Avigdor
The house of Avigdor or d'Avigdor is an originally Italian-French and later also a German and British noble family who settled in Nice at the end of the 15th century and later founded one of the most important private banks in Europe there.
The philosophers, doctors, translators and mystics Abraham and Salomon Avigdor (father and son) who were active in the early fourteenth century are significant in intellectual history .
The family's banking house was founded in the 17th century and, under the management of Isaak Samuel d'Avigdor , who was also called the Rothschild of Nice, became one of the leading private banking houses in Europe in the late 18th century. Isaak Samuel d'Avigdor was also First Secretary of the Sanhedrin, convened by Napoléon Bonaparte , and financed the affairs of state of Napoleon's brother Louis Napoleon as King of Holland . For these services he was raised in 1806 to the hereditary count (Graaf van Maalburg). Isaac Samuel's son Henri was a diplomat and banker and played a key role in the secret agreements between Napoléon III. , with whom he had a personal friendship since his years in exile in England, and Camillo Benso Count von Cavour was involved in the unification of Italy and the annexation of Nice by France. He converted to Christianity in 1848 and became chamberlain to Pope Pius IX. and raised by this to the hereditary count (Conte Romano). As envoy of the Republic of San Marino at the court of the French emperor, he secured independence for the small country even after the unification of Italy . For this he was given the hereditary title of Duke of Acquaviva (Duca d'Acquaviva) in 1861. At that time, the Duke was divorced from Rachel Goldsmid, a daughter of the famous London banker and philanthropist Sir Isaac Lyon Goldsmid , Baron de Palmeira, whom he married in 1840. One of his grandsons, Sir Osmond Elim, inherited the enormous Goldsmid fortune and received royal permission to add the Goldsmid name to his original family name. Major-General Sir Henry Joseph D'Avigdor-Goldsmid , one of Osmond Elim's sons, was commander-in-chief of the Allied Forces in the Atlantic during World War II , later British Secretary of Defense and was successful as chairman of the board of the Anglo-Israel Bank and the publishing house Pergamon Press . Like his brother James, he was a Conservative MP.
There are three lines of the d'Avigdor house:
- d'Avigdor (Count's line)
- Duke d'Avigdor of Acquaviva (ducal line)
- d'Avigdor-Goldsmid (British line)