Alexandre Colonna-Walewski

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Template:Short description Script error: No such module "infobox".Script error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters". Alexandre Florian Joseph, Count Colonna-Walewski (Script error: No such module "IPA".; Template:Langx; 4 May 1810Template:Snd27 September 1868), also Count of the Empire, was a Polish and French politician and diplomat, the unacknowledged son of French emperor Napoleon I.

He is best known for his position as foreign minister of France under his cousin Napoleon III and for his diplomatic efforts presiding over the Congress of Paris, which created peace in the Crimean War and laid the base for modern international law of the sea with the Paris Declaration Respecting Maritime Law.

Early years

File:Count Alexander Walewski by Sir George Hayter 1832.jpg
Alexandre Walewski in 1832, portrait by school of George Hayter

Alexandre Florian Joseph Colonna Walewski was born on May 4, 1810, at Walewice, near Warsaw, to Countess Maria Walewska, the Polish noblewoman and mistress of Napoleon Bonaparte. His mother conceived him while residing near Schönbrunn Palace in Vienna, where Napoleon was temporarily staying. When Marie requested to give birth in Paris, Napoleon insisted she return to her husband's estate in Poland. Count Athanasius Walewski, nearly eighty years old at the time, legally recognized the child as his own. Later in life, Alexandre would write:"My birth was accompanied by lightning and thunder, and it was predicted that my life would be stormy and even life-changing. To satisfy an old family prejudice, I was held at the font by two beggars, which was supposed to bring me luck..."[1]

In 2013, published scholarship comparing DNA haplotype evidence taken from Emperor Napoleon, from his brother King Jérôme Bonaparte's descendant Charles, Prince Napoléon and from Colonna-Walewski's descendant indicated Alexandre's membership in the genetic male-line of the imperial House of Bonaparte.[2]

Upon hearing of Alexandre's birth while in Belgium with his new bride, Empress Marie Louise, Napoleon sent an affectionate message and a gift of Brussels laces to Marie Walewska congratulating the birth of the child. Despite the ending of their affair when he married Marie Louise Napoleon ensured Marie and their son were well provided for, granting them a residence in Rue de Montmorency in Paris along with a significant pension of 120,000 francs.

According to Napoleon's valet, Constant, Napoleon was deeply moved by the boy's resemblance to him. Constant recorded:

"She was delivered of a son who bore a striking resemblance to His Majesty. This was a great joy for the Emperor. Hastening to her as soon as it was possible for him to get away from the chateau, he took the child in his arms, and embracing it as he had just embraced the mother, he said to him: I will make thee a count."[3]

On May 5, 1812, Napoleon officially decreed Alexandre a “Count of the French Empire” and bestowed upon him lands in the Kingdom of Naples. The young Alexandre's endowment included sixty-nine farms generating an annual income of 169,516 francs. On June 15, while in Königsberg Napoleon signed letters patent confirming Alexandre's title, and his new coat of arms combined the insignias of the Walewski and Laczynski families. While in Paris, his mother Marie Walewska became close friends with the former Empress Joséphine frequently visiting her at Malmaison. Joséphine, who had no children with Napoleon, lavished Marie and young Alexandre with kindness and gifts.[4]

Following Napoleon's abdication in 1814, Marie took four-year-old Alexandre to the island of Elba. Many islanders mistook Marie Walewska for Empress Marie Louise and Alexandre for the King of Rome. During their stay, Napoleon played games with the boy and shared affectionate moments.

Napoleon reportedly asked Alexandre:

“ I hear you don't mention my name in your prayers." Alexandre admitted he did not, but he did remember to say "Papa Empereur." Amused, Napoleon remarked, "He'll be a great social success, this boy: he's got wit."[5]

Napoleon's physician, Foureau de Beauregard, later wrote to Alexandre, recalling:"You are that pretty little Alexandre that I saw, almost twenty-nine years ago, on the Emperor's lap near the Madonna delle Grazie on the island of Elba."[6]

However, with Empress Marie Louise expected to visit, Napoleon discreetly arranged for Marie and Alexandre to leave the island to avoid scandal. In early 1815, they returned to Paris before Napoleon departed for the Hundred Days campaign. After his defeat at Waterloo, Marie Walewska and Alexandre were present at Malmaison to bid farewell to Napoleon before his exile to Saint Helena. Years later, Alexandre reminisced:

I can still see the Emperor... every single feature of his face.... He took me in his arms and I remember a tear ran down his face..But I cannot recall what exactly he said to me on that occasion.[7][8]

In his final will, Napoleon mentioned both Alexandre and his half-brother, Charles Léon, stating:

"Would not be displeased if little Léon were to enter the judiciary, if that appeals to him. I would like Alexandre Walewski to enter the service of France as a soldier.”[9]

On September 7, 1816, Marie Walewska married Napoleon's cousin, Philippe Antoine d'Ornano, who had been exiled in Brussels for supporting Napoleon during the Hundred Days. Alexandre and his younger half-brother, Antoine, remained in Paris under the care of Marie's trusted friend, M. Carite. The family later moved to Liège, where Marie gave birth to another son, Rodolphe, in 1817. Marie passed away on December 11, 1817. In her will, she entrusted the care of Alexandre and Antoine to her brother Theodore Łaczyński while their half brother Rodolphe stayed with his father.

Łaczyński took the boys to Kiernozia in Poland. Alexandre’s uncle would teach them of the French Revolution, the Napoleonic campaigns and of Emperor Napoleon and his court. Expressing his dream to take them to Saint Helena when they were older.[10] To give them an education, Łaczyński would send them to Warsaw, where they studied under a tutor with strong republican and anti-Napoleon views. Łaczyński concerned about this influence, placed them instead in a Jesuit college, where Alexandre made his first communion. In 1820, at the age of ten, Alexandre left Poland for Geneva, where he attended boarding school for four years.

At age fourteen, Walewski refused to join the Imperial Russian army and fled to London, thence to Paris, where the French government refused Tsar Alexander I's demands for his extradition to Russia.[11]

Upon the accession of Louis-Philippe d'Orléans to the French throne in 1830, Walewski was dispatched to Poland, later the same year being entrusted by the leaders of the Polish November Uprising of 1830 as a diplomatic envoy to the Court of St James's. After the Fall of Warsaw, he took out letters of French naturalization and joined the French Army, being in action in Algeria as a Captain in the Chasseurs d'Afrique of the French Foreign Legion.

In 1837 he resigned his commission to begin writing plays and working as a journalist for the press. He is said to have collaborated with the elder Dumas on Mademoiselle de Belle-Isle and a comedy of his, L'Ecole du monde, was produced at the Theâtre Français in 1840.[11]

Diplomatic career

File:Edouard Dubufe Congrès de Paris.jpg
Walewski and other participants at Crimean War peace negotiations, 1856– The Congress of Paris by Edouard Dubufe

Later that year the prime minister of France Thiers, also a man of letters, became patron to one of Walewski's papers, Le Messager des Chambres, before sending him on a mission to Egypt. Under Guizot's government Walewski was posted to Buenos Aires to liaise with the British Ambassador, John Cradock, 1st Baron Howden. Prince Louis Napoleon's accession to power in France as Napoleon III furthered his career with postings as envoy extraordinary to Florence, Grand Duchy of Tuscany, and the Kingdom of the Two-Sicilies before London (1851–55), where he was charged with announcing the coup d'état to the prime minister, Lord Palmerston.Template:Sfn

File:Comte Walewski Congrès de Paris 1856 BNF Gallica.jpg
Count Walewski as president of Congress of Paris (1856)

In 1855, Walewski succeeded Drouyn de Lhuys as Minister of Foreign Affairs and he acted as President of, and French plenipotentiary at, the Congress of Paris the following year, leading to peace in the Crimean War and to the Paris Declaration Respecting Maritime Law. The latter treaty did contain an important novelty in international law, creating the possibility for nations that were not involved in the establishment of the agreement, to become a party by acceding to the Declaration afterwards.[12][13]

As foreign minister, Walewski advocated a de-escalating strategy towards Russia, known as entente, opposing his emperor's strategy in Italy which led to war with Austria in 1859. After leaving the Foreign Ministry in 1860 he became France's Minister of State, an office which he held until 1863. He served as Senator from 1855 to 1865, before being appointed to the Corps Législatif in 1865 and as President of the Chamber of Deputies by the Emperor, who returned him to the Senate after a revolt against his authority two years later.[11]

Walewski was made a Duke of the Empire ad personam in 1866,[14] was elected a member of the Académie des beaux-arts, appointed Grand-Cross of the Imperial Order of the Legion of Honour and made a Knight og the Sovereign Military Order of Malta, also receiving the Gold Cross of Virtuti Militari.

Alexandre Colonna-Walewski died of a stroke at Strasbourg on 27 September 1868 and is buried at Père Lachaise Cemetery in Paris.

Descendants

File:Portrait of Lady Caroline Montagu in Byronic Costume by George Hayter, 1831, oil on canvas, view 1 - Chazen Museum of Art - DSC02190.JPG
Portrait of Lady Caroline Montagu in Byronic Costume by George Hayter, 1831.
File:Comtesse Marianna Walewska née Ricci.jpg
Marie-Anne Walewska, born Ricci, by Edouard Louis Dubufe

He married firstly in London on 1 December 1831 Lady Catherine Montagu (London, 7 October 1808 – Paris, 30 April 1834), daughter of George Montagu, 6th Earl of Sandwich, by his wife Lady Louisa Lowry-Corry. Following her death in childbirth, he married secondly, on 4 June 1846 in Florence, Maria Anna di Ricci (Florence, 18 July 1823 - Paris, 18 November 1912), daughter of the Papal Count Zanobi di Ricci by his wife Princess Isabella Poniatowski. He also fathered a son by the actress Rachel Felix in 1844.Script error: No such module "Unsubst".

He had seven children, two from his first marriage, four from his second marriage, and one with a woman he was not married to.

  • By Lady Catherine Montagu,[15] daughter of 6th Earl of Sandwich (both died young):
    • Louise-Marie Colonna-Walewska (14 December 1832 - 1833).
    • Count Georges-Édouard-Auguste Colonna-Walewski (Paris, 30 April 1834 - Paris, 9 May 1835).
  • By Maria Anna di Ricci (1823–1912):
  • By Rachel Felix (1821–1858):
    • Count Alexandre-Antoine-Jean Colonna-Walewski (Marly-le-Roi, 3 November 1844 – Turin, 20 August 1898), recognized in 1844 and adopted by Walewski in 1860; Consul General of France; married in Paris on 17 November 1868 Jeanne-Claire-Marie Sala (Paris, 26 May 1845 - Palermo, 22 January 1881); has numerous surviving descendants.[17]

Ancestry

Template:Ahnentafel

Honours

File:POL COA Walewski.png
Arms of Colonna-Walewski

Works

  • Un mot sur la question d'Afrique, Paris 1837
  • L'Alliance Anglaise, Paris 1838
  • L'École du Monde, ou la Coquette sans le savoir (comedy), Paris 1840

See also

References

Template:Reflist

  • Simon Konarski, Armorial de la noblesse polonaise titrée, Paris 1958
  • Nouvelle Biographie Générale, Tome 46, Paris 1866

External links

Template:Sister project

Template:S-endTemplate:Third Cabinet of Napoleon IIITemplate:Foreign Ministers of FranceTemplate:Authority controlTemplate:Use dmy dates
Political offices
Preceded byTemplate:S-bef/check Ambassadors of France to the United Kingdom
1851–1855 Template:S-ttl/check 		Template:S-aft/check Succeeded by
Preceded byTemplate:S-bef/check Foreign Minister of France
1855–1860 Template:S-ttl/check 		Template:S-aft/check Succeeded by
Preceded byTemplate:S-bef/check Minister of State of France
1860–1863 Template:S-ttl/check 		Template:S-aft/check Succeeded by
Preceded byTemplate:S-bef/check Président du Corps législatif
1865–1867 Template:S-ttl/check 		Template:S-aft/check Succeeded by
  1. ↑ Christine Sutherland "Marie Walewska: Napoleon's Great Love", p.149.
  2. ↑ Script error: No such module "Citation/CS1".
  3. ↑ Memoirs of Constant", Vol. II, p. 183.
  4. ↑ "Napoleon and His Women Friends"P.173. By Gertrude Kircheisen
  5. ↑ Hibbert, Christopher. "Napoleon: His Wives and Women", ', p. 222.
  6. ↑ "Françoise de Bernardy "Alexandre Walewski: The Polish Son of Napoleon".
  7. ↑ Sutherland, Christine. "Marie Walewska: Napoleon's Great Love", p 236-237
  8. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  9. ↑ Napoleon's Last Will and Testament.
  10. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  11. ↑ a b c File:Wikisource-logo.svg One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Script error: No such module "template wrapper".
  12. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  13. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  14. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  15. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  16. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  17. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  18. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  19. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  20. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  21. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  22. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  23. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  24. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
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