RAYNEVAL, Alphonse, Count of. - Diplomat, b. in Paris on 1 Aug. 1813, d. there on 10 Feb. 1858.
He then transferred to Gaeta to follow the meetings there between Pius IX and the Grand Duke of Tuscany with the King of Naples and his ministers. In 1849 he was accredited to the person of the Pope, exiled in the Bourbon fortress. Rayneval proved so pleasing to His Holiness that the latter requested his nomination from the Paris government as French ambassador to the Holy See as soon as he was able to return to Rome. Rayneval held the post until 1857, when he was abruptly transferred to St. Petersburg following the unexpected publication in the Daily News of 18 March of that year of a secret report he had sent to his government on 14 May 1856, which had come to the attention of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Turin. In this report, he set forth and praised the broad and valuable administrative and structural reforms of the State carried out by Pius IX after his return from Gaeta. Cavour, who had arranged for the publication of Rayneval’s writing in the British periodical in order to place the French government in evident difficulty and to strike a dangerous opponent, had it polemically commented on by Minghetti in the pamphlet Observations sur la note de M. de R. par un subject du Pape.
Recalled to Paris to provide explanations to the Ministry, Rayneval died suddenly there before reaching his new post.