Choiseul : Volume I - Father & Son 1719-1754

The Duke de Choiseul (1719-1785) was once described by the Elder Pitt, his competitor for Empire, as the greatest minister for France since Richelieu. Yet previous studies of Choiseul, even in French, have been relatively few and limited. In this volume Mr. Rohan Butler has begun to fill a considerable gap. He presents a wide range of new information derived from many years’ research in archives not only in France but also n Austria, Italy, and elsewhere. Some of the fresh material comes from Choiseul’s father, a little-known diplomatist. The Marquis de Stainville secretly reported soundings, long concealed, between traditional enemies, France and Austria, well before the Diplomatic Revolution of 1756 which was to condition Choiseul’s statesmanship.

On the domestic side the supposedly insouciant Choiseul (the Count de Stainville) figures in close control of extra accounts from his native Lorraine, against the social background of the later Ancien Regime. Choiseul’s keen concern with the arts is brought out, as is his arduous campaigning in the War of the Austrian Succession. Marriage followed for this free-liver, and controversial favour from Madame de Pompadour during his ascent towards twelve years of preponderant power under Louis XV. The rich story of the first half of Choiseul’s life (1719-1754) merits the author’s full treatment in relating the broad currents of European development in the first half of the eighteenth century.