Jules Grévy
Jules Grévy | |
---|---|
Gaston d'Audiffret-Pasquier | |
Succeeded by | Léon Gambetta |
President of the National Assembly | |
In office 16 February 1871 – 2 April 1873 | |
Preceded by | Eugène Schneider |
Succeeded by | Louis Buffet |
Personal details | |
Born | 15 August 1807 Moderate Republicans |
Spouse | Coralie Grévy |
Relatives | Albert Grévy (brother) |
Alma mater | University of Paris |
Signature | |
François Judith Paul Grévy (15 August 1807 – 9 September 1891), known as Jules Grévy (French pronunciation:
Born in a small town in the
With the downfall of the Second French Empire and the reestablishment of the Republic in 1870, Grévy returned to prominence in national politics. After occupying high offices in the National Assembly and the Chamber of Deputies, he was elected president of France in 1879. During his presidency Grévy confirmed his longtime stance by diminishing his own executive authority in favor of the Parliament, and in foreign policy strove for peaceful relations and opposed colonialism. He was reelected in 1885, but two years later was compelled to resign due to a political scandal involving his son-in-law, although Grévy himself was not implicated. His nearly nine years as president of France are seen as the consolidation of the French Third Republic.[5]
Early life and career
Grévy was born on 15 August 1807 in Mont-sous-Vaudrey, in the department of Jura, into a republican family.[6] His paternal grandfather, Nicolas Grévy (1736–1812), the son of farmers from Aumont, moved to Mont-sous-Vaudrey during the French Revolution, where he bought the property of la Grangerie. He was a justice of the peace.[7] Grévy's parents were François Hyacinthe Grevy (1773–1857) and Jeanne Gabrielle Planet (1782–1855).[7] His father, who had joined the French Revolutionary Army as a volunteer in 1792, rose to become a battalion commander and fought in the Revolutionary Wars until retiring to Mont-sous-Vaudrey under the Consulate.[8] He operated a tile factory on his property.[9]
At age 10, Grévy started attending school at the nearby town of
Second Republic
In 1848, a
Grévy was elected vice-president of the National Assembly in April 1849.
Third Republic
Grévy resumed his political career in the last years of the Empire. In 1868 he was elected to the Corps législatif, where he quickly emerged as a leader of the liberal opposition. Along with Adolphe Thiers and Léon Gambetta he opposed the declaration of the Franco-Prussian War, in 1870, and condemned the socialist insurrection of the Paris Commune. Upon the death of Thiers years later, in 1877, Grévy would become the head of the Republican Party.[10]
After the collapse of the Empire in the Franco-Prussian War, Grévy was
Presidency
Throughout his presidency, Grévy sought to minimize his powers and instead favored a strong legislature.[5] On 6 February 1879, shortly after taking office, he made a speech before the Chambers where he explained his vision of the role of President: “Subject with sincerity to the great law of the parliamentary regime, I will never enter into battle against national wishes expressed by its institutional bodies”. This interpretation of the office's limited power influenced most of the later presidents of the Third Republic.[10] In foreign policy he strove for peaceful relations, particularly with the German Empire, resisting revanchist demands for a retribution over the disastrous defeat in the Franco-Prussian War, and opposed colonial expansion.[5] Among internal policies his presidency was marked by anti-clerical reforms, particularly under the government of prime minister Charles de Freycinet.[10] In 1880, he passed an amnesty law in favor of the communards.[6]
On 28 December 1885, Grévy was elected for another seven years as president of the Republic. Two years later however, in December 1887, he was compelled to resign due to a political scandal that started after his son-in-law, Daniel Wilson, was found to be selling awards of the Legion of Honour. Although Grévy himself was not implicated in the scheme, he was indirectly responsible for the misuse Wilson had made of the access to the Élysée.[12] Under pressure from the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate, Grévy resigned on 2 December and addressed a last message to the two chambers, in which he stated "my duty and my right would be to resist, wisdom and patriotism command me to yield".[8] This political matter was the first to feed anti-Masonic opinion in France.[13]
Grévy wrote a two-volume Discours politiques et judiciaires ("Political and Judicial Speeches") in 1888.[5]
Personal life
Grévy married in 1848 to Coralie Frassie, the daughter of a tanner from Narbonne.[10] They had one daughter, Alice (1849–1938), who married Daniel Wilson in 1881.[14]
He died in his hometown of Mont-sous-Vaudrey on 9 September 1891, following a pulmonary edema. His state funeral was held on 14 September.
Initiated at the masonic lodge "La Constante Amitié" in Arras,[15] his masonic activity was inseparable from his policies,[13] especially in the ensuing struggle for separation of church and state that marked the beginning of the Third Republic and MacMahon's resignation.
In private life, Grévy was an ardent
He is referred to as one of Swann's dinner hosts in Proust's In Search of Lost Time.[16]
There is a type of
Grévy's zebra is named after him.
References
- ^ "Jules, François, Paul Grévy". Assemblée nationale. 2017.
- ^ Bennett, Heather Marlene (2013). Long Live the Revolutions: Fighting for France's Political Future in the Long Wake of the Commune, 1871-1880. Publicly Accessible Penn Dissertations. University of Pennsylvania. p. 263.
- ^ "Jules Grevy". World Presidents DB. 2017.
- ^ David Bell, et al. eds. Biographical dictionary of French political leaders since 1870 (1990) pp 189-190.
- ^ a b c d e "Jules Grévy". Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved 26 May 2021.
- ^ a b "Un président franc-comtois, Jules Grévy". Ville de Besançon. Retrieved 28 May 2021.
- ^ ISBN 978-2-85944-273-6.
- ^ a b c d e f Robert, Adolphe; Cougny, Gaston (1891). Dictionnaire des parlementaires français (in French). Paris. p. 254-257.
{{cite book}}
: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) - ^ Anceau 1995, p. 346.
- ^ Élysée. 15 November 2018. Retrieved 26 May 2021.
- ^ a b Johnson, Alfred S., ed. (1892). "Necrology - September". The Cyclopedic Review of Current History. 1. Detroit: The Evening News Association: 465.
- ^ Rochefort, Henri. "The Adventures of My Life, vol. 2" pp315-318
- ^ a b Dictionnaire universel de la Franc-Maçonnerie (Marc de Jode, Monique Cara and Jean-Marc Cara, ed. Larousse, 2011)
- ISBN 9781000225921.
- ^ Dictionnaire de la Franc-Maçonnerie (Daniel Ligou, Presses Universitaires de France, 2006)
- OCLC 26211992.
- ^ "Syringa vulgaris 'President Grevy' (Lilac)". Gardenia.net. Retrieved 5 January 2022.
Further reading
- Bell, David, et al. eds. Biographical dictionary of French political leaders since 1870 (1990) pp 189-190.
- Palmer, Michael. "Daniel Wilson and the decorations scandal of 1887." Modern & Contemporary France 1.2 (1993): 139-150. online
- Sorlin, Pierre. "La société politique sous Jules Grévy." Annales. Histoire, Sciences Sociales Vol. 24. No. 2. 1969.