Charles Colbert, marquis de Croissy

Charles Colbert de Croissy (* 1626 in Reims, † July 28, 1696 in Versailles) was a French diplomat and foreign minister under King Louis XIV, and younger brother of Jean -Baptiste Colbert.

Charles Colbert began his career in the administration of the War Minister Michel Le Tellier. In 1656, Colbert earned a Council seat in the Parlement of Metz, in 1658, he was appointed intendant of Alsace and the President of the newly established Supreme Court of Alsace. In this position he was to reorganize the only recently acquired from France area and establish new administrative structures. Thanks to the support of his elder brother at the court was tasked to 1661 with various diplomatic missions to Germany and Italy Charles Colbert of 1659. 1662 appointed him to the king marquis de Croissy, and Colbert received the most prestigious post of président à mortier at the Parlement of Metz.

After he was several times as provincial director (1665 Soissons, Amiens in 1666 and 1667 Paris) for the king on the road, he moved permanently to the diplomacy. In 1668 he represented France in the negotiations for the Peace of Aachen as envoy extraordinary and shortly thereafter as ambassador in London to prepare for a possible alliance with Charles II of England. He arranged to the diplomatic meeting between the English king and his sister, the Duchess Henriette d' Orléans, which culminated in the Treaty of Dover and allowed a Franco-British offensive alliance against Holland. Also, it was Charles Colbert, Charles II zuführte the French maid Louise de Kérouaille as a new mistress.

His negotiating skills during negotiations on the Treaty of Nijmegen in the years 1676-1679 increased his reputation with Louis XIV immensely, which then his Secretary Pomponne 1679 dropped out of favor and replaced by Colbert de Croissy. Charles Colbert was regarded as extremely talented and was instrumental in the formulation and implementation of Reunionspolitik. This he had designed in the late 1650s by the example of Alsace and after his appointment as minister to the king, as a nichtkriegerisches means of expansion and border straightening proposed. To hedge the French influence in Central Europe, Colbert de Croissy negotiated alliances with Brandenburg ( 1681) and Denmark ( 1683). He had already in 1679 in Munich led the negotiations for the marriage of the French crown prince Louis of Bavaria Kurprinzessin Maria Anna. During these negotiations, he received from the king the appointment as minister.

The Revocation of the Edict of Nantes ( 1685) made ​​some of its Central European alliance contracts again lapsed as some Protestant States France now faced critical. Therefore, Colbert de Croissy began on a French war against the kingdom prepared (1688 ). He prepared nor the peace negotiations in Rijswijk, before he died in 1696. His son Colbert de Torcy was immediately succeeded by the Office of the Secretary of State.

See also House Colbert