Antoine François Claude, comte Ferrand (4 July 175117 January 1825), French

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and political writer, was born in

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, and became a member of the ''

parlement A ''parlement'' (), under the French Ancien Régime, was a provincial appellate court of the Kingdom of France. In 1789, France had 13 parlements, the oldest and most important of which was the Parlement of Paris. While both the modern Fre ...

'' of Paris at eighteen.

Life and career

Ferrand left France with the first party of emigrants, and attached himself to the

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; late he was a member of the council of regency formed by the comte de Provence after the death of

Louis XVI Louis XVI (''Louis-Auguste''; ; 23 August 175421 January 1793) was the last King of France before the fall of the monarchy during the French Revolution. He was referred to as ''Citizen Louis Capet'' during the four months just before he was ...

. He lived at

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until 1801, when he returned to France, though he still sought to serve the royalist cause. In 1814 Ferrand was made minister of state and postmaster-general. Ferrand countersigned the act of sequestration of

Napoleon Napoleon Bonaparte ; it, Napoleone Bonaparte, ; co, Napulione Buonaparte. (born Napoleone Buonaparte; 15 August 1769 – 5 May 1821), later known by his regnal name Napoleon I, was a French military commander and political leader who ...

's property, and introduced a bill for the restoration of the property of the emigrants establishing a distinction, since become famous, between royalist of ''la ligne droite'' and those of ''la ligne courbe''. At the second Bourbon restoration Ferrand was again for a short time postmaster general. He was also made a peer of France, member of the

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, grand-officer and secretary of the orders of Saint Michel and the Saint Esprit, and in 1816 member of the

Académie française An academy (Attic Greek: Ἀκαδήμεια; Koine Greek Ἀκαδημία) is an institution of secondary education, secondary or tertiary education, tertiary higher education, higher learning (and generally also research or honorary membershi ...

. He continued his active support of ultra-royalist views until his death, which took place in Paris on 17 January 1825. Besides a large number of political pamphlets, Ferrand was the author of: *''Éloge funèbre de Mme Élisabeth, sœur de Louis XVI'' *''L'Esprit de l'histoire, ou Lettres d'un père a son fils sur la manére d'étudier l'histoire'' (4 vols., 1802), which reached several editions, the last number in 1826 having prefixed to it a biographical sketch of the author by his nephew Héricart de Thury *''Éloge historique de Madame Élisabeth de France'' (1814) *''Œuvres dramatiques'' (1817) *''Théorie des révolutions rapprochée des principaux événènements qui en ont été l'origine, le développement ou la suite'' (4 vols., 1817) *''Histoire des trois démembrements de la Pologne, pour faire suite l'Histoire de l'anarchie de Pologne par Russie'' (3 vols., 1820).

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ferrand, Antoine-Francois-Claude 1751 births 1825 deaths French political writers Members of the Académie Française Commandeurs of the Légion d'honneur Peers of France French male non-fiction writers State ministers of France