Jean Baptiste Colbert,

Marquis A marquess (; ) is a nobleman of high hereditary rank in various European peerages and in those of some of their former colonies. The German-language equivalent is Markgraf (margrave). A woman with the rank of a marquess or the wife (or wido ...

of Torcy (14 September 1665 – 2 September 1746), generally called Colbert de Torcy, was a French diplomat, who negotiated some of the most important treaties towards the end of

Louis XIV LouisXIV (Louis-Dieudonné; 5 September 16381 September 1715), also known as Louis the Great () or the Sun King (), was King of France from 1643 until his death in 1715. His verified reign of 72 years and 110 days is the List of longest-reign ...

's reign, notably the treaty (1700) that occasioned the

War of the Spanish Succession The War of the Spanish Succession was a European great power conflict fought between 1701 and 1714. The immediate cause was the death of the childless Charles II of Spain in November 1700, which led to a struggle for control of the Spanish E ...

(1701–1714), in which the dying Charles II of Spain named Louis XIV's grandson, Philippe of France, Duke of Anjou, heir to the Spanish throne, eventually founding the line of Bourbons of Spain.

Biography

Born in Paris, the son of Charles Colbert, Louis's minister of foreign affairs and the nephew of Jean-Baptiste Colbert, Louis' chief advisor, for whom the Torcy title was created, Colbert de Torcy was a brilliant and precocious legal student. As a very young man, he assisted his father in sensitive diplomatic missions. Colbert de Torcy proved himself so able that in 1689, Louis XIV granted him the right to succeed to his father's position as minister of foreign affairs, a position he fulfilled from 28 July 1696 to 23 September 1715. He was the guiding spirit of French diplomacy at the series of international conferences that resulted in the

Treaty of Utrecht The Peace of Utrecht was a series of peace treaty, peace treaties signed by the belligerents in the War of the Spanish Succession, in the Dutch city of Utrecht between April 1713 and February 1715. The war involved three contenders for the vac ...

(1713) and the

Treaty of Rastatt The Treaty of Rastatt was a peace treaty between Kingdom of France, France and Archduchy of Austria, Austria that was concluded on 7 March 1714 in the Margraviate of Baden, Baden city of Rastatt to end the War of the Spanish Succession between bo ...

(1714) and was concerned with professionalizing the conduct of diplomacy. He instituted an ''académie politique'' to train young professionals in the equivalent of a foreign service bureaucracy: it did not survive his retirement, but his establishment at Versailles of a centralized diplomatic archive (1710) has been a service to historians. Louis XIV was his foreign relation. The aged king, recognizing that Colbert de Torcy had been a ''de facto'' secretary of state, named him such in his will, but when Louis died in 1715, his will was broken; the Regent, Philippe, Duke of Orléans deprived Colbert de Torcy of any political power, and he settled into a long retirement, during which he was a member of the unofficial political

salon Salon may refer to: Common meanings * Beauty salon A beauty salon or beauty parlor is an establishment that provides Cosmetics, cosmetic treatments for people. Other variations of this type of business include hair salons, spas, day spas, ...

called the ''Entresol'', which formed in the early years of

Louis XV Louis XV (15 February 1710 – 10 May 1774), known as Louis the Beloved (), was King of France from 1 September 1715 until his death in 1774. He succeeded his great-grandfather Louis XIV at the age of five. Until he reached maturity (then defi ...

's maturity when the abbé Alary, a protégé of Fleury, convened an occasional political discussion group in the entresol of his apartment in Place Vendôme. There in sociable surroundings, sharing the gossip and news Colbert de Torcy debated contemporary events in a sympathetic circle and like others, doubtless read aloud and elicited comment upon the political writings. The architect

Germain Boffrand Germain Boffrand () (16 May 1667 – 19 March 1754) was a French architect. A pupil of Jules Hardouin-Mansart, Germain Boffrand was one of the main creators of the precursor to Rococo called the ''style Régence'', and in his interiors, of the ...

had built a series of ''hôtels particuliers'' in the new district, the Faubourg Saint-Honoré, and Colbert de Torcy purchased one as a semi-finished shell, 14 November 1715, which he finished as a suitable Paris residence, the hôtel de Torcy (later the hôtel de Beauharnais, now the German Embassy 78, rue de Lille). There his magnificent installation among his tapestries, furnishings paintings, Chinese porcelains mounted in gilt-bronze, sculptures and other works of art above all in his ''cabinet doré'', giving onto the salon that was lit from both sides, provided him solace and comfort in a long and productive retirement, in which he completed his '' Mémoirs pour servir à l'histoire des négotiations depuis le Traité de Riswick jusqu'à la Paix d'Utrecht'', published in 1756. Colbert de Torcy died at Paris in 1746. His official portrait was painted by Hyacinthe Rigaud. Colbert de Torcy is commemorated in the rue de Torcy, Paris XVIIIème.Extrait de la nomenclature officielle des voies de Paris.
v1.paris.fr

References

* * Childs, Nick (2000) ''A Political Academy in Paris 1724–1731: The Entresol and Its Members'' in series Studies on Voltaire and the Eighteenth Century. (Oxford: Voltaire Foundation)
Review by Thomas E. Kaiser

Biography

References

Further reading