Narcisse-Achille de Salvandy

Politician and writer, twice education minister under the July Monarchy, who worked after 1848 for the fusion of the two Bourbon branches

Born at Condom in Gascony in 1795 into a poor family of Irish extraction, he joined Napoleon's army in 1813 and made his name in 1816 with a pamphlet against the foreign occupation. He is remembered for telling the Duke of Orléans in May 1830 that "we are dancing on a volcano". Under the July Monarchy he sat almost continuously in the Chamber from 1830 to 1848 with the conservative centre-right, entered the Académie française in 1835, and as minister of education in 1837–1839 and 1845–1848 founded the French School at Athens. He was briefly ambassador at Madrid and Turin. After 1848 he spent some years abroad, notably in Jersey, then returned to take part in the attempts to fuse the two Bourbon branches. He died in 1856.

Also known as: Comte de Salvandy

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