Liberal Catholic publicist and historian who led the Catholic party in the Second Republic's assemblies and helped draft the Falloux law
Born in London in 1810 to a French noble father and a Scottish mother, he worked from 1830 with Lamennais and Lacordaire on L'Avenir, calling for a Church free of state control, and submitted when the Pope condemned its doctrines. A peer from 1835, he attacked the state monopoly of education. Elected for the Doubs in 1848 and 1849, he helped draft the Falloux law and, as one of the "Burgraves", pressed the electoral reform meant to shut out working-class voters. After the coup he accepted the fait accompli in hope of laws favourable to Catholics, but broke with the Empire in 1852. He sat in the Corps législatif until 1857 and then wrote The Monks of the West.
Also known as: Charles Forbes René de Montalembert
Activities and affiliations
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1830–1870
Ideology and propaganda
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1835–1848
France state institutionsPeer of France
Legislature and state representation -
1836–1870
Scholarship and theory
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1848–1857
France state institutionsRepresentative and deputy for the DoubsMain
Legislature and state representation
Career Timeline
- 1830–1831Writer for L'Avenir
- 1835–1848Peer of France
- 1848–1851Representative for the Doubs
- 1851Elected to the Académie française
- 1852–1857Member of the Corps législatif
- 1855Revived Le Correspondant