Louis, comte de Narbonne-Lara

Louis Marie Jacques Amalric, comte de Narbonne-Lara (August 24, 1755 – November 17, 1813) was a French soldier and diplomat.

He was born at Colorno, in the duchy of Parma, the son of one of the ladies-in-waiting of Elizabeth, duchess of Parma, and his father was either a Spanish nobleman or—as has been alleged—Louis XV himself. He was brought up at Versailles with the princesses of France, and was made colonel at the age of twenty-five.

He became "maréchal-de-camp" in 1791, and, through the influence of Madame de Staël, was appointed minister of war. But he showed incapacity in this post, gave in his resignation, and joined the Army of the North. Incurring suspicion as a Feuillant and also by his policy at the war office, he emigrated after August 10, 1792, visited England, Switzerland and Germany, and returned to France in 1801.

In 1809 he re-entered the army as general of division, and was subsequently minister plenipotentiary at Munich and "aide de camp" to Napoleon. In 1813 he was appointed French ambassador at Vienna, where he was engaged in an unequal diplomatic duel with Metternich during the fateful months that witnessed the defection of Austria from the cause of Napoleon to that of the Allies. He died at Torgau, in Saxony, on November 17, 1813.

See AF Villemain, "Souvenirs contemporains" (Paris, 1854).

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