Charles, duc de Morny

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Charles de Morny
Charles Joseph de Flahaut
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Charles Auguste Louis Joseph de Morny, 1st Duc de Morny ([ʃaʁl oɡyst lwi ʒɔzɛf dəmɔʁni]) (15–16 September 1811, Switzerland – 10 March 1865, Paris) was a French statesman.

Biography

Morny was born in

Charles Joseph, Comte de Flahaut, making him half-brother of Emperor Napoleon III and grandson of Talleyrand.[2] His birth was duly registered in a misleading certificate, which made him the legitimate son of Auguste Jean Hyacinthe Demorny, and born in Paris on 23 October 1811,[3] and described as a landowner of Saint-Domingue. M. Demorny was in fact an officer in the Prussian army and a native of St. Domingue (Modern day Haiti), though he owned no land there or elsewhere.[4]

Morny was educated by his grandmother,

Camille Alphonse Trezel, whose life he saved under the walls of Constantine.[4]

When Morny returned to Paris in 1838, he secured a solid position in the business world by establishing a major

Charles Aimé Joseph Le Hon, Comte Le Hon. Eventually there were few great commercial enterprises in Paris in which he did not have an interest.[4]

Although Morny sat as deputy for Clermont-Ferrand from 1842 onwards, he took at first no important part in party politics, but he was heard with respect on industrial and financial questions. He supported the government of

2 December 1851 on the morrow of which he was appointed to head the ministry of the interior.[4]

After six months in office, during which Morny showed his political opponents moderation and tact, he resigned his portfolio, ostensibly because he disapproved of the confiscation of the Bourbon-Orléans property but really because Napoleon, influenced by Morny's rivals, resented his claim to a foremost place in the government as a member of the House of Bonaparte. He then resumed his financial speculations. When in 1854 the Emperor appointed him president of the Corps Législatif, a position which he filled for the rest of his life, he used his official rank to assist his schemes.[4]

In 1856, Morny was sent as special envoy to the coronation of Tsar

Archduke Maximilian on the throne was prompted by Napoleon III's desire to thwart this ambition.[4]

Tomb at the Père Lachaise Cemetery, Paris

In spite of occasional disagreements, Morny's influence with the emperor remained great, and the liberal policies which he advocated enabled him to serve the imperial cause through his influence with the leaders of the opposition, the most conspicuous of whom,

Émile Ollivier, was detached from his colleagues by Morny's efforts. But while he was laying the foundations of the "Liberal Empire" his health deteriorated and was further injured by quack medicines. The emperor and the empress visited him just before his death in Paris on 10 March 1865.[4]

Morny's valuable collection of pictures, including Jean-Honoré Fragonard's The Swing, was sold after his death. In spite of his undoubted wit and social gifts, Morny failed to secure the distinction he desired as a dramatist, and none of his pieces, which appeared under the pseudonym of M. de St Rémy, including Sur la grande route, M. Choufleuri restera chez lui le . . ., and the Les finesses du mari, among others, met with success on the stage.[4]

M. de Chenneviėres, the director of the Beaux-Arts, admired Morny's taste in pictures as well as the man himself. Charles de Morny was, he opined,"the most perfectly polite, the most elegant, the best bred man of his time".[5]

Thoroughbred horse racing

Morny played an important role in the development of the

Deauville-La Touques Race Course near Deauville. The Prix Morny is named in his honour.[citation needed
]

Family

Sophie Troubetzkoi
.

He had married at

Old Style), 1859) and his wife Ekaterina Petrovna Mussina-Pushkina
(1 February 1816 – c. 1897). Their children included:

He also had an illegitimate daughter by

Balzac
.

  • Louise le Hon (ca. 1840-1931) married the Polish prince
    House of Poniatowski
    , and had children. Louise has living descendants.

Theatrical interests

De Morny was influential in the early career of

Alexander Dumas and Victor Hugo. In her autobiography, My Double Life, Bernhardt recounts that at a family conference which de Morny attended as a family friend, the purpose of which was to determine what Bernhardt was to do with her future life, de Morny suggested that she be sent to the Conservatoire. The family took him up on the suggestion and her life turned to the theatre.[6]

Notes

  1. ^ Mossiker 1964, pp. 361–362.
  2. ^ Dard, Emile (1938). "Trois Générations: Talleyrand, Flahaut, Morny: II". France: Revue des Deux Mondes. p. 341-342.
  3. ^ Le Guide Musical 1865.
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h Chisholm 1911, p. 849.
  5. ^ Philippe de Chennevières: Souvenir d'un directeur des Beaux-Arts (Paris, 1883), as quoted in Diana Scarisbrick, Margaret de Flahaut (1788–1867): A Scotswoman at the French Court, Cambridge, 2019, p. 285.
  6. ^ My Double Life, London: Heineman, 1907, p. 52-58

References

Coat of arms of the Duke of Morny with Latin motto meaning, "For Fatherland and Emperor".

Attribution:

  •  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Morny, Charles Auguste Louis Joseph, Duc de". Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 18 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 849–850.. Endnotes:
    • H. Castille, M. de Morny (1859), an Arthur de la Guéronniére, Etudes et portraits politique.; (1856).
    • See the literature dealing with Napoleon III., and the article on Flahaut de la Billarderie;
    • F. Loliée, Le Duc de Momy, adapted by B. O'Donnell. A volume, Extraits des mémoires de Alamy: Une Ambassade eh Russie 1856, was published in 1892.
    • The figure of the duc de Morny appears in the novel Duc de Mora of Le Nabab by Alphonse Daudet (1877, English: The Nabob, 1878) — Daudet had been one of Morny's secretaries.

Further reading

External links

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