[4] Born in a small town in the Jura department, Grévy moved to Paris where he initially followed a career in law before becoming a republican activist.

During his presidency Grévy confirmed his longtime stance by diminishing his own executive authority in favor of the Parliament, and in foreign policy strove for peaceful relations and opposed colonialism.

[6] His paternal grandfather, Nicolas Grévy (1736–1812), the son of farmers from Aumont, moved to Mont-sous-Vaudrey during the French Revolution, where he bought the property of la Grangerie.

[9] At age 10, Grévy started attending school at the nearby town of Poligny, and continued his studies in Besançon, Dole, and finally at the Faculty of Law of Paris.

[10] The same month he protested against the president's decision to launch an expedition against the revolutionary Roman Republic, created as part of the First Italian War of Independence,[11] but the invasion proceeded and succeeded in restoring Papal rule.

He was released shortly after but retired from politics in the subsequent French Empire, under now emperor Napoleon III, and returned to his law practice.

Along with Adolphe Thiers and Léon Gambetta he opposed the declaration of the Franco-Prussian War, in 1870, and condemned the socialist insurrection of the Paris Commune.

[10] After the collapse of the Empire in the Franco-Prussian War, Grévy was elected as representative of Jura and Bouches-du-Rhône to the National Assembly of the new Third Republic, in 1871.

[11] He served as president of the Assembly from February 1871 to April 1873,[10] when he resigned on account of the opposition from the Right, which blamed him for having called one of its members to order in the session of the previous day.

[5] On 6 February 1879, shortly after taking office, he made a speech before the Chambers where he explained his vision of the role of President: "Subject with sincerity to the great law of the parliamentary regime, I will never enter into battle against national wishes expressed by its institutional bodies".

[10] In foreign policy he strove for peaceful relations, particularly with the German Empire, resisting revanchist demands for a retribution over the disastrous defeat in the Franco-Prussian War, and opposed colonial expansion.

Two years later however, in December 1887, he was compelled to resign due to a political scandal that started after his son-in-law, Daniel Wilson, was found to be selling awards of the Legion of Honour.