Odilon Barrot

France state institutions Liberalism and republicanism 1791–1873 ○ Natural causes

Liberal leader of the July Monarchy's "dynastic opposition" who ran the reform banquets and headed Louis Napoleon's first cabinets

Born at Villefort in the Lozère in 1791, the son of a Convention member, he became a Paris advocate, took an active part in the revolution of 1830 and was made prefect of the Seine. Deputy for the Eure from 1831, he urged the "broadening of the bases of the monarchy" while protesting loyalty to the dynasty. He organised the reform banquets of 1847–1848 but did not foresee the outbreak they prepared, and on 24 February tried in vain to save the regency of the Duchess of Orleans. He accepted the republic and supported Cavaignac, and after the election of December 1848 became Louis Napoleon's minister of justice and head of his cabinet until he was dismissed on 31 October 1849. He sought to accuse Napoleon of high treason after the coup of 1851 and was briefly imprisoned; in 1872 Thiers made him president of the Council of State, and he died in 1873.

Also known as: Camille Hyacinthe Odilon Barrot