Letter of Napoleon III to the Japanese Shogun to introduce Leon Roches in replacement of Duchesne de Bellecourt

Édouard Drouyn de Lhuys (; 19 November 1805 – 1 March 1881) was a French diplomat. Born in Paris, he was educated at the

Lycée Louis-le-Grand The Lycée Louis-le-Grand (), also referred to simply as Louis-le-Grand or by its acronym LLG, is a public Lycée (French secondary school, also known as sixth form college) located on rue Saint-Jacques in central Paris. It was founded in the ...

. The scion of a wealthy and noble house, he excelled in rhetoric. He quickly became interested in politics and diplomacy.

Biography

He was ambassador to the Netherlands and Spain, and distinguished himself by his opposition to Guizot. Drouyn de Lhuys served as

Minister of Foreign Affairs A foreign affairs minister or minister of foreign affairs (less commonly minister for foreign affairs) is generally a cabinet minister in charge of a state's foreign policy and relations. The formal title of the top official varies between co ...

from 1848 to 1849 in the first government of Odilon Barrot. In Barrot's second government, he was replaced by

Alexis de Tocqueville Alexis Charles Henri Clérel, comte de Tocqueville (; 29 July 180516 April 1859), colloquially known as Tocqueville (), was a French aristocrat, diplomat, political scientist, political philosopher and historian. He is best known for his wor ...

, and was appointed ambassador to Great Britain. He returned briefly as foreign minister for a few days in January 1851, and then returned permanently in the summer of 1852, becoming the first foreign minister of the

Second Empire Second Empire may refer to: * Second British Empire, used by some historians to describe the British Empire after 1783 * Second Bulgarian Empire (1185–1396) * Second French Empire (1852–1870) ** Second Empire architecture, an architectural styl ...

. He resigned his post in 1855, during the

Crimean War The Crimean War, , was fought from October 1853 to February 1856 between Russia and an ultimately victorious alliance of the Ottoman Empire, France, the United Kingdom and Piedmont-Sardinia. Geopolitical causes of the war included the ...

, when the peace preliminaries he had agreed to in consultation with the British and Austrians at Vienna were rejected by

Napoleon III Napoleon III (Charles Louis Napoléon Bonaparte; 20 April 18089 January 1873) was the first President of France (as Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte) from 1848 to 1852 and the last monarch of France as Emperor of the French from 1852 to 1870. A nephew ...

. Drouyn de Lhuys returned to power 7 years later, in 1862, when foreign minister Édouard Thouvenel resigned over differences with Napoleon on Italian affairs. Drouyn was thus foreign minister in the lead-up to the Austro-Prussian War. He commented that, "the Emperor has immense desires and limited abilities. He wants to do extraordinary things but is only capable of extravagances." In the aftermath of that war, which was disastrous to French interests in Europe, Drouyn resigned and withdrew into private life.

Honours

* : Knight of the Illustrious Royal

Order of Saint Januarius ) , clasps = , post-nominals = , established = 3 July 1738 , first_award = , last_award = , founder = Charles VII of Naples , head_title = Grand Master , head = Disputed:Prince P ...

, ''1852'' * : Grand Cross of the Grand Ducal Hessian Order of Ludwig, ''11 February 1853'' * : Grand Cross of the Royal and Distinguished

Order of Charles III The Royal and Distinguished Spanish Order of Charles III, originally Royal and Much Distinguished Order of Charles III ( es, Real y Distinguida Orden Española de Carlos III, originally es, Real y Muy Distinguida Orden de Carlos III) was establ ...

, ''27 January 1854'' * : Grand Cordon of the Order of Leopold (civil division), ''23 July 1854'' * Grand Duchy of Tuscany: Grand Cross of the Order of Saint Joseph * : Grand Cross of the Royal Hungarian

Order of Saint Stephen The Order of Saint Stephen (Official: Sacro Militare Ordine di Santo Stefano Papa e Martire, "Holy Military Order of St. Stephen Pope and Martyr") is a Roman Catholic Tuscan dynastic military order founded in 1561. The order was created by C ...

, ''1855'' * : Grand Cross of the Imperial

Order of Guadalupe There were three Imperial Orders of the Mexican Empire, which were Orders of chivalry created to reward Heads of state and prominent people during the two periods of the Mexican Empire—the ' ( es, Orden Imperial de Guadalupe), the ''Imperial Orde ...

, ''1864'' *

Sweden-Norway Sweden and Norway or Sweden–Norway ( sv, Svensk-norska unionen; no, Den svensk-norske union(en)), officially the United Kingdoms of Sweden and Norway, and known as the United Kingdoms, was a personal union of the separate kingdoms of Sweden ...

: Knight of the Royal

Order of the Seraphim The Royal Order of the Seraphim ( sv, Kungliga Serafimerorden; ''Seraphim'' being a category of angels) is a Swedish order of chivalry created by King Frederick I on 23 February 1748, together with the Order of the Sword and the Order of the P ...

, ''27 March 1865'' * : Grand Cross of the

Order of Saint-Charles The Order of Saint Charles (french: Ordre de Saint Charles) is a dynastic order of knighthood established in Monaco on 15 March 1858. Award This order rewards service to the State or Prince. In particular cases, it may be granted to foreign ...

, ''24 December 1865''Sovereign Ordonnance of 24 December 1865
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References

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

'', 3 March 1881. Accessed 7 October 2008 *The Illustrated London News, May 19, 1855.

Biography

Honours

References

Further reading

See also