Charles Gravier, comte de Vergennes
Charles Gravier, comte de Vergennes was a French statesman and diplomat. He served as Foreign Minister from 1774 to 1787 during the reign of Louis XVI, notably during the American War of Independence.
Vergennes rose through the ranks of the diplomatic service during postings in Portugal and Germany before receiving the important post of Envoy to the Ottoman Empire in 1755. While there he oversaw complex negotiations that resulted from the Diplomatic Revolution before being recalled in 1768. After assisting a pro-French faction to take power in Sweden, he returned home and was promoted to foreign minister.
Vergennes hoped that by giving French aid to the American revolutionaries he would be able to weaken British dominance of the international stage in the wake of Britain's victory over France in the Seven Years' War. Alliance with the revolutionaries produced mixed results for France as, despite helping to secure American independence from Britain, France extracted little material gain from the war and the costs of fighting further damaged the already weakened French royal finances in the years before the French Revolution.
In part as a result of his efforts in crafting the Franco-American alliance, Vergennes became a dominant figure in French politics during the 1780s. He died on the eve of the revolution in his own nation.
Early life
Charles Gravier was born in Dijon, France, on 29 December 1719. His family were members of the country aristocracy. He spent his youth in a townhouse at Dijon and on the family's country estates. He had an elder brother Jean Gravier, marquis de Vergennes, born in 1718, who eventually inherited the family estates. His mother died when he was three, and his father subsequently remarried. Vergennes received his education from Jesuits in Dijon. In 1739, at the age of twenty, he accepted an offer to go to Lisbon as an assistant to Théodore Chevignard de Chavigny, comte de Toulongeon who was mutually referred to as his "uncle", but was in fact a more distant relative. Chavigny was an experienced diplomat and secret agent who had been made ambassador to Portugal.Diplomatic service
Portugal and Bavaria
The objective of Chavigny and Vergennes in Lisbon was to keep Portugal from entering the War of the Austrian Succession on the side of Britain, a task that proved relatively easy as the Portuguese had little interest in joining the war. In 1743 Vergennes accompanied his uncle to the court of Charles VII who was the ruler of Bavaria and also held the title of Holy Roman Emperor. Charles VII was a key ally of the French in the ongoing war against Austria, and they were charged with keeping him in the war by assuaging his concerns which they accomplished successfully. They next were instrumental in the agreement of the Union of Frankfurt, a pact involving several German rulers to uphold Charles VII's interests. after Charles VII's sudden death in 1745, they strove to help his successor Maximilian III but were unable to prevent him from losing his capital at Munich and making peace with the Austrians at the Treaty of Füssen. In November 1745 Chavigny was relieved of his post, and returned to France accompanied by Vergennes. The following year they returned to Portugal to take up their previous posts there where they remained until 1749, unsuccessfully trying to negotiate a commercial treaty.Congress of Hanover
After their return home, Vergennes and his uncle were now in favour with the French Foreign Minister Puiseulx. When Chavigny met Louis XV at Versailles, he lobbied for Vergennes to be given an appointment. In 1750 Vergennes was appointed as Ambassador to the Electorate of Trier, one of the smaller German electorates. Vergennes faced an immediate challenge, as the British were planning to have an Austrian candidate Archduke Joseph elected as King of the Romans, a position that designated the next Holy Roman Emperor. The Austrians had supplied the Emperors for centuries until 1740, when Charles VII of Bavaria had been elected triggering the War of the Austrian Succession. The title eventually came back under Austrian control, and in 1748 the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle was agreed, bringing peace.The British strategy was directed by the Duke of Newcastle, the Northern Secretary and brother of the Prime Minister. Newcastle hoped the election would prevent a recurrence of the recent war, by guaranteeing continued Austrian dominance in Germany. The French saw the proposal as part of a scheme by the British to boost their own power in Germany. Vergennes appointment was designed to frustrate the British plan, and Trier was considered a good strategic spot for this mission. He worked at getting the ruler of Trier to withhold his vote from Joseph, while mobilising wider resistance.
In 1752 an attempt to settle the matter, Newcastle travelled to Hanover where a special Congress was convened. In April 1752 Vergennes was appointed as envoy to George II of Great Britain in his separate role as Elector of Hanover. His task was to uphold French interests at the Congress, either by delaying the election or preventing it entirely. To enable this, France championed the claims of the French-allied Palatine for payment of money they claimed against Austria and Britain insisting it be settled before the election took place. The British eventually agreed to a settlement, but Austria refused to accept this, creating a rift between the two countries which endangered the Anglo-Austrian Alliance. Newcastle was ultimately forced to dissolve the Congress and abandon the election.
The Congress was regarded as a diplomatic triumph for Vergennes and he received praise from Newcastle for his skills. To counter a last attempt by Austria to get an agreement, Vergennes was sent to the Palatine in January 1753 where he secured confirmation that they would stick to France's strategy. He then returned to Trier where he spent fourteen quiet months before he was given his next posting. His time in Germany shaped his views on diplomacy. He was critical of the British tendency of bowing to public opinion because of their democracy, and he was concerned by the rising power of Russia.
Ottoman Empire
His successful advocacy of French interests in Germany led him to believe his next posting would be as Ambassador to Bavaria. Instead, he was sent to the Ottoman Empire in 1755, first as minister plenipotentiary, then as full ambassador. The reason for Vergennes' original lesser rank was that sending a new ambassador was a time-consuming elaborate ceremony, and there was a sense of urgency because of the death of the previous ambassador. Before he left France, he was inducted into the Secret du Roi.Vergennes arrived in Constantinople as the Seven Years' War was brewing and Osman III had recently come to the throne. The Ottomans were traditional allies of the French and were a major trading partner, but the weakening of Ottoman power and the growth of Russia threatened the old system. Despite their close ties, the two states had no formal alliance. In his official orders, Vergennes was ordered not to agree any treaty, but he received secret instructions from the king to agree a treaty if it supported the king's schemes in Eastern Europe.
Vergennes's task was to try to persuade the Ottomans to counter the Russian threat to Poland, working in conjunction with Prussia. The Diplomatic Revolution of 1756 turned that scheme upside down as France became friendly to and then allied to Austria and Russia and an enemy of Prussia, which forced Vergennes to reverse his anti-Russian rhetoric. The Ottoman leadership were angered by the new Franco-Austrian Alliance, which they saw as hostile towards them. Vergennes spent the next few years trying to repair relations and persuade the Turks not to attack Austria or Russia, as they were being urged to do by Prussian envoys.
File:Audience-of-Charles-Gravier-Comte-de-Vergennes-with-The-Sultan-Osman-III-in-Constantinople-1755.jpg|thumb|Audience of Charles de Vergennes with Sultan Osman III in 1755, Pera Museum, Istanbul
Towards the end of the Seven Years' War, Vergennes tackled several new problems. A dramatic reversal of Russian policies following the succession of Peter III forced Vergennes to return to his previous policy of encouraging anti-Russian sentiment, only to change again when Peter was overthrown by his wife, Catherine. Vergennes also had to deal with the consequences of the theft of the Sultan's flagship by Christian prisoners, who took it to Malta. The Sultan threatened to build up a large fleet and invade the island, potentially provoking a major war in the Mediterranean in which France would have to defend Malta in spite of the global war that it was already fighting. Eventually, a compromise was agreed in which the French negotiated the return of the ship, but not the prisoners, to the Sultan.
The Treaty of Paris in 1763 brought an end to the war, but France was forced to cede significant territory to the British, easing some of the strains on Vergennes. However, he was left personally disappointed by the decline in French prestige. He was also alarmed by the weakening of French influence in Poland, which, in 1764, elected Stanislas Poniatowski, a Russian-backed candidate, as its king after it became apparent that France was powerless to prevent it. Vergennes's efforts to convince the Ottomans to intervene in the election were undermined by a failure to settle on a single French candidate for the throne, and both France and the Ottomans were eventually forced to acknowledge Stanislas as king. As he was a lover of Catherine the Great, it was believed that Poland would become a satellite of Russia or even that the two states might be merged.
Marriage and recall
In 1768, he was recalled, ostensibly because he married the widow Anne Duvivier, also known as de Viviers; they previously lived together while she was the ambassador's mistress. In addition, Gravier married her without seeking the King's consent. She was the widow of Francesco Testa, a merchant member of one of the oldest and distinguished Latin families of Péra, originally from Genoa. She was widowed at the age of 24, before she met Charles Gravier, and they had two daughters together. The painter Antoine de Favray who was living in Istanbul at this time painted Charles Gravier's wife, Annette Duvivier, Comtesse de Vergennes, in an oriental costume, sitting on a divan, shortly before they married.However, Charles Gravier was more probably recalled because the Duc de Choiseul thought him not competent to provoke a war between Imperial Russia and the Ottomans, which Choiseul hoped for. Choiseul wanted to weaken the power of Russia as he believed they were becoming too strong in the Baltic Sea. Choiseul regarded the best way of doing that as provoking a costly war between them and the Ottomans. Although he thought the strategy unwise, Vergennes continuously advocated war in Constantinople by trying to convince the Ottomans that war was the only way to check Russia's rising power.
Vergennes's marriage had taken place without the King's consent, which was a requirement for French ambassadors. In France Vergennes encountered strong disapproval of his marriage and was aware that he returned home in disgrace. In spite of his doubts, Vergennes was successful in persuading the Ottomans to declare war against Russia, and in 1768 the Russo-Turkish War broke out. It eventually ended in a decisive victory for the Russians, who gained new territory, and further eroded Ottoman power. Despite his opposition to the policy, Vergennes still took credit in France for having fulfilled his orders to provoke a war. During this period Vergennes and Choiseul developed a mutual dislike of each other.