François Alexandre Frédéric, duc de La Rochefoucauld-Liancourt
François XII. Alexandre Frédéric, duc de La Rochefoucauld-Liancourt (born January 11, 1747 in La Roche-Guyon , † March 27, 1827 in Paris ) was a French duke, politician, social reformer and entrepreneur.
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Early years
He was the son of François-Armand de la Rochefoucauld de Roye, duc d'Estissac. After school, he served in the royal army. He married Félicité Sophie de Lannion in 1764. First known as Comte de Rochefoucauld , he was allowed to call himself Duc de Liancourt from 1765 . During his Grand Tour he visited Italy between 1765 and 1766. He visited England in 1769 and studied agricultural methods there. He then built a model farm near his castle in what is now the Yvelines department . He founded a vocational school in Chalons . This later became the École nationale supérieure d'arts et métiers .
Rochefoucauld-Liancourt was Colonel and owner of the Régiment de La Rochefoucauld-Dragons since 1770 . In 1781 he became Brigadier des armées du roi of a dragoon unit . He also became a Knight of the Ordre royal et militaire de Saint-Louis . After the death of his father he became Duc d'Estissac. Like his father, he held the office of grand master of the royal wardrobe at court. He accompanied Louis XVI. 1786 on his journey to Cherbourg .
French Revolution
He was a guest at various salons in Paris during the 1780s and was a member of the political discussion group of the Group of Thirty. In 1789 he was elected to represent the nobility of Clermont-en-Beauvaisis in the Estates General . There he belonged to the group of liberal aristocrats. In June 1789, however, he did not initially transfer anything to the Third Estate camp . He argued that he would need a new mandate to move to the Constituent Assembly .
In July he was a mediator between the National Assembly and Louis XVI. active. He informed the king of the storming of the Bastille . To the King's remark. “ But this is a revolt, ” he is supposed to have replied: “ No, Sire, this is a revolution. ” In fact, this dialogue probably did not take place, or it is not verifiable.
Later Rochefoucauld-Liancourt was a member of the National Assembly and was temporarily its president. He advocated a royal veto. He dealt mainly with reforms of the internal administration, the financial system and the police. On August 4th, he played a major role in the decision to abolish the feudal system . Later he was mainly concerned with social issues and wrote reports on the hospital and poor affairs for the relevant committees. He campaigned for reforms in the prison system and the abolition of the death penalty.
After the king's failed escape to Varennes , he realized that the one thing that was still missing in the revolution was freedom from the king . He belonged to the club from 1789, later to the Jacobin Club and then to the Feuillants . In 1791 he acquired large quantities of national goods from monastery property near his castle.
Exile, Empire and Restoration
After his cousin Louis-Alexandre La Rochefoucauld was murdered on August 10, 1792 in the course of the Tuileries storm , he went into exile in Great Britain. Since then he has also held the title of Duc de Rochefoucauld. Between 1794 and 1797 he toured the United States and Canada. There he closely observed the economic life there, the political structures and the welfare institutions. He published a description of it in six volumes.
He returned to France after the coup d'état of 18th Brumaire . Although Napoleon made various efforts to attract him, he did not take office. He only accepted acceptance into the Legion of Honor . Instead, he tried to put the experiences from his travels into practice. He had lost his own property through expropriation during the revolution. But it remained the property of his wife, who had only apparently separated from him. On this he built large cotton yarn mills based on the English model. He also introduced vaccination against leafing in France. During the reign of the hundred days he was a member of parliament. After the restoration he was a member of the Chamber of Pairs . In 1816 he was a member of a commission for the hospital system. He was also active in the Association for Christian Morals, campaigned for the abolition of slavery and held various other offices. Because of his liberal views, he lost this post again. He founded the first savings bank in France. This was the starting point for the Groupe Caisse d'Epargne . As a result he published various writings and was named for the Academy of Sciences.
In 1804 he became a corresponding member of the Académie des Sciences in Paris.
Works
- Travels in the years 1795, 1796 and 1797 through all the seaside states of the North American Republic. Along with reliable news from Lower Canada. Translated by Rudolph Gerhard Behrmann (Jr.), Hamburg: Hoffmann 1799
literature
- Real encyclopedia. Volume 8. Leipzig, 1824, p. 327 f.
- Paul R. Hanson: Historical Dictionary of the French Revolution. Oxford 2004, p. 183 f.
- William J. Roberts: France: A Reference Guide from the Renaissance to the Present. New York 2004, p. 371
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Winfried Schulze: July 14, 1789. Biography one day. 2nd edition Stuttgart, 1989 p. 8
- ^ List of members since 1666: Letter L. Académie des sciences, accessed on January 8, 2020 (French).
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | La Rochefoucauld-Liancourt, François Alexandre Frédéric duc de |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | La Rochefoucauld-Liancourt, François XII. Alexandre Frédéric de |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | French politician, entrepreneur and social reformer |
| DATE OF BIRTH | January 11, 1747 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | La Roche-Guyon |
| DATE OF DEATH | March 27, 1827 |
| Place of death | Paris |