Edouard Thouvenel

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Edouard Thouvenel

Edouard Antoine Thouvenel (born November 11, 1818 in Verdun , † October 18, 1866 in Paris ) was a French diplomat and foreign minister.

Life

Edouard Thouvenel traveled to the Orient after completing his legal studies (cf. his work La Hongrie et la Valachie, souvenirs de voyage et notes historiques , Paris 1840). He then joined the Foreign Office under de Sages, Director of Political Affairs in the Guizot - Soult cabinet . In 1844 he went as an attaché to the embassy in Brussels and in 1845 as embassy secretary to Athens , where he became interim chargé d'affaires in 1846 and envoy in 1848. In 1850 he was transferred to Munich .

As a staunch supporter of the Prince-President Napoleon III. Thouvenel received after his coup d'état of December 2, 1851, as the successor of de Sages, the management of political affairs in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, when he was in charge of Turgot . He kept this position under Édouard Drouyn de Lhuys , for whom he wrote the most important notes and circular dispatches. Napoleon III, who was proclaimed emperor. he made himself indispensable through the dexterity with which he understood his ideas and how to shape them diplomatically in a perfect form. In July 1855 he became Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary in Constantinople and exercised there during the Crimean War and the following years, alongside the English envoy, Lord Stratford de Redcliffe , an important influence on the policy of the Sublime Porte . But he did not succeed in increasing the French influence in the divan at the expense of the English. Senator since May 8, 1859 , he was French Foreign Minister from January 24, 1860 to October 15, 1862, before handing this office over to Drouyn de Lhuys. He died on October 18, 1866 at the age of 48 in Paris of a heart disease from which he had long suffered.

Fonts

  • La Hongrie et la Valachie, souvenirs de voyage et notes historiques . Paris 1840

L. Thouvenel also published from his memoirs:

  • Le secret de l'empereur. Correspondance confidentielle et inédite entre M. Thouvenel, le duc de Grammont et le général Flahault 1860-63 , 2 volumes, Paris 1889
  • La Grèce du roi Othon. Correspondance de M. Thouvenel avec sa famille et ses amis , 1890
  • Nicolas I er et Napoleon III. Les préliminaires de la guerre de Crimée 1852-54 , 1891
  • Épisodes d'histoire contemporain , 1892
  • Trois années de la question d'Orient 1856-59 , 1897
  • Pages de l'histoire du second empire , 1903

literature

personal data
SURNAME Thouvenel, Édouard
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Thouvenel, Edouard Antoine
BRIEF DESCRIPTION French diplomat and politician
DATE OF BIRTH November 11, 1818
PLACE OF BIRTH Verdun
DATE OF DEATH October 18, 1866
Place of death Paris