Comte Antoine-François Andréossy (6 March 1761 – 10 September 1828) was a Franco-Italian nobleman, who served as a French Army artillery general, diplomat and parliamentarian. Biography Born at Castelnaudary in Aude, scion of an ancient Italian minor noble family from Lucca, he was a great-grandson of the celebrated civil engineer and architect of the Canal du Midi, François Andréossy (1633-1688). An outstanding officer cadet at the Metz School of Artillery, Andréossy was commissioned in the Régiment Royal-Artillerie in 1781, seeing action in the Dutch Civil War (1787); he was promoted as Captain in 1788. On the outbreak of the Revolution he adopted its principles. At the start of the Revolutionary Wars he saw active service on the Rhine in 1794 and in Italy in 1795, and in the campaign of 1796–1797 under Napoleon Bonaparte on engineer duties, commanding the bridging train of the French Army of Italy after June 1796, and fought with distinction at the Battle of the Bridge of Arcole and the Siege of Mantua.. He was promoted to brigadier general in 1798, in which year he accompanied Bonaparte to Egypt. He served in the Egyptian Campaign with distinction—he commanded the French flotilla on the Nile, before serving as Marshal Louis-Alexandre Berthier's aide-de-camp in Syria—and was selected as one of Napoleon's companions on his return to Europe. Andréossy took part in the coup d'état of the 18 Brumaire, and on 6 January 1800 was made general of Général de division. Of particular importance was his term of office as ambassador to Great Britain during the short peace which followed the treaties of Amiens and Lunéville. It had been shown (Coquille, Napoleon and England, 1904) that Andréossy repeatedly warned Napoleon that the British government desired to maintain peace but must be treated with consideration. His advice, however, was disregarded. When Napoleon became emperor he made Andréossy inspector-general of artillery, a Chevalier de l'Empire (1803) and on 24 February 1809, Count of the First French Empire. In the war of 1805 Andréossy was employed on the headquarters staff of Napoleon. From 1808 to 1809 he was French ambassador at Vienna, where he displayed a hostility to Austria which was in marked contrast to his friendliness to England in 1802–1803. In the war of 1809, Andréossy was military governor of Vienna during the French occupation. In 1812 he was sent by Napoleon as Ambassador to The Porte in Constantinople, where he