Guizot, François

▪ French politician and historian

in full  François-Pierre-Guillaume Guizot 

born October 4, 1787, Nîmes, France

died October 12, 1874, Val-Richer

 French political figure and historian who, as leader of the conservative constitutional monarchists during the July Monarchy (1830–48), was the dominant minister in France.

      Guizot's father was executed by the National Convention in 1794, and Guizot went into exile with his mother. In 1805, after six years in Geneva, Guizot returned to Paris, where he studied law and frequented anti-Napoleonic literary circles. In 1812 he was appointed professor of history at the University of Paris.

      Joining the first Bourbon Restoration (1814), Guizot emerged as an influential proponent of constitutional monarchy, a position that earned him the lasting hatred of ultraroyalist groups. His own views were shared by a group called the Doctrinaires, whose platform Guizot explained in his Du gouvernement représentatif et de l'état actuel de la France (1816; “On Representative Government and the Present Condition of France”).

      Guizot spent the years 1820–30 mostly in historical research, producing works such as Histoire de la civilisation en Europe, 3 vol. (1828; General History of Civilization in Europe), and Histoire de la civilisation en France, 5 vol. (1829–32; “The History of Civilization in France”). His historical interpretations generally reflected his political attachment to limited representation and constitutional monarchy. In the July Monarchy, Guizot, as a leader of the conservatives, and his liberal rival and fellow historian Adolphe Thiers set the pace for political life. In 1832–37 Guizot was minister of education and was responsible for the so-called Guizot law (1833), which established the principle that secular primary education should be accessible to all citizens.

      After brief service as ambassador to England (1840), Guizot became foreign minister in Marshal Nicolas-Jean de Dieu Soult's ministry. This ministry proved to be the longest in Louis-Philippe's reign, and from the beginning Guizot rather than the aged Soult was the real head of it. Indeed, Guizot succeeded Soult as premier in 1847. In foreign affairs Guizot's policies were rather successful, especially as they affected relations with England.

      Domestically, however, Guizot and his associates were somewhat less successful. A critical issue of the 1840s was voter eligibility. Liberals, republicans, and the newly emerging socialists demanded wider or even universal suffrage; but Guizot's conservatives supported the existing requirement that only persons who paid a tax of more than 200 francs (a considerable sum at the time) be allowed to cast ballots. The issue became heated, but the liberals could not weaken Guizot's political hold, partly because the years 1840–45 were relatively prosperous. But in 1846–47 a severe economic crisis, followed by political and financial scandals, led to growing antiregime demonstrations. Guizot was forced to resign on February 23, 1848. The next day the monarchy that he had served so vigorously collapsed, despite the king's abdication in favour of his grandson, and a new republic was proclaimed.

      Except for an abortive attempt to rally opposition to the republic in 1849, Guizot spent the remainder of his life in relative political isolation. He remained an important figure in France's small Protestant community. His many publications included L'Histoire de la France, depuis les temps les plus reculés jusqu'en 1789, 5 vol. (1872–76; The History of France from the Earliest Times to the Year 1789).

Additional Reading

Elizabeth Parnham Brush, Guizot in the Early Years of the Orleanist Monarchy (1929, reprinted 1974); Douglas Johnson, Guizot: Aspects of French History, 1787–1874 (1963, reprinted 1975); Roger Bullen, Palmerston, Guizot, and the Collapse of the Entente Cordiale (1974).

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