Florimond Claude by Mercy-Argenteau

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Florimont-Claude Mercy-Argenteau (1757)

Florimond Claude, Count of Mercy-Argenteau (born April 20, 1727 in Liège , † August 25, 1794 in London ) was a senior Austrian diplomat .

Life

Florimond Claude was a son of Antoine, Count of Mercy-Argenteau. He entered the Austrian diplomatic service and went to Paris in the wake of Count Kaunitz . He became Austrian minister in Turin , Saint Petersburg and in 1766 in Paris. There his first task was to strengthen the alliance between France and Austria, which was established in 1770 by the marriage of the Dauphin, later Louis XVI. , with Marie Antoinette , daughter of Empress Maria Theresa .

When Ludwig and Marie Antoinette ascended the throne four years later, Mercy-Argenteau became one of the most influential figures at the French court. He stayed in Paris during the tumultuous years that culminated in the Revolution and offered his help first to Brienne and then to Necker .

In 1792 he was appointed Minister Plenipotentiary of the Belgian provinces , which had only recently been more closely linked to Austria. Although he initially advocated a moderate course, Mercy-Argenteau supported the Austrian measure of waging war against his former ally after the outbreak of the revolution. In July 1794 he was appointed Austrian ambassador to Great Britain , but died a few days after his arrival in London .

A permanent correspondence between Mercy-Argenteau and Maria Theresa during his time at the French royal court has been handed down. Many historians draw their ideas about the relationship between Louis XVI from these letters, in which he sometimes also goes into intimate details from the coexistence of the royal couple. and Marie-Antoinette, who took the picture of Louis XVI. cement in public opinion to this day. However, many of his representations, especially those of his supposedly great influence on Louis XVI, with whom he likes to show off to the Empress Maria Theresa, as well as statements about the marriage and sexual life of the royal couple, are extremely questionable. The British historian Vincent Cronin has shown that Mercy-Argenteau demonstrably compelled Marie-Antoinette's confidante, Vermond, to make false statements to Maria Teresia in order to cover up a false report of his own. Cronin consistently paints an unflattering, but unexplained and realistic picture of Mercy-Argenteau, who wanted to maintain his comfortable position in Paris at all costs and therefore greatly exaggerated his own importance in his weekly reports. In one of his reports to Maria Theresa he wrote:

“I managed to win over three people who are in the service of the Archduchess [by which he means Marie-Antoinette], one of her maids and two servants, who give me a detailed account of everything that happened. I am informed daily about her conversations with Abbé de Vermond, from which she hides nothing. In addition, the Marquise de Dufort informs me about everything she talks to her aunts. After all, I have sources of information that will keep me informed when the Dauphine visits the King. In addition, there are my personal observations, so that there is not an hour in the Archduchess' daily routine that I am not fully aware of. "

When Marie-Antoinette's older brother and future heir to the Austrian throne Joseph, on behalf of Maria Theresa incognito, visited the royal couple in Paris as Count von Falkenstein to get an idea of ​​the grievances in the marriage of the royal couple described by Mercy-Argenteau, he was astonished that he found his sister completely different from what Mercy-Argenteau described. Cronin writes the following about this:

"Mercy, knowing his own weakness, knew that he would only be essential to the Empress if he appeared to be strong. What could be more natural than to portray the Dauphin as a weakling, as if he were wax in Antoinette's hands. If he, Mercy, appeared in Vienna as the strong man who, through Antoinette, ruled the future King of France, his indispensability would be assured. "

The content of his reports often consisted of portraying the heir to the French throne and future king as illiterate and stupid, as well as having physical defects - a false image that has, however, manifested itself in the history books and is responsible for the Mercy-Argenteau. The real Louis XVI. was very well read, educated and of stately appearance.

literature

predecessor Office successor
Georg Barré Austrian envoy to Sardinia-Piedmont
June 14, 1754-18. Dec 1760
Johann Sigismund von Khevenhüller-Metsch (from 1762)
Nicholas I Joseph Esterházy de Galantha Austrian Ambassador to Russia
June 15, 1761–6. Oct. 1763
Joseph Maria Karl von Lobkowitz
Georg Adam von Starhemberg Austrian ambassador to France
1766–1790
Franz Paul von Blumendorf