Between Paris and Vienna

Abstract

The following text is focused on the diplomatic mission of the Imperial diplomat, Count Heinrich Franz von Mansfeld (1641-1715), in France between 1680 and 1683. The main task of this text is an analysis of the 61 reports from the Mansfeld's mission, which are deposited in The Austrian State Archives in Vienna. His reports, however, have not preserved completely. Hence a larger range of historical sources and working approaches has been used. It is the instruction for Mansfeld dated from 27 March 1680, or the period newspaper La Gazette. The method employed in my research is the contextual-comparative analysis. Such a case study has not yet been published. Because of that, we have had only a limited knowledge of what Mansfeld in Paris had done, and why. The court of Louis XIV was moreover an exemplary case in many ways, such as a centre of pre-modern western aristocratic culture, a centre of European politics, and a centre of European diplomacy.