View source for Charles Joseph, comte Bresson

{{Short description|French diplomat}}
[[File:Charles-Joseph, comte Bresson.jpg|thumb]]
'''Charles-Joseph, comte Bresson''' (27 March 1798 in [[Epinal]] &ndash; 2 November 1847 in Naples) was a French diplomat.
He gained the confidence of King [[Louis-Philippe of France]] by successfully arranging the marriages of three of his children: the [[Ferdinand-Philippe d'Orléans|Prince Royal]], Princess [[Louise d'Orléans (1812-1850)|Louise d'Orléans]] and the [[Antoine d'Orléans (1824-1890)|Duke of Montpensier]]. Count Bresson committed suicide in 1847 following family and political pressures.
==Life==
The son of a chef de division in the ministry of foreign affairs, Bresson soon became destined for a diplomatic career. [[Jean-Guillaume Hyde de Neuville|Hyde de Neuville]], [[ministre de la Marine]] under [[Charles X of France|Charles X]], put him in charge of a mission to [[Colombia]].
In 1830 he was ordered to notify Switzerland of Louis-Philippe's accession to the French throne, before becoming first secretary to the French embassy in London under [[Charles-Maurice de Talleyrand-Périgord|Talleyrand]]. He was one of two diplomats given the task of forcing the Belgian government to accept the decisions of the [[Belgian Revolution#"Night at the opera"|London Conference]], a task he acquitted well. To the king's satisfaction, he then led the marriage negotiations as to a match between the new king of Belgium [[Leopold I of Belgium|Leopold I]] with princess [[Louise d'Orléans (1812-1850)|Louise d'Orléans]]. That success brought him to the height of favour with Louis-Philippe. During this era he also became the lover of the Belgian ambassador's wife, the [[Fanny Mosselman du Chenoy|comtesse Le Hon]], allegedly fathering her son Léopold (born 1832).<ref>Source : [[Jean-Marie Rouart]], ''Morny. Un voluptueux au pouvoir'', Paris, Gallimard, coll. Folio, 1997, p. 114</ref>
In 1833, he was made chargé d'affaires in [[Berlin]] with the title of [[minister plenipotentiary]]. He re-established relations (with strong compromises) between France and [[History of Prussia|Prussia]], ensuring the latter did not undertake any closer rapprochement with Russia. On 10 November 1834 he was appointed France's [[Foreign Minister (France)|Foreign Minister]] in the temporary [[Hugues-Bernard Maret]] ministry, but he did not even have the time to reach Paris before that ministry fell. He thus remained in Berlin to arrange the 1837 marriage of the [[Ferdinand-Philippe d'Orléans|Prince royal]] to princess [[Helen of Mecklenburg-Schwerin]], of a family allied to the Prussian royal family. After this diplomatic success, Louis-Philippe made him a [[peer of France]] on 6 May 1839. In the [[Chambre des pairs]] Bresson strongly defended the Paris fortifications project of 1841 in which the king took particular interest.
He was then made ambassador to Madrid and played a major role in the difficult marriage negotiations to marry [[Isabella II of Spain]] to her cousin the [[Francis, Duke of Cádiz|duke of Cadiz]] (which occurred on 10 October 1846) and the [[Antoine d'Orléans (1824-1890)|duke of Montpensier]] to princess [[Infanta Luisa Fernanda, Duchess of Montpensier|Luisa Fernanda]], a sister of Isabella II. During these negotiations France's interests were vigorously opposed to those of the [[July Monarchy]]'s erstwhile ally the [[United Kingdom]], and so count Bresson had to thwart sometimes disloyal manoeuvres by Sir [[Henry Bulwer, 1st Baron Dalling and Bulwer|Henry Bulwer]], the British ambassador to Spain. In reward for this success, Bresson's son was made a [[grandee of Spain]], 1st class, with the title of 'duke of Sainte-Isabelle'. Bresson himself was recalled to France in 1847, spending a few weeks in London before being appointed ambassador to Naples, a post he had only just taken up when he cut his throat with a razor and died, probably due to domestic troubles.
== See also ==
* [[List of Ambassadors of France to the United Kingdom]]
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{{Succession box
| before= [[Henri de Rigny]]
| title= [[Foreign Minister (France)|Foreign Minister]]|years=1834-1834
| after= [[Henri de Rigny]]
}}
{{end}}
==Sources==
* {{in lang|fr}} [[Adolphe Robert]] & Gaston Cougny, ''Dictionnaire des Parlementaires français'', Paris, Dourloton, 1889
== References ==
{{Reflist}}
{{Cabinet of Hugues-Bernard Maret}}
{{Foreign Ministers of France}}
{{Authority control}}
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[[Category:1798 births]]
[[Category:1847 deaths]]
[[Category:People from Épinal]]
[[Category:Counts of France]]
[[Category:Politicians from Grand Est]]
[[Category:Foreign ministers of France]]
[[Category:Members of the Chamber of Peers of the July Monarchy]]
[[Category:Ambassadors of France to the Kingdom of Naples]]
[[Category:Ambassadors of France to Spain]]
[[Category:Ambassadors of France to Prussia]]
[[Category:19th-century French diplomats]]
[[Category:Grand Cross of the Legion of Honour]]
[[Category:French politicians who died by suicide]]
[[Category:Suicides by sharp instrument]]
[[Category:1840s suicides]]