Armand Augustin Louis de Caulaincourt

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Armand Augustin Louis de Caulaincourt bigraphy, stories - French diplomat

Armand Augustin Louis de Caulaincourt : biography

9 December 1773 – 19 February 1827

Armand-Augustin-Louis, marquis de Caulaincourt,This is version of his name appears in Fierro, Alfredo; Palluel-Guillard, André; Tulard, Jean – "Histoire et Dictionnaire du Consulat et de l’Empire”, Éditions Robert Laffont, ISBN 2-221-05858-5, p. 600. 1st Duc de Vicence (9 December 1773 – 19 February 1827) was a French general and diplomat.In the English translation of the Treaty of Fontainebleau (1814) his name and title is given as Armand-Augustin Louis de Caulaincourt, Duke of Vicenza (Alphonse de Lamartine (translated by Michael Rafter). The History of the Restoration of Monarchy in France. H. G. Bohn, 1854 (New York Public Library). )

Sources and references

  • Caulaincourt’s memoirs appeared under the title Souvenirs du duc de Vicence in 1837–1840.
  • Albert Vandal, Napoleon et Alexandre (Paris, 1891–1895);
  • Tatischeff, Alexandre I et Napoleon (Paris, 1892);
  • H Houssaye, 1814 (Paris, 1888), and 1815 (Paris, 1893).
  • At Napoleon’s Side in Russia: The Classic Eyewitness Account by Armand de Caulaincourt (Enigma Books, 2001: ISBN 978-1-929631-17-9)

Category:1773 births Category:1827 deaths Category:People from Aisne Category:Burials at Père Lachaise Cemetery Category:French Foreign Ministers Category:French military personnel of the French Revolutionary Wars Category:French commanders of the Napoleonic Wars Category:Grand Marshals of the Palace Category:Dukes of the First French Empire Category:Members of the Sénat conservateur Category:Knights of the Order of Saint Hubert Category:Ambassadors of France to Russia Category:19th-century diplomats

Biography

Armand de Caulaincourt was born to a noble family in Caulaincourt, Aisne, in the French region of Picardie. He entered the army at the age of 15, without achieving a high degree of success.

In 1792 he was a captain, but he was thrown into prison—probably because he had rendered himself obnoxious to the democrats. He was freed, but on condition that he should serve as a simple grenadier. He did so for three years, when, through the intercession of General Hoche, he was restored to his former rank as captain. Yet even after ten years of service, his advancements were very slow.

He eventually attained the rank of colonel in the Army of the Rhine in 1799–1800. After the peace of Lunéville in 1801 he was sent to St Petersburg by Napoleon. His mission was ostensibly to compliment Alexander I on his accession to the crown, but in reality to destroy the English influence in that court.

On his return he was named aide-de-camp of the First Consul. He was employed to seize some agents of the English government in Baden in 1804, which led to the accusation that he was implicated in the arrest of the duc d’Enghien, which he vigorously denied.

After the establishment of the empire he received various honors and was given the title of Duke of Vicenza in 1808, a duché grand-fief (a rare, nominal but hereditary honor; extinguished in 1896). In 1807, Napoleon had sent him as an ambassador to St. Petersburg, where Caulaincourt tried to maintain the alliance of Tilsit. His tasks were more those of a spy than an ambassador, and although Napoleon’s ambition made the task a difficult one, Caulaincourt succeeded in it for some years.

In 1810, Caulaincourt strongly advised Napoleon to renounce his proposed expedition to Russia. During the war he accompanied the emperor and was one of those whom Napoleon took along with him when he suddenly left his army in Poland to return to Paris in December 1812. At the beginning of 1813, following the death of general Duroc, Caulaincourt took up the position of Grand Marshal of the Palace. He was charged with all diplomatic negotiations and signed the armistice of Pleswitz, June 1813, represented France at the congress of Prague in August 1813, and at the Treaty of Fontainebleau on 10 April 1814.

During the first Bourbon Restoration, Caulaincourt lived in obscure retirement.

When Napoleon returned from Elba (the Hundred Days), he became his minister of foreign affairs, and tried to persuade Europe of the emperor’s peaceful intentions.

After the second Restoration, Caulaincourt’s name was on the list of those proscribed, but it was erased on the personal intervention of Alexander I with Louis XVIII. Caulaincourt’s famous memoir, "With Napoleon in Russia" was lost for years and finally unearthed after World War I. Many years of restoration followed and it was finally published for the first time in 1933.

Notes