Pierre-Antoine Berryer

Pierre-Antoine Berryer (born January 4, 1790 in Paris , † November 29, 1868 in Augerville-la-Rivière ) was a French lawyer and politician.

Life

Berryer was the son of lawyer Pierre-Nicolas Berryer, one of the defense lawyers of Marshal Ney . Berryer originally wanted to become a priest and attended the Collège de Juilly the Oratory . He was also a Bonapartist at first, but after his studies (he was admitted to the bar in 1811) he became a staunch royalist (legitimist) like his father, but made a clear distinction between the royalist party and the institution of the monarchy. In 1815 he followed Louis XVIII during the 100 days . into exile in Ghent . He assisted his father and Dupin in the defense of Ney and himself defended two other generals who joined Napoleon in the 100 days , Debelle (on whom he was granted a 10-year pardon) and Pierre Cambronne , whose acquittal he was in April Reached in 1816. After that, however, he had to (successfully) defend himself against charges of seditious speech. His advocacy for the generals of the old Napoleonic army later provided him with support from the Bonapartists.

During this time he also defended many state-persecuted journalists and built a reputation for advocating freedom of the press. In 1818 he defended General Canuel and in 1820 General Donnadieu, who had put down the uprisings in Lyon and Grenoble. In 1830 he was elected to the National Assembly as a deputy for the Haute-Loire department (friends bought him an estate in Augerville). In his first parliamentary speech, he defended the Ministry of Croan and Polignac against the entry of the "221" and also fought against what he saw as dangerous anti-monarchist liberal tendencies. During the July Revolution , he remained the only legitimist in parliament that the legitimists otherwise closed. Now, however, he campaigned again for more freedom rights by z. B. Speaking to jury courts at trials against journalists. He defended the Duchess of Berry after trying unsuccessfully to dissuade her from her overturn plans in May 1832 in favor of her son, the Duke of Bordeaux ( Comte de Chambord ). Since he did not succeed, he first tried to flee to Switzerland, but was arrested and charged as a co-conspirator. He defended himself and obtained a quick acquittal. The following year he defended Chateaubriand , who was charged with making statements against Louis-Philippe I.

For his political activity, Berryer was revered by both Republicans and Legitimists, who came together in support when he was forced to sell his estate for neglect of his legal practice (they bought it back in 1836). In 1840 he defended Napoleon III. after his attempted coup in Boulogne-sur-Mer . In 1843 he visited London to show the Duke of Bordeaux his recognition as a pretender to the French throne (as "Henri V") - he later visited him in Wiesbaden. 1848/9 he was in the Constituent Assembly (for Bouches-du-Rhône) and the Legislative Assembly, but concentrated from 1851, after he vehemently publicly opposed the coup of Napoleon III. had protested on his legal practice. As an old monarchist, he made it his task to reconcile the warring houses of Orleans and Bourbon and in 1863, again in the Legislative Assembly, opposed the French intervention in Mexico .

In the Salles des Pas Perdus of the Paris Palace of Justice stands his statue (with an open robe to show his deputy status). Berryer was famous in his day for his eloquence (he also gave public lectures on rhetoric ), and a rhetorical competition among young Parisian lawyers bears his name ("La Berryer"). Both the Paris lawyers held a banquet for his 50th anniversary in 1861, and the London lawyers held a banquet at Temple and Lincoln's Inn when he visited Lord Brougham in 1865 . November 1868 he withdrew from Paris to his country estate in Augerville.

In 1854 he was elected to the Académie française .

literature

• Berryer: Discours parlementaires. 5 volumes
• Berryer: Plaidoyers. 4 volumes, Paris, 1872–78
• Cauviere: Berryer, sa vie judiciaire, ses discours. Marseille 1871
• Lecanuet: Berryer. Paris, 1892
• Lacombe: Berryer. 3 vols., Paris, 1894–1895.

Web links

Commons : Pierre-Antoine Berryer  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Short biography and list of works of the Académie française (French)
• Berryer in the Catholic Encyclopedia
• Image on a website of famous French lawyers