Girolamo Lucchesini

Who was Girolamo Lucchesini?

Girolamo Lucchesini was a diplomat of the Kingdom of Prussia.

Lucchesini was born at Lucca, the eldest son of Marquis Lucchesini.

In 1779 he went to Berlin where King Frederick the Great gave him a court appointment, making use of him in his literary relations with Italy. King Frederick William II, who recognized his gifts for diplomacy, sent him in 1787 to Rome to obtain the papal sanction for the appointment of a coadjutor to the bishop of Mainz, with a view to strengthening the German Fürstenbund. In 1788 he was sent to Warsaw, and brought about a rapprochement with Prussia and a diminution of Russian influence at Warsaw. He was accredited ambassador to the king and Poland on April 12, 1789.

Frederick William was at that time intriguing with the Ottoman Empire, then at war with Austria and Russia. Lucchesini was to rouse Polish feeling against Russia, and to secure for Prussia the concourse of Poland in the event of war with Austria and Russia. All his power of intrigue was needed in the conduct of these hazardous negotiations, rendered more difficult by the fact that Prussian policy excluded the existence of a strong Polish government.