Charles de Chambrun (diplomat)

His Excellency
Count Charles de Chambrun
French Ambassador to Italy
In office
1933–1936
Preceded byHenry de Jouvenel
Succeeded byJules François Blondel
French Ambassador to Turkey
In office
1928–1933
Preceded byÉmile Daeschner
Succeeded byAlbert Kammerer
French Minister to Greece
In office
1924–1926
Preceded byHenri Chassain de Marcilly
Succeeded byLouis Frédéric Clément-Simon
Personal details
Born
Louis Charles Pineton de Chambrun

(1875-02-10)10 February 1875
Washington, D.C., United States
Died6 November 1952(1952-11-06) (aged 77)
Paris, France
NationalityFrench
Spouse
​
​
(m. 1934; died 1951)​
Parent(s)Charles-Adolphe de Chambrun
Marthe Tircuy de Corcelle
RelativesPierre de Chambrun (brother)
René de Chambrun (nephew)
OccupationDiplomat, writer
Known forMember of the Académie française

Count Louis Charles Pineton de Chambrun (10 February 1875 – 6 November 1952) was a French diplomat and writer.

Early life

Chambrun was born on 10 February 1875 in Washington, D.C., where his father, Charles-Adolphe de Chambrun, Marquis of Chambrun, was a judicial counsellor at the Embassy of France, Washington, D.C.[1][2] His mother was Marie Henriette Hélène Marthe Tircuy de Corcelle (a great-granddaughter of the Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de Lafayette). His siblings included Pierre de Chambrun, Marquis of Chambrun (who married American heiress Margaret Rives Nichols);[3] General Count Aldebert de Chambrun (who married Clara Eleanor Longworth, a cousin of Pierre's wife who was sister-in-law to Alice Roosevelt Longworth);[4][5] and Thérèse de Chambrun (who married explorer Pierre Savorgnan de Brazza).[6]

Through his brother Aldebert, he was uncle to Count René de Chambrun, the French-American lawyer and businessman who married Josée Laval (a daughter of Prime Minister Pierre Laval).[7][8]

Career

Count de Chambrun, 1922

Charles served as attaché to France's ambassador to the Vatican, Berlin, then Washington, D.C. In 1914, he became First Secretary at the St Petersburg embassy, and later served in Athens and Vienna.[9] From 1928 to 1933, he represented France in Ankara and then became ambassador to Rome from 1933 to 1935 during the midst of Fascist Italy.[citation needed]

In March 1937, as he was about to board the train to Brussels with his wife, Magda Fontanges, the former mistress of Benito Mussolini, shot him twice at the Gare du Nord because she thought he was behind her expulsion from Italy. Maître René Floriot defended Fontanges, who only served a one-year suspended prison sentence for her crime.[10][11]

Académie française

With Paul Claudel, Maurice Garçon, Marcel Pagnol, Jules Romains and Henri Mondor, he was one of six people elected on 4 April 1946 to the Académie française in the second group election to fill the numerous empty seats caused by the lack of elections during the German occupation of France.[12]

Chambrun was made a Grand officer of the Légion d'Honneur in 1936.

Personal life

Photograph of his wife, the Princess Murat, 1926

While in Rome, he married Marie Augustine de Rohan-Chabot (1876–1951) at the Capitol building in Rome.[13] The widow of Prince Lucien Murat,[14] she was a daughter of the Alain de Rohan-Chabot, 11th Duke of Rohan, and Herminie, Duchess of Rohan (née de La Brousse de Verteillac).[15] She was a writer, galleriste and landscape and portrait painter.[16][17] Her older sister, Marie-Joséphine de Rohan-Chabot, was the wife of Napoléon Louis de Talleyrand-Périgord (grandson of Louis de Talleyrand-Périgord and nephew of Boson de Talleyrand-Périgord).[18]

The Countess de Chambrun died in Paris on 10 October 1951.[19] Count de Chambrun died at his residence in Paris on 6 November 1952.[20]

Works

Charles de Chambrun
  • Lettres à Marie, Pétersbourg-Pétrograd, 1914–1918 (1941)
  • Atatürk et la Turquie nouvelle (1939)
  • À l'école d'un diplomate : Vergennes (1944)
  • L'Esprit de la diplomatie (1944)
  • Traditions et souvenirs (1952)
Marie de Rohan Chabot (under the name Marie de Chambrun)
  • Le Roi de Rome, Plon, 1941
Marie de Rohan Chabot (under the name Princesse Lucien Murat)
  • Raspoutine et l'aube sanglante, De Boccard, s.d.
  • La reine Christine de Suède, Flammarion, 1934
  • Les Errants de la Gloire, Flammarion, 1933
  • La vie amoureuse de la Grande Catherine coll. « Leurs amours », Flammarion, 1927

References

  1. ^ "Marquis de Chambrun Dead. Noted French Lawyer Residing in New York Passes Away". The Centralia Entreprise and Tribune. Centralia, Wisconsin. 19 September 1891. p. 2. Retrieved 7 August 2016 – via Newspapers.com.
  2. ^ "Marquis de Chambrun Dead". The Weekly Wisconsin. Milwaukee, Wisconsin. 19 September 1891. p. 9. Retrieved 7 August 2016 – via Newspapers.com.
  3. ^ Times, Special to The New York (25 August 1954). "DE CHAMBRUN, 88, DIPLOMAT, IS DEAD; Marquis, an Ex-Senator, Was Descendant of Lafayette Opposed Petain in Vichy". The New York Times. Retrieved 28 June 2024.
  4. ^ "Gen. Count de Chambrun Dies; A Descendant of Lafayette, 89". The New York Times. 24 April 1962. Retrieved 28 June 2024.
  5. ^ Hutchison, Percy (11 October 1936). "Stars and Stripes and Tricolor; The International Memoirs of the Countess de Chambrun SHADOWS LIKE MYSELF. By the Countess de Chambrun. 348 pp. Illustrated. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons. $3.75. The Countess de Chambrun". The New York Times. Retrieved 28 June 2024.
  6. ^ Berenson, Edward (2011). Heroes of Empire: Five Charismatic Men and the Conquest of Africa. Univ of California Press. p. 283. ISBN 978-0-520-27258-3. Retrieved 28 June 2024.
  7. ^ TIMES, Wireless to THE NEW YORK (1 July 1935). "Mlle. Laval, French Premier's Daughter, Betrothed to Count Rene de Chambrun". The New York Times. Retrieved 28 June 2024.
  8. ^ "FRENCH AIDE HERE ON YANKEE CLIPPER; Count Rene de Chambrun, New Military Attache to Embassy, a Hereditary American ADMIRAL COURTNEY ABOARD 16 Passengers Brought In by Flying Boat After Delays at Horta and Bermuda". The New York Times. 13 June 1940. Retrieved 28 June 2024.
  9. ^ Rappaport, Helen (25 August 2016). Caught in the Revolution: Petrograd, 1917. Random House. ISBN 978-1-4735-1817-9. Chambrun, Charles de (1875–1952). French diplomat and writer; First Secretary at Petrograd embassy from 1914.
  10. ^ TIMES, Wireless to THE NEW YORK (18 March 1937). "Woman Shoots Diplomat in Paris Station; Mystery Surrounds Attack on de Chambrun". The New York Times. Retrieved 28 June 2024.
  11. ^ TIMES, Wireless to THE NEW YORK (29 June 1937). "CHAMBRUN ATTACKER SANE; Alienists Find Woman Who Shot Count Mentally Responsible". The New York Times. Retrieved 28 June 2024.
  12. ^ TIMES, Special to THE NEW YORK (18 October 1946). "De Chambrun in French Academy". The New York Times. Retrieved 28 June 2024.
  13. ^ « L'autre soir à table Marie de Chambrun lâche un pet. Chambrun : "Vous parlez encore pour ne rien dire !" Jean COCTEAU / Journal (1942–1945) / Gallimard 1989
  14. ^ "PRINCE LUCIEN MURAT DIES IN EXILE AT 63; Russian Refugee in Morocco Descendant of One-Time King of Naples". The New York Times. 21 December 1933.
  15. ^ "Widow of Prince Murat". The New York Times. 11 October 1951.
  16. ^ TIMES, Wireless to THE NEW YORK (1 August 1934). "WEDDING IN OCTOBER FOR PRINCESS MURAT; Former Marie de Rohan-Chabot Will Be Bride of Count Charles de Chambrun". The New York Times. Retrieved 28 June 2024.
  17. ^ "PRINCESS MURAT WED TO DIPLOMAT; Widow of Prince Lucien Is Bride in Rome of Count Charles de Chambrun". The New York Times. 23 November 1934. Retrieved 28 June 2024.
  18. ^ "PRINCESS OPENS A SHOP.; Duke de Rohan's Sister to Sell Books and Serve Tea". The New York Times. 18 April 1926.
  19. ^ "MME. DE CHAMBURN, WIFE OF EX-ENVOY; French Author Dies in Paris-- Countess' Husband Served as Ambassador to Italy". The New York Times. 11 October 1951. Retrieved 28 June 2024.
  20. ^ TIMES, Special to THE NEW YORK (7 November 1952). "COUNT CHAMBRUN, FRENCH DIPLOMAT; Pro-War Ambassador to Rome Dies in Paris--Served in Many Posts in Europe". The New York Times. Retrieved 28 June 2024.