40-730: François, marquis de Barbé-Marbois (31 January 1745 – 12 February 1837) was a French politician. Born in Metz , where his father was director of the local mint, Barbé-Marbois tutored the children of the Marquis de Castries . In 1779, he was made secretary of the French legation to the United States. In 1780, Barbé-Marbois sent a questionnaire to the governors of all thirteen former American colonies, seeking information about each state's geography, natural resources, history, and government. Thomas Jefferson , who
80-689: A premier gentilhomme at the Tuileries Palace . He was not, however, sufficiently in the confidence of the court to be informed of the projected flight to Varennes on the night of 20 June 1791. Feeling that his role at court was useless in helping the King deal with all the revolutionary agitation that was embroiling Paris, Richelieu in July obtained with royal permission a passport from the National Constituent Assembly in order to return to Vienna as
120-667: A diplomat. After a short stay in Austria, however, Richelieu joined the counter-revolutionary émigré army of Louis XVI's cousin, the Prince of Condé , which was headquartered in the German frontier town of Koblenz . Later, after Condé's forces had suffered several defeats, Catherine the Great offered positions in her army to the officers serving under Condé. Richelieu accepted. In the Russian army, he achieved
160-500: A revival of revolutionary trouble was to occur. It was partly owing to this reassuring knowledge that he left office in December the same year, on the refusal of his colleagues to support a modification of the electoral law. After the murder of the king's nephew, the Duke of Berry , and the enforced retirement of Decazes , he was again called to the premiership (21 February 1821); but his position
200-571: Is Markgraf (margrave). A woman with the rank of a marquess or the wife (or widow) of a marquess is a marchioness or marquise . These titles are also used to translate equivalent Asian styles, as in Imperial China and Imperial Japan . The word marquess entered the English language from the Old French marchis ("ruler of a border area") in the late 13th or early 14th century. The French word
240-504: Is a grandee as " The Most Excellent Lord" ( Excelentísimo Señor ). Examples include the Marquess of Carpio , Grandee of Spain . In Great Britain and historically in Ireland, a marquess ranks below a duke and above an earl . A woman with the rank of a marquess, or the wife of a marquess, is a marchioness / ˌ m ɑː r ʃ ə ˈ n ɛ s / . The dignity, rank, or position of the title
280-602: Is a marquisate or marquessate. The honorific prefix " The Most Honourable " precedes the name of a marquess or marchioness of the United Kingdom . In Great Britain , and historically in Ireland , the spelling of this title is marquess . In Scotland, the French spelling marquis is sometimes used. The theoretical distinction between a marquess and other titles has, since the Middle Ages , faded into obscurity. In times past,
320-422: Is unlikely the marriage was ever consummated. During their long marriage, which was often punctuated with periods of extended separation, the two were never more than formal with each other. After three years of foreign travel, he entered Queen Marie Antoinette 's Regiment of Dragoons and the next year assumed his aged grandfather's place at court as a premier gentilhomme de la chambre to King Louis XVI . At
360-618: The 18th Fructidor (4 September) 1797, he was arrested and transported to French Guiana . Transferred to the island of Oléron in 1799, he was set free by Bonaparte after the Coup of 18 Brumaire . In 1801, under the Consulate , he became councillor of state and director of the Trésor public (Treasury), and in 1802 a senator . In 1803 he negotiated the Louisiana Purchase treaty by which Louisiana
400-695: The Duc de Richelieu (August 1815), tried unsuccessfully to gain the confidence of the Ultra-Royalists , and withdrew at the end of nine months (10 May 1816). In 1830, when the July Revolution brought Louis Philippe and the Orléans Monarchy , Barbé-Marbois went, as president of the Cour des Comptes , to compliment the new king, and was confirmed in his position. He held his office until April 1834. In 1829, he wrote
440-685: The Habsburg court back to Vienna. There, he renewed a friendship with Prince Charles de Ligne , the son of the Austrian diplomat, the Prince de Ligne . Together, they decided to join the Imperial Russian Army as volunteers. Accompanied by another friend, the Comte de Langeron , they reached the Russian headquarters at Bender , Moldavia on 21 November. The three were present at Alexander Suvorov 's capture of Izmail . For his service in that battle, Fronsac
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#1732869156355480-573: The Palace of Versailles , it was his duty to attend the King during the highly ritualized daily lever and coucher ceremonies. Despite his young age, he had a reputation at court for puritanical austerity. After his grandfather died and his father succeeded to the dukedom of Richelieu in 1788, Chinon became known as the Duke of Fronsac ( duc de Fronsac ). By 1789, he was a captain in the Esterhazy Regiment of Hussars . On 5 October of that year, he
520-526: The Bourbon Restoration, he returned to his homeland and was twice Prime Minister of France . He was born in Paris , the son of Antoine de Vignerot du Plessis, 4th Duke of Richelieu , and of his wife, Adélaïde de Hautefort. His father was the son and heir of King Louis XV of France's favourite, Armand de Vignerot du Plessis, 3rd Duke of Richelieu . Known by the courtesy title of comte de Chinon during
560-462: The Coronation, & he said it was quite unprecedented. I observed that there were very few Viscounts, to which he replied "There are very few Viscounts ," that they were an old sort of title & not really English; that they came from Vice-Comites; that Dukes & Barons were the only real English titles; – that Marquises were likewise not English, & that people were mere made Marquises, when it
600-580: The French Revolution and still exists today. See Belgian nobility § Marquesses in the Belgian nobility and List of noble families in Belgium § Marquesses . In Spain, the rank of Marquess/Marchioness ( Marqués / Marquesa ) still exists. One hundred forty-two of them are Spanish grandees . Normally a marqués is addressed as " The Most Illustrious Lord" ( Ilustrísimo Señor ), or if he/she
640-555: The French legation to the US Army: "D'Complot du Benedict Arnold & Sir Henri Clinton contre Eunas` States du America General George Washington", one of the first accounts of Arnold's treason, was not published until 1816. Marquess A marquess ( UK : / ˈ m ɑː ( r ) k w ɪ s / ; French : marquis [maʁki] ) is a nobleman of high hereditary rank in various European peerages and in those of some of their former colonies. The German-language equivalent
680-670: The Queen and convinced her to seek refuge in the King's apartments, thus arguably saving her life. On Marie Antoinette's direction, he left Paris in 1790 for Vienna to discuss the recent events of the French Revolution with her older brother, the Holy Roman Emperor Joseph II . Before he got there, however, Joseph died. Instead, Richelieu attended the coronation of the new Emperor, Leopold II , in Frankfurt and then followed
720-608: The act of abdication of the emperor, and declared to the Cour des Comptes , with reference to the invasion of France by the Sixth Coalition : In June of that year, under the First Restoration , Barbé-Marbois was made Peer of France by King Louis XVIII , and confirmed in his office as president of the Cour des Comptes . Deprived of his positions by Napoleon during the Hundred Days , he was appointed Minister of Justice under
760-503: The book Histoire de la Louisiane et la cession de cette colonie par la France aux Etats-Unis de l'Amérique septentrionale; précédée d'un discours sur la constitution et le gouvernement des Etats-Unis ("History of Louisiana and of Its Cession to the United States of Northern America; Preceded by a Discourse on the Constitution and Government of the United States"). He published various texts, including: Written in 1780, while secretary to
800-538: The daughter of William Moore , former governor of Pennsylvania . In 1785, he became intendant of the colony of Saint-Domingue under the Ancien Régime . At the close of 1789, he returned to France, and then placed his services at the disposal of the French Revolutionary government. In 1791 he was sent to Regensburg to help the Marquis de Noailles , the French ambassador . Suspected of treason , he
840-404: The distinction between a count and a marquess was that the land of a marquess, called a march , was on the border of the country, while a count's land, called a county , often was not. As a result of this, a marquess was trusted to defend and fortify against potentially hostile neighbours and was thus more important and ranked higher than a count. The title is ranked below that of a duke , which
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#1732869156355880-603: The interests of the new king and of France by attaching himself to the headquarters of Tsar Alexander. Richelieu's character and antecedents alike marked him out as a valuable support for the monarchy at the beginning of the Bourbon Restoration . Though the bulk of his confiscated estates were lost beyond recall, he did not share the angry resentment of most of the returning émigrés , from whose company and intrigues he had held himself aloof during his long Russian exile. More specifically, he did not share their delusions as to
920-470: The lifetime of his distinguished grandfather, he was married on 4 May 1782 at the age of fifteen to Alexandrine Rosalie Sabine de Rochechouart-Faudoas (13 December 1768 – 9 December 1830), a hunchbacked child of fourteen. Immediately after the wedding, Chinon embarked upon the Grand Tour with his tutor, visiting the cities of Geneva , Florence and Vienna . Because of Rosalie's deformity, it
960-504: The opening session of the new Ultraroyalist Chamber of Deputies (the famous Chambre introuvable ), Richelieu decided (after much urging from Mathieu de Montmorency ) to succeed Talleyrand as the Prime Minister of France , though – as he himself said – he did not know the face of a single one of his colleagues. On 26 September 1815 he was appointed President du Conseil (Prime Minister), a position he held until 29 December 1818, when he
1000-504: The possibility of undoing the work of the French Revolution. As the personal friend of the Russian emperor, his influence in the councils of the Allies had been of great service. Despite this fact, however, he refused the offer of a place in the ministry of the former revolutionary and Bonapartist Talleyrand , pleading both a long absence from France and an ignorance of its conditions. Eventually, though, after Talleyrand's resignation in advance of
1040-490: The rank of Major General but later resigned his commission after what he considered an unwarranted reprimand by Catherine's successor, Emperor Paul I . His prospects brightened, however, after Paul was murdered in 1801. The new Russian emperor, Alexander I , was one of his friends. The erasure of Richelieu's name from the list of prohibited émigrés who could not legally return to France, which Richelieu on his own had previously been unable to secure from Napoleon Bonaparte ,
1080-555: The senate and more unpacified or vulnerable provinces were administered by the emperor. The titles " duke " and " count " were similarly distinguished as ranks in the Byzantine Empire , with dux (literally, "leader") being used for a provincial military governor and the rank of comes (literally "companion," that is, of the Emperor) given to the leader of an active army along the frontier. The title of marquess in Belgium predates
1120-426: The third largest city in the empire by population. The grateful Odessans erected a bronze monument to him in 1828. These are the famous Odessa Steps , crowned by a statue of Richelieu. Richelieu returned to France in 1814. On the return of Napoleon from Elba , he accompanied Louis XVIII as far as Lille . From there, he chose to return to Vienna in order to rejoin the Russian army, believing that he could best serve
1160-472: Was a French statesman during the Bourbon Restoration . He was known by the courtesy title of Count of Chinon until 1788, then Duke of Fronsac until 1791, when he succeeded his father as Duke of Richelieu . As a royalist , during the French Revolutionary Wars and Napoleonic Wars , he served as a senior officer in the Imperial Russian Army , achieving the grade of major general. Following
1200-568: Was accorded on the request of Alexander's new government, and in 1803 Alexander appointed him Governor of Odesa . Two years later, he became Governor-General of a large swathe of land recently conquered from the Ottoman Empire and called New Russia , which included the territories of Kherson , Ekaterinoslav and the Crimea . He commanded a division in the Russo-Turkish War, 1806-1812 , and
1240-529: Was arrested on his return but soon freed. In 1795, he was elected to the Council of Ancients , where the general moderation of his attitude, especially in his opposition to the exclusion of nobles and the relations of émigrés from public life, brought him under suspicion of being a royalist, though he pronounced a eulogy on Napoleon Bonaparte for his success in Italy . During the anti- Royalist coup d'état of
François Barbé-Marbois - Misplaced Pages Continue
1280-668: Was ceded to the United States, and was rewarded by the First Consul with a gift of 152,000 francs . Loyal to the First Empire , he was made grand officer of the Legion of Honour and a count in 1805, and in 1808 he became president of the Cour des Comptes . His career as Head of the Treasury ended in 1806. In return for these favours, he heaped praise upon Napoleon; yet, in 1814, he helped to draw up
1320-573: Was decorated by the Russian Empress Catherine the Great with the Order of St. George and given a golden sword. On the death of his father in February 1791, he succeeded to the title of Duke of Richelieu . Because of an unwillingness on the part of various nobles to serve in the royal household , King Louis XVI soon afterwards summoned him back to Paris in order for him to resume his position as
1360-523: Was derived from marche ("frontier"), itself descended from the Middle Latin marca ("frontier") Margrave and marchese in the kingdoms of Italy , from which the modern English word march also descends. The distinction between governors of frontier territories and interior territories was made as early as the founding of the Roman Empire when some provinces were set aside for administration by
1400-606: Was engaged in frequent expeditions to the Caucasus . Richelieu played a role during Ottoman plague epidemic which hit Odesa in the autumn 1812. Dismissive of any attempt to forge a compromise between quarantine requirements and free trade, Prince Kuriakin (the Saint Petersburg-based High Commissioner for Sanitation) countermanded Richelieu's orders. In the eleven years of his administration, Odessa greatly increased in size and importance, eventually becoming
1440-500: Was in Paris when the March on Versailles began. Worried about the safety of the royal family, he disguised himself as one of the crowd and started out on foot to Versailles in order to warn the King and Queen. Unable to break through the large number of people on the road, he took a shortcut through the woods. He arrived just as the angry mob was converging on the palace. He went immediately to
1480-658: Was not wished that they should be made Dukes. Like other major Western noble titles, marquess (or marquis) is sometimes used to translate certain titles from non-Western languages with their own traditions, even though they are, as a rule, historically unrelated and thus hard to compare. However, they are considered "equivalent" in relative rank. This is the case with: Marquesses and marchionesses have occasionally appeared in works of fiction. Armand-Emmanuel du Plessis, duc de Richelieu Armand Emmanuel Sophie Septimanie de Vignerot du Plessis, 5th Duke of Richelieu and Fronsac (25 September 1766 – 17 May 1822),
1520-584: Was often largely restricted to the royal family. The rank of marquess was a relatively late introduction to the British peerage: no marcher lords had the rank of marquess, though some were earls . On the evening of the Coronation of Queen Victoria in 1838, the Prime Minister Lord Melbourne explained to her why (from her journals): I spoke to [Lord Melbourne] about the numbers of Peers present at
1560-606: Was succeeded by Jean Joseph Dessolles . During this tenure, he was also the Minister of Foreign Affairs. It was mainly due to his efforts that France was so quickly relieved of the burden of the Allied army of occupation. In order to achieve this goal, he attended the Congress of Aix-la-Chapelle in 1818, where he was informed in confidence of an Allied pledge to interfere internally in France if
1600-734: Was then finishing his final term as Virginia's governor, responded to this query with a manuscript that later became his famous Notes on the State of Virginia . Barbé-Marbois was elected a Foreign Honorary Member to both the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the American Philosophical Society in 1781. When the minister Chevalier de la Luzerne returned to France in 1783, Barbé-Marbois remained in America as chargé d'affaires in 1784. That year he married Elizabeth Moore (1765–1834),
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