Étienne-François de Choiseul (1719–1785)

Étienne-François, comte de Stainville and later duc de Choiseul, by which name he's best known to history, was a military officer, diplomat, courtier, and statesman. Between 1758 and 1761, and again in 1766 and 1770, he was Foreign Minister of France and had a strong influence on France's global strategy throughout the period. Choiseul gained the favour of Madame de Pompadour, the influential mistress of King Louis XV, and was appointed ambassador to Rome in 1753. He acquitted himself skillfully and a few years later Madame de Pompadour had him sent as ambassador to Vienna, where he helped to cement a new alliance between France and Austria. The marriage of the future Louis XVI and the Hapsburg archduchess Marie-Antoinette was one of the results. Choiseul wrote his Mémoires after his dismissal from power in 1770. Horace Walpole says of the duc de Choiseul, "gallantry without delicacy was his constant pursuit."