Morny, Charles-Auguste-Louis-Joseph, count, then duke de

(1811-1865)

   political figure

   Born in Paris, Charles-Auguste-Louis-Joseph, count, then duke de Morny, was the natural son of General auguste de flauhaut de la billarderie and Queen hortense de beauharnais of Holland, and thereby half brother to the future napoléon III. Morny served for a while as a military officer in Algeria and, upon returning to France (1836), became the owner of a sugar refinery near Clermont-Ferrand. He was elected as a deputy (1842) and took his place with the conservatives who supported the policies of François guizot. He was elected to the Legislative Assembly (May 1849) and played an active role in the planning and carrying out of the coup d'état of December 2, 1851. Minister of the interior, he was forced to resign after January 1852, because of his opposition to the decree ordering the confiscation of the properties of the orléans family. He became a member of the Legislative Corps (1852) and served as its president (1854). He was named ambassador to Russia (1856-57), where he married a daughter of the upper aristocracy (Troubetskoi). Quite sympathetic to the liberalizing policies of the second empire, the duke of Morny was actively involved in the developments of its early period (railroads, mines). He founded the seaside resort of Deauville, and so as to recoup, with the banker jean-baptiste jecker, the debts contracted by Mexico, he played a role in persuading the French government to undertake the disastrous Mexican expedition, in which France tried to support Maximilian of Austria in his claim to the Mexican throne.