Joseph, Prince de Caraman-Chimay
Marie Joseph Anatole Élie de Riquet de Caraman, 19th Prince de Chimay (4 July 1858 – 25 July 1937), known as Joseph de Caraman-Chimay, the younger, was a Belgian aristocrat and fencer, a competitor in the individual épée event at the 1900 Summer Olympics.
He was titled "Prince de Chimay" from 1858 until his death in 1937.
He was born to Joseph de Riquet, Prince de Chimay and Prince de Caraman (of Belgium), and Marie Joséphine Anatole de Montesquiou-Fézensac.
Named for its Belgian "château de Chimay", his family was noted for its patronage of music and the arts.
One of his sisters was Élisabeth de Riquet de Caraman-Chimay, the Countess .
On 19 May 1890 he married Clara Ward, a sixteen-year-old American heiress.
The couple had two children:
They were divorced on 19 January 1897, after Clara's widely publicized elopement with a gypsy violinist.
By a second marriage to Anne Marie Charlotte Amélie Gilone Le Veneur de Tillières (1889–1962) on 24 June 1920, he had two more children:
Marie-Clotilde-Elisabeth Louise de Riquet, comtesse de Mercy-Argenteau
Marie-Clotilde-Elisabeth Louise de Riquet (3 June 1837 – 8 November 1890) was the eldest daughter of Michel Gabriel Alphonse Ferdinand de Riquet (1810–1865), created prince de Chimay 1834, for himself only, and Rosalie de Riquet de Caraman (1814–1872)
In childhood she developed considerable aptitude as a pianist.
On 11 April 1860 she married Eugène Arnould Henri Charles François Marie, comte de Mercy-Argenteau (22 August 1838 – 2 May 1888).
She met Franz Liszt the next year.
In 1866, she met emperor Napoleon III and befriended him.
After his defeat at the Battle of Sedan, she visited him for a last time when he was a prisoner of the Prussians at Schloss Wilhelmshöhe and consoled him playing music.
She later wrote a book about their four-year relationship, "The Last Love of an Emperor".
In the early 1880s, she developed an interest in Russian music.
This led to her studying the Russian language, translating some vocal music by several Russian composers, and arranging concerts and recitals of their music.
Her advocacy of music by The Mighty Handful favored that of César Cui and facilitated the production of the latter's opera "Prisoner of the Caucasus" in Liège in 1886.
Cui's collection of piano pieces entitled "À Argenteau" is a musical reminiscence of the count and countess' estate in Belgium.
La Comtesse de Mercy-Argenteau died of cancer on 8 November 1890 in Saint Petersburg, Russia.
Joseph de Riquet de Caraman (1808–1886)
Joseph de Riquet de Caraman, 17th Prince de Chimay (20 August 1808, Paris – 12 March 1886, London) was a Belgian diplomat and industrialist.
Ludmila Caraman
Ludmila Caraman( born 27 July 1985) is a Moldovan footballer who plays as a defender and has appeared for the Moldova women's national team.
Élisabeth, Countess Greffulhe
Marie Anatole Louise Élisabeth, Countess Greffulhe (née de Riquet de Caraman-Chimay; 11 July 1860 – 21 August 1952) was a French socialite, known as a renowned beauty and queen of the salons of the "Faubourg Saint-Germain" in Paris.
Émilie Pellapra
Émilie Pellapra( 11 November 1806 – 22 May 1871)," comtesse de Brigodeprincesse de Chimay", was the daughter of Françoise- Marie LeRoy and possibly Napoleon I of France.
She claimed to be the product of her mother's affair with the French Emperor which supposedly took place in April 1805, but this date is incompatible with Émilie's birth in November 1806.
She was married firstly to Count Louis- Marie of Brigode( 1777 – 1827) and married secondly to Prince Joseph de Riquet de Caraman( 1808 – 1886), 17th prince de Chimay.
Émilie Louise Marie Françoise Joséphine Pellapra was born in Lyon on November 11, 1806, the daughter of Madame Pellapra, née Françoise- Marie LeRoy, herself the wife of a rich financier named Henri( de) Pellapra.
Émilie may have been the illegitimate daughter of Napoleon I, as she claimed to be.
Emilie Pellapra made it clear she was the natural daughter of Napoleon.
This would have to have been the result of an affair with her mother at the time of a stay by Napoleon in Lyon.
Her claim was that an affair took place in April 1805, whilst Napoleon was on the way to Italy to be crowned, but this date is incompatible with Émilie's birth of in November 1806.
For Émilie to have been the daughter of Napoleon it would have been necessary that he stayed in Lyon in February 1806.
However, no stay in this city at that time seems to have taken place and, according to several authors( in particular André Gavoty in the Bulletin de l' Institut Napoleon April 1950), Napoleon only met LeRoy in 1810.
Emilie Pellapra married
Count Louis Marie de Brigode who died shortly after, though they had twins:
She remarried on 30 August 1830 to Prince Joseph de Riquet de Caraman( 1808- 1886), 17th prince de Chimay, son of Prince François- Joseph- Philippe de Riquet and Thérésa Cabarrus, and had four children:
She died at the Château de Menars on May 22, 1871.
Barbu Știrbey
Prince Barbu Alexandru Știrbey (4 November 1872 – 24 March 1946) was 30th Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Romania in 1927.
He was the son of Prince Alexandru Știrbey and his wife Princess Maria Ghika-Comănești, and grandson of another Barbu Dimitrie Știrbei (born Bibescu, adopted Știrbei), who was Prince of Wallachia and died in 1869.
He married his second cousin, Princess Nadèje Bibescu in 1895, daughter of Prince Gheorge Bibescu and Marie Henriette Valentine de Caraman-Chimay, daughter of Prince Joseph de Riquet de Caraman-Chimay.
They had four daughters: Maria, Nadejda, Elena and Catharina.
His real significance in Romania history arises from his role as close confidant of Queen Marie, who was herself a highly influential figure in Romanian government circles prior to the accession of her son King Carol II to the throne in 1930.
Știrbey and Queen Marie were lovers, and Ştirbey was probably the father of her youngest child, Mircea, and possibly the father of Ileana .
Shortly after the Royal coup of August 23, 1944, he traveled to Moscow with the Romanian delegation that signed on September 12 the Armistice Agreement between Romania and the Soviet Union.
Știrbey was one of the plenipotentiary signatories of Agreement; the other signatories were Lucrețiu Pătrășcanu, Dumitru Dămăceanu, and Ghiță Popp on the Romanian side, and Rodion Malinovsky on the Soviet side.
Valentine de Riquet de Caraman-Chimay
Countess Valentine de Riquet de Caraman (15 February 1839 - 25 August 1914) was a Belgian princess.
She was the daughter of Joseph de Riquet de Caraman-Chimay (1808-1886) and Émilie Pellapra.
Her first marriage was to prince Paul de Bauffremont on 13 April 1861, but this ended in divorce in 1875 -
she gained custody of her two children and later the same year married Georges Bibescu, son of Gheorghe Bibescu, with whom she had three more children - Georges, Nadège (princess Stirbey) and Georges-Valentin (1880-1941).
Paul de Bauffremont
Paul Antoine Jean Charles, duc de Bauffremont( 11 December 1827, Palermo, Italy- 2 November 1893, Paris, France) was a French general, most notable for leading the' Charge de Sedan' alongside Gaston Alexandre Auguste.
He was also the first husband of Valentine de Riquet de Caraman- Chimay, whom he divorced in 1875.
Joseph de Riquet de Caraman-Chimay (1836–1892)
Marie-" Joseph"- Guy- Henry- Philippe de Riquet de Caraman, 18th Prince de Chimay( 9 October 1836, Château de Menars, France – 29 March 1892, Brussels, Belgium), was a Belgian diplomat and politician.
He was notable as Ambassador to the Holy See( 1846- 1847), governor of the province of Hainaut( 1870- 1878) and Foreign Minister( 1884- 1892).
His parents were Joseph de Riquet de Caraman, 17th Prince de Chimay, and Émilie Pellapra.
His own six children included Joseph, Prince de Caraman- Chimay and Élisabeth, who married the Count of Greffulhe.
He also gave private concerts, with him on violin and his wife on piano.
In memory of one of these at which he had assisted, Franz Liszt dedicated a mass to Caraman- Chimay

Question: What is the place of birth of Valentine De Riquet De Caraman-Chimay's father?