Gramont, Philibert, comte de [key], 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.
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