Lacretelle, JEAN CHARLES DOMINIQUE DE, journalist and historian, was born at Metz on 3d September 1766. He was attracted to Paris on the outbreak of the Revolution; but there, instead of following his profession, that of an advocate, he turned his abilities to journalism, and helped to edit Le Journal des Débats and Le Journal de Paris. He managed to escape the Reign of Terror by enlisting in the army; but soon procured his release and returned to journalistic work in the capital. In 1810 he was nominated censor of the press, having the year previous been appointed professor of History in the university of Paris. This post he held down to 1853. From 1811 a member of the French Academy, he became its president in 1816. Lacretelle died near Mâcon on 26th March 1855. He wrote a series of works, respectable, but of no very outstanding merit, dealing with the history of France from the time of the religious wars down to the middle of the 19th century. Of these the most useful are Histoire du Dix-huitième Siècle (6 vols. 1808),
Précis Historique de la Révolution (3 vols. 1801-6), and Histoire de France pendant les Guerres de Religion (4 vols. 1814-16).—His elder brother, PIERRE LOUIS (1751-1824), distinguished himself as an advocate and journalist, and by his writings on law subjects.