Emmerich Joseph de Dalberg

Duke of the Empire

Emmerich-Joseph-Wolfgang-Héribert de Dalberg was born on May 30, 1773 in Mainz, Rhineland-Palatinate. Born into one of the oldest families in Baden, he was the nephew of Karl Theodor Anton Maria von Dalberg, Prince Primate of the Catholic Church in Germany.

After studying in Göttingen, he moved to Vienna and embarked on a political and diplomatic career. From 1800 to 1803, he served in Mannheim as advisor to the Bavarian Supreme Administrative College, over which his father presided. In 1803, he was Minister Plenipotentiary to the Grand Duke of Baden, and Ambassador to the French Court.

After Baden joined the Rhineland Confederation, Dalberg entered the service of Napoleon I, and was highly esteemed by Charles-Maurice de Talleyrand-Périgord, in charge of the Empire's foreign relations.

Naturalized as a French citizen, he took part in the negotiations leading to Napoleon I's marriage to Marie-Louise of Austria in 1809, following the Treaty of Schönbrunn. His services were rewarded with the title of Duke on April 14, 1810.

After the fall of Napoleon, he accompanied Talleyrand to the Congress of Vienna as plenipotentiary, before receiving the peerage and embassy of Turin from King Louis XVIII.

He spent the last years of his life retired on his land at Herrnsheim near Worms, where he died on April 27, 1833.

Emmerich Joseph de Dalberg was a passionate collector of 16th-, 17th- and 18th-century French drawings; his collection can be seen today at the Hessisches Landesmuseum in Darmstadt.