Elénor-François-Elie, Comte de Moustier (15 March 1751 Paris - 1 February 1817) was a French soldier, diplomat, and French ambassador to the United States, from 1787 to 1789.[1] In 1789, he was made Chevalier de Saint-Georges.[2]
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He studied at the University of Heidelberg. He enlisted in the Queen's cavalry regiment. He continued his military training at Besancon, where his father was inspector general of cavalry. In 1767, he was appointed lieutenant in the Navarre Royal Cavalry. In 1768, he commanded the Scottish company of Garde Écossaise. In 1771, he commanded a company of dragoons in the Dauphin's regiment. In 1784, he received the Cross of St. Louis. In 1789, he became a knight of St. George the Count of Burgundy.[3]
In 1769, he moved to Lisbon, his brother, the Marquis de Clermont d'Amboise, as attache. In 1772, the king appointed him counselor of embassy in London. In 1776, he was appointed secretary to the embassy at Naples, with his brother, the Marquis de Clermont d'Amboise. In 1778, he was appointed minister of the king next to the elector of Trier, head of the department of Saarland. In 1783, he was sent as a special diplomatic mission to London following the peace treaty signed between England and France.
In 1787 he was appointed Minister Plenipotentiary to the United States. In 1790, he was recalled for a diplomatic post in Prussia. In September 1791, Louis XVI offered him the post of foreign minister, he declined. He was accused of organizing a coalition of counter-revolutionaries in Prussia. But Eleonora Francois Elie de Moustier was the initiator of this anti-Republican coalition. The king of France, then appointed him ambassador to Constantinople.
The revolutionary party upon taking power, called for his head; he fled to England, and Prussia. The king's brother, the future Louis XVIII, gave him full powers to treat the interests of the king of France and the monarchy, and in 1792, offered him the title of regent during the captivity of the king. In 1793, he returned to England. He led the negotiations between British forces and the émigré troops on English soil. In 1795, he coordinated the landing of royalists at Quiberon bay. After the failure of the counter-revolution, he remained in Prussia, then in England. He returned to France in 1814, with the Bourbon restoration, he was exiled again in 1815.[4]
He married Antoinette-Louise Millet (died 1783). On January 2, 1779, they had a son, Edward Clement, in Koblenz, who later became a Minister Plenipotentiary. After her death, he partnered with her married sister, Anne Flore Millet de Bréhan. When he was appointed ambassador, this caused a scandal, leading to his recall in October 1789. He visited President George Washington, at Mount Vernon, where she made portraits of Washington and Eleanor Parke Custis.[5]