About Maurice Paléologue
Maurice Paléologue (13 January 1859 – 23 November 1944) was a French diplomat, historian, and essayist. As the French ambassador to the Russian Empire (1914–1917), he supported the Russian mobilization against Germany that led to World War I and likewise played a major role in France's entry into the ensuing conflict. == Biography == Paléologue was born in Paris as the son of Alexandru Gulianu-Paleologu (1824–1886), a Wallachian Romanian revolutionary who had fled to France after attempting to assassinate Prince Gheorghe Bibescu during the 1848 Wallachian revolution, and his wife, Frederique de Ridder (1829–1901), member of the Dutch nobility. His father Alexandru was one of three illegitimate children of a clergyman Dimitriu and Elisabeth Văcărescu, member of the Văcărescu family of Romanian boyars. He and his siblings were later adopted by Zoe Gulianu-Paleologu, Elisabeth's mother, who gave the children her Greek maiden name Paleologu. The name became Paléologue in French language spellings. The family's relation to the Palaiologos Byzantine Imperial family is doubtful, though Alexandru's ancestors claimed it at the end of the 17th century. == Diplomat == After graduating in law, Paléologue obtained a position with the French Foreign Ministry in 1880 and moved on to become Embassy Secretary at Tangiers in the Sultanate of Morocco and then in Beijing (China) and later in Italy. A Minister Plenipotentiary in 1901, he represented France in Bulgaria (1907–1912) and Imperial Russia (1914–1917). He became General Secretary of the Foreign Ministry in the Alexandre Millerand cabinet.
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