Prosper de Chasseloup-Laubat
The Marquis of Chasseloup-Laubat | |
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Ferdinand Hamelin | |
Succeeded by | Charles Rigault de Genouilly |
Personal details | |
Born | Alessandria, Italy | 29 May 1805
Died | 29 March 1873 Paris, France | (aged 67)
Nationality | French |
Occupation | Politician |
Justin Napoléon Samuel Prosper de Chasseloup-Laubat, 4th Marquis of Chasseloup-Laubat (29 May 1805, Alessandria, Department of Marengo, French Empire – 29 March 1873, Paris, France) was a French aristocrat and politician who became Minister of the Navy under Napoleon III and was an early advocate of French colonialism.
Early life and family
Chasseloup-Laubat was the descendant of a minor noble family from
Prosper de Chasseloup-Laubat was educated at
Career
Under the July Monarchy
Immediately after the July Revolution, Chasseloup-Laubat became aide-de-camp of the commander of the National Guard, Marquis de La Fayette, and despite the change of regime he remained at the Conseil d'État and was promoted inside its inner hierarchy.
In 1836, he was appointed as an assistant to Jean-Jacques Baude, Royal commissary in Algeria, and worked at Alger, and then at Tunis, Bône and Constantine. He was present at the failed siege of Constantine by the French army in November 1836, before turning back to France and reassuming his functions at the Conseil d'État. In 1838 he was appointed a councillor at the Conseiller d'État.
At the same time, he was also beginning a political career. On 3 September 1837, he was elected
Minister under the Second Empire and advocate of French colonialism
The
After the
Chasseloup-Laubat was an enthusiastic proponent of French colonial imperialism.[1] Member of the "Council of colonisation" which assisted the newly created
He was Minister at the time of the
During his tenure as Minister of the Marine and the Colonies, he also modernised the French navy and inspired the creation at Brest of an institution for the orphans of the navy, placing it under the special protection of the Emperor.
With the help of his wife, he was also an actor of the elaborate social life of the Second Empire, a period popularly referred to as the fête impériale ("the Imperial festival"). On 13 February 1866, he gathered one of the most flamboyant receptions of the time, a masquerade ball during which, dressed as a Venetian noble, he received his 3000 guests (between whom the Emperor and the Empress) in the restored salons of the ministry, Rue Royale. The climax of the reception, which lasted until half past six in the morning, was a "Cortege of the Nations". It was also a symbolic expression of the minister's political stance and of France's imperialist aspirations.[4]
Chasseloup-Laubat was recalled to the government on 17 July 1869, as Minister-President of the Conseil d'État, and took part to the constitutional changes which were expected to transform the Second Empire into a
After the fall of Napoléon III, Chasseloup-Laubat was elected once again a Deputy of Charente-Inférieure to the new National Assembly on 8 February 1871 and took his seat with the Orléanist parliamentary group, Centre droit. He still played a minor role as rapporteur of the law on the organisation of the army in 1872, and died one year later in Paris. He is buried at the Père Lachaise Cemetery.
Private life
On 18 August 1862 at Saint Augustin,[5] he married Marie-Louise Pilié (5 December 1841, New Orleans – April 1921, Paris[6]), a distant relative of his, whose family was from Saintonge, but established in Louisiana. She was the daughter of Louis Armand Pilié and of Rose Elisabeth Eleonore Lapice de Bergondy,[7] and a niece of Confederate General P. G. T. Beauregard.[8] She fostered her husband's career by playing the role of a social hostess for the high society of the Second Empire. They had two sons, who both were notable in sport:
- Louis de Chasseloup-Laubat, 5th Marquis of Chasseloup-Laubat (1863–1954) was president of the French Fencing Federation(Fédération française d'escrime) and co-wrote the rules for international fencing competition.
- Count Gaston de Chasseloup-Laubat (1867–1903), a race car driver, is known for setting the first recognised automobile land speed record.
The Marquis of Chasseloup-Laubat was President of the
Honours
- Commander (1851), then Grand Cross of the Legion of Honour (18 September 1860)
- Knight Grand Cross of the Order of Saints Maurice and Lazarus
- Grand Cross of the Order of Christ (Portugal)
- Grand Cross of the Order of the Oak Crown
- Grand Cross of the Order of Charles III
- Grand Cross of the Order of Isabella the Catholic
- Grand Cross of the Order of Glory (Tunisia)
- Grand Cross of the Imperial Order of Our Lady of Guadalupe
A bronze statue in his honour was erected at Marennes. It was destroyed during the Vichy regime but replace by a new one after the war.[10] A street and a school in
Style
- 1817-1859: Viscount Prosper de Chasseloup-Laubat
- 1859-1963: Count Prosper de Chasseloup-Laubat
- 1863-1873: The Marquis of Chasseloup-Laubat
Ancestry
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Notes
- ^ Henry Kamm, Dragon Ascending: Vietnam and the Vietnamese, New York, 1996, p. 89.
- ^ Oscar Chapuis, The Last Emperors of Vietnam: from Tu Duc to Bao Dai, Westport (Conn.) – London, 2000, pp. 50-51.
- ^ S. Lemaire, P. Blanchard and N. Bancel, "Milestones in Colonial Culture under the Second Empire (1851–1870)", in Colonial Culture in France since the Revolution, ed. P. Blanchard, S. Lemaire, N. Bancel and D. Thomas, Indiana University Press, 2014, p. 78.
- ^ M. Battesti, La Marine de Napoléon III: une politique navale, Chambéry – Paris – Vincennes, 1997, vol. 1, p. 261.
- ^ C. Baroche, Second Empire. Notes et souvenirs, Paris, 1921, p. 212.
- ^ Le Figaro, 2 avril 1921: "Mme la marquise de Chasseloup Laubat douairière, veuve de l'ancien ministre de la marine sous Napoléon III, s'est pieusement éteinte, après une courte maladie, en son domicile, 4, rue de Marignan, à l'âge de soixante-dix-neuf ans."
- ^ Biographical and Historical Memoirs of Louisiana, Chicago, 1892, p. 534.
- ^ David Carroll, Henri Mercier and the American Civil War, Princeton, 1971, p. 344.
- ^ Alfred Fierro, La Société de géographie: 1821-1946, Geneva, 1983, pp. 57–58.
- ^ "Monument au marquis de Chasseloup-Laubat – Marennes | E-monumen". 5 July 2011.
References
- Robert, Adolphe; Bourloton, Edgar; Cougny, Gaston, Dictionnaire des parlementaires français (1789-1891), vol. 2, p. 65
- Jules Delarbre, Le marquis P. de Chasseloup-Laubat, 1805 (29 mars) – 1873, Paris, 1873.
- Albert Duchêne, Un ministre trop oublié : Chasseloup-Laubat, Paris, 1932.
- Fernand Lombard, Un Grand ministre de Napoléon III: Justin-Napoléon-Samuel-Prosper de Chasseloup-Laubat, Poitiers, 1970