Duc de Pomar

Who he was

When Marie writes "Pomar" in Nice in the spring of 1882 she means the Duke de Pomar, as she explains herself: "Pomar, c'est le duc de Pomar, espagnol des colonies après lequel toutes les jeunes filles courent parce qu'il a 600 mille francs de rente. Sa mère s'est remariée avec lord Caithness" (094.0325). He is the son of Lady Caithness (Maria de Mariategui, 1830–1895) by her first husband, the Spanish general Count de Medina Pomar (d. 1868), who bore the name of the title in full: Manuel Maria de Medina Pomar y Mariategui, known as Emmanuel, the Duke de Medina Pomar or de Pomar.

According to the Victorian Research Web's author file on the "Duke de Medina Pomar", he was born in Madrid in 1854; the Pope created him Duke de Pomar in 1875 (other sources attribute the dukedom to his mother, created Duchess of Pomar in 1879 by Leo XIII). Under that title he published five society novels in London between 1874 and 1878, among them Fashion and Passion: or, Life in Mayfair (1876) and Who is She?: A Mystery of Mayfair (1878). His mother married in 1872 James Sinclair, 14th Earl of Caithness; after the Earl's death in 1881 mother and son moved to France, the mother turned to spiritualism and he gave up writing. He inherited the dukedom on her death on 2 November 1895; the date and place of his own death are not traced (Victorian Research Web, "Duke de Medina Pomar"; French and English Wikipedia, "Marie Sinclair, Countess of Caithness").

Marie and Pomar (Nice, 1882)

She is never introduced to him. The first mention is on 18 March 1882, when she goes to the dancing matinée given by Admiral Krantz on board the Colbert at Villefranche. For two days she has been telling everyone a scie, a running joke, about her coming marriage to Pomar: she had seen him at Monaco "les jours de Faure" and one evening at the Théâtre Français, found him "joli garçon" without knowing he was "le parti de six cent mille francs de rente", and announced to Bojidar and her family that she would marry him (094.0325). She sums up the gossip she has gathered: he is "un fils très dévoué" who has "fait le bonheur d'aucune fille", some say he is not his mother's son and that Lady Caithness forbids him to marry; "ce qu'il y a de clair c'est qu'il est très riche et très joli garçon" (094.0325). At the ball there are twelve hundred people, "et Pomar ne m'est pas présenté" (094.0326).

On 24 March "La scie de Pomar est finie": it is said he will marry the little Troubetzkoy, daughter of the "ineffable Lise" (094.0340). Two days later Marie reports that the match has failed and that the Troubetzkoys have left Nice; Lise, she says, told Pomar that her daughter adores him and that he would have her unhappiness on his conscience, and "c'est Pomar qui le raconte. Voilà un vilain monsieur" (094.0350–0351). The same day, advising her cousin Dina on Barnola, she repeats the gossip that people "ont dit sur lui et sa... tante des choses... comme sur Pomar et lady Caithness" (094.0347): Marie's report of what was said, which she does not vouch for. On 28 March she and Bojidar trade insults at the end of their quarrels; she calls him "Pomar", he calls her "Caithness" (094.0354). On 7 May she notes that the Troubetzkoy girl "n'a pas épousé Pomar" (095.0027). He does not return to the diary in Nice.

"Pomar" as Marie's word for a rich catch (Poltava, autumn 1882)

The name comes back in October 1882 in Ukraine, where it no longer means the Duke. Marie has gone to Gavrontsi to be introduced to the neighbours from Dikanka, the two young Princes Kotchoubey, "jeunes, orphelins, chevaliers-gardes et immensément riches" (096.0014), and uses "les Pomar" for them, as Nice's archetype of the eligible fortune: "les petits Pomar sont venus" (096.0389), "les Pomar ... ont promis leur visite" (096.0400), "ces deux Pomar de malheur" (096.0470), "les deux Pomar criant avec leurs malles et un essieu cassé" (097.0044), "Pomar cadet est assez amusant" (097.0045), and, in her despair on 8 November, "on ne trouve jamais en cherchant des Pomar, ça se fait tout seul" (097.0053). The princes are named in the same entries: Victor, the elder, and Basile (Vassily), the younger (096.0407, 096.0470). They are very probably Prince Viktor Sergeyevich Kochubey (1860–1923) and Prince Vasily Sergeyevich Kochubey (1862–1911), both Chevalier-Guards officers, of the Dikanka family (per the Poltava historical essays at histpol.pl.ua and the genealogical base baza.vgd.ru; the ages, the regiment and the Dikanka estate match what Marie says, and Marie's "Victor" and "Basile" match the first names).

The paragraphs of carnets 096–097 (and 103.0100–0101) therefore refer to the Kotchoubey princes, not to the Duke of Nice; they have their own entry, Princes Kotchoubey, and their tags are to move there.

Related entries

Sources