France · Warfare / Franco-Prussian War. Chronological records rendered directly from the World History Database.
Benedetti had been instructed by his superior, Foreign Minister Agenor, the Duc de Gramont, to present the French demand that the king should guarantee that he would never again permit the candidacy of a Hohenzollern prince to the Spanish throne.
King Wilhelm I of Prussia, on his morning stroll in the Kurpark in Ems, was stopped by Count Vincent Benedetti, the French ambassador to Prussia since 1864.
Politely, and in a friendly manner, the king refused to bind himself to any course of action into the indefinite future. After their exchange, "the two departed coolly."
The meeting was informal and took place on the promenade of the Kursaal with the king's entourage at a discreet distance.
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