On 13 July 1870, King Wilhelm I of Prussia, on his morning stroll in the carpark in Ems, was stopped by Count Vincent Benedetti,[4] the French ambassador to Prussia since 1864. Benedetti had been instructed by his superior, Foreign Minister Agenor, duc de Gramont, to present the French demand that the king should guarantee that he would never again permit the candidacy of a Hohenzollern prince to the Spanish throne.[5] The meeting was informal and took place on the promenade of the Kursaal with the King's entourage at a discreet distance. Politely and in a friendly manner,[6] "with the courtesy that never failed him", the King refused to bind himself to any course of action into the indefinite future. After their exchange, "the two departed coolly."[7]