Alexandre Colonna-Walewski

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Alexandre Joseph Count von Colonna-Walewski
Alexandre Florian Joseph Colonna Walewski signature.svg

Alexandre Florian Joseph Graf von Colonna-Walewski (born May 4, 1810 in Walewice near Warsaw , † October 27, 1868 in Strasbourg ) was a French politician and diplomat . He is also known as the illegitimate son of Napoleon I and Countess Maria Walewska . The relationship between the descendants of Alexandre and Jérôme Bonaparte was genetically proven in 2013.

Life

Family coat of arms as Comte de l'Empire

Provided by his father with the title of Comte de l'Empire and an annual pension of 160,000 gold francs , he lost his mother in 1817. His maternal grandfather, Count Teodor Marcin Łączyński, took him to the Kiernozia family estate near Lowitsch in Congress Poland and later sent him to a private school in Geneva .

At 14 he returned to Poland, where the Russian governor , Grand Duke Konstantin Pavlovich Romanov , demanded that Alexander join the page corps as his personal adjutant . Alexander refused, went back to Geneva and did not return to Poland until 1830 to take part in the 1830 uprising .

In the same year, when the failure of the uprising was foreseeable, he was sent to London with Aleksander Wielopolski to ask for help from the British government. From there he saw the defeat of the insurgents. After the fall of Warsaw, he stayed in London for two years, where he married the British aristocrat Caroline Montagu.

In 1833 he went to France and joined the French Army's Foreign Legion . After being naturalized in France in December 1833, he joined the regular army. He was transferred to Algeria . In 1837 he took his leave and became a writer and journalist. In 1840 King Louis Philippe sent him to Egypt; later he was sent to Buenos Aires in Argentina with François Guizot .

When his cousin Napoléon III. came to power, he entered the foreign service and was, among other things, ambassador to Spain and Great Britain. In 1855 he was appointed Foreign Minister, which he remained until 1863. In 1866 he was made duke and a member of the Académie des beaux-arts . He died on 27 October 1868 in Strasbourg and was on the Parisian cemetery Pere Lachaise buried.

Awards

Marriages and children

On the left, the seven-year-old Catharine Caroline Montagu; Pencil drawing by Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres

1. Marriage (December 1, 1831) to Catharine Caroline Montagu (1808–1833), daughter of George John, Earl of Sandwich, and Louisa Mary Anne Harriet Corry:

  • Louise Marie Colonna-Walewska
  • George Eduard Auguste Colonna-Walewski

Both died in childhood.

2. Marriage (June 4, 1846) with Anna Maria Ricci , daughter of Count Zanobi di Ricci and Isabelle geb. Princess Poniatowska :

  • Isabelle Colonna-Walewska
  • Charles Colonna-Walewski (murdered in 1916, unmarried and had no children)
  • Elise Colonna-Walewska
  • Eugenie Colonna-Walewska (according to some sources, Eugenie was a daughter of Napoléon III )

From the relationship with Rachel Felix :

  • Alexandre Antoine Colonna-Walewski (* 1844, recognized by his father in 1844 and adopted in 1860). There are many descendants of him and through him the line of Napoleon I has survived to this day.

literature

  • Nouvelle Biography Générale , Volume 42, Paris 1866

Web links

Commons : Alexandre Colonna-Walewski  - album with pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ http://www.ijsciences.com/pub/pdf/V220130935.pdf
  2. ↑ Roczniki historyczne , Vol. 44 (1978), p. 39.
  3. ↑ Ministère des affaires étrangères: Annuaire diplomatique et consulaire de la République française . Paris 1906
  4. ^ Almanach royal de Belgique: Classé Et Mis En Ordre Par H. Tarlier
predecessor Office successor
Adrien-Théodore Benoît-Champy French envoy to Tuscany from
1849 to 1850 		Gustave de Monttessuy
Alphonse de Rayneval French envoy to Naples and Sicily
1850 to 1851 		Adolphe Barrot
Paul-Charles-Amable de Bourgoing French ambassador to Spain
20 Feb 1851 to 18 Jul 1851 		Jacques Aupick
Gustave de Beaumont French Ambassador to the United Kingdom
1851 to 1855 		Jean-Baptiste Louis Gros
Edouard Drouyn de Lhuys French Foreign Minister
May 7, 1855 to Jan 4, 1860 		Jules Baroche
personal data
SURNAME Colonna-Walewski, Alexandre
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Colonna-Walewski, Alexandré Florian Joseph (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION French politician and diplomat
DATE OF BIRTH May 4, 1810
PLACE OF BIRTH Walewice
DATE OF DEATH October 27, 1868
Place of death Strasbourg