The League originated with three young academics, Louis Dausset, Gabriel Syveton and Henri Vaugeois, who wanted to show that Dreyfusism was not accepted by all at the University.

[3] In November 1898 their petition gained signatures in the Parisian schools, and was soon circulated throughout political, intellectual and artistic circles in Paris.

[1] The Ligue de la patrie française was established on 4 January 1899 with Jules Lemaître as its nominal leader.

[8] It brought together a large number of antidreyfusard intellectuals to show that the great names of letters and science did not support revision of the verdict of the Dreyfus trial.

This conservative group had prestige comparable to that of the signatories of the Manifeste des intellectuels launched by Georges Clemenceau.

[5] Many well-known members of the Académie signed on including Léon Daudet, Albert Sorel and Jules Verne.

[3] Workers, artisans and employees represented at most 4% of the membership, while members of the literary, artistic, legal and medical professions made up almost 70%.

[9] The League did not at first take an anti-Semitic position, although Lemaitre claimed at the January organizational meeting that for the past twenty years Jews, Protestants and Freemasons had conspired to run France.

[11] Charles Maurras soon joined the Action Française, whose leaders criticized the timid nature of the League and its lack of clear objectives.

[16] A meeting organized on 7 March 1903 in Lille by the League and the Ligue des Patriotes was able to draw 5,000 people including students, young Catholics, clerics and reactionary notables.

[10] General Louis André, the militantly anticlerical War Minister from 1900 to 1904, used reports by Freemasons to build a huge card index on public officials that detailed those who were Catholic and attended Mass, with a view to preventing their promotions.