- Pierre Louis Jean Casimir de Blacas
Pierre Louis Jean Casimir de Blacas d'Aulps, Duc and later Prince de Blacas d'Aulps (
January 10 ,1771 ,Vérignon , Var,France –November 17 ,1839 ,Vienna ,Austria ) was a French antiquarian, nobleman and diplomat during theBourbon Restoration .Youth
He was baptized at
Aups on11 January 1771 . As the son of a minor aristocrat, he was opposed to theFrench Revolution . In 1790, while asous-lieutenant in theNoailles dragoon s from Tarn, he fled across the Var toNice in theKingdom of Sardinia . From there, he went to the German frontier town ofCoblenz and joined the counter-revolutionary "émigré" army of Louis XVI's cousin, the Prince de Condé. Later, he went through Italy before entering the service of Russia and fighting the French Republic in Switzerland underAlexander Suvorov .Entry into royal service
While in the pay of Austria, he then travelled to
Warsaw and rejoined the court-in-exile of the pretender to the throne of France, King Louis XVI's younger brother, the Comte de Provence, who charged him with various missions, including one toSaint Petersburg . Despite the help ofJoseph de Maistre , the King of Sardinia's diplomatic envoy to the court of the Russian tsar Alexander I, he was only able to gain small advantages for Provence. However, his willingness to do anything for the exiled prince, quickly gained Blacas the trust and confidence of his royal master. In 1809, Blacas was made the pretender's grandmaster of the wardrobe ("grand-maître de la Garde-Robe du Roi"). After the death of the Comte d'Avaray in 1811, he became Provence's closest advisor and favorite.On
April 22 ,1814 , he married a fellow exile, Henriette Marie Félicité du Bouchet de Sourches de Montsoreau, inLondon . She had been born inParis onFebruary 20 ,1780 to Yves Marie du Bouchet de Sourches, Comte de Montsoreau, a maréchal de camp andlieutenant général during theAncien Régime , and his wife Marie Charlotte Lallemand de Nantouillet. The Comte de Montsoreau was the nephew of the Marquise de Tourzel, the royalgoverness to the children of KingLouis XVI of France and his wife, QueenMarie-Antoinette , during theFrench Revolution .ervice under Louis XVIII
When the Comte de Provence became the actual king of France after the defeat of
Napoleon Bonaparte in 1814, Blacas was appointed to the position of minister in charge of the royal household ("ministre de laMaison du Roi ") and given the rank of maréchal de camp. He assumed a dominant role in the new king's "Conseil du Roi ", essentially becoming the firstPrime Minister of France . But, unskilled, he made an assortment of errors, favoring members of theAncien Régime too often. In addition, his cool and aloof behavior alienated many.On
Napoleon 's return fromElba , Blacas accompanied the new king on his flight toGhent . Upon the king's return to Paris after theBattle of Waterloo , though, Blacas' unpopularity led to his dismissal. In compensation, he was named a peer of France with the title of Comte de Blacas d'Aulps. Soon, however, his place as royal advisor was taken over by the more moderate Élie Decazes.tay in Italy
A scapegoat for the royalist excesses of 1814, Blacas was unofficially exiled as the French ambassador to the court of the
Kingdom of Two Sicilies , whose capital was located inNaples . There, he negotiated the 1816 marriage of the Louis XVIII's nephew, the Duc de Berry, toFrancis I of the Two Sicilies 's daughter Caroline. Also in 1816, Blacas became a member of both theAcadémie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres and theAcadémie des Beaux-Arts . Afterwards, he was appointed to be the French ambassador to theHoly See inRome . He signed aconcordat between Bourbon France andPope Pius VII onJune 11 ,1817 . In 1820, he received the "Ordre du Saint-Esprit". While still ambassador in Rome, he was one of three French representatives to theCongress of Laibach in 1821.Remaining in Rome for many years, he provided the French artist
Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres in 1817 with his first official commission since 1814 and became a patron to the German classicistTheodor Panofka , who returned with him to Paris in 1828. In addition, he worked closely with Italian archaeologistCarlo Fea in the excavation of theRoman Forum . Together, they correctly identified theTemple of Castor and Pollux in 1816.ervice under Charles X
Upon his deathbed,
Louis XVIII raised his title to that of Duc de Blacas d'Aulps. After his death, the new king, Charles X, chose him to be one of his "premier gentilhommes de la chambre." Blacas was also appointed superintendent to the Crown properties ("intendant général des Bâtiments de la Couronne"). During his administration, he supported orientalistJean-François Champollion and created the "Musée Egyptien" within theLouvre . In his lifetime, Blacas amassed a rich antiquities collection thatJoseph Toussaint Reinaud described in part under the title "Description des monuments musulmans du cabinet du duc de Blacas" (Description of the Muslim objects in the cabinet of the Duc de Blacas) in 1828. In 1866, his descendents sold most of his collection to theBritish Museum , where it is still today.In 1830, Blacas followed the Bourbons into exile. Later, he was instrumental in the dismissal of the Duchesse de Gontaut as the governess to the king's grandchildren in fear of her relatively liberal political views. In 1838, he was created a noble prince by the Emperor of
Austria . The next year, he died and was buried in Charles X's crypt at the Church of Saint Mary of the Annunciation on Castagnavizza Hill inGorizia ,Italy , now on theSlovenia n side of the border inNova Gorica . His wife died in Paris onOctober 10 ,1856 .ources
* Extract from an article by the genealogist Pierre Nicolas, with his kind permission. To see the whole article [http://membres.lycos.fr/comtedechambord site of the comte de Chambord] , at the footnote "son entourage".
* http://www.geneall.net/F/per_page.php?id=262435
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