Anna Gould | |
|---|---|
| Duchess of Talleyrand and Dino Duchess of Sagan | |
 circa 1900 | |
| Born | June 5, 1875 |
| Died | November 30, 1961 (aged 86) |
| Spouses | |
Issue | Boniface de Castellane |
| Parents | Jay Gould Helen Day Miller |
Anna Gould (June 5, 1875 – November 30, 1961) was an American socialite and heiress as the daughter of financier Jay Gould. She was the last private owner of the historic Lyndhurst estate in Tarrytown, New York.
Anna Gould was born on June 5, 1875, in New York City. She was the daughter of Jay Gould (1836–1892) and Helen Day Miller (1838–1889). Her siblings included George Jay Gould I, Edwin Gould I, Helen Miller Gould Shepard, Howard Gould, and Frank Jay Gould.
Prior to her societal debut, Miss Gould attended the Ogontz Seminary, a girls' school in the suburbs of Philadelphia. On March 14, 1895, she married Paul Ernest Boniface de Castellane (1867–1932), elder son and heir apparent of the Marquis of Castellane, in Manhattan, New York. He was commonly referred to as Boniface de Castellane with the nickname "Boni" and used the courtesy title of Count of Castellane (Comte de Castellane). Before their divorce, Boni and Anna had four children together:
They divorced in 1906, after Boniface had spent about $10 million of her family's money. Boniface then sought an annulment from the Vatican in 1924. After several appeals the validity of the marriage was upheld. On April 13, 1925, Time magazine wrote: "Probably not since Henry VIII tried in vain to get an annulment of his marriage with Catherine of Aragon has a matrimonial case been so long in the courts of the Roman Catholic Church as that on which nine Cardinals have just handed down a final decision."
In 1908, she married Boni's cousin Hélie de Talleyrand-Périgord, Duc de Sagan (1859–1937), son of the dandy Boson de Talleyrand-Périgord. As eldest son and heir to the Duke of Talleyrand, he was styled Marquis of Talleyrand-Périgord and Duke of Sagan. With Talleyrand, Anna had the following two children:
She briefly traveled to the United States four months before her death and died on December 8, 1961, in Paris. She is entombed in Passy Cemetery in Paris.
Anna was a grandmother to Elisabeth de Castellane (1928-1991), who married Jean Bertrand Jacques Adrien Nompar Comte de Caumont La Force (1920-1986) in Paris on December 7, 1948. She was also a grandmother to Diane Rose Anne Marie de Castellane (b. 1927), who married Philippe François Armand Marie Duc de Mouchy Prince-Duc de Poix (1922-2011) in Paris (civil ceremony) on April 14, 1948 (religious ceremony) on April 20, 1948. After having children, they divorced on March 13, 1974. Anna was also grandmother to Comte Hélie de Pourtalès who married as the second husband of Comtesse Marie-Eugénie de Witt, the eldest daughter of Princess Marie Clotilde Bonaparte.
The religious marriage of Boniface, comte de Castellane, to Anna Gould (daughter of the late Jay Gould), in 1895; at the Vatican, by Pope Pius XI. She divorced Boniface in Paris in 1906, in 1908 married (in London) Hélie de Talleyrand-Périgord, later the fifth Duke de Talleyrand.
Prince of Sagan, son of the Duchess de Talleyrand, who was Anna, the daughter of the late wealthy Jay Gould, shot himself on purpose in his mother's Paris home. The press did not get wind of the story until last week. When the press came, the Duchess was ready with a frank, detailed and—most important of all—entirely literate statement; one that prevented garbling by scandal-monging journals. The statement said: "The Duke and Duchess de Talleyrand regret keenly to announce the critical illness of their son, Howard. ... He shot himself because we refused him permission to marry until he was 21. ... The shooting took place in our home and our son was taken to a hospital in the Rue Puccini. ... Our son is now in an extremely grave condition. We wish to emphasize that we had no objection to the girl, but only opposed the marriage because of our son's age."
Paris, May 28, 1929. Howard de Talleyrand, Prince de Sagan, 19-year-old son of the Duc de Talleyrand and the former Anna Gould, died early this morning following a self-inflicted wound on May 17 after his parents had refused him immediate permission to marry.
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