Amable Antoine Jacques Emmanuel de Crussol, 12th Duke of Uzès (18 January 1840 – 28 November 1878), known as theDuke of Crussol from 1843 to 1872, was a French soldier and politician.
Early life
Crussol was born in Paris on 18 January 1840. He was the son of Géraud de Crussol d'Uzès (1808–1872), and Françoise de Talhouët-Roy (1818–1863). His elder sister, Laure, married Joseph Philippe Léopold Vogt, Viscount of Hunolstein. His younger siblings were Frédéric Jacques, who died accidentally while attending the École navale; Élisabeth Olive Emmanuelle, who married the Marquis Louis Marie Hector de Galard de Béarn; and Mathilde, who died unmarried.[1]
Crussol entered the École spéciale militaire de Saint-Cyr in 1857, graduating in 1859. He was appointed Second lieutenant in the 3rd Hussar Regiment, but did not receive his lieutenant's stripes until 1864. Shortly after his marriage in 1867, however, Crussol left the French Army.[2]
He was an unsuccessful candidate in the elections to the Legislature on 24 May 1869 as an independent candidate for Gard's 2nd constituency (Uzès), which his father had already represented in the lower house of the Second Empire from 1852 to 1857. But he was elected representative to the National Assembly in this same constituency on 8 February 1871, and took his place on the extreme right, registering with the Réunion Colbert and the Cercle des Réservoirs. He was part of the budget commission and voted for peace, for the repeal of the laws of exile, for the bishops' petition, for the resignation of Thiers, for the seven-year term, for the Broglie ministry, against the Wallon amendment and the constitutional laws of 1875. He did not stand again in the 1876 elections.[2]
On 5 December 1866, he lost an eye during a hunting accident, when he was accidentally shot by his brother-in-law, Viscount of Hunolstein.[3]
On 10 May 1867, he married Anne de Rochechouart de Mortemart (1847–1933) in Paris. The daughter of Louis de Rochechouart, Count of Mortemart, and Marie Clémentine de Chevigné,[4] she was the heiress of her great-grandmother, Madame Clicquot Ponsardin, founder of the Veuve Clicquot Champagne house, including the Château de Boursault, which she inherited on Madame Clicquot's death in 1866.[4] Together, they had four children:[1][5][6]
Jacques Marie Géraud de Crussol (1868–1893), who died during an expedition he was leading in Africa; he died unmarried without issue.[7]
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