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Charles Gravier, comte de Vergennes
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Vergennes, Charles Gravier, comte de (shärl grävyā' kôNt də vĕrzhĕn'), 1717-87, French statesman. After serving as ambassador at Trier, Constantinople, and Stockholm (where in 1772 he participated in the coup of Gustavus III), he was made (1774) foreign minister by Louis XVI. He supported the American Revolution, at first secretly through Pierre de Beaumarchais, then officially after signing, with Benjamin Franklin, the alliance of Feb. 6, 1778. Vergennes was the chief French representative at the peace negotiations between Great Britain and the United States, France, and Spain at the close of the American Revolution (see Paris, Treaty of, 1783). He also assisted in negotiating the Treaty of Teschen (1779) between Austria and Prussia at the close of the War of the Bavarian Succession.
Bibliography
See J. J. Meng, The Comte de Vergennes (1932).
| Wikipedia: Charles Gravier, comte de Vergennes |
Charles Gravier, comte de Vergennes (20 December 1717 – 13 February 1787) was a French statesman and diplomat. He served as Foreign Minister during the reign of Louis XVI, notably during the American War of Independence.
Contents |
Biography
Early life
Vergennes was born in Dijon, France in 1719.
Diplomatic service
He was introduced to the profession of diplomacy by his uncle, Théodore Chevignard de Chavigny, under whom he obtained his first appointment, to Portugal in 1739. His successful advocacy of French interests as envoy to the Electorate of Trier, in 1750, and the following years led to his being sent to the Ottoman Empire in 1755, first as minister plenipotentiary, then as ambassador (see French Ambassador to the Ottoman Empire). In 1768, he was recalled, ostensibly because he married the widow Anne Duvivier,[1] (1730-1798), but more probably because the Duc de Choiseul thought him not competent to provoke a war between Imperial Russia and the Ottomans. After Choiseul's dismissal, he was sent to Sweden with instructions to help the pro-French party of The Hats with advice and money. The coup by which King Gustav III secured power (19 August 1772) was a major diplomatic triumph for France.
Foreign minister
With the accession of King Louis XVI, Vergennes became foreign minister. His policy was guided by the conviction that the power of the states on the periphery of Europe, namely Great Britain and Russia, was increasing, and ought to be diminished. When he was appointed to the job, he had spent almost the entirety of the previous thirty five years abroad in diplomatic service.[2] He readily admitted that he had lost touch with developments in France, and was mocked by some political opponents as a "foreigner". Despite this he was able to view France's foreign affairs with a more abstract nature, taking in the wider European context.[3]
American War of Independence
Main article: France in the American War of Independence
Vergennes rivalry with the British, and his desire to avenge the disasters of the Seven Years' War, led to his support of the Thirteen Colonies in the American War of Independence, a step which would help, ultimately, bring about the French Revolution of 1789. As early as 1765 he had predicted that the loss of the French threat in North America would lead ultimately to the Americans "striking off their chains".[4]
Vergennes sought by a series of negotiations to secure the armed neutrality of the Northern European states, eventually carried out by Catherine II of Russia; at the same time, Vergennes approved of the Pierre Beaumarchais's support for secret French assistance, as arms and volunteers supplied to the Americans. In 1777, he informed the Thirteen Colonies' commissioners that France acknowledged the United States, and was willing to form an offensive and defensive alliance with the new state. Vergennes also encouraged King Louis to sponsor expeditions to Indochina, which laid the building blocks of the French conquest during the next century (see French Indochina).
He acted as an intermediatry in the War of the Bavarian Sucesscion, which he feared could trigger a major European war, wrecking his strategy of sending French and Spanish forces to the Americas to fight the British there.
Domestic politics
In domestic affairs, Vergennes remained a conservative, carrying out intrigues to have Jacques Necker removed - he regarded Necker as a dangerous innovator, a republican, a foreigner and a Protestant. In 1781, he became chief of the council of finance, and, in 1783, he supported the nomination of Charles Alexandre de Calonne as Controller-General. Vergennes died just before the meeting of the Assembly of Notables which he is said to have suggested to Louis XVI.
Legacy and popular culture
He has often been portrayed by Americans as a visionary, because of his support for American independence. However this support for a republican insurrection, and the enormous cost France incurred in the war, are generally considered the cause of the French Revolution, which brought down the French monarchy, and the system he served.[5]
He was played by Guillaume Gallienne in the 2006 film Marie Antoinette.
Notes
- ^ Vergennes married Anne (1730-1798), daughter of Henri Duvivier (born on 16 October 1699 in Chambéry) and later Maria Bulo of Péra. She was widow of Francesco Testa (ca. 1720-1754), belonging to one of the oldest and distinguished Latin families of Péra, regularly confused with his far relative Francesco Testa (1717-1787), doctor of medicine from the University of Vienna, and Vergennes's physician in Péra.
- ^ Murphy p.211
- ^ Murphy p.211-12
- ^ Harvey p.34
- ^ Harvey p.362
See also
References
This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica, Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.
Bibliography
- Harvey, Robert. A Few Bloody Noses: The American Revolutionary War. Robinson, 2004.
- Murphy, Orville T. Charles Gravier, Comte De Vergennes: French Diplomacy in the Age of Revolution, 1719-1787. State University of New York Press, 1982.
Other sources
- 1911 Britannica In turn, it cites as references:
- P. Fauchelle, La Diplomatie française et la Ligue des neutres 1780 (1776—83) (Paris, 1893).
- John Jay, The Peace Negotiations of 1782—83 as illustrated by the Confidential Papers of Shelburne and Vergennes (New York, 1888).
- L. Bonneville de Marsangy, Le Chevalier de Vergennes, son ambassade a Constantinople (Paris, 1894) and Le Chevalier de Vergennes, son ambassade en Suède (Paris, 1898).
- Marie de Testa, Antoine Gautier, "Deux grandes dynasties de drogmans, les Fonton et les Testa", in Drogmans et diplomates européens auprès de la Porte ottomane, éditions ISIS, Istanbul, 2003, pp. 129-147.
- A. Gautier, "Anne Duvivier, comtesse de Vergennes (1730-1798), ambassadrice de France à Constantinople", in Le Bulletin, Association des anciens élèves, Institut National des Langues et Civilisations Orientales (INALCO), November 2005, pp. 43-60.
| Diplomatic posts | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by Roland Puchot |
Ambassador to the Ottoman Empire 1755–1768 |
Succeeded by François Emmanuel Guignard |
| Political offices | ||
| Preceded by Bertin |
Minister of Foreign Affairs 1774–1787 |
Succeeded by Montmorin |
|
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