Falloux, Frédéric-Alfred-Pierre, comte de

▪ French politician

born May 11, 1811, Angers, Fr.

died Jan. 6, 1886, Angers

      French political figure and monarchist who served in various political roles but is best remembered as the sponsor of the important educational legislation known as the loi Falloux.

      As a young man, Falloux traveled throughout Europe and identified himself with liberal Catholic causes. In 1846 he was elected to the Chamber of Deputies, where he joined Pierre-Antoine Berryer, a leading monarchist, in urging a constitutional restoration of the Bourbons.

      Falloux was President Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte's first minister of education and in that post was responsible for the passage of the loi Falloux, which, under the guise of freedom of education, restored a great deal of the traditional influence of the Roman Catholic church. He turned against Louis-Napoléon when the latter became emperor as Napoleon III. In bad health, he retired from active political life, although he continued to lend his support to monarchist and liberal Catholic causes.

      In 1840 Falloux wrote a biography of Louis XVI and followed with Histoire de saint Pie V, 2 vol. (1844), Madame Swetchine (1860), and Mémoires d'un royaliste (1888), 3 vol. (1925–26). He was elected to the Académie Française in 1856.

      Falloux played a key role in the nearly successful restoration of Henri Dieudonné, comte de Chambord, to the French throne in 1871–73. He finally broke with the pretender when the comte refused to accept the tricolour, the traditional symbol of all French regimes after 1789.

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