Raymond de Verninac Saint-Maur (7 January 1761 – 23 April 1822) was a French diplomat.

Life

The Verninac family originated in

Gourdon, Lot Gourdon (; oc, Gordon) is a commune in the Lot department in south-western France. The small town, Gourdon, close to Rocamadour, is situated in the south west region of France. Gourdon has a rich prehistoric past, and a high concentration of p ...

in the former province of

Quercy Quercy (; oc, Carcin , locally ) is a former province of France located in the country's southwest, bounded on the north by Limousin, on the west by Périgord and Agenais, on the south by Gascony and Languedoc, and on the east by Rouergue and ...

. Jean de Verninac was a counsellor of the king in Villefranche in 1696. Another family member was vicar-general of Rodez in 1786. Raymond de Verninac Saint-Maur was his nephew. Raymond de Verninac was one of the three commissioners who were delegated to settle the annexation of Avignon in 1791. He was Minister to Sweden from 1792 until 1793, when

Louis XVI Louis XVI (''Louis-Auguste''; ; 23 August 175421 January 1793) was the last King of France before the fall of the monarchy during the French Revolution. He was referred to as ''Citizen Louis Capet'' during the four months just before he was ...

was executed and relations were broken off. Raymond Verninac arrived at

Constantinople la, Constantinopolis ota, قسطنطينيه , alternate_name = Byzantion (earlier Greek name), Nova Roma ("New Rome"), Miklagard/Miklagarth (Old Norse), Tsargrad ( Slavic), Qustantiniya ( Arabic), Basileuousa ("Queen of Cities"), Megalopolis ( ...

on 12 April 1795 with the title of Envoy of the French Republic. After a month of negotiations, he was accepted on 18 May 1795. He continued until 1797 as French representative to the Porte of the Ottoman Sultan Selim III. Verninac was not successful in improving relations between the Porte and France, since the Turks were not sympathetic to the recent

French Revolution The French Revolution ( ) was a period of radical political and societal change in France that began with the Estates General of 1789 and ended with the formation of the French Consulate in coup of 18 Brumaire, November 1799. Many of its ...

. He did send a commissioner to investigate the state of Egypt, who reported in September 1796 that the Ottoman Empire was in an extreme state of decay and that Egypt could be taken with little effort. On 9 April 1797 Verninac had a long interview with the general

Napoleon Bonaparte Napoleon Bonaparte ; it, Napoleone Bonaparte, ; co, Napulione Buonaparte. (born Napoleone Buonaparte; 15 August 1769 – 5 May 1821), later known by his regnal name Napoleon I, was a French military commander and political leader wh ...

, who appears to have accepted this view. The idea took hold in Napoleon's mind, and on 16 August 1797 he wrote to the Directory revealing his plan to attack Egypt. In 1798 Raymond de Verninac married

Henriette Delacroix Henriette de Verninac (1780–1827) was the daughter of Charles-François Delacroix, minister of Foreign Affairs under the Directory, and wife of the diplomat Raymond de Verninac Saint-Maur. She is known as the subject of a portrait by Jacques-Loui ...

, older sister of the future painter

Eugène Delacroix Ferdinand Victor Eugène Delacroix ( , ; 26 April 1798 – 13 August 1863) was a French Romantic artist regarded from the outset of his career as the leader of the French Romantic school.Noon, Patrick, et al., ''Crossing the Channel: Britis ...

. She was the daughter of

Charles-François Delacroix Charles-François Delacroix (or Lacroix; 15 April 1741 – 26 October 1805) was a French statesman who became Minister of Foreign Affairs under the Directory. The painter Eugène Delacroix was his fourth son, although doubts have been cast on his p ...

(or Lacroix), minister of Foreign Affairs under the

Directory Directory may refer to: * Directory (computing), or folder, a file system structure in which to store computer files * Directory (OpenVMS command) * Directory service, a software application for organizing information about a computer network's u ...

. During the

Consulate A consulate is the office of a consul. A type of diplomatic mission, it is usually subordinate to the state's main representation in the capital of that foreign country (host state), usually an embassy (or, only between two Commonwealth c ...

(1799–1804) Verninac was Prefect of the Rhône department. The Verninacs moved to

Lyon Lyon,, ; Occitan language, Occitan: ''Lion'', hist. ''Lionés'' also spelled in English as Lyons, is the List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, third-largest city and Urban area (France), second-largest metropolitan area of F ...

. From 1802–05 Raymond de Verninac was French representative to Switzerland, after which he retired from the diplomatic service. Charles Étienne Raymond Victor de Verninac was born in Paris on 19 November 1803, the couple's only child. Raymond de Verninac died on 23 April 1822. His wife was left destitute. His nephew and namesake was the future Admiral Raymond-Jean-Baptiste de Verninac Saint-Maur.

References

Citations Sources * * * * * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Verninac Saint-Maur, Raymond de 1761 births 1822 deaths Prefects of Rhône (department)