Ems dispatch

Ems dispatch 1870, communication between King William of Prussia (later German Emperor William I) and his premier, Otto von Bismarck. In June, 1870, the throne of Spain was offered to Prince Leopold of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen, a relative of King William. Leopold at first accepted the candidacy, but withdrew it in July after the French government had protested. During these transactions William and Bismarck were taking the waters at Ems, Germany. There the French ambassador Comte Benedetti, in an interview with the king, requested William's guarantee that the candidacy of Leopold to the Spanish throne would never be renewed. William rejected the request. Bismarck, intent on provoking war with France, made the king's report of the conversation public (July 13) in his celebrated Ems dispatch, which he edited in a manner certain to provoke the French. France declared war on July 19, and the Franco-Prussian War began.

Ems telegram (13 July 1870) A dispatch from the Prussian king WILLIAM I to his chancellor, BISMARCK, that precipitated the outbreak of the FRANCO-PRUSSIAN WAR. A relative of the Prussian king, Prince Leopold of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen, had accepted an offer to the Spanish throne. This alarmed the French, who feared Prussian influence south of the Pyrenees. Leopold withdrew his claim a few days later, but the French ambassador approached William at the German spa town of Ems, asking for an assurance that Leopold's candidacy would never be renewed. The king refused, politely but firmly, and he sent his chancellor a telegram to the effect that the crisis had passed. Bismarck, intent on provoking war with France, published a shortened version which turned the refusal into an insult. French public opinion was outraged and Napoleon III declared the Franco-Prussian War, whose consequences were to include the downfall of the French Second Empire and the creation of the GERMAN SECOND EMPIRE.