The De Ligne family was one of the most illustrious in Flanders. Its head, Charles-Joseph, Prince de Ligne, Prince of the Holy Empire, Lord Paramount of Fagnolles, and Lord of the Manors of Beaudour, Bel Œil, Valincourt and other territories, Marquis of Roubaix and Dormans, Baron of Fauquenberghe, Baron of Wershin, Knight of the Golden Fleece, Grandee of Spain of the first class, first _ber_ of Flanders, Peer, Seneschal and Marshal of Hainault, was General in the Austrian army, Captain of the Trabans, Colonel and owner of a regiment of Walloon infantry, and chamberlain to their Imperial Majesties.[112] These honours were certainly sufficient to satisfy the highest ambition, but they were not all. In addition to all these titles we must add the position enjoyed by the Prince de Ligne at Versailles, Vienna, and Brussels--a position acquired by his brilliant personal qualities. Handsome, brave, generous, chivalrous, gifted with a dazzling imagination, lively wit, and a mind full of impulsive brilliancy, he was, notwithstanding all these advantages, the most unaffected of men. He is mentioned in all contemporary memoirs, even by those of most diverse opinions. Mesdames de Staël, de Genlis, the Comte de Ségur, the adventurer Casanova, the Emperor Joseph, Voltaire, the Empress Catherine, and others, all unite in a concert of praise, and not a discordant note jars upon the general harmony. Madame de Staël winds up her portrait of him by saying, like Eschine: “If you are astonished at what I say of him, how much more so would you be if you knew him!” Such was the future father-in-law of Hélène. Prince Charles-Joseph had been brought up by his father in the strictest manner. “My father did not care for me,” he says: “I know not why, for we hardly knew each other. He never spoke to me; it was not the fashion at that time to be either a good father or a good husband. My mother feared him extremely. She gave birth to me dressed in her farthingale, and died in the same dress, a few weeks later, so strict was he as to appearances and stately formalities.” His military career was most brilliant, and his promotion rapid. At the age of twenty he was named colonel of his father’s regiment of dragoons. He immediately wrote to inform him of the fact, and the following is the answer he received:-- “It was already unfortunate enough for me, sir, to have you as a son without the additional misfortune of having you as my colonel.” His son replied: “My lord, neither the one nor the other are my fault, and it is the Emperor your Highness must make responsible for the second misfortune.” The Prince married in 1755 the Princesse de Lichtenstein,[113] and in September 1759, while he was busy fighting the Prussians before Meissen, he received the news of the birth of a son.