Cambacérès, JEAN JACQUES RÉGIS DE, Duke of Parma, and High Chancellor of the French empire under Napoleon, was born 18th October 1753, at Montpellier, where in 1791 he was appointed president of the criminal court. Afterwards, as member of the National Convention, he took a prominent part in sketching the new code of laws, and distinguished himself by his moderation. He denied the right of the Convention to condemn the king, and, when this was done, argued in favour of a reprieve. In 1794, as president of the Committee of Public Safety, he was active in procuring peace with Prussia and Spain. His Projet de Code
Civil, which afterwards formed the basis of the Code Napoléon, was laid before the Council of Five Hundred, of which body he was in 1796 for a short time president. He assisted in the revolution of the 18th Brumaire (November 9, 1799), was appointed Second Consul, and faithfully attached himself to the interests of Napoleon, by whom he was made High Chancellor of the Empire, and in 1808 Duke of Parma. He vainly endeavoured to dissuade the emperor from the projected invasion of Russia; and in 1813, when Napoleon took the field against the allies, he was left as president of the regency. He voted for the abdication of Napoleon. During the Hundred Days, against his own will, he was made Minister of Justice and President of the Chamber of Peers. In 1816 he was exiled for having taken part in the execution of Louis XVI.; but in 1818 his civil and political rights were restored, and he returned to Paris, where he died, March 5, 1824.