Émile Ollivier

France state institutions 1825–1913 ○ Natural causes

Prime minister of the Liberal Empire who accepted responsibility for the war of 1870 “with a light heart”

Born at Marseille in 1825, the son of a republican deputy, he was made government commissary of the Bouches-du-Rhône at twenty-three in 1848 and suppressed a socialist rising at Marseille. Elected for the Seine in 1857, he formed the republican opposition of “the Five” with Favre, Picard and others, but came to lead a third party that would accept the Empire in exchange for civil liberties, the “Liberal Empire”. He formed the ministry of 2 January 1870 and was premier in all but name; a plebiscite endorsed the constitutional Empire in May. On 15 July he cited the Ems Dispatch to obtain the war credits and said he accepted responsibility for the war “with a light heart”. When the defeats of August brought down his cabinet he fled to Italy; he returned in 1873 but never regained political power.

Also known as: Olivier Émile Ollivier · Emile Ollivier