James Louis Rice (1730–1793) was an Irish count of the Holy Roman Empire, duelist and a close friend of Emperor Joseph II.
[1] Many members of his family supported the Stuart and Catholic cause, leading to much of their property being confiscated and their emigration to mainland Europe, mainly France, in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.
[2] Rice left Ireland in his youth and was educated at St Anthony's College, Leuven[1] in what was then the French Empire.
Soon after, Rice became an intimate friend of Holy Roman Emperor Joseph II, whose sister was Queen Marie Antoinette of France.
[2] During the imprisonment of Marie Antoinette during the French Revolution, Rice formed a plan for her rescue—he arranged relays of post-horses all the way from Paris to the coast, where he had a boat waiting to take her to his house at Dingle, County Kerry.