Count Alexander Konstantinovich Benckendorf (1 August 1849 – 11 January 1917) was a Russia

Russia

Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...

n diplomat, who served as ambassador

Ambassador

An ambassador is the highest ranking diplomat who represents a nation and is usually accredited to a foreign sovereign or government, or to an international organization....

 to Denmark and the United Kingdom.

Biography

He was born in 1846, the son of Count Constantin Alexander von Benckendorff and Princess Louise de Croy, and educated in France and Germany before entering the diplomatic service in 1869. He began as an attaché in Florence, and eventually served in Rome

Rome

Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...

. He resigned in 1876 and lived nearly ten years on his estates, in St. Petersburg and abroad.

Returning to diplomacy in 1886, he became First Secretary at the Embassy in Vienna

Embassy of Russia in Vienna

The Embassy of Russia in Vienna is the diplomatic mission of the Russian Federation to the Republic of Austria. The chancery is located at Reisnerstraße 45-47 in the Landstraße district of Vienna.- History of the chancery :...

, and from 1897 to 1903 he was the Ambassador to Denmark

Denmark

Denmark is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe. The countries of Denmark and Greenland, as well as the Faroe Islands, constitute the Kingdom of Denmark . It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries, southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark...

. The Copenhagen

Copenhagen

Copenhagen is the capital and largest city of Denmark, with an urban population of 1,199,224 and a metropolitan population of 1,930,260 . With the completion of the transnational Øresund Bridge in 2000, Copenhagen has become the centre of the increasingly integrating Øresund Region...

 post gave him a vantage point for watching the principal moving powers of European politics since the matrimonial alliances of the Danish royal family occasionally brought together in a friendly family circle the widow of Alexander III

Alexander III of Russia

Alexander Alexandrovich Romanov , historically remembered as Alexander III or Alexander the Peacemaker reigned as Emperor of Russia from until his death on .-Disposition:...

, Nicholas II

Nicholas II of Russia

Nicholas II was the last Emperor of Russia, Grand Prince of Finland, and titular King of Poland. His official short title was Nicholas II, Emperor and Autocrat of All the Russias and he is known as Saint Nicholas the Passion-Bearer by the Russian Orthodox Church.Nicholas II ruled from 1894 until...

 and the Prince of Wales

Prince of Wales

Prince of Wales is a title traditionally granted to the heir apparent to the reigning monarch of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and the 15 other independent Commonwealth realms...

 who was to become King Edward VII. In this way, Count Benckendorff received his initiation into the spirit of an Anglo-Russian rapprochement even before it actually resulted in an entente.

From 1903 until his death in 1917, he was the Ambassador to the Court of St. James's

Court of St. James's

The Court of St James's is the royal court of the United Kingdom. It previously had the same function in the Kingdom of England and in the Kingdom of Great Britain .-Overview:...

, the chief Russian diplomat in the United Kingdom

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

. His major achievement was to organise the signing of the Anglo-Russian Entente

Anglo-Russian Entente

Signed on August 31, 1907, in St. Petersburg, Russia, the Anglo-Russian Convention of 1907 brought shaky British-Russian relations to the forefront by solidifying boundaries that identified respective control in Persia, Afghanistan, and Tibet...

 in 1907, which solidified relations between the two nations and helped create the Triple Entente

Triple Entente

The Triple Entente was the name given to the alliance among Britain, France and Russia after the signing of the Anglo-Russian Entente in 1907....

, the alignment which would later become the Allied Powers of the First World War.

He married Countess Sophie Shouvaloff in 1879, and was survived by a son and a daughter. A younger son died in one of the first battles of World War I on the East Prussian front.

Honours and awards

• Order of St. Alexander Nevsky
  Order of St. Alexander Nevsky
  The Imperial Order of St. Alexander Nevsky was an order of chivalry of the Russian Empire.-History:The introduction of the Imperial Order of St. Alexander Nevsky was planned by Emperor Peter I of Russia...
  
   with diamonds "for ex-zealous service."
• Order of the White Eagle
• Order of St. Vladimir
  Order of St. Vladimir
  The Cross of Saint Vladimir was an Imperial Russian Order established in 1782 by Empress Catherine II in memory of the deeds of Saint Vladimir, the Grand Prince and the Baptizer of the Kievan Rus....
  
  , 2nd and 3rd classes
• Order of St. Anna
  Order of St. Anna
  The Order of St. Anna ) is a Holstein and then Russian Imperial order of chivalry established by Karl Friedrich, Duke of Holstein-Gottorp on 14 February 1735, in honour of his wife Anna Petrovna, daughter of Peter the Great of Russia...
  
  , 1st degree
• Order of St. Stanislaus, 1st degree
• Foreign awards