Charles de Morny, Duke of Morny

Charles de Morny
Born	(1811-09-15)15 September 1811
Died	10 March 1865(1865-03-10) (aged 53)
Title	Duc de Morny
Spouse(s)	Princess Sofia Sergeyevna Trubetskaya
Issue	Marie Eugenie de Morny, Countess of La Corzana Auguste Charles, 2e Duc de Morny Serge de Morny Sophie de Morny
Parents	Charles Joseph de Flahaut Hortense de Beauharnais

Coat of arms

Charles Auguste Louis Joseph Demorny/de Morny, 1er Duc de Morny [ʃaʁl oɡyst lwi ʒɔzɛf dəmɔʁni] (15–16 September 1811, Switzerland – 10 March 1865, Paris) was a French statesman. He was the extra-marital son of Hortense de Beauharnais (the wife of Louis Bonaparte and queen of Holland) and Charles Joseph, Comte de Flahaut, making him half-brother of Emperor Napoleon III and grandson of Talleyrand.

Biography

He was born in Switzerland,^[1] and his birth was duly registered in a misleading certificate, which made him the legitimate son of Auguste Jean Hyacinthe Demorny, born in Paris on 23 October 1811,^[2] and described as a landowner of St. Domingo. M. Demorny was in fact an officer in the Prussian army and a native of St. Domingo, though he owned no land there or elsewhere.

His father was in fact Charles de Flahaut. His mother, Hortense de Beauharnais was the stepdaughter of Napoléon Bonaparte and the estranged wife of Louis Bonaparte, King of Holland.

He was educated by his grandmother, Adelaïde Filleul. After a brilliant school and college career the future Duc de Morny received a commission in the army, and the next year he entered the staff college. The Comte de Morny, as he was called by a polite fiction, served in Algeria in 1834–1835 as aide-de-camp to General Camille Alphonse Trezel, whose life he saved under the walls of Constantine.

When he returned to Paris in 1838, he secured a solid position in the business world by establishing of a major beet-sugar industry at Clermont in the Auvergne and by writing a pamphlet Sur la question des sucres in 1838. In these and other lucrative speculations he was helped by his mistress Françoise Mosselman, the beautiful and wealthy wife of the Belgian ambassador, Charles Aimé Joseph Le Hon, Comte Le Hon. Eventually there were few great commercial enterprises in Paris in which he did not have an interest.

Although he sat as deputy for Clermont-Ferrand from 1842 onwards, he took at first no important part in party politics, but he was heard with respect on industrial and financial questions. He supported the government of Louis Philippe, because revolution threatened his commercial interests, but before the Revolutions of 1848, by which he was temporarily ruined, he considered converting to the legitimist cause represented by the Comte de Chambord. His attitude was expressed by the witticism with which he is said to have replied to a lady who asked what he would do if the Chamber were "swept out." "Range myself on the side of the broom handle," was his answer. Presently he was admitted to the intimate circle of his half-brother Louis Napoleon, and he helped to engineer the coup d'état of 2 December 1851 on the morrow of which he was appointed to head the ministry of the interior.

After six months in office, during which he showed his political opponents moderation and tact, he resigned his portfolio, ostensibly because he disapproved of the confiscation of the Orleans property but really because Napoleon, influenced by Morny's rivals, resented his claim to a foremost place in the government as a member of the Bonaparte family. He then resumed his financial speculations. When in 1854 the Emperor appointed him president of the Corps Législatif, a position which he filled for the rest of his life, he used his official rank to assist his schemes.

In 1856, he was sent as special envoy to the coronation of Alexander II of Russia and brought home a wife, whom he married at St. Petersburg on 7 January 1857, Princess Sofia Sergeyevna Trubetskaya (Moscow, 25 March 1836 – 8 August 1896), the only daughter of Prince Sergey Vasilyevich Trubetskoy (1814 – 12 May (30 April Old Style), 1859) and his wife Ekaterina Petrovna Mussina-Pushkina (1 February 1816 – c. 1897). His wife's connections greatly strengthened his social position. Sophie was legally daughter of Prince Sergey Vasilyevich Trubetskoy, but may have been the illegitimate daughter of Nicholas I of Russia. In 1862, Morny was created a Duke. It is said that he aspired to the throne of Mexico, and that the French expedition sent to place Archduke Maximilian on the throne was prompted by Napoleon III's desire to thwart this ambition.

Tomb at the Père Lachaise Cemetery, Paris

In any case, in spite of occasional disagreements, Morny's influence with the emperor remained great, and the liberal policies which he advocated enabled him to serve the imperial cause through his influence with the leaders of the opposition, the most conspicuous of whom, Émile Ollivier, was detached from his colleagues by his efforts. But while he was laying the foundations of the "Liberal Empire" his health deteriorated and was further injured by quack medicines. The emperor and the empress visited him just before his death in Paris on 10 March 1865.

Morny's valuable collection of pictures, including Jean-Honoré Fragonard's The Swing, was sold after his death. In spite of his undoubted wit and social gifts, Morny failed to secure the distinction he desired as a dramatist, and none of his pieces, which appeared under the pseudonym of M. de St Rémy, including Sur la grande route, M. Choufleuri restera chez lui le . . ., and the Les finesses du mari, among others, met with success on the stage.

Thoroughbred horse racing

Morny played an important role in the development of the thoroughbred horse racing and breeding industry in France. In 1860, he purchased the English Triple Crown champion West Australian and brought him to France for breeding purposes. In 1862 Morny built the Deauville-La Touques Race Course near Deauville. The Prix Morny is named in his honor.

Children

• Marie Eugenie de Morny (1857–1883), who married a Spanish noble, José Ramón Gil Francisco de Borja Nicolás Osório y de Heredia, 9th Conde de La Corzana (1854 – 1919), in 1877 in Madrid, and had a son:
  • José Osorio y de Morny, 10th Conde de La Corzana (Madrid, 1878 – Madrid, 1919). He married María de la Purificación Dorticos-Marín y León, Marquesa de Marín (1878 – 1928), in 1902 in Madrid. He had no children.
• Auguste Charles Louis Valentin de Morny (1859–1920), who succeeded his father as the 2nd Duc de Morny. He married Carlota de Guzmán-Blanco y de Ybarra (Caracas, 1869 – Courbevoie, 1939) in 1886 in Paris and had three children:
  • Auguste de Morny, 3rd Duc de Morny (1889–1935), unmarried and without issue.
  • Antoine de Morny, 4th Duc de Morny (1896–1943), unmarried and without issue.
  • Anna Teresa de Morny (1890–1924), unmarried and without issue.
• Serge de Morny (1861–1922), who died unmarried and without issue.
• Sophie Mathilde (Missy) de Morny (1863 – 1944), who married Jacques Godart Marquis de Belbeuf (1850 – 1906) in 1881 in Madrid and divorced him in 1903.

Ancestors

Notes

Sources

• Shari Benstock, Women of the Left Bank: Paris, 1900—1940. Austin, Tx.: University of Texas Press, 1986 ISBN 0-292-79040-6
• Frances Mossiker, Napoleon and Josephine: The Biography of a Marriage. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1964
• Roger L. Williams, Gaslight and Shadow: The World of Napoleon III. New York: Macmillan, 1957, ch. II: "The Duc de Mornay and the Genesis of Parliamentarianism"

References

•  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. 

External links

• Free scores by Charles de Morny, Duke of Morny at the International Music Score Library Project
• Coat of arms (in French)

Last cabinet of the French Second Republic (26 October 1851 – 2 December 1851) Under the Presidency of Louis Napoleon Justice Eugène Corbin Alfred Daviel Foreign Affairs Louis Félix Étienne, marquis de Turgot Interior and Beaux-Arts René de Thorigny Charles de Morny, Duke of Morny Finance Antoine Blondel François-Xavier Joseph de Casabianca War Jacques Leroy de Saint Arnaud Navy and Colonies Hippolyte Fortoul Public Works Théobald de Lacrosse Agriculture and Commerce François-Xavier Joseph de Casabianca Noël Lefebvre-Duruflé Education and Religious Affairs Charles Giraud

First and Second Cabinets of Louis Napoleon Bonaparte (3 December 1851 - 2 December 1852) Minister of State François-Xavier Joseph de Casabianca (1852) Achille Fould Justice Eugène Rouher Jacques Pierre Abbatucci Foreign Affairs Louis Félix Étienne, marquis de Turgot Édouard Drouyn de Lhuys Interior and Beaux-Arts Charles de Morny Victor de Persigny Police Charlemagne de Maupas (1852) Defense Jacques Leroy de Saint Arnaud Navy and Colonies Théodore Ducos Public Education and Religious Affairs Hippolyte Fortoul Public Works Pierre Magne Noël Lefebvre-Duruflé Pierre Magne Agriculture and Commerce Noël Lefebvre-Duruflé Victor de Persigny