Nobel Prize

Paul Henri d’Estournelles de Constant – Speed read

Paul d’Estournelles de Constant was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, jointly with Auguste Beernaert, for his prominent position in the international movement for peace and arbitration.

Full name: Paul Henri Benjamin Balluet d’Estournelles de Constant, Baron de Constant de Rebecque
Born: 22 November 1852, La Flèche, France
Died: May 15, 1924, Paris, France
Date awarded: 10 December 1909

Diplomat, politician and internationalist

Despite his aristocratic title, Paul Henri d’Estournelles de Constant was a republican. He believed that the cultures of Europe should unite in a European federation, maintaining that a well-organised international society was the best guarantor of peace. Baron d’Estournelles began his career as a diplomat, but in 1895 he was elected to the Chamber of Deputies. He served the last 20 years of his life as a senator. d’Estournelles advocated binding arbitration between nations. On a visit to the USA, he persuaded President Theodore Roosevelt to be the first to use the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague. He also encouraged Andrew Carnegie to donate money for the Peace Palace in The Hague. Prior to WWI, he sought to achieve reconciliation between Germany and France.

Conciliation internationale

In the spring of 1905, d’Estournelles founded this elite organisation to act as the “Upper House of the peace movement.” Joining him were painter Claude Monet, lyric poet Sully Proudhomme, philosopher Henri Bergson, literary historian Georg Brandes, peace advocate Bertha von Suttner and polar explorer Fridtjof Nansen. He also succeeded in establishing cooperation with Nicholas Murray Butler (USA), president of Columbia University and director of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. Conciliation Internationale thus emerged as a link between the peace movements across the Atlantic.

He saved the permanent court of arbitration

During the Peace Conference at the Haag in 1899, d’Estournelles was one of the main proponents of internationally binding agreements. If war threatened, the nation states should accept neutral judges’ decisions (arbitration). The conference agreed to establish such a court at the Haag. The nation states would have a moral duty to submit conflicts here. It was a step in the right direction for d’Estournelles, but months passed and the court remained unused. Then he took hand. At a meeting with Theodore Roosevelt in 1902, he persuaded the President to allow a conflict between the USA and Mexico to be heard there. The Permanent Court of Arbitration thus had two later Nobel Peace Prize laureates to assist in its birth.

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Biography of Paul Henri d’Estournelles de Constant

Paul Henri Benjamin Balluet, Baron d’Estournelles de Constant de Rebecque (November 22, 1852 – May 15, 1924), the son of an aristocratic family tracing its ancestry back to the Crusaders, was born at La Flèche in the Sarthe district of the Loire valley …

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Auguste Beernaert – Speed read

Auguste Beernaert was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, jointly with Paul d’Estournelles de Constant, for his prominent position in the international movement for peace and arbitration.

Full name: Auguste Marie François Beernaert
Born: 26 July 1829, Ostend, Belgium
Died: 6 October 1912, Lucerne, Switzerland
Date awarded: 10 December 1909

Prime minister and parliamentarian

Auguste Beernaert was one of Belgium’s most renowned lawyers, and he served as prime minister for King Leopold II from 1884 to 1894. He gained his reputation as a prominent peace advocate through his work with the Inter-Parliamentary Union and the Hague Peace Conferences of 1899 and 1907. He presided over a commission in The Hague on the codification of land war, and he spoke out in support of small nations that wished to remain neutral in conflicts between major powers. In 1902, when the border dispute between Mexico and the USA was brought as the first case before the International Court of Arbitration in The Hague, Beernaert represented Mexico. Toward the end of his life, Beernaert fought to prevent aerial warfare. Just a few days before his death, he submitted a proposal to the 1912 Inter-Parliamentary Union conference in Geneva to ban this type of warfare.

Inter-parliamentarian

Beernaert attended the meetings of the Inter-Parliamentary Union, which organised annual conferences for elected representatives from different countries. The purpose was to promote peace and understanding between nations. Beernaert presided over a number of conferences, and he supported the use of arbitration when conflicts arose. Although he believed in the value of the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague, he did not agree that the court should have permanent judges. Instead he maintained that judges should be elected for each case and approved by the parties. Beernaert feared that permanent judges could be exploited by major powers to exert pressure on small nations.

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Biography of Auguste Marie François Beernaert

Auguste Marie François Beernaert (July 26, 1829-October 6, 1912) was born in Ostend, Belgium, in a middle-class Catholic family of Flemish origin …

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Auguste Beernaert – Nobel Lecture

Auguste Beernaert did not deliver a Nobel Lecture.

Auguste Beernaert – Photo gallery

Auguste Beernaert around 1900.

Source: La Belgique d'aujourd'hui. Photographer unknown. Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Paul Henri d’Estournelles de Constant – Nobel Lecture

Paul Henri d’Estournelles de Constant did not deliver a Nobel Lecture.

Paul Henri d’Estournelles de Constant – Nominations

Auguste Beernaert – Nominations

Award ceremony speech

Presentation Speech by Jørgen Gunnarsson Løvland, Chairman of the Nobel Committee, on December 10, 1909*

Auguste Beernaert was born in 1828¹. After completing his legal studies he began practice as a barrister in Brussels in 1853. In 1859 he was appointed counsel at the Belgian Supreme Court of Appeal. He entered politics at an early date and in 1873² was elected deputy for Thielt. His unusual talents and political ability promised a great political future. In 1875³ he was named minister of public works, an office he held until 1878 when the Liberal Party won the election. When his Clerical Party returned to power in 1884, he was made head of the Department of Agriculture, Industry, and Public Works, and a few months later became finance minister and head of the cabinet. In 1895 he was elected president of the Chamber of Representatives.

Beernaert has played a leading role in Belgian politics. It was through his efforts that the Belgian Chamber agreed that King Leopold⁴ should become sovereign of the Congo State, and it was thanks to him that fortifications were constructed on the Meuse to protect Belgium’s neutrality. This experienced politician also played an important part in the revision of the Belgian constitution. His work for the cause of peace is widely known in Europe, and his name renowned in the International Peace Conferences. At the first Hague Conference he was chairman of the commission set up to formulate proposals for the restriction of armaments.

Beernaert is also a member of the Permanent Arbitration Commission, a member of the Institut de France and of the Belgian Academy. He is honorary president of the Société de droit international, active president of the Association for the Promotion of International Maritime Law, and honorary president of the International Law Association.

Each of these men [Mr. Beernaert and Baron d’Estournelles de Constant] holds a prominent position in the international movement for peace and arbitration, and it is therefore fully in keeping with the spirit of Nobel’s intentions that the prize should be awarded to them.

* Mr. Løvland opened the award ceremony of December 10, 1909, in the auditorium of the Norwegian Nobel Institute, with a welcome to the audience and an introduction of Mr. Christian L. Lange, secretary to the Committee, who had just been named secretary-general of the Interparliamentary Bureau. Mr. Lange delivered a speech on the Interparliamentary Union, reviewing its twenty-year history. After thanking Mr. Lange for his speech and for his years of service to the Committee, Mr. Løvland announced the joint winners of the Peace Prize for 1909, Mr. Beernaert and Baron d’Estournelles de Constant, and gave a brief biographical sketch of each. The translation of that of Mr. Beernaert, given here, is based on a reporter’s version of it which appeared in the Oslo Aftenposten of December 10, 1909; certain apparent errors of date in the text are noted as they occur. There is no indication in Les Prix Nobel en 1909 or in the Aftenposten that the laureates were present at the ceremony. Neither laureate delivered a Nobel lecture.

1. According to all sources checked, Beernaert was born in 1829.

2. According to all sources checked: 1874.

3. According to all sources checked: 1873.

4. Leopold II (1835-1909), King of Belgium (1865-1909). See biography of Beernaert.

Speech by Jørgen Gunnarsson Løvland*, Chairman of the Nobel Committee, on December 10, 1909

Paul Henri Benjamin d’Estournelles de Constant is still in the prime of life. Born on September 22, 1852¹, at La Flèche (Sarthe), he belongs to the old French aristocracy. As Baron de Constant de Rebecque, he can trace his ancestry back to the Crusaders.

He was educated at the Lycée Louis le Grand in Paris and later studied law; he is a Licentiate of Law and also holds a diploma from the School of Oriental Languages.

At the age of twenty-three he became attaché in the French Foreign Office and two years later was sent to the Balkans. When he was twenty-nine he became secretary-general of the French Residency in Tunis; on the basis of his experience there he wrote La Politique française en Tunisie². While in Tunis, d’Estournelles de Constant performed most valuable organizing work.

He returned to Paris and became assistant director for the Levant in the Department of Foreign Affairs. At thirty-eight he went to London as counselor to the Embassy, with the title of minister plenipotentiary. As chargé d’affaires he was involved in averting threatened war between France and England during the conflict between King Chulalongkorn of Siam and the French fleet³.

Since then he has become thoroughly dedicated to the movement for peace and arbitration, and he has written a number of books and articles on the subject.

He entered politics in his own country, and in 1895 the republican Baron stood for his native Sarthe. He was elected senator in 1904.

In 1899 d’Estournelles de Constant was named a French representative at the first Hague Conference, and in 1903 he founded the Groupe parlementaire de l’arbitrage international. It was this work which determined his later political attitude. A practical result of his efforts was the arbitration treaties between France and other countries, and he saw his policy adopted beyond the frontiers of France. He believed that foreign policy should be controlled by parliaments and that consequently parliamentary arbitration groups should be developed and strengthened.

His work for peace has not been performed blindly. As a diplomat he has learned to understand international policy and has planned his efforts accordingly.

In this country d’Estournelles de Constant is a well-known and very welcome visitor ever since the last visit of the French parliamentarians⁴.

* Mr. Løvland gave this biographical sketch of Baron d’Estournelles de Constant, along with one on the co-laureate Mr. Beernaert, on December 10, 1909, at the Norwegian Nobel Institute. The translation is based on a reporter’s version of the speech which appeared in the Oslo Aftenposten of the same date. (For a note on other details of the occasion, see Auguste Beernaert´s presentation speech.)

1. According to all sources checked, d’Estournelles was born on November 22, 1852.

2. Published in 1891, the book won a prize from the French Academy.

3. In 1893 during French-Siamese border disputes, the Siamese, under Chulalongkorn (Rama V, 1868-1910), fired at gunboats sent to enforce French demands. A French ultimatum, rejected by the Siamese, was followed by a blockade which, in turn, brought opposition from the British who refused to remove a gunboat stationed at Bangkok to protect British subjects. The crisis, brief but acute, ended when the Siamese were obliged to accept the ultimatum and the blockade was raised.

4. The laureate was an advocate and organizer of reciprocal visits between parliamentary groups of the various nations; his own group had just visited Norway in the preceding summer.

The Nobel Peace Prize 1909

Auguste Beernaert – Biographical

Auguste Marie François Beernaert (July 26, 1829-October 6, 1912) was born in Ostend, Belgium, in a middle-class Catholic family of Flemish origin. His father was a government functionary whose changing appointments took the family from Ostend to Dinant and then to Namur, where Auguste and his sister spent their childhood. Their early education was undertaken by their mother, a woman of outstanding intelligence and moral character. Admitted to the University of Louvain in 1846, Beernaert took his doctorate in law in 1851 with the highest distinction. Awarded a traveling fellowship, he spent two years at the Universities of Paris, Heidelberg, and Berlin, studying the status of legal education in France and Germany and upon his return to Belgium submitting a report of his findings – later published – to the minister of the Interior.

Admitted to the bar in 1853, he clerked for a time for Hubert Dolez, a prominent lawyer and former president of the Chamber of Representatives, then set up an independent practice, specializing in fiscal law. In the next twenty years his essays in legal journals earned him a reputation as a scholar, and his practice a comfortable fortune. Consequently, there was some surprise expressed in Belgian legal circles when he gave up his practice in 1873 to become the minister of public works in Jules Malou’s conservative Catholic cabinet. In the next five years Beernaert proved to be an able and energetic administrator. He improved the country’s rail, canal, and road systems, established new port facilities at Ostend and Anvers, and beautified the capital, but he failed in his attempt to end child labor in the mines. In June of 1874 he lost a contest for a seat in the Senate but three months later won an election in the west Flanders town of Thielt, a constituency which re-elected him until his death.

When the Catholic Party, defeated in 1878, was returned to power in 1884, Beernaert was named minister of the Department of Agriculture, Industry, and Public Works in the new cabinet. Four months later, after some resignations from the cabinet, King Leopold II entrusted Beernaert with the direction of the government.

Beernaert was prime minister of Belgium and finance minister for the next ten years. Under his administration the budget was balanced; the Flemish language was protected; the independent State of the Congo was created in 1885 and the title of sovereign of that land given to Leopold who had personally been largely responsible for its development; social and judicial reforms designed to protect the welfare of the workingman were instituted in 1887 in the wake of riots in that year; military fortifications on the Meuse were constructed in order to defend Belgian neutrality; the constitution of 1831 was revised, the right of suffrage being granted to ten times the number of citizens who had formerly enjoyed it.

On another constitutional question, that of proportional representation, the cabinet fell in 1894. Although he returned to his law practice, Beernaert continued to serve in the government. He accepted the advisory post of minister of state and from 1895 to 1900 served as the president of the Chamber of Representatives, being elected by his colleagues. A lifelong patron of the arts, he was selected to head the Commission of Museums and Arts. During this period he engaged actively in international attempts to abolish slavery and solidified into active opposition his dismay at the exploitation of the Congo that had troubled his relationship with Leopold in the last part of his tenure as prime minister.

One of Belgium’s leading pacifists, Beernaert became an active member of the Interparliamentary Union after he resigned from the prime ministry, presided over several of its conferences, and served as president of its Council after 1899 and of its Executive Committee after its creation in 1908. At the Peace Conference at The Hague in 1899 he presided over the First Commission on arms limitation; at the Conference of 1907, over the Second Commission on codification of land war. He was a member of the Permanent Court of Arbitration; he represented Mexico in 1902 in the dispute with the United States, the first case to be brought before the Court; and on many occasions he acted as arbiter of international quarrels. Beernaert was the primary force behind proposals to unify international maritime law; those resulting from the international conferences of 1885 and 1888, convened on his initiative, failed of adoption by the several nations, but the conventions dealing with collision and assistance at sea drawn up in 1910 at the conference in Brussels under his chairmanship were soon signed by many nations. He exemplified his own aphorism: «The first virtue of politics and the first element of success is perseverance».¹

On his way home from the 1912 Geneva conference of the Interparliamentary Union on the prohibition of air warfare, Beernaert was hospitalized in Lucerne where he died of pneumonia. He was buried at Boitsfort with the simplest of ceremonies, as he had requested.

1. Henri Carton de Wiart, Beernaert et son temps, p. 139.

This autobiography/biography was written at the time of the award and first published in the book series Les Prix Nobel. It was later edited and republished in Nobel Lectures. To cite this document, always state the source as shown above.