Page:The Complete Peerage Ed 2 Vol 3.djvu/500

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480 COWLEY again Dec. 1841 to July 1846. He m., istly, 20 Sep. 1803, at Downham- Santon, Suffolk, Charlotte, da. of Charles Sloane (Cadogan), ist Earl Cadogan, by his 2nd wife, Mary, da. of Charles Churchill. She was b. 1 1 July 1 7 8 1 , and after having been the mother of four children, was divorced, by Act of Pari., in 18 10, her husband obtaining £1^,000 damages in a trial for crim. con.{f) He m., 2ndly, 27 Feb. 18 16, at Hatfield House, Herts, Georgiana Charlotte Augusta, ist da. of James (Cecil), ist Marquess of Salisbury, by Mary Amelia, da. of Wills (Hill), ist Marquess of Down- shire [I.]. He d. at the Embassy in Paris, of a cold, 27 Apr., and was bur. 10 May 1847, '" Grosvenor Chapel, Midx., in his 75th year.C") Will pr. Apr. 1848. His widow, who was b. 20 Mar. 1786, d. s.p.m., 18 Jan. i860, at Hatfield House, Herts. (") Will pr. 2 Apr. i860, under ;^ 12,000. II. 1847. 2 and I. Henry Richard Charles (Wellesley), Baron Cowley of Wellesley, s. and h. by ist wife, b. EARLDOM. 17 June 1804, in Hertford Str., Mayfair, Midx.; ed. at Eton, 1817-20; matric. at Oxford (Brasenose Coll.), Jan. I. 1857. 1822; Attach^ at Vienna, Oct. 1824; Paid Attache at the Hague, Apr. 1829; Sec. of Legation at Stuttgardt, Jan. 1 832-43; Sec. of Embassy at Constantinople, 1 843-48, being Minister there {ad interim) 1 846-48 ; Envoy to Switzerland, Feb. 1 848 ; C.B., 27 Apr. 1 848 ; Envoy to Frankfort (on a spec, mission), July 1848; K.C.B., i Mar. 1851; Envoy to the Germanic Confederation, June 1851; P.C., 2 Feb. 1852; Ambassador to France, Feb. 1852 until his retirement in July i867;() (') She m., the same year (as his 2nd wife), Henry William Paget, then styled Lord Paget, afterwards Earl of Uxbridge and ist Marquess of Anglesey, and d. (a year before him) 8 July 1853, at Uxbridge House, aged 72. See vol. i, p. 139, note "c." (*") " He was the most charming of all that Wellesley family, and the most lovable." (Mrs. Charles Bagot's Links with the Past). V.G. if) " Personne spirituelle et causante mais grande tory." (Duchesse de Dino, Chronique^ 3 July 1 834). V.G. (■*) "The history of Lord Cowley's Embassy at Paris is the history of the Second Empire in its relations with this country. Lord Cowley went to Paris a little more than two months after the Coup d^Etat^ and he finally quitted it just three years before the declaration of war in 1870 between France and Prussia. In those 15 years he was a witness and an actor in some of the most momentous events of modern history. There were not wanting occasions between 1852 and 1867 when a lack of discretion, good sense, and forbearance on the part of the British Ambassador might easily have endangered the peaceful relations of the two countries." Such were (i) the alliance between France and England during the Crimean war, at the conclusion of which he, together with Lord Clarendon, was one of the English Plenipotentiaries for the Treaty of Paris, in 1856; (2) the peace with Persia, also signed at Paris, 1857; (3) the plot of Orsini against the Emperor's life, 14 Jan. 1858, which having been "hatched in England" exasperated the public feeling of France against us; (4) the war between France and Austria, 1859, followed by the "cession of Savoy and Nice to France, which caused so much irritation in England;" (5) The treaty of Commerce between France and England, signed 23 Jan. i860, in which Lord Cowley was Joint