Jules Simon

France state institutions Liberalism and republicanism 1814–1896 ○ Natural causes

Moderate republican philosopher and prime minister who, as minister of the Government of National Defence, ousted Gambetta at Bordeaux

Born at Lorient in 1814 under the family name Suisse, he studied at the École Normale Supérieure and taught philosophy at the Sorbonne as Victor Cousin’s deputy. Elected to the National Assembly in 1848, he refused the oath to Louis Napoleon after the coup of 1851 and lost his chair. Returned to the Corps Législatif in 1863, he supported the opposition of “the Five”, and on 5 September 1870 became minister of public instruction in the Government of National Defence. After the capitulation of Paris he was sent to Bordeaux to stop Gambetta’s resistance to the peace, and Gambetta resigned. He kept the education ministry under Thiers and became prime minister in 1876, but resigned under MacMahon’s pressure on 16 May 1877 and never held office again. He had no sympathy at any time for collectivism.

Also known as: Jules-François-Simon Suisse