Édouard Antoine de Thouvenel (; 11 November 1818,

Verdun Verdun ( , ; ; ; official name before 1970: Verdun-sur-Meuse) is a city in the Meuse (department), Meuse departments of France, department in Grand Est, northeastern France. It is an arrondissement of the department. In 843, the Treaty of V ...

Meuse The Meuse or Maas is a major European river, rising in France and flowing through Belgium and the Netherlands before draining into the North Sea from the Rhine–Meuse–Scheldt delta. It has a total length of . History From 1301, the upper ...

– 18 October 1866) was ambassador to the

Ottoman Empire The Ottoman Empire (), also called the Turkish Empire, was an empire, imperial realm that controlled much of Southeast Europe, West Asia, and North Africa from the 14th to early 20th centuries; it also controlled parts of southeastern Centr ...

from 1855 to 1860, and French

Minister of Foreign Affairs In many countries, the ministry of foreign affairs (abbreviated as MFA or MOFA) is the highest government department exclusively or primarily responsible for the state's foreign policy and foreign relations, relations, diplomacy, bilateralism, ...

from 1860 to 1862.

Career

After studying law and travelling throughout Europe, in 1840 Thouvenel published an account of his travels which first appeared in the '' Revue des Deux Mondes'' (''la Hongrie et la Valachie. Souvenirs de voyages et notices historiques''). He entered the foreign service in 1841 with the help of his sister. She was married to Alfred-August Cuvillier-Fleury, the former

preceptor A preceptor (from Latin, "''praecepto''") is a teacher responsible for upholding a ''precept'', meaning a certain law or tradition. Buddhist monastic orders Senior Buddhist monks can become the preceptors for newly ordained monks. In the Buddhi ...

Henri d'Orléans, Duke of Aumale Henri Eugène Philippe Louis d'Orléans, Duke of Aumale (16 January 1822 – 7 May 1897) was a leader of the Orleanists, a political faction in 19th-century France associated with constitutional monarchy. He was born in Paris, the fifth son of ...

. Thouvenel was appointed

attaché In diplomacy, an attaché () is a person who is assigned ("to be attached") to the diplomatic or administrative staff of a higher placed person or another service or agency. Although a loanword from French, in English the word is not modified ac ...

to the French embassy in Brussels in 1844, followed by Athens in 1845. He became

Chargé d'affaires A (), plural ''chargés d'affaires'', often shortened to ''chargé'' (French) and sometimes in colloquial English to ''charge-D'', is a diplomat who serves as an embassy's chief of mission in the absence of the ambassador. The term is Frenc ...

in Athens in 1848 and afterwards became

Minister Plenipotentiary An envoy extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary, usually known as a minister, was a diplomatic head of mission who was ranked below ambassador. A diplomatic mission headed by an envoy was known as a legation rather than an embassy. Under the ...

to the

Kingdom of Bavaria The Kingdom of Bavaria ( ; ; spelled ''Baiern'' until 1825) was a German state that succeeded the former Electorate of Bavaria in 1806 and continued to exist until 1918. With the unification of Germany into the German Empire in 1871, the kingd ...

. In July 1850 he was made a ''Commandeur'' of the

Legion of Honour The National Order of the Legion of Honour ( ), formerly the Imperial Order of the Legion of Honour (), is the highest and most prestigious French national order of merit, both military and Civil society, civil. Currently consisting of five cl ...

, followed by ''Grand Officier'' (January 10 1854), and finally ''

Grand Cross Grand Cross is the highest class in many orders, and manifested in its insignia. Exceptionally, the highest class may be referred to as Grand Cordon or equivalent. In other cases, there may exist a rank even higher than Grand Cross, e.g. Gran ...

'' (14 January 1860). After the overthrow of the

French Second Republic The French Second Republic ( or ), officially the French Republic (), was the second republican government of France. It existed from 1848 until its dissolution in 1852. Following the final defeat of Napoleon, Napoleon Bonaparte at the Battle ...

and the establishment of the

French Second Empire The Second French Empire, officially the French Empire, was the government of France from 1852 to 1870. It was established on 2 December 1852 by Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte, president of France under the French Second Republic, who proclaimed hi ...

under Louis-Napoléon, Thouvenel was recalled to Paris and put in charge of political affairs at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. In 1855 he was appointed French ambassador to the Ottoman Empire in Constantinople, remaining in the post until 1860. He was elected to the

French Senate The Senate (, ) is the upper house of the French Parliament, with the lower house being the National Assembly (France), National Assembly, the two houses constituting the legislature of France. It is made up of 348 senators (''sénateurs'' and ...

in 1859.

Minister of Foreign Affairs

As Minister of Foreign Affairs during the

, Thouvenel negotiated key treaties on behalf of France. In 1860, he negotiated the Treaty of Turin (1860), which annexed the

Kingdom of Sardinia The Kingdom of Sardinia, also referred to as the Kingdom of Sardinia and Corsica among other names, was a State (polity), country in Southern Europe from the late 13th until the mid-19th century, and from 1297 to 1768 for the Corsican part of ...

and the

Duchy of Savoy The Duchy of Savoy (; ) was a territorial entity of the Savoyard state that existed from 1416 until 1847 and was a possession of the House of Savoy. It was created when Sigismund, Holy Roman Emperor, raised the County of Savoy into a duchy f ...

to France, as well as a free-trade agreement between France and Britain. He was French plenipotentiary in the negotiations for a commercial treaty between France and Belgium, concluded on 1st May 1861. Thouvenel also arranged for a French intervention in

Syria Syria, officially the Syrian Arab Republic, is a country in West Asia located in the Eastern Mediterranean and the Levant. It borders the Mediterranean Sea to the west, Turkey to Syria–Turkey border, the north, Iraq to Iraq–Syria border, t ...

after a massacre of Christians took place there in 1860. During the

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861May 26, 1865; also known by Names of the American Civil War, other names) was a civil war in the United States between the Union (American Civil War), Union ("the North") and the Confederate States of A ...

, Thouvenel worked to impede

Napoleon III Napoleon III (Charles-Louis Napoléon Bonaparte; 20 April 18089 January 1873) was President of France from 1848 to 1852 and then Emperor of the French from 1852 until his deposition in 1870. He was the first president, second emperor, and last ...

's recognition of the

Confederate States of America The Confederate States of America (CSA), also known as the Confederate States (C.S.), the Confederacy, or Dixieland, was an List of historical unrecognized states and dependencies, unrecognized breakaway republic in the Southern United State ...

. He feared that such a move would antagonize the United States and cause a retaliatory US invasion of Mexico, where the French were conducting an expedition to install a monarchy. His resignation in October 1862 was a result of clashes with the Emperor over the

Roman Question The Roman question (; ) was a dispute regarding the temporal power of the popes as rulers of a civil territory in the context of the Italian Risorgimento. It ended with the Lateran Pacts between King Victor Emmanuel III and Prime Minister Be ...

. Thouvenel negotiated an agreement with the newly-formed

Kingdom of Italy The Kingdom of Italy (, ) was a unitary state that existed from 17 March 1861, when Victor Emmanuel II of Kingdom of Sardinia, Sardinia was proclamation of the Kingdom of Italy, proclaimed King of Italy, until 10 June 1946, when the monarchy wa ...

to withdraw French troops from Rome in exchange for a guarantee from the new Kingdom to respect the Pope's temporal hold of the city. This agreement had particularly displeased the Empress Eugénie.

Post-diplomacy

After resigning as Minister of Foreign Affairs, Thouvenel became president of the '' Compagnie des chemins de fer de l'Est''. He was offered, but refused, the presidency of the

Corps législatif The was a part of the French legislature during the French Revolution and beyond. It is also the generic French term used to refer to any legislative body. History Under Napoleon's Consulate, the Constitution of the Year VIII (1799) set up ...

after the death of the Duke of Morny left it vacant. In 1865 he was named "grand référendaire" of the Senate.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Thouvenel, Edouard 1818 births 1866 deaths People from Verdun 19th-century French diplomats Ambassadors of France to the Ottoman Empire Ambassadors to Bavaria French senators of the Second Empire