Louis-Mathieu Molé

Louis-Mathieu Molé
Claude Ambroise Régnier
Succeeded by	Pierre Henrion de Pansey
Personal details
Born	(1781-01-24)24 January 1781 Paris, France
Died	23 November 1855(1855-11-23) (aged 74) Doctrinaire (1815–1830)
Spouse	Caroline-Joséphine de La Live ​ ​ (m. 1798; died 1845)​
Children	Clotilde and Élisabeth
Profession	Writer, diplomat
Signature

Louis-Mathieu Molé (24 January 1781 – 23 November 1855), also 1st Count Molé from 1809 to 1815, was a French statesman and a close friend and associate of Louis Philippe I, King of the French during the July Monarchy (1830–1848).

Biography

Molé was born in Paris. His father, a president of the parlement of Paris, who came of the family of the famous president noted below, was guillotined during the Terror. Count Molé's early days were spent in Switzerland and in England with his mother, a relative of Lamoignon-Malesherbes.

On his return to France, he studied at the

in the autumn of the same year.

He served as Napoleon's advisor on Jewish affairs and was heavily involved with Napoleon's gathering of a Jewish Grand Sanhedrin in 1807. Mole initially did not support Jewish emancipation, though he seems to have moderated his position over the course of his involvement with the Sanhedrin and particularly Abraham Furtado.

In November 1813, he became

, who in 1817 entrusted to him the direction of the Ministry of Marine, which he held until December 1818.

From that time, he belonged to the moderate opposition, and he accepted the result of the

, who had gone to London as the ambassador of the new king.

After a few months in office, Molé retired, and it was not until 1836 that the fall of

.

Personal and political differences rapidly arose between Molé and his chief colleague,

duc de Nemours

. After some attempts to secure a new combination, Molé reconstructed his ministry in April, Guizot being excluded. The general election in the autumn gave him no fresh support in the Chamber of Deputies, while he had now to face a formidable coalition between Guizot, the Left Centre under Thiers, and politicians of the Dynastic Left and the Republican Left. Molé, supported by Louis Philippe, held his ground against the general hostility until the beginning of 1839, when, after acrid discussions on the address, the chamber was dissolved. The new house showed little change in the strength of parties, but Molé resigned on 31 March 1839.

A year later he was elected to the

to the Constituent Assembly, and in 1849 to the Legislative Assembly, where he was one of the leaders of the Right until the coup d'état on 2 December 1851 drove him from public life.

He died in the family castle of Champlâtreux^[1] in Épinay (Seine-et-Oise) on 23 November 1855 and was buried in the little church of the village.

References

See Paul Thureau-Dangin, Histoire de la monarchie de juillet (1884)

 This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Molé, Louis Mathieu". Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 18 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 653.

Political offices
Preceded by Adolphe Thiers	Prime Minister of France 1836–1839	Succeeded by Jean-de-Dieu Soult
Preceded by François Guizot	Prime Minister of France 1848	Succeeded by Adolphe Thiers
Preceded by Adolphe Thiers	Minister of Foreign Affairs 6 September 1836 – 31 March 1839	Succeeded by Louis Napoléon Lannes
Preceded by Laurent de Gouvion Saint-Cyr	Ministers of Marine and the Colonies 12 September 1817 – 29 December 1818	Succeeded by Pierre-Barthélémy Portal d'Albarèdes