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Francois de Callieres and Diplomatic Theory

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 February 2009

Maurice Keens-Soper
Maurice Keens-Soper
Affiliation:
University of Leicester
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Extract

Francois de Callieres (1645–1717) was a diplomatic envoy and man of letters who in 1716 published De la Manière de Négocier avec les Souverains. A Normand of literate and noble, but modest ancestry, he lived for many years in various parts of Europe before securing, somewhat late in a long life, a position in the service of Louis XIV. Although he won admission to the Académie Française for a panegyric on the King and published several other books including a noteworthy contribution to the ‘Battle of the Ancients and Moderns’, the high point in his sombre but determined life came during the Nine Years War when as a secret envoy he negotiated the crucial terms with the Dutch which led to the Congress of Ryswick (1697) and peace. Thereafter he held the sensitive position of secrétaire du cabinet at Versailles and supplied the secretary of state for foreign affairs with a flow of memoranda on the conditions of peace.

Type
Articles
Information
The Historical Journal , Volume 16 , Issue 3 , September 1973 , pp. 485 - 508
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1973

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References

1 Oakeshott, Michael, Rationalism in Politics (London, 1962).Google Scholar

2 Kertesz, Stephen, Introduction to the grossly defective paperback edition of Callières' On the Manner of Negotiating with Princes (Notre Dame, 1963), p. v.Google Scholar

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47 Quoted, in Wolf, John, Louis XIV, p. 618.Google Scholar

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50 I have been unable to consult all the treatises, many of which are to be found only in Rome and other European centres. Grabar produces abstracts of many of the documents as well as full references.

51 de Chamoy, Rousseau, L'ldée du Parfait Ambassadeur, ed. Delavand, L. (Paris, 1912).Google Scholar

52 Ibid. p. 28.

53 ibid. p. 11.

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57 In a chapter on the visits owed on the arrival of a new ambassador Wicquefort insists that in each court there is a routine among envoys which binds them together. ‘L'Ambassadeur est obligé de s'accommoder aux règles qui ont été etablies et n'y peut manquer sans déconcerter l'harmonie, sans laquelle il n'y peut point avoir de conversation entre les Ministres Publics’ L'Ambassadeur et ses Fonctions, ch. xxi, p. 296. Callières is familiar with the same facts though more cautious about the sense of community. ‘II lui est utile et souvent necéssaires de Her commerce et amitié jusqua un certain point.’ De la Manière de Négocier, p. 223.Google Scholar

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64 The Annual Register, 1787, p. 1.

65 Burke, Edmund, Letters on a Regicide Peace, II, Works viii, p. 243 note.Google Scholar