Vincent, Count Benedetti

Who was Vincent, Count Benedetti?

Vincent, Count Benedetti was a French diplomat. He is probably best known as one of the central figures in the instigation of the Franco-Prussian War.

Benedetti was born at Bastia, on the island of Corsica. In 1840 he entered the service of the French foreign office, and was appointed to a post under the Marquis de la Valette, who was consul-general at Cairo. He spent eight years in Egypt, being appointed consul in 1845; in 1848 he was made consul at Palermo, and in 1851 he accompanied the marquis, who had been appointed ambassador at Constantinople, as first secretary.

For fifteen months during the progress of the Crimean War he acted as chargé d'affaires. In the second volume of his essays he gives some recollections of his experiences in the East, including an account of Mehemet Ali, and a sketch of Lord Stratford de Redcliffe. In 1855, after refusing the post of minister at Teheran, he was employed in the foreign office at Paris, and acted as secretary to the congress at Paris. During the next few years he was chiefly occupied with Italian affairs, in which he was much interested, and Cavour said of him he was an Italian at heart.