Frédéric-Séraphin de La Tour du Pin Gouvernet

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Frédéric-Séraphin, marquis de La Tour du Pin, comte de Gouvernet (born January 6, 1759 in Paris , † February 25, 1837 ) was a French officer , civil servant and diplomat .

family

He was the son of Jean-Frédéric de La Tour du Pin Gouvernet . The mother was Marguerite Cécile Séraphine de Guinot . The father was a member of the Estates General at the beginning of the French Revolution and became Minister of War during the constitutional monarchy . Temporarily in exile, he returned to France and was executed in 1793 during the reign of terror .

Frédéric-Séraphin de La Tour du Pin Gouvernet himself married Henriette Lucy Dillon , daughter of Arthur Dillon , in 1787 . The marriage had two children. The Marquise de La Tour du Pin-Gouvernet is best known for her memoir Journal d'une femme de 50 ans .

Life

Revolution time

Tour du Pin served as an officer in the royal army. During the American Revolutionary War he was a member of the French aid contingent in America. Before 1789 he was appointed colonel and frequented the court of Versailles . There his wife was Marie Antoinette's lady-in-waiting .

In 1791 he became envoy to The Hague . After the final fall of Louis XVI. he was recalled. From the beginning of the reign of terror, he and his heavily pregnant wife and their young son were surprised in Bordeaux . They were able to escape the execution by the mistress of Jean Lambert Tallien , who at the time was government representative in the region and, at the instigation of his girlfriend, let the couple go.

Exile in America

At times the family had to hide in France before they managed to go into exile in the United States. It was there that Tour du Pin learned of his father's execution. In America he worked for Albany as a simple farmer. The family specialized in the production of cider , which they filled into old Medoc barrels. The couple had contact with, among others, Charles-Maurice de Talleyrand-Périgord , who was also living in exile in America. During this time, the daughter, who was still born in Bordeaux, died.

When the political situation in France normalized at the time of the Board of Directors , Frédéric Séraphin urged his reluctant wife to return in 1796. Before that, they released their four black slaves, which met with the displeasure of their previous neighbors.

Empire and Restoration

After a short time in France, Tour du Pin had to go back to exile in England at times. At the time of the French Empire , he was appointed imperial comte in 1808 and was prefect in various departments (Dyle 1808, Somme 1813). Most recently he held this office in Amiens . He also carried the honorary title of imperial chamberlain.

After the end of the empire and the beginning of the restoration under Louis XVIII. he referred to his previous ambassadorial post and demanded to be reassigned to the foreign service. He was hoping for a prestigious ambassadorial post, but had to make do with representation in the provisional Dutch government of William of Orange-Nassau .

A short time later, Tour du Pin was assigned to the French delegation to the Congress of Vienna , but still officially remained ambassador to the Netherlands. Within the delegation led by Talleyrand, he should go directly to the court of Louis XVIII. report without betraying Talleyrand. Because he was the brother-in-law of Henri-Gatien Bertrand , who had previously been Napoleon's Grand Marshal and was "Minister of the Interior" of the Napoleonic Principality of Elba at the time of the Congress , he was closely monitored by the Austrian secret police. During the Congress he was a member of the commission which had the task of determining the protocol order of precedence for the various sovereigns. He played an important role in this body, which was not unimportant at the time. After Napoleon's return in 1815, he and the other French delegates co-signed the declaration of the powers that be against Napoleon.

In 1815, Tour du Pin was named Pair of France . He consented to the execution of Marshal Michel Ney . He remained ambassador to the Netherlands until 1820. He then moved to Turin in the same position.

Web links

literature

  • Pierre Henry: Histoire des préfets: Cent cinquante ans d'adminitration provinciale, 1800–1950 . Paris, 1950 p. 74.
  • Joseph Alexandre Lardier: Histoire biographique de la Chambre des pairs (...) Paris, 1829 p. 182.
  • Thierry Lentz : 1815. The Congress of Vienna and the re-establishment of Europe. Munich, 2014 p. 115 f.
  • Simon Schama : The hesitant citizen. Step backwards and progress in the French Revolution. Munich, 1989 pp. 842-847.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Caroline Moorehead : Dancing to the Precipice: The Life of Lucie de la Tour Du Pin, Eyewitness to an Era. HarperCollins, 2009.
  2. ↑ Simon Schama: The hesitating citizen. Step backwards and progress in the French Revolution. Munich 1989, pp. 842-847.
  3. ^ Thierry Lentz : 1815. The Congress of Vienna and the re-establishment of Europe. Munich, 2014 p. 115 f.
  4. ^ Thierry Lentz: 1815. The Congress of Vienna and the re-establishment of Europe. Munich 2014, p. 143.
  5. ^ Thierry Lentz: 1815. The Congress of Vienna and the re-establishment of Europe. Munich 2014, p. 289.
personal data
SURNAME La Tour du Pin Gouvernet, Frédéric-Séraphin de
BRIEF DESCRIPTION French officer, civil servant and diplomat
DATE OF BIRTH January 6, 1759
PLACE OF BIRTH Paris
DATE OF DEATH February 25, 1837