Henri-Léon Camusat de Riancey

Henri-Léon Camusat de Riancey (24 October 1816 – 9 March 1879) was a French politician.

Biography

He was born in Paris, the son of Adrien Camusat de Riancey and Caroline-Henriette de Martines, an ancient noble family of Champagne, and grandson of an emigrant who died in the army of Condé. In 1842, he married Clémentine Pauline Zoé Lefebure des Vaux, daughter of the general Baron Lefebvre des Vaux. He studied at the Lycée Henri-IV, won the honorary prize of rhetoric at the general competition, studied law, registered as a lawyer at the Paris bar and was secretary of Philippe Dupin.

A regular defender of Catholic and legitimist newspapers, he pleaded in particular for L'Univers, for the Abbots Combalot (1797–1873) and Souchet (1786–1875), and for Louis Veuillot. He left the bar in 1844 to enter journalism.

He actively collaborated in L'Ami de la religion, in Le Correspondant, in L'Union monarchique, adopted the ideas of Montalembert, and was secretary of the "electoral committee for religious liberty".

After the July Revolution, Riancey ran for the Constituent Assembly on June 4, 1848, in the so-called supplementary ballot motivated by two options; but without success. He was more successful in the elections for the Legislative Assembly, on May 13, 1849, where he was elected representative of the Sarthe department.

He sat on the right, associated himself with all the motions of the monarchist majority and spoke several times, notably in the debates on the law of education. In particular, he supported an amendment bearing his name, which imposed a tax on newspapers that published novels, a literary form he considered dangerous. Devoted to the legitimist politics, he did not rally to the party of the Élysée and was arrested and detained for a few days in Vincennes during the coup of 1851.

Returning to journalism, he became editor-in-chief of L'Union (1852), the organ of Count of Chambord, which he directed until his death.

Alongside his brother Charles de Riancey, he was invited by Augustin Cauchy and Charles Lenormant to the first meeting which laid the foundations for the L'Œuvre des Écoles d'Orient, better known today as L'Œuvre d'Orient. The brothers were present on April 4th 1856. He was one of the members of its first General Council on April 25 of the same year.

In 1867, at the invitation of the Catholic publisher Victor Palmé, he wrote a laudatory presentation of the new edition of the Recueil des historiens des Gaules et de la France, inserted in the prospectus of the first volume.

It was during a trip to Rome, to the Vatican Council of 1869, that he contracted the germ of the disease from which he died a few months later.

In addition to his daily contribution to several legitimist newspapers, Riancey, whose disinterestedness and loyalty were appreciated by all parties, published a large number of works.

Honors

He was Commander of the Order of Pope Pius IX, Commander of the Royal Order of the Two-Sicilies, Knight of the Sacred Military Constantinian Order of Saint George, decorated with the Order of the Eagle of Este and the Holy Sepulchre, etc.

Works

• Histoire du monde depuis la création jusqu'à nos jours (1838–1841)
• Histoire résumée du Moyen Âge (1841)
• Histoire critique et législative de l'instruction publique et de la liberté d'enseignement en France (1844)
• La loi et les jésuites (1845)
• L'Empire et la Restauration (1856)
• Vie des Saints (1866)

External links

• Works by Henri-Léon Camusat de Riancey at Gallica