and rose higher into favor than ever. Named auditcur de rote in 1706, he was sent to Rome, where he d ;voted himself to the study of canon and civil law, was associated in the negotiations of cardinal de la Tremouille, and honored with the friendship of pope Clement XI. In 1712 he was appointed French plenipotentiary at the congress of Utrecht; and after his return, obtained the abbeys of Corbie and Anehin. When Louis XIV. died, Polignac was at the top of his reputation and influence. During the regency of the duke of, Orleans, he took part in the conspiracy of Cellamare, and was banished to his abbey of Anehin. In 1720 lie was sent to Rome, charged with the conduct of French affairs, and remained here for about ten years, and signalized his mission by healing the quarrel that was dividing the Galilean church on the subject of the famous hull Unifienitus. In 1726 he was raised, in his absence, to the archbishopric of Auch; and on his return to France, spent the remainder of his days in literary repose, and in the high esteem of courtiers, scholars, and the like. He died April 3, 1742. Polignac succeeded Bossuet
at the academie Francaise in 1704, and became an honorary member of the academie lea sciences (1715) and of the academie des belles-lettres (1717). See C. Faucher's Ilistoire da Cardinal de Polignac (2 vols., Paris, 1772), St. Simon's and D'Argenson's Mentoires.
The other members of the Polignae family who have an historical name at all are more notorious than noteworthy. In the reign of Louis XVI., TOLANDE-MALITINE, GABRIELLE DE POLASTDRON, DUCRESSE DE POLIGNAC (born 1749; died at Vienna, Dec. 9, 1793), and her husband, JULES. Due DE POLIGNAC (died at St. Petersburg, 1817), were among the worst, but unhappily most favored advisers of Marie Antoinette. They obtained vast sums of the public money from their royal master and mistress, and were largely, if not mainly responsible for the frightful pecuniary extravagance of the %mit The discovery of the famous libre rouge occasioned the exulting cry of Mirabeau: a la famille d'Assas pour avoir satire l'otal; sin million ci la famille Polignac pour l'avoir perdu! The the deep hatred felt toward them by the French people—were the first of the noblesse to emigrate (July 16, 1789). From the empress Catharine•of Russia the duke received an estate in the Ukraine, and did not return to France at the restoration. He left three sons and a daughter, of whom only one has become historical—AUGUSTE JULES ARNAND MARIE, PRINCE DE POLIGNAC (born at Versailles, May 14, 1780). On the restoration, he returned to France; became intimate with the comic d'Artois, afterward Charles X.; showed an ardent attachment to the church of Rome—or at least to its policy—and, in consequence, received from his holiness, in 1820, the title of prince; was appointed ambassador at the English court in 1828; and finally, in 1829, became head of the last Bourbon ministry, in which capacity he promulgated the fatal ordonnances that called France to arms, and drove Charles N. front the throne, Ile then attempted to flee from the country, but was captured nt Granville on Aug. 15; was tried, and condemned to imprisonment for life in the castle of Ilam, but was set at liberty by the amnesty of Nov. 29, 1836. Ile took up his resi r deuce in England, but died at Paris, Mar. 2, 1847.
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