Vincent, Count Benedetti
Vincent, Count Benedetti | |
---|---|
French Ambassador to Prussia | |
In office 1864–1870 | |
Personal details | |
Born | Vincent Benedetti 29 April 1817 Bastia, Corsica, France |
Died | 28 March 1900 Paris, France | (aged 82)
Vincent, Count Benedetti (29 April 1817 – 28 March 1900) was a French diplomat. He is probably best known as one of the central figures in the instigation of the Franco-Prussian War through his role in the Ems Dispatch.
Life and career
Benedetti was born to a family of
For fifteen months during the progress of the
Benedetti remained in Berlin until the outbreak of the Franco-Prussian War in 1870, and during these years, he played an important part in the diplomatic history of Europe. His position was a difficult one, for Napoleon III did not keep him fully informed as to the course of French policy. In 1866, the Austro-Prussian War broke out, and during the critical weeks which followed the attempt of Napoleon to intervene between Prussia and Austria, he accompanied the Prussian headquarters in the advance on Vienna. During a visit to Vienna, he helped to arrange the preliminaries of the armistice signed at Nikolsburg.[4]
Following the end of the Austro-Prussian War, Benedetti was instructed to present to Bismarck the French demands for "compensation" for France's neutrality during the Austro-Prussian War - Prussian agreement for a French annexation of Belgium and Luxembourg. In August, after his return to Berlin, as a result of his discussions with Bismarck, a draft treaty was drawn up, in which Prussia promised France her support in the annexation of Belgium. This treaty was never concluded, but the draft, which was in Benedetti's handwriting, was kept by Bismarck and, in 1870, a few days after the outbreak of the war, was published by him in The Times.[4]
During 1867, Benedetti was much occupied with the affair of Luxembourg, in which France attempted to purchase Luxembourg from the
In July 1870, when the candidature of the prince of
[4] Benedetti answered the charges brought against him in a book, Ma Mission en Prusse (Paris, 1871), which still remains one of the most valuable authorities for the study of Bismarck's diplomacy. In this, Benedetti successfully defends himself, and shows that he had kept his government well informed; he had even warned them a year before as to the proposed Hohenzollern candidature. Even if he had been outwitted by Bismarck in the matter of the treaty of 1866, the policy of the treaty was not his, but was that of E. Drouyn de Lhuys. The idea of the annexation of Wallonia, Belgium, to France had been suggested to him first by Bismarck; and the use to which Bismarck put the draft was not one which he could be expected to anticipate, for he had carried on the negotiations in good faith.[6]
After the fall of the Empire, Benedetti retired to Corsica. He lived to see his defence confirmed by later publications, which threw more light on the secret history of the times. He published in 1895 a volume of Essais diplomatiques, containing a full account of his mission to Ems, written in 1873; and in 1897 a second series dealing with the
Notes
- ISBN 9781448204878.
Napoleon's ambassador to Prussia, a rather solemn and self-important little Corsican of Greek origin, comte Vincente Benedetti.
- ^ Colby, Frank Moore (1923). The New international encyclopaedia, Volume 3. Dodd, Mead and company. p. 127.
BENEDETTI, ba'ne-det'te, Vincent, Count (1817-1900). A French diplomatist of Greek origin, born in Corsica. He was French Consul at Cairo and Palermo, Secretary of Legation in Constantinople ; held office in the French Department of Foreign affairs.
- ISBN 9781848544628.
Vincent Benedetti admired a beautiful Greek slave, a survivor from the massacres on Chios who had been sold to d'Anastasy. In Alexandria most wealthy foreigners, as well as Egyptians, owned slaves ... Benedetti married her. In 1864 Comtesse Benedetti, one of the most beautiful women of the Second Empire, accompanied her husband to Berlin, where he was appointed French ambassador – an embassy that lasted until the Franco-Prussian was. Thanks to Alexandria, a slave from Chios could become an ambassadress in Berlin.
- ^ a b c d e f Headlam 1911, p. 717.
- ^ Ernst Rudolf Huber: Deutsche Verfassungsgeschichte seit 1789, Band III: Bismarck und das Reich. 3rd edition. Kohlhammer, Stuttgart 1988, p. 718.
- ^ Headlam 1911, pp. 717–718.
- ^ Headlam 1911, p. 718.
References
- public domain: Headlam, James Wycliffe (1911). "Benedetti, Vincent". In Chisholm, Hugh (ed.). Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 3 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 717–718.; Endnotes: This article incorporates text from a publication now in the
Further reading
- Fletcher, Willard Allen (1965). The Mission of Vincent Benedetti to Berlin 1864-1870. Martinus Nijhoff, The Hague.