French aristocrat and composer Prince Edmond de Polignac was BOTD in 1834. Born in Paris, he was a member of one of France’s oldest aristocratic families. His grandmother Yolande de Polastron had been the intimate friend (and rumoured lover) of Marie Antoinette, while his father Jules de Polignac was the Secretary of State in the government of King Charles X. Four years before Edmond’s birth, Charles was deposed and went into exile, and Jules and other ministers were tried and imprisoned. Fortunately, he was allowed conjugal visits with his wife, resulting in the birth of Edmond and his elder brother. In 1836, Jules was released on the grounds of ill health, and the family moved to Landau in Bavaria, where King Ludwig I granted them a title and a country house. Edmond showed an early talent for writing and music, though was mocked by his elder siblings for his effeminacy and lack of physical prowess. In 1845, the family returned to France, living in Saint-Germain-en-Laye and moving to Paris in 1847 after Jules’ death. Edmond studied music at the Conservatoire de Paris, composing operas and choral works, joining exclusive gentlemen’s clubs and avoiding his mother’s pressure to marry. In 1875, he became the lover of Robert, Comte de Montesquiou, a louche aristocrat 21 years his junior. Via Montesquiou, he joined the Société Nationale de Musique, where many of his compositions were performed. By 1893, Edmond had lost most of his fortune and was borrowing money from relatives. With Montesquiou’s assistance, he entered into a marriage blanc (marriage of convenience) with the American heiress Winnaretta Singer, allowing them freedom to pursue same-sex affairs. Together, they hosted legendary musical salons, supporting the careers of Claude Debussy, Gabriel Fauré, Maurice Ravel, Igor Stravinsky, Erik Satie, Reynaldo Hahn and Francis Poulenc, and hosting celebrity artists including Isadora Duncan, Jean Cocteau, Sergei Diaghilev and Colette. Another regular visitor was the writer Marcel Proust, who immortalised the Polignacs and his salons in his novel À la recherche de temps perdu. Edmond and Winnaretta travelled extensively through Europe, acquiring a palazzo in Venice, and (unusually for their class) were staunch supporters of disgraced army officer Alfred Dreyfus during the Dreyfus Affair. Edmond died in 1901, aged 67.