Henry de Jouvenel

Henry de Jouvenel des Ursins (5 April 1876 – 5 October 1935) was a French journalist and statesman.

Jouvenel became the French High Commissioner in Syria and Lebanon on 23 December 1925 until 23 June 1926.

Personal life

He was born to the old French nobility, and was well educated at Collège Stanislas in Paris. Binion says:

Henry de Jouvenel never outgrew the spirit of his schooldays -- his humanism, his enthusiasm for ideas, the original blend of audacity and courtesy in his thinking, his dream of detecting and expressing unanimity amid discord. He matured, not by putting these things aside, but by adding to them.

Jouvenel's first wife was Sarah Boas, the daughter of a Jewish industrialist. They had a son, Bertrand de Jouvenel. Henri divorced Sarah in 1912. That same year he married French novelist and performer Sidonie-Gabrielle Colette. The couple had one daughter, Colette de Jouvenel, known to the family as Bel-Gazou ("beautiful babbling/chirping" in local dialect). They divorced in 1924 after a much talked-about affair with her stepson, Bertrand de Jouvenel.

He is the brother of French journalist Robert de Jouvenel.