Jean Gilbert Victor Fialin, duc de Persigny

The role played by his regiment in the July Revolution of 1830 was regarded as insubordination, resulting in Fialin being dismissed from the army.

After the second coup, he was arrested and condemned to twenty years' imprisonment in a fortress, commuted to mild detention at Versailles.

Together with Morny and Marshal Saint Arnaud he plotted the Restoration of the Empire, and was a devoted adherent of Napoleon III.

He resigned in 1854, and was appointed Ambassador to London the next year, a post he occupied with a short interval (1858–1859) until 1860, when he resumed the portfolio at the Interior Ministry.

The Emperor's famous wry comment: "The Empress is a Legitimist, Morny is an Orleanist, Prince Napoleon is a Republican, and I myself am a Socialist.

Fialin (later Duke of Persigny), 1850
Madame Paris, with a list of names (Thiers, J. Favre, E. Ollivier) in her hand, said to Duc de Persigny: "Your master (Napoleon III) told me to choose my own servants, and I decline being dictated to by you."