Florimond Claude, comte de Mercy-Argenteau (20 April 1727 – 25 August 1794) was an Austrian diplomat, statesman of French noble ancestry, in the service of the Holy Roman Empire.
When Louis and Marie Antoinette ascended the throne of France in 1774, Mercy-Argenteau became one of the most powerful personages at the French court due to his influence over Marie Antoinette, which made her unpopular with the French nobility and French people. He was in Paris during the turbulent years that led up to the French Revolution, and gave powerful aid to the finance ministers Étienne Charles de Loménie de Brienne and Jacques Necker. In 1792, he became governor-general of the Austrian Netherlands, where the Brabant Revolution had just been suppressed by Austria. There, his ability and experience made him a very successful governor. Although at first in favour of moderate courses, Mercy-Argenteau supported the action of Austria in making war upon its former ally after the outbreak of the French Revolution, and in July 1794, he was appointed Austrian ambassador to Britain, but he died a few days after his arrival in London.[2]
Private life
Florimond Claude never married, but had an extramarital affair with an opera singer from Palais Garnier, Claude Josèphe Rosalie Levasseur, Baronne de l'empire (1749-1826), daughter of Jean-Baptiste Levasseur. They had one son:[3]
Alexandre Henri Joseph de Noville (1783-1830), married Louise Wilhelmine Delacroix (1790-1818); had one daughter Loÿsa de Noville (1807-1875), married Louis Isidore Thirion (1797-1879); had one daughter: Delphine Thirion (1831-1859), married Charles Debonnaire de Gif (1822-1866); had one daughter Loÿsa Debonnaire de Gif (1851-1927), married Paul de Boissonneaux de Chevigny (b. 1838), member of the French nobility.
After Florimond's death, Rosalie married in 1806 to André Maxime de Fouchier, Seigneur de Chanvrolles (1732-1817).[4]
Sébastien Dubois, Inventaire des archives de la famille de Mercy-Argenteau (1334-1959), Bruxelles, Archives de l'Etat, 2009, 2 vol. (Archives de l'État à Liège. Inventaires, 110).
T. Juste, Le Comte de Mercy-Argenteau (Brussels 1863)
A. von Arneth and A. Geoff roy, Correspondances secretes de Marie Therese avec le comte de Mercy (Paris 1874)
A. von Arneth and J. Flammermont, Correspondance secrete de Mercy avec Joseph II et Kaunitz (Paris 1889–1891)
Mercy-Argenteau's Correspondances secretes de Marie Terese has been condensed and translated into English by Lilian Smythe under the title of A Guardian of Marie Antoinette (2 vols., London 1902)
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