François-Marie, marquis de Barthélemy explained

Honorific-Prefix:Marquess
François Barthélemy
Office:Member of the French Chamber of Peers
Term Start:6 April 1814
Term End:3 April 1830
Office1:Member of the French Conservative Senate
Monarch1:Napoleon I
Term Start1:27 December 1799
Term End1:14 April 1814
Office2:Director of the French Directory
President2:Paul Barras
Term Start2:26 May 1797
Term End2:5 September 1797
Predecessor2:Étienne-François Letourneur
Successor2:François de Neufchâteau
Office3:France Ambassador to Switzerland
Term Start3:3 September 1791
Term End3:2 November 1795
Birth Date:20 October 1747
Birth Place:Aubagne, France
Death Place:Paris, France
Nationality:French
Profession:Diplomat
Resting Place:Père Lachaise Cemetery
Signature:Lepassepresent signature barthelemy.jpg

François-Marie, Marquess of Barthélemy (20 October 1747, Aubagne3 April 1830 Paris) was a French politician and diplomat, active at the time of the French Revolution.

Biography

Diplomat and member of the Directory

Born in Aubagne, he was educated by his uncle the abbé Jean-Jacques Barthélemy for a diplomatic career. After serving as secretary of legation in Sweden, in Switzerland and in the Kingdom of Great Britain, he was appointed Minister Plenipotentiary in Switzerland, in which capacity he negotiated the treaties of Basel with Prussia and Spain (1795).[1]

Elected a member of the Directory in May 1797, through Royalist influence, he was arrested after General Augereau's anti-Royalist coup d'état of the 18 Fructidor (17 September 1797), and deported to French Guiana, but escaped and made his way to Suriname, then to the United States, and finally to Britain.[1]

Empire

Barthélemy returned to France after Napoleon Bonaparte's 18 Brumaire coup, entered the Senate in February 1800 and contributed to the establishment of the Consulship for life and the First French Empire.[1]

In 1814 he abandoned Napoleon, voted the Acte de déchéance de l'Empereur and took part in the drawing up of King Louis XVIII's Constitutional Charter and was named Peer of France. During the Hundred Days he lived in concealment, and after the Second Restoration obtained the title marquis, and in 1819 introduced a motion in the chamber of Peers tending to render the electoral law more aristocratic.[1]

Legacy

The Rue François Barthélémy in Héricy is named after him.

Notes and References

  1. This, in turn, cites as references:
    • Marquis de Barthélemy, Papiers, published by Jean Kaulek, 4 vols. (Paris, 1886–1888)
    • Albert Sorel, L'Europe et la Révolution française, iv. (Paris, 1892)
    • Ludovic Sciout, Le Directoire (Paris, 1895)