SPAUR, CARLO von. - Bavarian diplomat, b. 4 Jan. 1794, d. 26 Oct. 1854 in Florence. Count of Winckel and Laudeck, he began his diplomatic career as a legation secretary in Berlin and Frankfurt. He then moved to Rome, first as chargé d'affaires and later as minister.
In September 1833 he married Teresa Giraud (b. in Rome in the early 19th century, d. near Innsbruck on 27 March 1873), niece of the playwright Giovanni Giraud and widow of the English archaeologist Edward Dodwell, one of the most brilliant women of Rome at the time. The count was highly regarded by Gregory XVI and later by Pius IX. After the assassination of Pellegrino Rossi (15 Nov. 1848), a further stay in Rome for the Pope became extremely risky, so Spaur conceived the plan of persuading the Pope to leave Rome, where he was virtually a prisoner in his palace and where his freedom of action had been entirely nullified by the events of the preceding months. Having thus made contact with his own ambassador, Martínez de la Rosa, and with the French ambassador, the Duke of Harcourt, both of whom approved the plan to remove the Pope from Rome, he succeeded in convincing the Pope himself to depart secretly. On the evening of 24 Nov., while Harcourt, who had requested an audience with the Pope, distracted the guards’ attention by pretending to be detained in a heated discussion with Pius IX in the apartment, the Pope, dressed as a simple priest, left through a side door of the Quirinal and boarded a carriage that took him near the Colosseum, where Count Spaur was waiting. Boarding his carriage, they left together through Porta San Giovanni and reached Ariccia. There they were met by Countess Spaur, accompanied by their son, Liebl (carried by the boy), and two servants. The Pope and Spaur changed carriages again, and the next morning they arrived safely at Mola di Gaeta, where Cardinal Antonelli awaited them, having arrived earlier with the secretary of the Spanish legation. Immediately, Spaur was entrusted by Pius IX with delivering a letter to Ferdinand II in Naples, in which the Pope requested hospitality in the Kingdom. In gratitude for his assistance, Pius IX conferred upon him the Grand Cross of the Pian Order and appointed his son a knight of the Order of Christ. In 1851, during a visit to Turin, Spaur, known to be a person very pleasing to Pius IX, was asked by Victor Emmanuel II to convey to the Pope the king’s good intentions in seeking a modus vivendi to resolve the pending disputes with the Holy See. A few years later, while preparing to travel to Merano, Spaur died.