Agenor, duc de Gramont
Encyclopedia
Antoine Alfred Agénor, Duc de Gramont (14 August 1819 - 17 January 1880) was a French diplomat
and statesman
.
He was born at Paris of one of the most illustrious families of the old noblesse, a cadet branch of the viscounts of Aure
, which took its name from the Seignory
of Gramont
in Navarre
. His grandfather, Antoine Louis Marie, duc de Gramont (1755–1836), had emigrated during the French Revolution
, and his father, Antoine Heraclius Genevieve Agenor
(1789–1855), duc de Gramont and de Guiche, fought under the British flag in the Peninsular War
, became a lieutenant-general in the French army in 1823, and in 1830 accompanied Charles X of France
to Scotland.
The younger generation, however, were Bonapartist
in sympathy; Gramont's cousin Antoine Louis Raymond, comte de Gramont (1787–1825), though also the son of an émigré, served with distinction in Napoléon's armies, while Antoine Agenor, duc de Gramont, owed his career to his early friendship for Louis Napoleon.
Educated at the École Polytechnique
, Gramont early gave up the army for diplomacy
. It was not, however, till after the coup d'état
of 2 December 1851, which made Louis Napoleon supreme in France, that he became conspicuous as a diplomat. He was successively minister plenipotentiary at Cassel and Stuttgart
(1852), at Turin
(1853), ambassador
at Rome (1857) and at Vienna
(1861).
cabinet, and was thus largely, though not entirely, responsible for the bungling of the negotiations between France and Prussia
arising out of the candidature of Prince Leopold of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen for the throne of Spain, which led to the disastrous war of 1870-71
.
The exact share of Gramont in this responsibility has been the subject of much controversy. The last word may be said to have been uttered by Émile Ollivier himself in his L'Empire libéral (tome xii, 1909, passim). The famous declaration read by Gramont in the Chamber on 6 July, the "threat with the hand on the sword-hilt," as Bismarck
called it, was the joint draft of the whole cabinet; the original draft presented by Gramont was judged to be too "elliptical" in its conclusion and not sufficiently vigorous; the reference to a revival of the empire of Charles V
was suggested by Ollivier; the paragraph asserting that France would not allow a foreign power to disturb to her own detriment the actual equilibrium of Europe was inserted by the emperor. So far, then, as this declaration is concerned, it is clear that Gramont's responsibility must be shared with his sovereign and his colleagues (Ollivier op. cit. xii. 107; see also the two given on p. 570).
It is clear, however, that he did not share the "passion" of his colleagues for "peace with honour", clear also that he wholly misread the intentions of the European powers in the event of war. That he reckoned upon the active alliance of Austria was due, according to Ollivier, to the fact that for nine years he had been a persona grata in the aristocrat
ic society of Vienna, where the necessity for revenging the humiliation of 1866 was an article of faith. This confidence made him less disposed than many of his colleagues to make the best of the renunciation of the candidature made, on behalf of his son, by the prince of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen.
It was Gramont who pointed out to the emperor, on the evening of the 12th, the dubious circumstances of the act of renunciation, and on the same night, without informing Ollivier, despatched to Benedetti
at Ems
the fatal telegram demanding the king of Prussia's guarantee that the candidature would not be revived. The supreme responsibility for this act must rest with the emperor, "who imposed it by an exercise of personal power on the only one of his ministers who could have lent himself to such a forgetfulness of the safeguards of a parliament
ary regime." As for Gramont, he had "no conception of the exigencies of this regime; he remained an ambassador accustomed to obey the orders of his sovereign; in all good faith he had no idea that this was not correct, and that, himself a parliamentary minister, he had associated himself with an act destructive of the authority of parliament." "On his part," adds Ollivier, "it was the result only of obedience, not of warlike premeditation" (op. cit. p. 262). The apology may be taken for what it is worth. To France and to the world Gramont was responsible for the policy which put his country definitely into the wrong in the eyes of Europe, and enabled Bismarck to administer to her the "slap in the face" () as Gramont called it in the Chamber by means of the mutilated "Ems telegram
," which was the immediate cause of the French declaration of war on the 15th.
, produced four children, Including Agenor, 11th Duc de Gramont, from whom the incumbent 14th Duc de Gramont is descended. During his retirement he published various apologies for his policy in 1870, notably (Paris, 1872).
Besides Ollivier's work quoted in the text, see L. Thouvenel, (2nd ed., 2 vols., 1889). A small pamphlet containing his Souvenirs 1848-1850 was published in 1901 by his brother Antoine Leon Philibert Auguste de Gramont, duc de Lesparre.
Diplomat
A diplomat is a person appointed by a state to conduct diplomacy with another state or international organization. The main functions of diplomats revolve around the representation and protection of the interests and nationals of the sending state, as well as the promotion of information and...
and statesman
Statesman
A statesman is usually a politician or other notable public figure who has had a long and respected career in politics or government at the national and international level. As a term of respect, it is usually left to supporters or commentators to use the term...
.
He was born at Paris of one of the most illustrious families of the old noblesse, a cadet branch of the viscounts of Aure
Aure, Ardennes
Aure is a commune in the Ardennes department in France....
, which took its name from the Seignory
Seignory
In English law, Seignory or seigniory , the lordship remaining to a grantor after the grant of an estate in fee simple....
of Gramont
Gramont
Gramont is the name of an old French noble family, whose name is connected to the castle of Gramont, Agramont in Spanish, in the French Basque province of Lower Navarre.- Key representatives :...
in Navarre
Navarre
Navarre , officially the Chartered Community of Navarre is an autonomous community in northern Spain, bordering the Basque Country, La Rioja, and Aragon in Spain and Aquitaine in France...
. His grandfather, Antoine Louis Marie, duc de Gramont (1755–1836), had emigrated during the French Revolution
French Revolution
The French Revolution , sometimes distinguished as the 'Great French Revolution' , was a period of radical social and political upheaval in France and Europe. The absolute monarchy that had ruled France for centuries collapsed in three years...
, and his father, Antoine Heraclius Genevieve Agenor
Antoine-Geneviève-Héraclius-Agénor de Gramont
Antoine IX Héraclius-Agénor de Gramont, Duke de Guiche and then Duke of Gramont was a French aristocrat.-Life:...
(1789–1855), duc de Gramont and de Guiche, fought under the British flag in the Peninsular War
Peninsular War
The Peninsular War was a war between France and the allied powers of Spain, the United Kingdom, and Portugal for control of the Iberian Peninsula during the Napoleonic Wars. The war began when French and Spanish armies crossed Spain and invaded Portugal in 1807. Then, in 1808, France turned on its...
, became a lieutenant-general in the French army in 1823, and in 1830 accompanied Charles X of France
Charles X of France
Charles X was known for most of his life as the Comte d'Artois before he reigned as King of France and of Navarre from 16 September 1824 until 2 August 1830. A younger brother to Kings Louis XVI and Louis XVIII, he supported the latter in exile and eventually succeeded him...
to Scotland.
The younger generation, however, were Bonapartist
Bonapartist
In French political history, Bonapartism has two meanings. In a strict sense, this term refers to people who aimed to restore the French Empire under the House of Bonaparte, the Corsican family of Napoleon Bonaparte and his nephew Louis...
in sympathy; Gramont's cousin Antoine Louis Raymond, comte de Gramont (1787–1825), though also the son of an émigré, served with distinction in Napoléon's armies, while Antoine Agenor, duc de Gramont, owed his career to his early friendship for Louis Napoleon.
Educated at the École Polytechnique
École Polytechnique
The École Polytechnique is a state-run institution of higher education and research in Palaiseau, Essonne, France, near Paris. Polytechnique is renowned for its four year undergraduate/graduate Master's program...
, Gramont early gave up the army for diplomacy
Diplomacy
Diplomacy is the art and practice of conducting negotiations between representatives of groups or states...
. It was not, however, till after the coup d'état
Coup d'état
A coup d'état state, literally: strike/blow of state)—also known as a coup, putsch, and overthrow—is the sudden, extrajudicial deposition of a government, usually by a small group of the existing state establishment—typically the military—to replace the deposed government with another body; either...
of 2 December 1851, which made Louis Napoleon supreme in France, that he became conspicuous as a diplomat. He was successively minister plenipotentiary at Cassel and Stuttgart
Stuttgart
Stuttgart is the capital of the state of Baden-Württemberg in southern Germany. The sixth-largest city in Germany, Stuttgart has a population of 600,038 while the metropolitan area has a population of 5.3 million ....
(1852), at Turin
Turin
Turin is a city and major business and cultural centre in northern Italy, capital of the Piedmont region, located mainly on the left bank of the Po River and surrounded by the Alpine arch. The population of the city proper is 909,193 while the population of the urban area is estimated by Eurostat...
(1853), ambassador
Ambassador
An ambassador is the highest ranking diplomat who represents a nation and is usually accredited to a foreign sovereign or government, or to an international organization....
at Rome (1857) and at Vienna
Vienna
Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...
(1861).
Franco-Prussian War
On 15 May 1870 he was appointed minister of foreign affairs in the OllivierÉmile Ollivier
Olivier Émile Ollivier was a French statesman. Although a republican, he served as a cabinet minister under Emperor Napoleon III and led the process of turning his regime into a "liberal Empire".-Early life and career:Émile Ollivier was born in Marseille...
cabinet, and was thus largely, though not entirely, responsible for the bungling of the negotiations between France and Prussia
Prussia
Prussia was a German kingdom and historic state originating out of the Duchy of Prussia and the Margraviate of Brandenburg. For centuries, the House of Hohenzollern ruled Prussia, successfully expanding its size by way of an unusually well-organized and effective army. Prussia shaped the history...
arising out of the candidature of Prince Leopold of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen for the throne of Spain, which led to the disastrous war of 1870-71
Franco-Prussian War
The Franco-Prussian War or Franco-German War, often referred to in France as the 1870 War was a conflict between the Second French Empire and the Kingdom of Prussia. Prussia was aided by the North German Confederation, of which it was a member, and the South German states of Baden, Württemberg and...
.
The exact share of Gramont in this responsibility has been the subject of much controversy. The last word may be said to have been uttered by Émile Ollivier himself in his L'Empire libéral (tome xii, 1909, passim). The famous declaration read by Gramont in the Chamber on 6 July, the "threat with the hand on the sword-hilt," as Bismarck
Otto von Bismarck
Otto Eduard Leopold, Prince of Bismarck, Duke of Lauenburg , simply known as Otto von Bismarck, was a Prussian-German statesman whose actions unified Germany, made it a major player in world affairs, and created a balance of power that kept Europe at peace after 1871.As Minister President of...
called it, was the joint draft of the whole cabinet; the original draft presented by Gramont was judged to be too "elliptical" in its conclusion and not sufficiently vigorous; the reference to a revival of the empire of Charles V
Charles V of France
Charles V , called the Wise, was King of France from 1364 to his death in 1380 and a member of the House of Valois...
was suggested by Ollivier; the paragraph asserting that France would not allow a foreign power to disturb to her own detriment the actual equilibrium of Europe was inserted by the emperor. So far, then, as this declaration is concerned, it is clear that Gramont's responsibility must be shared with his sovereign and his colleagues (Ollivier op. cit. xii. 107; see also the two given on p. 570).
It is clear, however, that he did not share the "passion" of his colleagues for "peace with honour", clear also that he wholly misread the intentions of the European powers in the event of war. That he reckoned upon the active alliance of Austria was due, according to Ollivier, to the fact that for nine years he had been a persona grata in the aristocrat
Aristocracy (class)
The aristocracy are people considered to be in the highest social class in a society which has or once had a political system of Aristocracy. Aristocrats possess hereditary titles granted by a monarch, which once granted them feudal or legal privileges, or deriving, as in Ancient Greece and India,...
ic society of Vienna, where the necessity for revenging the humiliation of 1866 was an article of faith. This confidence made him less disposed than many of his colleagues to make the best of the renunciation of the candidature made, on behalf of his son, by the prince of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen.
It was Gramont who pointed out to the emperor, on the evening of the 12th, the dubious circumstances of the act of renunciation, and on the same night, without informing Ollivier, despatched to Benedetti
Vincent, Count Benedetti
Vincent, Count Benedetti was a French diplomat. He is probably best known as one of the central figures in the instigation of the Franco-Prussian War.Benedetti was born at Bastia, on the island of Corsica...
at Ems
Bad Ems
Bad Ems is a town in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It is the county seat of the Rhein-Lahn rural district and is well known as a bathing resort on the river Lahn...
the fatal telegram demanding the king of Prussia's guarantee that the candidature would not be revived. The supreme responsibility for this act must rest with the emperor, "who imposed it by an exercise of personal power on the only one of his ministers who could have lent himself to such a forgetfulness of the safeguards of a parliament
Parliament
A parliament is a legislature, especially in those countries whose system of government is based on the Westminster system modeled after that of the United Kingdom. The name is derived from the French , the action of parler : a parlement is a discussion. The term came to mean a meeting at which...
ary regime." As for Gramont, he had "no conception of the exigencies of this regime; he remained an ambassador accustomed to obey the orders of his sovereign; in all good faith he had no idea that this was not correct, and that, himself a parliamentary minister, he had associated himself with an act destructive of the authority of parliament." "On his part," adds Ollivier, "it was the result only of obedience, not of warlike premeditation" (op. cit. p. 262). The apology may be taken for what it is worth. To France and to the world Gramont was responsible for the policy which put his country definitely into the wrong in the eyes of Europe, and enabled Bismarck to administer to her the "slap in the face" () as Gramont called it in the Chamber by means of the mutilated "Ems telegram
Ems Dispatch
The Ems Dispatch , sometimes called the Ems Telegram, caused France to declare the Franco-Prussian War in July 1870. The actual dispatch was an internal message from the Prussian King's vacationing site to Bismarck in Berlin, reporting demands made by the French ambassador; it was Bismarck's...
," which was the immediate cause of the French declaration of war on the 15th.
Later life
After the defeat of Weissenburg (4 August) Gramont resigned his office with the rest of the Ollivier ministry (9 August), and after the revolution of September he went to England, returning after the war to Paris, where he died on 18 January 1880. His marriage in 1848 to Emma Mary Mackinnon, daughter of William Alexander Mackinnon, 33rd Chief of the Scottish Clan Fingon (Mackinnon)Clan MacKinnon
Clan Mackinnon or Clan Fingon is a Highland Scottish clan associated with the islands of Mull and Skye, in the Inner Hebrides.Popular tradition gives the clan a Dalriadic Gaelic origin. The 19th century historian W. F. Skene named the clan as one of the seven clans of Siol Alpin - who according to...
, produced four children, Including Agenor, 11th Duc de Gramont, from whom the incumbent 14th Duc de Gramont is descended. During his retirement he published various apologies for his policy in 1870, notably (Paris, 1872).
Besides Ollivier's work quoted in the text, see L. Thouvenel, (2nd ed., 2 vols., 1889). A small pamphlet containing his Souvenirs 1848-1850 was published in 1901 by his brother Antoine Leon Philibert Auguste de Gramont, duc de Lesparre.