Jean-Baptiste Sylvère Gay, 1st Viscount of Martignac (20 June 1778 3 April 1832) was a moderate royalist French statesman during the
Bourbon Restoration 1814–30 under King
Charles X
Charles X (born Charles Philippe, Count of Artois; 9 October 1757 – 6 November 1836) was King of France from 16 September 1824 until 2 August 1830. An uncle of the uncrowned Louis XVII and younger brother to reigning kings Louis XVI and Lou ...
.
Biography
Martignac was born in
Bordeaux
Bordeaux ( , ; Gascon oc, Bordèu ; eu, Bordele; it, Bordò; es, Burdeos) is a port city on the river Garonne in the Gironde department, Southwestern France. It is the capital of the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region, as well as the prefect ...
, France. In 1798 he became secretary to
Emmanuel Joseph Sieyès
Emmanuel-Joseph Sieyès (3 May 174820 June 1836), usually known as the Abbé Sieyès (), was a French Roman Catholic '' abbé'', clergyman, and political writer who was the chief political theorist of the French Revolution (1789–1799); he also ...
; after serving for a while in the army, he turned to literature, producing several light plays. Under the Empire he practised with success as an advocate at Bordeaux, where in 1818 he became advocate-general of the ''cour royale''. In 1819 he was appointed ''procureur-général'' at
Limoges, and in 1821 was returned for
Marmande
Marmande (; in Occitan, ''Marmanda'') is a commune in the Lot-et-Garonne ''département'' in south-western France.
Geography
Marmande is located 35 km north-west of Agen, on the southern railway from Bordeaux to Sète. The town is situa ...
to the Chamber of Deputies, where he supported the
ultraroyalist policies of
Villèle. In 1822 he was appointed councillor of state, in 1823 he accompanied the duc d'Angouléme to Spain as civil commissary; in 1824 he was created a viscount and appointed director-general of registration.
[ This cites E. Daudet, ''Le Ministère de M. de Martignac'' (Paris, 1875).]
In contact with practical politics his ultra-royalist views were gradually modified in the direction of the
Doctrinaires
During the Bourbon Restoration (1814–1830) and the July Monarchy (1830–1848), the Doctrinals (french: doctrinaires) were a group of French royalists who hoped to reconcile the monarchy with the French Revolution and power with liberty. Hea ...
, and on the fall of
Villèle he was selected by Charles X to carry out the new policy of compromise. On 4 January 1828 he was appointed minister of the interior, and, though not bearing the title of president, became the virtual head of the cabinet. He succeeded in passing the act abolishing the press censorship, and in persuading the king to sign the ordinances of 16 June 1828 on the
Jesuits
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, caption = ChristogramOfficial seal of the Jesuits
, abbreviation = SJ
, nickname = Jesuits
, formation =
, founders = ...
and the little seminaries.
He was exposed to attack from both the extreme
left and the extreme
right
Rights are legal, social, or ethical principles of freedom or entitlement; that is, rights are the fundamental normative rules about what is allowed of people or owed to people according to some legal system, social convention, or ethical ...
, and when in April 1829 a coalition of these groups defeated him in the chamber, Charles X, who had never believed in the policy he represented, replaced him by the
prince de Polignac. In March 1830 Martignac voted with the majority for the address protesting against the famous ordinances; but during the revolution that followed he remained true to his legitimist principles. His last public appearance was in defence of Polignac in the Chamber of Peers in December 1830.
Works
* ''Bordeaux au mois de Mars 1815'' (1830)
* ''Essai historique sur les révolutions d'Espagne et l'intervention française de 1823'' (1832).
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Gay, Jean Baptiste, vicomte de Martignac
Martignac, Jean-Baptiste Gay, vicomte de
Martignac, Jean-Baptiste Gay, vicomte de
Martignac, Jean-Baptiste Gay, vicomte de
Martignac, Jean-Baptiste Gay, vicomte de
Jean-Baptiste Gay, vicomte de
French interior ministers
Burials at Père Lachaise Cemetery
State ministers of France