Charles de La Valette

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Charles de La Valette

Charles Jean Marin Félix, Marquis de La Valette (born November 25, 1806 in Senlis , † May 2, 1881 in Paris ) was a French diplomat and politician . From March 1865 to November 1867 he was Minister of the Interior and in September 1866 (interim) and from December 1868 to July 1869 as Minister of Foreign Affairs.

Life

Charles Jean Marin Félix, Marquis de La Valette, son of Jean Louis Achille de La Valette and Marie-Éléonore Tarteron de Montiers, entered the diplomatic career during the July monarchy of King Louis-Philippe . From 1837 to 1841 he was the French legation secretary in Stockholm , organized a mission in London in 1840 and on July 25, 1843 became the first legation secretary and consul general in Alexandria . Returning home in 1845, he received an important mission to Ibrahim Pasha in November of that year . The Arrondissement of Bergerac sent him on August 1, 1846 to the Chamber of Deputies , where he voted with the conservative majority. Also in 1846 he became an authorized minister in Kassel . After the February Revolution of 1848 , he temporarily withdrew into private life.

As French President, Louis Napoléon Bonaparte (later Emperor Napoleon III ) sent La Valette, who was devoted to him, to Constantinople in 1849 as envoy extraordinary . In 1852 La Valette was raised to the rank of ambassador to the Sublime Porte . On the occasion of the question about the holy places personally touched, he requested his recall and was replaced in February 1853 by Edmond de Lacour . But La Valette entered the Senate of the Empire on June 23, 1853 .

On May 21, 1860, La Valette was again accredited as ambassador to Constantinople and fulfilled this function under difficult circumstances. Because of the massacre committed by the Druze of Christians in Lebanon, he complained heavily to the Ottoman government on behalf of the French government in July 1860. Before this he also had to justify the occupation of Syria by French troops (August 1860 to June 1861). He was then appointed ambassador to the Pope on August 28, 1861, as the successor to Antoine Alfred Agénor de Gramont . On October 18, 1862, he gave up this post again after his friend Édouard Thouvenel had resigned as Foreign Minister.

In place of Paul Boudet , La Valette became Minister of the Interior in the cabinet of Eugène Rouher on March 28, 1865 . He cracked down on the press, suppressed the Courrier du dimanche in 1866 because of a letter from Lucien-Anatole Prévost-Paradol directed against the Empire, and repealed a number of municipal councils. In March 1867, during his administration in Roubaix , due to a coalition law, workers rioted, which he punished relentlessly.

When Édouard Drouyn de Lhuys lost the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on September 1, 1866, La Valette led it on an interim basis alongside his own until the Marquis de Moustier arrived from Constantinople at the beginning of October 1866. During this representation he issued a circular on September 14, 1866 about the new situation in Germany after Prussia's decisive victory over Austria in the battle of Königgrätz (July 3, 1866). This dispatch, essentially the work of Napoleon III. and Rouher, was to disguise the defeat of the Kaiser's policy on the German question. La Valette received the Order of the Black Eagle from Prussia . The French newspapers were full of his praise when, on November 13, 1867, he laid down his interior portfolio; his wise moderation was emphasized.

Since April 15, 1852, Grand Officer, La Valette was appointed Grand Cross of the Legion of Honor on July 10, 1861 and Officier de l'instruction publique on August 15, 1866 .

In place of Moustier, he was appointed Foreign Minister on December 17, 1868. He zealously advocated a peaceful policy. In this sense, he explained in the Legislative Body on 10 April 1869 the Government to Italy relations are satisfactory, the moment had not yet come, in terms of Rome to keep to the September contract of 1864 and the Papal States to vacate. On the question of the Belgian railways, which could have become a war, the Minister observed the same peaceful attitude and on April 27, 1869 signed the minutes of the negotiations with Walthère Frère-Orban , the Belgian Prime Minister, which took place on July 10 in the Signing of a new collective bargaining agreement ended.

As a result of the imperial embassy of July 12, 1869, which announced a change of policy, La Valette and all his ministerial colleagues said goodbye, and La Tour d'Auvergne-Lauraguais became his successor. But Napoleon III sent him. as ambassador to London, where he presented his credit on August 19th. He tried to win the London cabinet over to the interests of France when war with Germany threatened, but achieved nothing. When Émile Ollivier formed his cabinet, La Valette resigned on January 3, 1870. After long and severe suffering, he died on May 2, 1881 at the age of 74 in Paris.

literature

personal data
SURNAME La Valette, Charles de
ALTERNATIVE NAMES La Valette, Charles Jean Marin Félix, Marquis de
BRIEF DESCRIPTION French diplomat and politician
DATE OF BIRTH November 25, 1806
PLACE OF BIRTH Senlis
DATE OF DEATH May 2, 1881
Place of death Paris