JOSEPH, COMTE DE (1785-1870)

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JOSEPH, COMTE DE (1785-1870) , French general and statesman, son of Alexandre Sebastien de Flahaut de la Billarderie, comte de Flahaut, beheaded at Arras in February 1793, and his wife Adelaide Filleul, afterwards Mme de Souza (q.v.), was born in Paris on the 21st of April 1785. Charles de Flahaut was generally recognized to be the offspring of his mother's liaison with Talley-rand, with whom he was closely connected throughout his life. His mother took him with her into

exile

EXILE (Lat. exsilium or exilium, from exsul or exul, which is derived from ex, out of, and the root sal, to go, seen in salire, to leap,
consul
- CONSUL
- CONSUL (in Gr. generally ihraros,ashortened form of errpavgybs 8hraeos, i.e. praetor maximus)
, &c.; the connexion with solum, soil, country is now generally considered wrong)

in 1792, and they remained abroad until 1798. He entered the army as a volunteer in 1800, and received his commission after the battle of Marengo. He became aide-de-camp to Murat, and was wounded at the battle of Landbach in 1805. At Warsaw he met Anne Poniatowski, Countess Potocka, with whom he rapidly became intimate. After the battle of Friedland he received the Legion of
1 Harmonie universelle (Paris, 1636), bk. v. pp. 232-237.
2 See Sir Thomas Browne's Works, vol. i. p. 206.
3 See Capt. C. R. Day, Descriptive Catalogue of Musical Instruments (London, 1891), pp. 18-22 and pl. 4; also Complete Instructions for the

Double

Flageolet (London, 1825) ; and The Preceptor, or a Key to the

Double

Flageolet (London, 1815).
FLAMBARD
Honour, and returned to Paris in 1807. He served in Spain in 18o8, and then in Germany. Meanwhile the Countess Potocka had established herself in Paris, but Charles de Flahaut had by this time entered on his liaison with Hortense de Beauharnais, queen of Holland. The

birth

BIRTH (a word common in various forms to Teutonic languages from the root of the verb " to bear ")

of their son was registered in Paris on the 21st of October 1811 as Charles Auguste Louis Joseph Demorny, known later as the duc de Morny. Flahaut fought with distinction in the Russian campaign of 1812, and in 1813 became general of brigade, aide-de-camp to the emperor, and, after the battle of

Leipzig

LEIPZIG

, general of division. After

Napoleon

NAPOLEON

's abdication in 1814 he submitted to the new government, but was placed on the retired

list

LIST (O.E.
lisle
- LISLE, ALICE (c. 1614-1685)
, a Teutonic word, cf. Dut. lust, Ger. Leiste, adapted in Ital. lista and Fr.
lisle
- LISLE, ALICE (c. 1614-1685)
)
LIST, FRIEDRICH (1789-1846)

in September. He was assiduous in his attendance on Queen Hortense until the Hundred Days brought him into active service again. A mission to Vienna to secure the return of Marie Louise resulted in failure. He was present at Waterloo, and afterwards sought to place

Napoleon

NAPOLEON

II. on the throne. He was saved from

exile

EXILE (Lat. exsilium or exilium, from exsul or exul, which is derived from ex, out of, and the root sal, to go, seen in salire, to leap,
consul
- CONSUL
- CONSUL (in Gr. generally ihraros,ashortened form of errpavgybs 8hraeos, i.e. praetor maximus)
, &c.; the connexion with solum, soil, country is now generally considered wrong)

by Talleyrand's influence, but was placed under police surveillance. Presently he elected to retire to Germany, and thence to England, where he married Margaret, daughter of Admiral George Keith

Elphinstone

, Lord Keith, and after the latter's death Baroness Keith in her own right. The French

ambassador

AMBASSADOR (also EMBASSADOR, the form sometimes still used in America; from the Fr. ambassadeur, with which compare Ital. ambasciatore and Span. embajador, all variants of the Med. Lat. ambassiator, ambassiator, ambasator, &c., derived from Med. Lat. amba

opposed the marriage, and Flahaut resigned his commission. His eldest daughter, Emily Jane, married Henry, 4th marquess of Lansdowne. The Flahauts returned to France in 1827, and in 183o Louis Philippe gave the count the grade of lieutenant-general and made him a peer of France. He remained intimately associated with Talleyrand's policy, and was, for a short,time in 1831,

ambassador

AMBASSADOR (also EMBASSADOR, the form sometimes still used in America; from the Fr. ambassadeur, with which compare Ital. ambasciatore and Span. embajador, all variants of the Med. Lat. ambassiator, ambassiator, ambasator, &c., derived from Med. Lat. amba

at Berlin. He was afterwards attached to the household of the duke of Orleans, and in 1841 was sent as ambassador to Vienna, where he remained until 1848, when he was dismissed and retired from the army. After the coup d'etat of 1851 he was again actively employed, and from 186o to 1862 was ambassador at the court of St James's. He died on the 1st of September 1870. The comte de Flahaut is perhaps better remembered for his exploits in gallantry, and the elegant manners in which he had been carefully trained by his mother, than for his public services, which were not, however, so inconsiderable as they have some-times been represented to be.
See A. de Haricourt, Madame de Souza et sa famille (1907).

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