LA TOUR D'AUVERGNE, HENRI-ALPHONSE-GODEFROY-BERNARD, prince of LAURAGAIS and of. — French politician, born on 21 October 1823 in Paris, died on 5 May 1871 at Angliera Castle (Vienne). At the age of eighteen he entered the diplomatic career as an attaché at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. In April 1849 he landed at Civitavecchia together with the aide-de-camp of General Oudinot, charged with reassuring the population concerning French intentions and with making all the arrangements for the peaceful landing of the expeditionary force.
French minister at Weimar, Florence, and Turin in 1859–60, ambassador in Berlin. Of strictly Catholic sentiments, in October 1862 he succeeded La Valette at the embassy in Rome. There he found relations between France and the Holy See rather tense, above all because of the attitude of his predecessor, who made no secret of his hostility toward the Holy See. The new ambassador, charged with bringing to the Pope’s attention the necessity of recognizing at least de facto, if not de iure, the occupation by the Kingdom of Italy of part of the Papal territory, also advised the implementation of reforms in the
Papal States. Relations between the two parties improved, but the Holy See placed too much hope in the supposed change in French policy following Drouyn de Lhuys’s accession to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The position of L. T. d’A., a person highly esteemed by Pius IX, became increasingly difficult, and in October 1863 the prince welcomed with relief his transfer to London. Appointed Minister of Foreign Affairs in 1869, he became ambassador to Vienna in July 1870 and negotiated a tripartite Austro-Franco-Italian agreement against Prussia, an agreement that was not concluded because of Napoleon III’s intransigence on the Roman question.