It all went back to the Crusades, which collapsed mainly because the Crusaders were a poorly coordinated international force, and the Turks were superior fighters on their home ground - but also because Christendom divided tempestuously into Orthodox (Byzantium) and Catholic (Rome). In 1520 Francis I of France accepted responsibility for protecting the Holy Sites in the Holy Land. But as the Orthodox faith took hold, becoming the official religion of Russia, Greek and Russian Monks, as the locals in situ, were actually doing the job. The Catholics only revived their interest when tourism became popular in the 18th Century, and in 1740 Louis XV of France obtained confirmation from the Ottoman Sultan that the Catholic church was the official protector of the Holy Sites. As years went by, the Orthodox christians became more and more unhappy with this arrangement. Whilst visitors from Russia invariably acted with reverence and decorum, visitors from western Catholic countries often behaved like hooligans. As a result the dispute over who should have the keys of the doors had escalated to the point where violence between the rival factions had become commonplace. By the beginning of 1853 the matter had assumed an importance which required the attention of the top politicians and diplomats of the Great Powers.
Before homing in on the main participants, take a moment to review how the Great Powers viewed the Eastern Question in the first half of the 19th Century.
The Turkish Empire is nearing collapse, but when it collapses, something will have to be done with all its components, especially the huge slice of South East Europe. We all know which bits we'd like, where we are not averse to trying to establish our influence, but how can we realistically carve up everything without upsetting the balance of power we all pledged to support in 1815? Since we haven't got a solution to this, we have to prop up the Ottoman Empire to preserve the status quo.
So on a balmy spring evening in March 1853 in Constantinople, let's first meet Vincent Benedetti, as his carriage sweeps out of the French Embassy driveway. Vincent, a 35 year old Corsican, is the Charge d'affaires and temporarily in charge at the Embassy. France has come far since Napoleon was finally put away in 1815. At the Congress of Vienna that year, the Allied Powers were careful not to apply punitive sanctions, for fear that France would search for revenge and start a new war at the first opportunity. She therefore got off quite lightly with 700 million francs reparations bill, a return to her boundaries of 1790, and occupation by allied troops for five years, which became three. Since 1818 she had been restored to full diplomatic status, albeit not to the inner sanctum, and had been pushing to extend her influence ever since, carefully watched and mostly thwarted by British Foreign Secretary Palmerston, who had even risked going to war in 1839 to keep France out of the Middle East.
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