thumb|Coat of arms of the comital [[Nesselrode|Nesselrode family of 1710, in the Baltic Coat of arms book by Carl Arvid von Klingspor in 1882.]]

thumb|Coat of arms of the [[Huguenot Gontard family of Karl's mother, Louise Gontard (1746–1785)]]

Karl Robert Reichsgraf von Nesselrode-Ehreshoven (; 14 December 1780 – 23 March 1862), also known as Charles de Nesselrode, was a Russian diplomat of German noble descent. From 1816 to 1856, Nesselrode guided Russian policy as foreign minister. He was also a leading European conservative statesman of the Holy Alliance.

Early life

Karl was born at sea

near Lisbon, Portugal into the prominent Uradel German House of Nesselrode, which originated in the Bergisches Land near the Rhine. His father Count Wilhelm Karl von Nesselrode (1724–1810), a Count of the Holy Roman Empire, served at the time as the ambassador to Portugal for the German-born Russian empress. His mother was Louise Gontard (1746–1785), whose family belonged to Huguenot noble families from Dauphiné that fled from France to Germany in 1700. In deference to his mother's Protestantism he was baptized in the chapel of the British Embassy, thus becoming a member of the Church of England.

Biography

After his father became the Russian ambassador to the Prussian court about 1787, Nesselrode's education in a Berlin gymnasium reinforced his Germanic roots. Even though Nesselrode would work for the Russians for the next few decades of his life, he could neither read nor write Russian and spoke it only brokenly.

In 1788, at the age of 8, he officially entered the Imperial Russian Navy. With his father's influence, he secured the position of naval aide-de-camp to Emperor Paul ().

left|thumb| Portrait by Georg von Bothmann, 1850–1869 Nesselrode is credited as the person who first coined the name "Tournament of Shadows", which was the Russian name for the long rivalry that existed between the Russian Empire and the British Empire beginning in the late 18th and lasting well into the 19th centuries, caused primarily by border tension in Central Asia and India.

In 1849 Nesselrode sent Russian troops to aid Austria in putting down the Hungarian Revolution led by Lajos Kossuth.

One frequently-overlooked facet of Nesselrode's activity involved his attempts to penetrate Japan's self-isolation. In 1853 he dispatched Yevfimiy Putyatin with a letter to the shōgun; Putyatin returned to Saint Petersburg with the favorable Treaty of Shimoda (signed 1855).

Nesselrode's efforts to expand Russia's influence in the Balkans and Mediterranean led to conflicts with the Ottoman Empire, Britain, France, and the Kingdom of Sardinia, which all became allies opposing Russia in the Crimean War (1853–1856). Britain and France, unhappy with Russia's growing influence, determined to support Turkey and so restrict Russia.

Nesselrode's autobiography was published posthumously in 1866.

Marriage and issue

He was married to Russian noblewoman Maria Guryeva (1786–1849) and had issue:

  • Countess Elena von Nesselrode (1815–1875) married Count Michail Chreptowicz (1809–1892); didn't have issue
  • Count Dimitri von Nesselrode (1816–1891) married Countess Lydia Zakrevskaya (1826–1884); had issue
  • Countess Marie von Nesselrode (1820–1888) married Count Albin Leo von Seebach (1811–1884); had issue

Honours

  • Knight of the Order of Saint Alexander Nevsky.
  • Knight grand Cross of the Order of Saint Vladimir. using chestnut puree are-
  • Nesselrode Pudding (Pouding à la Nesselrode), a thick custard cream with sweet puree of chestnut, raisins, candied fruit, currants, cherry liquor and whipped cream molded and served chilled as a bombe with maraschino custard sauce.
  • Nesselrode Pie, a chestnut custard cream pie

Notes

References

Sources

Further reading

  • Cowles, Loyal. "The Failure to Restrain Russia: Canning, Nesselrode, and the Greek Question, 1825–1827." International History Review 12.4 (1990): 688–720.
  • Grimsted, Patricia Kennedy. The Foreign Ministers of Alexander I: Political Attitudes and the Conduct of Russian Diplomacy, 1801–1825 (University of California Press, 1969)
  • Ingle, Harold N. Nesselrode and the Russian Rapprochement with Britain, 1836–1844 (University of California Press, 1976)
  • Jelavich, Barbara. St. Petersburg and Moscow: Tsarist and Soviet Foreign Policy, 1814–1974 (1974)
  • Schroeder, Paul W. The Transformation of European Politics, 1763–1848 (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1994)