Henry Wellesley, 1st Earl Cowley

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Henry Wellesley, 1st Earl Cowley

Henry Richard Charles Wellesley, 1st Earl Cowley , KG , GCB , PC (born July 17, 1804 , Mayfair , London , † July 15, 1884 in Draycot Cerne , Wiltshire ) was a British diplomat.

Wellesley was the son of Henry Wellesley, 1st Baron Cowley , the youngest brother of Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington and Richard Colley-Wellesley, 1st Marquess Wellesley and his wife Lady Charlotte, daughter of Charles Cadogan, 1st. Earl Cadogan.

Diplomatic career

After studying at Eton and Brasenose College , Oxford , he entered the diplomatic service in 1824. In 1832 he became his father's embassy attaché in Vienna . This was followed by positions as legation secretary in Stuttgart and from 1843 in Constantinople, where he served as chargé d' affaires for a year from July 1846 during Sir Stratford Canning's absence.

His father's death in 1847 called Wellesley back to Britain and the House of Lords and he became Lord Cowley. In 1848 he received his first important assignment and was appointed envoy for the Swiss cantons. In July 1848 he was given a special mission and transferred to Frankfurt as British envoy to the German Confederation to represent the United Kingdom in the newly created German central authority. For a short period from June 1851 he held a position as ambassador extraordinary and authorized minister at the German Confederation . In 1852 he was appointed to succeed Lord Normanby as British ambassador in Paris . He held this office for the following 15 years, during which the cabinets and the ruling party at home changed several times. His tenure covered substantial parts of the reign of Napoleon III. from. He managed to overcome several diplomatic crises between the two countries. In 1856 he was part of the United Kingdom delegation to the negotiations for the Third Peace of Paris to end the Crimean War . In 1860 a trade agreement , the Cobden-Chevalier Treaty , was even signed . Seven years later, Wellesley resigned at his own initiative.

Personal life and title

Wellesley married on October 23, 1833 Olivia Cecilia FitzGerald († 1885), a daughter of Henry and Lady Charlotte FitzGerald-de Ros , and granddaughter of James FitzGerald, 1st Duke of Leinster , with whom he had three sons and two daughters. One of his daughters, Lady Feodorowna Cecilia Wellesley (1838-1920), married Francis Bertie , a British diplomat and future British ambassador to France.

On April 11, 1857, he was elevated to Earl Cowley and Viscount Dangan in County Meath because of his services . Both of these titles, like the one inherited from the father, belong to the Peerage of the United Kingdom .

In 1866 he was made Knight of the Order of the Garter for his service and assistance to Richard Cobden for the trade treaty between Great Britain and France in 1860. In 1863 he inherited the family property at Draycot Cerne in Wiltshire from William Pole-Tylney-Long-Wellesley, 5th Earl of Mornington , where he lived until his death.

See also

Literature and works

  • Henry Richard Charles Wellesley Cowley, Édouard Drouyn de Lhuys: Convention between Her Majesty and the Emperor of the French: additional to the Convention of April 3, 1843, relative to Post Office arrangements, signed at Paris, December 12, 1854 . Printed by Harrison and Sons, London 1855, OCLC 193840320 .
  • Maritime League for the Resumption of Naval Rights by Great Britain, Henry Richard Charles Wellesley Cowley: The Declaration of Paris. Correspondence with Lord Cowley. No. l . London 1876, OCLC 943710 , JSTOR : 60235162 .
  • Henry Richard Charles Wellesley Cowley, Frederick Arthur Wellesley: The Paris embassy during the Second Empire selections from the papers of Henry Richard Charles Wellesley, 1st earl Cowley, ambassador at Paris, 1852–1867 . T. Butterworth, London 1928, OCLC 693115813 .
  • Henry Richard Charles Wellesley Cowley, Frederick Arthur Wellesley: Secrets of the second empire; private letters from the Paris embassy . Harper & Bros., New York and London 1929, OCLC 353050 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Henry Richard Charles Wellesley, 1st Earl Cowley on thepeerage.com , accessed February 14, 2016.
  2. ↑ a b c d e f g Wellesley, Henry Richard Charles, 1st Earl of Cowley (1804-1884). In: British Armorial Bindings. armorial.library.utoronto.ca, accessed February 14, 2016 .
  3. ↑ Henry Wellesley in Hansard (English)
predecessor Office successor
New title created Earl Cowley
1857-1884 		William Wellesley
Henry Wellesley Baron Cowley
1847-1884 		William Wellesley
personal data
SURNAME Wellesley, Henry, 1st Earl Cowley
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Wellesley, Henry
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British diplomat
DATE OF BIRTH July 17, 1804
PLACE OF BIRTH Mayfair , London
DATE OF DEATH July 15, 1884
Place of death Draycot Cerne , Wiltshire