Memoirs And Recollections Of Count Louis Philippe De Segur

by Louis Philippe de Ségur

English, French (translation)

1 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1825

About the author

Louis Philippe Antoine Charles, comte de Ségur (10 December 1753 - 27 August 1830) was a French diplomat and historian.

Ségur was born in Paris, the son of Philippe Henri, marquis de Ségur and Louise Anne Madeleine de Vernon. He entered the army in 1769, served in the American War of Independence in 1781 as a colonel under Rochambeau.

In 1784 he was sent as minister plenipotentiary to Saint Petersburg, where he was received into the intimacy of the empress Catherine II and wrote some comedies for her theatre. At Saint Petersburg he concluded (in January 1787) a commercial treaty which was exceedingly advantageous to France.[1] The same year he accompanied Catherine II in her journey to the Crimea.[citation needed] He returned to Paris in 1789.

Ségur took up a sympathetic attitude towards the Revolution at its outset and in 1791 was sent on a mission to Berlin, where he was badly received. After fighting a duel he was forced to leave Berlin, and went into retirement until 1801 when, at Bonaparte's command, he was nominated by the senate to the Corps Législatif. Subsequently he became a member of the council of state, grand master of the ceremonies, and senator, 1813. In 1814 Ségur voted for the deposition of Napoleon and entered Louis XVIII's Chamber of Peers. Deprived of his offices and functions in 1815 for joining Napoleon during the Hundred Days, he was reinstated in 1819, supported the Revolution of 1830, but died shortly afterwards in Paris.[

Reviews

[Dagnija Innus]

There's special pleasure in reading a first-hand account of events that otherwise we know about mostly through dry historical texts. The Comte was a member of French high society in the late 1700's, privy to court intrigues and an intimate of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette (both of whom would lose their heads in the French Revolution). He went on to fight with the Americans during their successful Revolution against rule by England - he met George Washington, suffered 'misfortunes' and lucky escapes, and took time to explore the newly founded Philadelphia, the sight of which led him to conclude "it was not difficult to predict the great and prosperous destinies of America". However, for me, the most astounding section of the book covers his time as Ambassador to the court of Russia's Catherine the Great. He makes the great Empress understandable as both a human being and canny politician, and descriptions of the unbounded luxury of the court leave one open-mouthed. He accompanied the Empress in a grand journey to the Crimea. The cavalcade left St Petersburg in winter with 14 carriages, 184 sledges plus another 40 'just in case'. "Five hundred and sixty horses were ready for us at each post." Night-time travel was lit by miles of bonfires, "enormous piles of fir, cypress, birch and pine... were set on fire..."
The memoir finishes before the French Revolution, though Ségur went on to serve Napoleon, falling and out of favour until a peaceful death in his 70's. An extraordinary life, and we're lucky to have this personal record of its first half.