Jacques Campredon French diplomat Date of Birth: 07.06.1672 Country: France

1. Biography of Jacques Campredon
2. Early Career
3. Service in Sweden
4. Missions to Hanover and Russia
5. Later Years

Biography of Jacques Campredon

Jacques Campredon was a French diplomat and the first diplomatic representative of France in Russia. He was born on June 7, 1672, to Jacques VII de Campredon and Anne-Marie Durand.

Early Career

Campredon began his diplomatic career in Copenhagen in 1693 as the secretary to the French Minister Bonrepos. In 1698, when Bonrepos returned to France, Campredon was left in The Hague as the temporary chargé d'affaires. In 1700, he was sent to Livonia with the ambassador Marquis de Bonac to meet the Swedish king Charles XII. While the ambassador went to Riga, Campredon stayed in Courland to monitor the movements of the Swedish army.

Service in Sweden

When Charles XII moved to Poland, Campredon wanted to follow him, but the king sent all foreign diplomats to Riga. However, Marquis de Bonac ordered him to rejoin the army, and in early April 1701, he rejoined them near the Neman River. Despite being denied an audience with the king, Campredon stayed in Stockholm until 1717, first as a chargé d'affaires and then, from 1707, as a resident. As Count de la Marck was appointed as the French ambassador in 1717, Campredon's presence in Sweden was no longer necessary, and he returned to Paris in the autumn of that year.

Missions to Hanover and Russia

In the summer of 1719, Campredon was sent to Hanover and then reappointed to the Swedish court to represent French interests. In November 1719, thanks to his involvement, a peace treaty was signed between Sweden and Hanover in Stockholm. Campredon also mediated the signing of the Swedish-Prussian and Swedish-Danish peace treaties in the winter and summer of 1720, respectively. In early 1721, he was sent as a plenipotentiary minister to St. Petersburg to negotiate French mediation in the Russo-Swedish reconciliation. However, the negotiations were not successful.

Later Years

After the conclusion of the Treaty of Nystad, Campredon was transferred to Russia as an envoy with the authority to conclude and sign any treaties that he deemed most advantageous for France. Despite his prolonged negotiations for a Franco-Russian alliance, no results were achieved, and in 1726, he was sent to Genoa. In 1739, Campredon retired from his diplomatic career.

He was fluent in German and Dutch and learned Swedish during his time in Sweden. Extracts from his Swedish dispatches were published in Sweden in 1854 in "Handlingar rörande Sveriges historia under åren 1713-1720," and his reports from Russia were published in the "Collection of the Imperial Russian Historical Society" (volumes 40, 49, 52, 58, and 64). Campredon married Baroness Adrienne-Caroline van Rud de Drakenstein in 1711.