José Nicolás de Azara

Don José Nicolás de Azara y Perera (5 December 1730 – 26 January 1804) was a Spanish diplomat.

[2] He was also an able and active diplomat, took a lead part in the difficult and hazardous task of the expulsion of the Jesuits from Spain, and was instrumental in securing the election of Pope Pius VI.

[3] He withdrew to Florence when the French took possession of Rome in 1798, but acted on behalf of the pope during his exile and after his death at Valence in 1799.

In that post it was his misfortune to be forced by his government to conduct the negotiations which led to the Treaty of San Ildefonso, by which Spain was wholly subjected to Napoleon.

de Ia Historia, Madrid, 1892, &c. There is a Notice historique sur le Chevalier d'Azara by his friend Bourgoing (1804).