Charles | |
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| Duc de Morny | |
 Charles de Morny,c. 1860 | |
| Born | (1811-09-15)15 September 1811 Switzerland |
| Died | 10 March 1865(1865-03-10) (aged 53) Paris, France |
| Spouse(s) | Princess Sofia Sergeyevna Trubetskaya |
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Charles Auguste Louis Joseph de Morny, 1st Duc de Morny (French pronunciation:[ʃaʁloɡystlwiʒozɛfdəmɔʁni]; 15/16 September 1811 – 10 March 1865) was a Frenchstatesman.
Morny was born inSwitzerland,[1] and was the extra-marital son ofHortense de Beauharnais (the wife ofLouis Bonaparte andqueen of Holland) andCharles Joseph, Comte de Flahaut, making him half-brother of EmperorNapoleon III and grandson ofTalleyrand.[2] His birth was duly registered in a misleading certificate, which made him the legitimate son of Auguste Jean Hyacinthe Demorny, and born in Paris on 23 October 1811,[3] and described as a landowner ofSaint-Domingue. M. Demorny was in fact an officer in the Prussian army and a native of the French colony of St. Domingue (nowHaiti), though he owned no land there or elsewhere.[4]
Morny was educated by his grandmother,Adelaïde Filleul. After a brilliant school and college career the future duc de Morny received a commission in the army, and the next year he entered the staff college. The comte de Morny, as he was called by a polite fiction, served inAlgeria in 1834–1835 (during theFrench conquest of Algeria) as aide-de-camp to GeneralCamille Alphonse Trezel, whose life he saved under the walls ofConstantine.[4]
When Morny returned to Paris in 1838, he secured a solid position in the business world by establishing a majorbeet-sugar industry atClermont-Ferrand in theAuvergne and by writing a pamphletSur la question des sucres in 1838. In these and other lucrative speculations he was helped by his mistressFrançoise Mosselman, the beautiful and wealthy wife of the Belgianambassador,Charles Aimé Joseph Le Hon, Comte Le Hon. Eventually there were few great commercial enterprises in Paris in which he did not have an interest.[4]
Although Morny sat as deputy for Clermont-Ferrand from 1842 onwards, he took at first no important part in party politics, but he was heard with respect on industrial and financial questions. He supported the government ofLouis Philippe, because revolution threatened his commercial interests, but before theRevolutions of 1848, by which he was temporarily ruined, he considered converting to the Bourbon legitimist cause represented by theComte de Chambord. His attitude was expressed by the witticism with which he is said to have replied to a lady who asked what he would do if the Chamber were "swept out." "Range myself on the side of the broom handle," was his answer. Presently he was admitted to the intimate circle of his half-brother Louis Napoleon, and he helped to engineer thecoup d'état of2 December 1851 on the morrow of which he was appointed to head theministry of the interior.[4]
After six months in office, during which Morny showed his political opponents moderation and tact, he resigned his portfolio, ostensibly because he disapproved of the confiscation of the Bourbon-Orléans property but really because Napoleon, influenced by Morny's rivals, resented his claim to a foremost place in the government as a member of theHouse of Bonaparte. He then resumed his financial speculations. When in 1854 the Emperor appointed him president of theCorps Législatif, a position which he filled for the rest of his life, he used his official rank to assist his schemes.[4]
In 1856, Morny was sent as special envoy to the coronation of TsarAlexander II of Russia and brought home a wife, PrincessSophie Troubetzkoi, who through her connections greatly strengthened his social position. Sophie was legally daughter of Prince Sergey Vasilyevich Trubetskoy, but may have been the illegitimate daughter ofNicholas I of Russia. In 1862, Morny was created a Duke. It is said that he aspired to thethrone of Mexico, and that the French expedition sent to placeArchduke Maximilian on the throne was prompted by Napoleon III's desire to thwart this ambition.[4]
In spite of occasional disagreements, Morny's influence with the emperor remained great, and the liberal policies which he advocated enabled him to serve the imperial cause through his influence with the leaders of the opposition, the most conspicuous of whom,Émile Ollivier, was detached from his colleagues by Morny's efforts. But while he was laying the foundations of the "Liberal Empire" his health deteriorated and was further injured byquack medicines. The emperor and the empress visited him just before his death in Paris on 10 March 1865.[4]
Morny's valuable collection of pictures, includingJean-Honoré Fragonard'sThe Swing, was sold after his death. In spite of his undoubted wit and social gifts, Morny failed to secure the distinction he desired as a dramatist, and none of his pieces, which appeared under the pseudonym of M. de St Rémy, includingSur la grande route,M. Choufleuri restera chez lui le . . ., and theLes finesses du mari, among others, met with success on the stage.[4]
M. de Chenneviėres, the director of the Beaux-Arts, admired Morny's taste in pictures as well as the man himself. Charles de Morny was, he opined,"the most perfectly polite, the most elegant, the best bred man of his time".[5]
Morny played an important role in the development of thethoroughbredhorse racing andbreeding industry in France. In 1860, he purchased the EnglishTriple Crown championWest Australian and brought him to France for breeding purposes. In 1862 Morny built theDeauville-La Touques Race Course nearDeauville. ThePrix Morny is named in his honour.[citation needed]
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He had married atSaint Petersburg on 7 January 1857, PrincessSofia Sergeyevna Trubetskaya (Moscow, 25 March 1836 – 8 August 1898), the only daughter of Prince Sergey VasilyevichTrubetskoy (1814 – 12 May (30 AprilOld Style), 1859) and his wife Ekaterina PetrovnaMussina-Pushkina (1 February 1816 – c. 1897). Their children included:
He also had an illegitimate daughter byFanny Mosselman, who was referred byBalzac.
De Morny was influential in the early career ofSarah Bernhardt, who played forAlexander Dumas andVictor Hugo. In her autobiography,My Double Life, Bernhardt recounts that at a family conference which de Morny attended as a family friend, the purpose of which was to determine what Bernhardt was to do with her future life, de Morny suggested that she be sent to the Conservatoire. The family took him up on the suggestion and her life turned to the theatre.[6]
Attribution:
This article incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Morny, Charles Auguste Louis Joseph, Duc de".Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 18 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 849–850.. Endnotes:Last cabinet of the French Second Republic (26 October 1851 – 2 December 1851) | ||
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