Carte de visite Paul Frecker The Duc de Gramont held no political office until Louis-Napoléon came to power, when he served as envoy in Kassel (1851), Stuttgart (1852), and Turin (1853). He served as ambassador to Rome (1857) and Vienna (1861), and in 1870 was suggested by the Empress Eugénie as a possible minister of foreign affairs. However, his appointment was a grave mistake, in that it was Gramont who was subsequently responsible, at least in part, for the Franco-Prussian War. It was he who required Wilhelm I to promise never to revive the Hohenzollern claim to the throne of Spain and he was one of the keenest advocates of war against Prussia after the Ems telegram.
