Abel Hugo

He was the eldest son of General Joseph Léopold Sigisbert Hugo and his wife, the artist Sophie Trébuchet.

[1] Two years later, the Comte d’Artois (who would later become King Charles X), made him and his brothers Knights in the Order of The Lily; in recognition of the role their mother had played in supporting the Malet Coup.

In 1819, he helped his brothers Victor and Eugène [fr] establish Le Conservateur littéraire, a Royalist literary magazine.

A strong supporter of Monarchism, he abandoned his Legitimist positions around 1833; a time that corresponds to the writing of his two major works on Napoleon and the French military.

[1] In addition to his published works, he contributed to the Revue des deux Mondes, as well as the military periodicals Le Spectateur militaire and the Journal de l’Armée.

Abel Hugo (1830), by his wife, Julie Hugo
Abel Hugo (left), with his father, General Hugo, flanked by two of his uncles (Julie Hugo, 1820s)