Alfred David Augustus d'Espinassy de Fontanelle

Alfred David Augustus d'Espinassy de Fontanelle was the 5th Marquis of Fontanelle, and member of the House of Essex. Born on April 28, 1827 in England to the Marquis of Fontanelle, Blaire Marius d'Espinassy de Fontanelle and the Lady Maria Capel, sister of the Earl of Essex. His grandfather was Antoine Joseph Marie d'Espinassy a member of the Council that decided the fate of Louis Capet of France in the Trial of Louis XVI of the French Revolution.

Military service
He entered the French Army and joined the Foreign Legion sent to Crimea, in which campaign he took an active part. In the Siege of Sevastopol he was shielded by one of his men from a cannonball, later in the fight he was severely wounded and his left arm was amputated as a result. His noted gallantry led to his promotion to the rank of Captain as well as his decoration of Knight Cross of the Order of the Legion of Honor.

While recovering from the effects of the amputation he spent some time on board her Majesty's Ship, HMS Princess Royal, commanded by his cousin Lord Clarence Paget. On his return to France he was appointed Major of the 1st Grenadier Regiment of the French Imperial Guard. At the close of the war in Italy he received honorable mention, retired from the Army and he was appointed sous préfet of Rambouillet where he was stationed when the wave of German invasion burst over the fair provinces of eastern France. He defended Rambouillet with an iron fist, but the Prussians were able to imprison him.

Having patriotically declined to supply food for the Prussian troops quartered near Rambouillet, or to give up the duc de Lynès, who was concealed and protected in the forest, he was immediately sent to the German Fortress of Ehrenbreitstein and imprisoned as a very dangerous man. At the expiration of three months, he obtained his parole, and during the remainder of his captivity made many sincere friends among the military authorities of the fortress. He was released at the end of the war, and returned to France, but his health was so affected by the severity of his severe privations that he declined public employment, and retired into private life.

Marriage
Marquis d'Espinassy de Fontanelle married on the 27 April 1881, at Kiltoom Church, County Roscommon, Ireland to Lucy, daughter of Captain Stuart, R.N., of Combermere, County Cork, and niece of the Rev. William Stuart, vicar, of Munden, Essex. He left no children.

Marquisate Fontanelle
The Marquisate of Fontanelle passed to his sister the Countess de Narcillac Du Chastel de Andelot, Caroline Hélène Hortense Agathe d'Espinassy de Fontanelle, an Heiress of Europe who married the Count of Narcillac du Chastil de Andelot, Claude Joseph Ernest a direct descendant of the King of France Louis IX.