Paul Henri Ernest de Royer (29 October 1808 – 13 December 1877) was a French lawyer, magistrate and politician. He was Minister of Justice in 1851 under the

French Second Republic The French Second Republic (french: Deuxième République Française or ), officially the French Republic (), was the republican government of France that existed between 1848 and 1852. It was established in February 1848, with the February Re ...

, and again from 1857 to 1859 under the

Second French Empire The Second French Empire (; officially the French Empire, ), was the 18-year Imperial Bonapartist regime of Napoleon III from 14 January 1852 to 27 October 1870, between the Second and the Third Republic of France. Historians in the 1930s ...

Early years

Ernest de Royer was born in

Versailles The Palace of Versailles ( ; french: Château de Versailles ) is a former royal residence built by King Louis XIV located in Versailles, about west of Paris, France. The palace is owned by the French Republic and since 1995 has been managed, ...

, France, on 29 October 1808. His father was Joseph Etienne Royer-Dupré, in 1801 ''Directeur des contributions directes de Grenoble''. He attended school in

Marseille Marseille ( , , ; also spelled in English as Marseilles; oc, Marselha ) is the prefecture of the French department of Bouches-du-Rhône and capital of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region. Situated in the camargue region of southern Fra ...

and then studied law at

Grenoble lat, Gratianopolis , commune status = Prefecture and commune , image = Panorama grenoble.png , image size = , caption = From upper left: Panorama of the city, Grenoble’s cable cars, place Saint- ...

and Paris. He qualified as an advocate in 1829. Ernest de Royer joined the bench at the start of the reign of King

Louis-Philippe Louis Philippe (6 October 1773 – 26 August 1850) was King of the French from 1830 to 1848, and the penultimate monarch of France. As Louis Philippe, Duke of Chartres, he distinguished himself commanding troops during the Revolutionary Wa ...

on 9 May 1832 as a substitute at the tribunal of

Die Die, as a verb, refers to death, the cessation of life. Die may also refer to: Games * Die, singular of dice, small throwable objects used for producing random numbers Manufacturing * Die (integrated circuit), a rectangular piece of a semicondu ...

, and served in the same position in turn at

Sainte-Menehould Sainte-Menehould (; german: Sankt Mathilde) is a commune in the Marne department in north-eastern France. The 18th-century French playwright Charles-Georges Fenouillot de Falbaire de Quingey (1727–1800) died in Sainte-Ménéhould. It was the ...

(1833), Châlons-sur-Marne (1834),

Reims Reims ( , , ; also spelled Rheims in English) is the most populous city in the French department of Marne, and the 12th most populous city in France. The city lies northeast of Paris on the Vesle river, a tributary of the Aisne. Founded b ...

(1835) and Paris (1841). He was named substitute at the Royal Court on 22 October 1846, and advocate-general on 3 April 1848. On 17 May 1850 he was named Attorney General at the Paris Court of Appeal.

Political career

Ernest de Royer was Minister of Justice from 24 January to 10 April 1851. After the coup of 2 December 1851 he was a member of the Advisory Commission and then a member of the Council of State. He returned to the bench in 1853, and became Attorney General at the

Court of Cassation A court of cassation is a high-instance court that exists in some judicial systems. Courts of cassation do not re-examine the facts of a case, they only interpret the relevant law. In this they are appellate courts of the highest instance. In th ...

. He was again appointed Minister of Justice on 16 November 1857 after the death of Jacques Pierre Abbatucci. Following the assassination attempt by

Felice Orsini Felice Orsini (; ; 10 December 1819 – 13 March 1858) was an Italian revolutionary and leader of the '' Carbonari'' who tried to assassinate Napoleon III, Emperor of the French. Early life Felice Orsini was born at Meldola in Romagna, the ...

on 14 January 1858 he was responsible for the new general security law.

Later career

Ernest de Royer left office on 4 May 1859 and was appointed to the Senate the next day, with the title of first vice-president. He was first president of the Court of Auditors in 1863, and was also President of the General Council of the Marne. After the fall of the Empire in 1870, he returned to his career as a magistrate. Ernest de Royer died in Paris on 13 December 1877, aged 69. His son Clément de Royer was one of the leaders of the Bonapartist movement in the

French Third Republic The French Third Republic (french: Troisième République, sometimes written as ) was the system of government adopted in France from 4 September 1870, when the Second French Empire collapsed during the Franco-Prussian War, until 10 July 1940 ...

References

Citations Sources * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Royer, Paul Henri Ernest de 1808 births 1877 deaths French politicians 19th-century French lawyers