Louis de Carné

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Carné-Marcein, Louis-Marie de.jpg

Louis-Joseph-Marie de Carné-Marcein, comte de Carné (17 February 1804 – 11 February 1876) was a French politician, journalist and historian.

Biography

Louis de Carné was born in Quimper, Finistère, the son of Louis de Carné-Marcein (1769–1847) and Marie-Josèphe Corentine de Botmiliau (1765–1843). The Carné family originated in Noyal-Muzillac (Morbihan) and split into two branches, Carné-Marcein and Carné-Carnavalet, on his grandfather's level. In 1832, he married Caroline du Marhallac'h, sister of Auguste François Félix du Marhallac'h, future prelate and owner of Château du Pérennou in Plomelin. They had six children, including Louis de Carné.

He completed his secondary education at the Collège de Quimper, and moved to Paris in 1820, where he obtained a law degree from the Sorbonne in 1825. Introduced to the salons by his uncle de Kératry, he recognized Baron of Eckstein, who, he wrote, was "a center of attraction for a few young Christians who understood, as he did, the work of the new times in science and politics". In 1822, he joined the board of the Société littéraire, where he chaired the history section. He presented works on Romanticism and epic poetry.[1] From 1819 to 1825, Louis de Carné stayed at Emmanuel Bailly de Surcy's boarding house, along with other young noblemen, Eugène de La Gournerie and Alexis de Tocqueville.

In 1824, he joined the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and became attaché to the minister's cabinet in 1825. In 1827 and 1828, he was secretary to the French Legation in Lisbon.

In 1829, together with Edmond de Cazalès, he founded the magazine Le Correspondant, an organ of the liberal religious party opposed to the ultras, but seeking greater freedoms for the Roman Catholic Church. In it, he welcomed the publication of Félicité de La Mennais' master book in 1830. In this form, the paper did not survive more than two years.

In 1831, he left the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to become a lawyer and write independently.

In 1833, after marrying and settling in the Quimper region, he was elected General Councillor of Finistère in the canton of Plogastel-Saint-Germain.

In 1838, he took part with Théodore Hersart de la Villemarqué, Jules de Francheville and his brother-in-law Auguste du Marallac'h in the great Welsh cultural festival, the Eisteddfod, at Abergavenny, and was received with them as a bard by the Gorsedd Cymru, thus participating in the first manifestation of Pan-Celticism.

He was also deputy for Quimper from 1839 to 1846, having been re-elected in 1842, 1846 and 1847.

At the beginning of 1847, he returned to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs as Director of Commerce, and had to submit to a legislative re-election, which he won. He demonstrated his independence from the government.

He wrote numerous articles for the Journal des Débats and the Revue des Deux Mondes, as well as for Le Nouveau Correspondant. His favorite subjects are religious politics, the history of France and Brittany, and foreign policy (Great Britain, Belgium, Haiti, Ireland, Italy and the Holy See, etc.).

During the French Revolution of 1848, he resigned his post and returned to his native region. He returned to national politics, running unsuccessfully for parliament in 1869 and 1871.

A legitimist concerned with the balance of society, he was, along with Armand de Melun, one of the founders of the Society of Charitable Economy (1849) and the International Society for Practical Studies in Social Economics. Supported by opponents of the Second Empire (Montalembert, Dupanloup, Guizot), he was elected to the twelfth chair of the French Academy on April 23, 1863, on the third ballot, against Émile Littré.

Louis de Carné died in Plomelin at 71 years of age. He was president of the Finistère Archaeological Society. His son, Louis de Carné (1844–1871), took part in the Mekong expedition of 1866–1868. Seriously ill on his return, Carné fils was unable to complete his travel notes. After his death, his father wrote the preface and published the book in 1872.

Works

  • Vues sur l'histoire contemporaine (1833)
  • Guiscriff, scènes de la Terreur dans une paroisse bretonne, précédé d'une notice historique sur la chouannerie (1835)
  • Des Intérêts nouveaux en Europe depuis la révolution de 1830 (1838)
  • Du Gouvernement représentatif en France et en Angleterre (1841)
  • Études sur les fondateurs de l'unité nationale en France (1842)
  • Études sur l'histoire du gouvernement représentatif en France, de 1789 à 1848 (1855)
  • Les Fondateurs de l'unité française : Suger, saint Louis, Duguesclin, Jeanne d'Arc, Louis XI, Henri IV, Richelieu, Mazarin. Études historiques (1856)
  • La Monarchie française au dix-huitième siècle, étude historiques sur les règnes de Louis XIV et de Louis XV (1859)
  • L'Europe et le second Empire (1865)
  • Les États de Bretagne et l'administration de cette province jusqu'en 1789 (1868) - Son ouvrage fondamental [...] toujours apprécié aujourd'hui[2]
  • Souvenirs de ma jeunesse au temps de la Restauration (1872).

References

  • In Brittany no less than six streets are named after him (Louis-Marie de Carné-Marcein), according to Les Noms qui ont fait l'histoire de Bretagne, 1997.
  1. Guiomar, Jean-Yves (1987). Le bretonisme : les historiens bretons au xixe siècle. Rennes: SHAB.
  2. Les Noms qui ont fait l'histoire de Bretagne, Coop Breizh et Institut culturel de Bretagne, 1997, p. 76.

External links