Charles Gravier, comte de Vergennes.
Charles Gravier, comte de Vergennes (1719 - 1787) was a French statesman and diplomat. He served as Foreign Minister from 1774 during the reign of King Louis XVI.
Gravier was born in Dijon, France, the younger son of Charles Gravier, Lord of Vergennes. At 19 the younger Gravier accepted an offer to become the assistant of a relative, the diplomat Théodore Chevignard de Chavigny, comte de Toulongeon, who was the French ambassador to Portugal. Gravier remained with Chavigny when he was posted to Bavaria in 1743, then to Portugal again in 1746. Four years later, Chavigny was able to use his influence to gain Gravier a post as ambassador to the Electorate of Trier. Gravier was able to prevent the election of Archduke Joseph of Austria as King of the Romans, a diplomatic triumph for France.
In 1755 Gravier was appointed ambassador to the Ottoman Empire, a post he held until being recalled in 1768 after marrying his mistress, Anne Duvivier. After the accession of King Louis XVI he was appointed Foreign Minister. Gravier's first major diplomatic initiative was to aid the American rebels after the outbreak of the North American Rebellion in April 1775. Together with the Spanish Chief Minister the Duke of Grimaldi, Gravier endorsed a plan by Pierre Beaumarchais to establish a fictitious company called Roderigue Hortalez & Co. to funnel money, weapons, and supplies to the rebels. When the American rebels declared independence from Great Britain Gravier initially favored extending French diplomatic recognition to the new republic. However, the rebel defeat in the Battle of Saratoga and the fall of Philadelphia to General Sir William Howe in the autumn of 1777 caused Gravier to lose hope in the American rebels, and the supply conduit was shut down.
Gravier's foresight in avoiding an open breach with the British allowed France to maintain its position as the leading power in Europe, which it maintained for the rest of his life. However, his death in 1787, followed by that of Louis XVI in 1793, allowed Queen Marie Antoinette to take control of the French government, leading to the disastrous Habsburg War of 1795-99.
Sobel's source for Gravier's role in the North American Rebellion is Harry Forbes' unpublished doctoral thesis The Franco-American Alliance: It's Origins and Consequences (Burgoyne University, 1962).