Henry de Bellonnet

Henry de Bellonnet served as France’s chargé d’affaires in Beijing before his Washington assignment. In 1866, after the killing of French Catholic missionaries and Korean converts, he demanded action against Korea and declared that its king had forfeited his throne. His intervention went beyond the policy authorized in Paris. The French foreign minister repudiated his declarations and instructed him to leave military judgments to Admiral Pierre-Gustave Roze; Bellonnet was subsequently posted to Stockholm. ¹

The confrontation also brought him into conflict with Prince Gong and other representatives in Beijing. Bellonnet accused Chinese officials of complicity in the Korean crisis. In a December 1866 report, British minister Rutherford Alcock described those accusations and criticized the coercive policy Bellonnet advocated. Prince Gong’s replies rejected the allegations as unsupported. ²

In Washington, Bellonnet dealt with the consequences of France’s defeat in the Franco-Prussian War. In May 1872 he asked the State Department to help natives of Alsace-Lorraine living in Mexico preserve French nationality. Because American diplomatic and consular officers were protecting French interests there, he requested that they circulate instructions and assist with the required declarations. The State Department issued a circular to its consuls implementing that request. ³