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The Constant Thread. Horses, wines and mansions all illumine the Rothschild tapestry, but the golden thread that holds it together is the family's fierce spirit of continuity. Partly a matter of finely sharpened instinct, this spirit is passed to the young Rothschilds through years of competition on the playing fields, in the best écoles and in the family banks, and through tales of their ancestors' exploits. (So large and complex is the family story that French Historian Bertrand Gille has been working on one version of it for ten years, estimates that he has five more years of work ahead.) Today the thread continues through a dozen Rothschild boys and young men, including Baron Guy's sons Edouard, 6, and David, 21. Handsome, athletic and a serious law student, David plans to enter the family bank.
The Rothschilds live in an era that does not allow them to wield the power that they once did. But at least they now once again live with their tinies. And to face the future, they have one advantage from the past, the Rothschild legend—in itself a very bankable asset.
*The French branch of the family pronounces it de Rot-shield; the English branch, de Roth's child.
† Louis died in 1955. Three Rothschilds now reside in the U.S. Guy's sister Jacqueline, 52, lives in Los Angeles and is the wife of Cellist Gregor Piatigorsky. A sister of Lord Roth schild, jazz-loving Nica de Koenigswarter, 50, lives in New Jersey, and the last surviving member of the Austrian branch, Eugene de Rothschild, 79, divides his time between estates on Long Island and in Europe.