Jean-Baptiste Colbert, marquis de Torcy

Jean -Baptiste Colbert de Torcy ( born September 14, 1665 in Paris, † September 2, 1746 in Paris) was a French diplomat and foreign minister under King Louis XIV, and nephew of Jean -Baptiste Colbert.

He was the son of the Foreign Minister Charles Colbert and is considered as an ambitious law student before he assisted his father in his office. The young Colbert proved to be talented in the field of diplomacy, which is why the king granted him the title of marquis de Torcy, and already in 1689 the reversion zusprach to the office of his father, which proved to be a fortunate decision.

Torcy took over after his father's death, as provided, the department and was the spiritual father of the peace treaties of Ryswick (1697 ), Utrecht (1713 ) and Rastatt (1714 ). His vested interest was the professionalization of diplomacy. To this end, he founded a Académie politique, to train with the goal specialists. This institution did not survive the death of Louis XIV, but the establishment of a central archive on Foreign Relations (1710 ) was a success, which to this day is invaluable for historians.

Although Colbert de Torcy was an expert with great competence and had enjoyed the full confidence of the king, the regent Philippe d' Orléans dismissed him after the death of Louis XIV (1715 ) and Colbert withdrew from politics. During his " retirement" he became a member of the Salon mezzanine, where he occasionally contemporaries discussed the foreign policy Fleury. This was mostly in the apartments of the abbé Alary, on the Place Vendôme, instead.

The architect Germain Boffrand built in Paris Faubourg Saint- Honoré numerous city palaces, of which Torcy still a rose in 1715 and from then it took under the name Hôtel de Torcy as a retreat. Here, Colbert de Torcy gained an extensive art collection and wrote his Memoirs pour servir à l' histoire des Negotiations depuis le Traité de Riswick jusqu'à la Paix d' Utrecht. The palace is today known as the Hôtel de Beauharnais and houses the German Embassy in Paris.