Ysolde von Marignan

Countess Ysolde von Marignan (born 1931) is the daughter of Count Matthias von Marignan and Princess Ludovika of Brasland.

She was her mother's daughter: beautiful, strong-willed and rebellious. In 1950 she visited some relatives in Paris, and while she was there a fashion designer invited her to be a model for his clothes. Without consulting her parents, she accepted the proposal, causing immediate scandal in Brasland. In Paris, she discovered freedom and decided to stay living there. She became a haute couture model for Paris great fashion houses, and lived in a small flat downtown. Her title and connections allowed her to be a part of the city's most exclusive circles. However, in 1956 she caused further scandal when she eloped with a Jewish painter, Jonathan Goldsmith, whom she married in a civil ceremony in London. The reaction in Brasland was decisive: she was not welcome back. Ysolde's mother, very concerned for her daughter, advised her not to return for some time and begged her to leave Goldsmith, not so much for his religion but because she knew that the decision to marry had been impulsive and immature. Ysolde refused and became pregnant, although she suffered a miscarriage some months later. After this she became a recluse and Jonathan left her. She fell into a depression and interned herself in a mental clinic in Switzerland. She lived in that country for several years, and in 1961 she returned Brasland permanently. Divorced from Jonathan Goldsmith, in 1964 she met Baron Jacques de Bonneseule, whom she married that same year. They had two children: Esther (born 1966) and Armand (born 1969).

Ysolde lived very discreetly for the next forty years, appearing very rarely on social events. In 2010 she gave an interview mentioning that she practised Buddhism and was a follower of the Dalai Lama, causing some jokes in the media, as it is strange for a Braslander nobleman to be something else than a Catholic, let alone a Buddhist.

The Baroness de Bonneseule's past came again to the limelight when her granddaughter, Ludovika, married King George IV, and some criticized the new Queen consort for her family's background.