Vergennes, CHARLES GRAVIER (1717-87),

Vergennes, CHARLES GRAVIER (1717-87), French statesman, who, after a diplomatic career in Germany, Turkey, and Sweden, became Louis XVI.'s minister of foreign affairs, and, adopting the deliberate policy of humbling England by pro- moting the independence of the United States, concluded the alliance of 1778. See his Vie Publique et Privée by Mayer (Paris, 1789), and Diniol, La Participation de la France à l'Établissement des États Unis (1889).