Wednesday, July 15, 2009

A son and heir for the de Sagans

July 15, 1909

The Los Angeles Times reports in an exclusive dispatch that the Princess de Sagan gave birth to a son today. The Princess is the former Miss Anna Gould, the daughter of the late railroad magnate Jay Gould. Her husband, Prince Helie, "expressed great satisfaction as the birth of a son not only secures the de Sagan succession," but also means that his child will share the fortune of the Princess with her three children by her first husband, Count Boni de Castlellane.
The Prince and Princess were married on July 7, 1908 in at the Registrar's office in the Strand in London. A religious ceremony, at a small French Protestant church in Soho on the same time. The Prince, who is a cousin of Count Boni, began his wooing of Anna after her divorce. In the spring of 1908, he followed her to America, and "although her family frowned upon the match," Anna accepted his proposal.
Shortly after the marriage, Anna's former husband, Count Boni, insituted a suit demanding $60,000 a year, and custody of the couple's three children. Last December, a French court ruled in favor of the Princess de Sagan, who received full custody of her children.
However, on May 27 of this year, another French court handed down a ruling that denied the Prince de Sagan to have contact with the Castellance children. The court asserted that "his influence tended to have a pernicius effect upon them."

No comments: