Albert von Mensdorff-Pouilly-Dietrichstein
Austro-Hungarian diplomat (1861-1945)
Albert Viktor Julius Joseph Michael Graf von Mensdorff-Pouilly-Dietrichstein (5 September 1861 – 15 June 1945) was an Austro-Hungarian diplomat who served as Ambassador to London at the outbreak of World War I.
Early life
Born in Lemberg (now Lviv) on 5 September 1861 as the second son of Alexander von Mensdorff-Pouilly, Prince of Dietrichstein-Nikolsburg, a former Austro-Hungarian politician, and his wife Alexandrine (née Countess von Dietrichstein-Proskau und Leslie), heiress of the Princes of Dietrichstein.
By birth, he was a member of House of Mensdorff-Pouilly, an Austrian noble family which originated in Lorraine and had fled the French Revolution in 1790.
He had family connections to the British Royal family, derived through the marriage of his grandfather Count Emmanuel von Mensdorff-Pouilly with Queen Victoria's aunt, Princess Sophie of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld; also his father had been a godson and favorite cousin of Queen Victoria's husband, the Prince Consort.
Career
Count von Mensdorff-Pouilly-Dietrichstein entered the Austro-Hungarian foreign service in 1884 and was assigned as an attaché to the embassy in Paris and transferred to London in 1889. His family connections to the British court was soon apparent. He was promoted from First Secretary to Minister Plenipotentiary in February 1903. The Ambassador (Count Deym) died in office in September 1903, and on 6 May 1904 Mensdorff presented his credentials as Ambassador of the Dual Monarchy at the Court of St. James's, a promotion over the heads of many of his seniors that had come at the request of his second cousin King Edward VII of the United Kingdom.
Considered both an effective and popular diplomat in London's aristocratic circles, his family relations and friendship with King Edward VII and his successor George V gave him an entrée to the British court unrivalled by any other diplomat. This contributed to the secure and friendly diplomatic relations between Austria-Hungary and Great Britain before the war.
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