He was ambassador to the Netherlands and Spain, and distinguished himself by his opposition to
Guizot. Drouyn de Lhuys served as
Minister of Foreign Affairs from 1848 to 1849 in the first government of
Odilon Barrot. In Barrot's second government, he was replaced by
Alexis de Tocqueville, and was appointed ambassador to Great Britain. He returned briefly as foreign minister for a few days in January 1851, and then returned permanently in the summer of 1852, becoming the first foreign minister of the
Second Empire. He resigned his post in 1855, during the
Crimean War, when the peace preliminaries he had agreed to in consultation with the British and Austrians at Vienna were rejected by
Napoleon III. Drouyn de Lhuys returned to power 7 years later, in 1862, when foreign minister
Édouard Thouvenel resigned over differences with Napoleon on Italian affairs. Drouyn was thus foreign minister in the lead-up to the
Austro-Prussian War. He commented that, "the Emperor has immense desires and limited abilities. He wants to do extraordinary things but is only capable of extravagances." In the aftermath of that war, which was disastrous to French interests in Europe, Drouyn resigned and withdrew into private life. == Honours ==