Charles Pictet de Rochemont

Swiss diplomat

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Charles Pictet de Rochemont (21 September 1755 – 28 December 1824) was a statesman and diplomat who prepared the declaration of Switzerland's permanent neutrality ratified by the great powers in 1815.

Early life

Charles Pictet was born on 21st of September 1755, at Cartigny, near Geneva, into an aristocratic^{[citation needed]} but tolerant family^{[citation needed]}. His father, Charles Pictet, (1713–1792) was a colonel. His mother was Marie Dunant. From a young age, Charles aspired to be in the military.

Military, Marriage, and Farming

At age 20, he went to France to pursue a career in the French Army. He was in the army for twelve years. After his marriage in 1786 to Adélaïde Sara de Rochemont, he modified his name to the more aristocratic "Pictet de Rochemont.”

In 1788, he entered the governing council of Geneva and was made responsible for reorganizing the urban militia. In 1792, the former city councils of Geneva were suspended, and a provisional government took over and declared all citizens equal. In 1794, Pictet was placed under house arrest for a year, but his father-in-law, Jean-François de Rochemont, was executed.

In 1798, Pictet de Rochemont acquired seventy-five hectares of land at Lancy, centred on the present Mairie de Lancy, and became a gentleman farmer. He bred merino sheep and introduced maize as an agrarian innovation to the Geneva region.

As a farmer, he wrote a great deal and founded a review entitled La bibliothèque britannique. From 1796 to 1815, he wrote its agricultural column.

Napoleonic Wars

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Napoleon invaded Switzerland in 1798, and egalitarian ideas took hold, with the old aristocracy falling from power. Armies devastated the countryside, and the winter of 1800 introduced misery and starvation. Geneva was annexed to France. A few weeks later, Napoleon issued a new constitution for a Helvetic Republic that would replace the cantonal authorities with a centralized executive. This proposal caused such a violent reaction that Napoleon withdrew his troops in 1802.

Napoleon’s withdrawal caused a power vacuum, resulting in a civil war that Napoleon tried to mediate. He urged the Swiss to develop their own constitution. The new constitution gave a new name to the country, the Swiss Confederation, restored the notion of autonomous cantons, and created six new cantons.

Napoleon's downfall led to the liberation of Geneva by Austrian troops. A new republican government was declared on 1 January 1814. Pictet read the public proclamation, which he likely wrote. Napoleon's brief return to power in 1815 — the Hundred Days — ending at the Battle of Waterloo does not seem to have impacted the Swiss events that followed.

Diplomat

Two apparently contradictory objectives of the new government, much favoured by Pictet, were to restore Genevan independence but also to make Geneva part of the Swiss Confederation. To achieve this it was necessary to: (a) to make Genevan territory homogeneous (it consisted of several fragmented communes); and (b) to connect it physically to the canton of Vaud and thus to Switzerland as a whole (Versoix was in France). Pictet participated in the first deputation sent in 1814 to request that the Great Powers support Geneva's position. He then represented Geneva and Switzerland in several rounds of meetings held in Paris (Treaty of Paris) and Vienna (Congress of Vienna) during 1814 and 1815. While the victors were mainly interested in sharing the spoils of war, Pictet de Rochement's political talent and diplomatic skills were aimed precisely at recovering Geneva's independence and joining it to the twenty-one cantons then forming the Swiss Confederation, Valais and Neuchâtel having just entered as full and equal cantons.

The first confrontation in Paris was not a success since the French negotiator, Talleyrand, refused to let go of any part of the Pays de Gex. Later, in October 1814 there was the Congress of Vienna. Pictet participated actively in the relevant conclaves and negotiations, not waiting for suitable outcomes to come his way. The idea that Geneva should form part of the Swiss Confederation became a reality on 19 May 1815.

However, Geneva had not yet been able to consolidate its fragmented territory. But now, following the change in Geneva's status, Pictet could count on the backing of the Swiss Government and was given full powers to negotiate. He soon achieved the territorial success he sought.

North of the lake, six communes were transferred from the pays de Gex, thus giving Geneva its connection with the canton of Vaud. As had already been decided in Vienna and Paris, by the Treaty of Turin in 1816 on the left bank another twenty-three communes were transferred from Savoy and became part of the canton. King Victor Emmanuel I of Sardinia had himself only just recently recovered this territory. This extension of the cantonal land became known as the "communes réunies", hence the road of this name in Grand-Lancy. It was also stated that the non-Swiss customs posts were to be situated at least one league (approximately five kilometres) from the new Swiss frontier, thus creating the "zone franche" on both sides of the canton. Into the bargain, the Great Powers meeting in Paris recognized the "permanent neutrality of Switzerland" and agreed that Swiss neutrality was, indeed, in the common interest of all European countries. Pictet himself wrote the text of the declaration of neutrality.

Later life and posterity

In the summer of 1816 Pictet de Rochemont returned to his sheep and his maize fields having perfectly succeeded in his mission. The Swiss parliament or Diet (Tagsatzung), as it was at that time, expressed its recognition of his services.

He died on 28 December 1824 at Lancy.

A statue of Charles Pictet de Rochemont has been erected Rampe de la Treille at the entrance of the Old Town in 1970.

See also

• Bourgeois of Geneva
• Pictet Group