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The Right Honourable The Countess of Tankerville
Portrait by Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun c. 1800
Countess of Tankerville
Tenure	10 December 1822 – 25 June 1859
Predecessor	Emma, Lady Tankerville
Successor	Olivia Bennet, Countess of Tankerville
Full name	Corisande Armandine Sophie Leonice Helene Bennet de Gramont
Born	(1782-10-05)5 October 1782 Paris, France
Died	23 January 1865(1865-01-23) (aged 82) Mayfair, London
Buried	Trinity Centre
Noble family	Gramont family
Spouse(s)	Charles Bennet, 5th Earl of Tankerville ​ ​(m. 1806; died 1859)​
Issue	Charles Bennet, 6th Earl of Tankerville Corisande Emma Bennet
Father	Antoine Louis Marie de Gramont, 8th Duke of Gramont
Mother	Aglaé de Polignac

Corisande Armandine Sophie Leonice Helene de Gramont (5 October 1782 – 23 January 1865) was a Countess of Tankerville and socialite born to the family of Gramont.

Early life

Corisande de Gramont was the eldest and first-born child of Antoine-Louis, 1st Duc de Gramont et Guiche, and his wife Aglaé de Polignac.

As the grand-daughter of Yolande de Polastron, the favourite and confidante of Marie Antoinette, Corisande's family were given benefits and were regarded as 'close relatives' to the Queen. In 1789, following the outbreak of the French Revolution, Corisande and her family were forced to flee due to her maternal grandmother's relations with France. Eventually, the family resided in Edinburgh, Scotland.

On 30 March 1803, Corisande's mother and her 3 sibings suffered severe burns from a housefire; her mother succumbed to her injuries and died. After the death of her mother, Corisande relocated to England and was brought up in the household of her grandmother's friend, Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire.

Marriage

On 28 July 1806 Corisande married Charles Bennet, 5th Earl of Tankerville and was titled Countess consort of Tankerville. The marriage took place at the Devonshire House. They had two children; Charles Bennet, 5th Earl of Tankerville, (1776–1859), and Lady Corisande Bennet (1807–1876).

Death

Following the death of her husband on 25 June 1859 Corisande was given the title of Dowager Countess of Tankerville. Corisande died in London on 23 January 1865. Corisande outlived her sister, Aglaé de Gramont by 23 years and her younger brother, Héraclius de Gramont, 9th Duke of Gramont by a decade, despite being the eldest of the three. She was buried in the Trinity Centre, St Philip and St Jacob, Bristol in the area formerly known as the Holy Trinity Church.

Ancestry

Issue

Descendants

Via her son; Charles Bennet, 6th Earl of Tankerville. She was paternal grandmother of Lady Corisande Olivia Bennet, Charles Bennet, Lady Ida Bennet, Countess of Dalhousie, and George Bennet, 7th Earl of Tankerville.

References

1. Wagner, Gillian (2017). Miss Palmer's Diary. I.B.Tauris. p. 123. ISBN 978-1786722492.
2. ^ Baillio, Joseph; Baetjer, Katharine; Lang, Paul (2016). Vigée Le Brun: Woman Artist in Revolutionary France (Hardcover). Metropolitan Museum of Art. p. 217. ISBN 978-1588395818.
3. Madden Robert, Richard (20 May 2024). The Literary Life and Correspondence of the Countess of Blessington. Scholarly Commons. p. 474. ISBN 9780404077211.
4. "Harris, Lady Corisande Emma (1807–1876), née Bennet, wife of James Howard Harris, 3rd Earl of Malmesbury". archives.trin.cam.ac.uk. 5 October 2024.
5. "Corisande de Gramont". literarybibliography.eu.
6. "Bennet, Corisande Armandine Sophie Léonie Hélène (1782–1865), née de Gramont, wife of Charles Bennet, 5th Earl of Tankerville". archives.trin.cam.ac.uk.

External links

• Portraits of Corisande Armandine, Countess of Tankerville at the National Portrait Gallery, London

• 1782 births
• 1865 deaths
• French nobility
• 18th-century French nobility
• 18th-century French women
• Nobility from Paris
• British countesses
• Burials at Trinity Church Cemetery