Charles de Freycinet

France state institutions Liberalism and republicanism 1828–1923 ○ Natural causes

Engineer who ran Gambetta's military cabinet in 1870, later four times prime minister and minister of war of the Third Republic

Born at Foix into a Protestant family and trained at the École Polytechnique, he was a mining engineer and traffic manager of the Compagnie du Midi. In September 1870 he offered his services to Gambetta, became prefect of Tarn-et-Garonne and in October chief of the military cabinet, and his organisation let Gambetta raise army after army. His dictating of operations to field generals went badly: friction with d'Aurelle de Paladines lost the advantage won at Coulmiers and Orléans, and he was responsible for the eastern campaign that destroyed Bourbaki's army. A senator from 1876, he passed a scheme for state acquisition of the railways and, as prime minister from 1879, an amnesty for the Communards. Four times prime minister, he was the first civilian minister of war since 1848 (1888–1893), introducing three-year service and a general staff. He was a Moderate Republican.

Also known as: Charles Louis de Saulces de Freycinet