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BENEDETTI, VINCENT, COUNT (1817--1900)
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See also:BENEDETTI, See also:VINCENT, See also:COUNT (1817--1900) , See also:French diplomatist, was See also:born at See also:Bastia, in the See also:island of See also:Corsica, on the 29th of See also:April 1817. In the See also:year 184o he entered the service of the French See also:foreign See also:office, and was appointed to a See also:post under the See also:marquis de la Valette, who was See also:consul-See also:general at See also:Cairo. He spent eight years in See also:Egypt, being appointed consul in 1845; in 1848 he was made consul at See also:Palermo, and in 1851 he accompanied the marquis, who had been appointed See also:ambassador at See also:Constantinople, as first secretary. For fifteen months during the progress of the See also:Crimean See also:War he acted as See also:charge d'affaires. In the second See also:volume of his essays he gives some recollections of his experiences in the See also:East, including an See also:account of Mehemet See also:Ali, and a (not very friendly) See also:sketch of See also:Lord See also:Stratford de Redcliffe. In 1855, after refusing the post of See also:minister at See also:Teheran, he was employed in the foreign office at See also:Paris, and acted as secretary to the See also:congress at Paris (18J5-1856). During the next few years he was chiefly occupied with See also:Italian affairs, in which he was much interested, and See also:Cavour said of him he was an Italian at See also:heart. He was chosen in 1861 to be the first See also:envoy of See also:France to the See also: His position was a difficult one, for See also:Napoleon did not keep him fully informed as to the course of French policy. In 1866, during the See also:critical See also:weeks which followed the See also:attempt of Napoleon to intervene between Prussia and See also:Austria; he accompanied the Prussian headquarters in the advance on See also:Vienna, and during a visit to Vienna he helped to arrange the preliftiinaries of the See also:armistice signed at See also:Nikolsburg. It was after this that he was instructed to See also:present to See also:Bismarck French demands for " See also:compensation," and in See also:August, after his return to Berlin, as a result of his discussions with Bismarck a draft treaty was See also:drawn up, in which Prussia promised France her support in the See also:annexation of See also:Belgium. This treaty was never concluded, but the draft, which was in Benedetti's See also:handwriting, was kept by Bismarck and, in 1870, a few days after the outbreak of the war, was published by him in The Times. During 1867 Benedetti was much occupied with the affair of See also:Luxemburg. In See also:July 187o, when the candidature of the See also:prince of See also:Hohenzollern for the See also:throne of See also:Spain became known, Benedetti was instructed by the duc de See also:Gramont to present to the king of Prussia, who was then at See also:Ems, the French demands, that the king should See also:order the prince to withdraw, and afterwards that the king should promise that the candidature would never be renewed. This last demand Benedetti submitted to the king in an informal See also:meeting on the See also:promenade at Ems, and the misleading reports of the conversation which were circulated were the immediate cause of the See also:wax which followed, for the Germans were led to believe that Benedetti had insulted the king, and the French that the king had insulted the ambassador. Benedetti was severely attacked in his own See also:country for his conduct as ambassador, and the duc de Gramont attempted to throw upon him the blame for the failures of French See also:diplomacy. He answered the charges brought against him in a See also:book, Ma See also:Mission en Prusse (Paris, 1871), which still remains one of the most valuable authorities for the study of Bismarck's diplomacy. In this Benedetti successfully defends himself, and shows that he had kept his See also:government well informed; he had 718 even warned them a year before as to the proposed Hohenzollern candidature. Even if he had been outwitted by Bismarck in the See also:matter of the treaty of 1866, the policy of the treaty was not his, but was that of E. Drouyn de Lluys. The See also:idea of the annexation of part of Belgium to France had been suggested to him first by Bismarck; and the use to which Bismarck put the draft was not one which he could be expected to anticipate, for he had carried on the negotiations in See also:good faith. After the fall of the See also:Empire he retired to Corsica. He lived to see his See also:defence confirmed by later publications, which threw more See also:light on the See also:secret history of the times. He published in 1895 a volume of Essais diplomatiques, containing a full account of his mission to Ems, written in 1873; and in 1897 a second See also:series dealing with the Eastern question. He died on the 28th of See also: Additional information and CommentsThere are no comments yet for this article.
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