Jean Charles Dominique de Lacretelle

He was involved in the royalist movement of the 13th Vendmiaire, and condemned to deportation after the 18th Fructidor; but, thanks to powerful influence, he was left forgotten in prison till after the 18th Brumaire, when he was set at liberty by Joseph Fouché.

Under the Empire he was appointed a professor of history in the Faculté des lettres of Paris (1809), and elected as a member of the Académie française (1811).

In 1827 he was prime mover in the protest made by the Académie française against the minister Peyronnet's law on the press, which led to the failure of that measure, but this step cost him, as it did Abel-François Villemain, his post as censeur royal.

In 1848 he retired to Mâcon; but there, as in Paris, he was the centre of a brilliant circle, for he was a wonderful causeur, and an equally good listener, and had many interesting experiences to recall.

JC Lacretelle's chief work is a series of histories of the 18th century, the Revolution and its sequel: The author was a moderate and fair-minded man, but possessed neither great powers of style, nor striking historical insight, nor the special historian's power of writing minute accuracy of detail with breadth of view.