Guizot, FRANÇOIS PIERRE GUILLAUME, historian and statesman, was born at Nîmes, October 4, 1787, of middle-class Huguenot parentage. His father, although a Liberal, was guillotined, April 8, 1794, whereupon his mother removed with him to Geneva. There he was carefully educated, being taught among other things the trade of a carpenter, in accordance probably with Rousseau's theories. In 1805 he went to Paris to study law. He soon drifted into literature; and it was a review of Chateaubriand's Martyrs (1809) that brought him under the notice of the dictator of Parisian literary society. In the same year appeared Guizot's Nouveau Dictionnaire des Synonymes, in 1811 an essay on the fine arts; and in 1812 the final literary bent of his mind showed itself in a translation of Gibbon. That same year he married the first of his three wives, Mdlle. de Meulan (1773-1827), editor of Le Publiciste, to which he had been a contributor. Shortly afterwards he was chosen professor of Modern History in the University of France. Guizot was, however, a decided opponent of the Napoleonic régime, and it was not till 1814, after its fall, that he became secretary-general of the ministry of the Interior. This office he exchanged after the Hundred Days for the secretary-generalship of the ministry of Justice, and in 1816 for the general directorship of the departmental and communal administration, being at the same time made a councillor of state. As a doctrinaire or constitutional Liberal, he found himself out of sympathy with the reactionary policy of the Bourbons. So pronounced was his opposition that in 1821 he was deprived of his public appointments, and four years later interdicted even from lecturing on history. He threw himself once again into literature. In conjunction with some friends he published Mémoires relatifs à l'Histoire de France jusqu'au 13me Siècle (31 vols.), and Mémoires relatifs à la Révolution d'Angleterre (26 vols.). He also edited translations of Shakespeare and Hallam, and commenced his Histoire de la Révolution d'Angleterre. Having in 1828 been restored to his chair, he lectured on the history of civilisation in Europe, and more particularly in France. These lectures, published as Cours d'Histoire Moderne, finally established his reputation as one of the first historians of his day.
The time had now come for Guizot to take a more active part in politics. In 1830 he was returned to the Chamber of Deputies for Lisieux, at once became a prominent member of the Opposition, and, although no orator, aided indirectly in bringing about the Revolution of July, which placed Louis-Philippe on the throne. Minister first of the Interior, and subsequently of Public Instruction, he signalised his occupancy of the latter congenial office by establishing a system of primary schools throughout France, giving an impulse to secondary and university education, and reviving the Académie des Sciences Morales et Politiques. In 1840 Guizot, then temporarily in alliance with his leading parliamentary rival, Thiers, came to London as French ambassador, and was received with great respect, on account of his reputation and the interest he had shown in English history. But, unfortunately, at this time the relations between Great Britain and France were strained in consequence of the Syrian question, and Guizot was, not quite accurately, looked upon by Melbourne and Palmerston as the mouth-piece of the policy of Thiers. 'He was always,' in Melbourne's opinion, says Melbourne's biographer, 'what Talleyrand from the first pronounced him to be—un intrigant austère.' Fortunately for Guizot he did not hold the embassy long. Thiers's belligerent policy alarmed Louis-Philippe into virtually dismissing him. Guizot was summoned to take his place, and till the end of Louis-Philippe's reign was his chief adviser, although it was not till 1847 that he became prime-minister. In the early years of his term of power Guizot was undoubtedly successful; his chief aim, like his master's, peace.
When, after the fall of Peel, Palmerston once more obtained the control of British foreign policy, Guizot, by way of checkmating him, plunged into the intrigue which resulted in the 'Spanish Marriages.' This intrigue was totally indefensible, and the indecency of the central incident in it—the forcing of the young queen of Spain into a marriage with a disreputable and intellectually contemptible kinsman—revolted the conscience of Europe, and greatly injured Guizot's reputation. It alienated France from Great Britain, and compelled Guizot to fall back for sympathy on the reactionary forces in Europe, whose hope at this time was Austria. He also relapsed into reactionary methods of government at home, allowed the finances to drift into confusion, and resisted the rising demand for parliamentary reform; whilst, although personally pure, his administration became notorious for scandalous jobs.
With the fall of Louis-Philippe in February 1848 Guizot's active political career really came to an end. He escaped to London, where he was cordially received by old friends, and even by old opponents like Palmerston. In the troubled period which preceded the establishment of the second empire Guizot made efforts both in London and Paris to rally and fuse the monarchical parties of France, but after the coup d'état of December 2, 1851, he gave himself up entirely to literature. He completed his works on the Great Rebellion in England, under the titles of Révolution d'Angleterre and Monk, Chute de la République. He also published Cornicille et son Temps, and Shakspeare et son Temps in 1852; Mémoires pour servir à l'Histoire de mon Temps—an explanation of, but certainly not an apology for his policy—in 1858; Mélanges Biographiques et Littéraires in 1868; and Mélanges Politiques et Historiques in 1869. His Vie, Correspondance, et Écrits de Washington (1839-40) was commissioned by the United States government. Guizot took a keen interest in theological and ethical speculation, and for a long time his voice was supreme in the consistory of the Protestant church in Paris. His excursions into other fields than those of history and politics bore fruit in Méditations et Études Morales (1852), and Méditations sur l'État actuel de la Religion Chrétienne (1865). His Histoire de France racontée à mes petits Enfants was completed and published by his daughter, Madame Guizot de Witt (5 vols. 1870-75).
During the second empire Guizot lived tranquilly in retirement, chiefly at his residence of Val Richer, near Lisieux, in Normandy. On January 19, 1870, he made his first political appearance in public since 1848 by attending a reception given by the third Napoleon's 'Liberal' minister, M. Ollivier. He followed with a painful interest the fortunes of his country in the war with Germany. He approved of the conduct of the Government of National Defence in deciding to carry on war à outrance. In a letter to the Times on the subject, he mentioned the fact of his having four sons on the ramparts. The veteran statesman survived for more than three years the greatest humiliation his country had ever suffered, dying September 12, 1874.
That Guizot was a man of high personal character, that he led a simple life, and that he despised wealth are beyond doubt. He was a patriot also, according to his lights; if at one period he intrigued abroad and at another convinced at corruption at home, he did it for the aggrandisement of his country, not for his own advantage. It must be admitted, however, that constitutional pedantry, obstinacy, and self-sufficiency prevented him from being a great, in the sense of an accommodating and far-seeing politician. As a historian he was painstaking and, on the whole, accurate, but he was not brilliant. Altogether Guizot, though not a great man, was a large and important figure in the history of France and of his time.
The leading authorities on the life of Guizot are his own Mémoires, and Guizot in Private Life, by his daughter, Madame de Witt (Eng. trans. 1880); Jules Simon, Thiers, Guizot, Rémusat (1885); Thureau-Dangin, La Monarchie de Juillet (1889); and small biographies by Crozat (1893) and Bardoux (1894). See also Evelyn Ashley's Life of Viscount Palmerston (1876), Torrens's Memoirs of Lord Melbourne (1878), and Spencer Walpole's Life of Lord John Russell (1889).