Mignet, FRANÇOIS AUGUSTE ALEXIS, a great French historian, was born 8th May 1796, at Aix in Provence, studied at Avignon, and then law at Aix along with Thiers. Both were admitted to the bar at the same time (1818), but Mignet's true vocation was at once apparent in the no less solid than brilliant prize-essay for the Academy of Inscriptions on the institutions of France in the time of St Louis. In 1821 he went to Paris, and soon began to write for the Courrier Français, and to lecture with applause on Modern History at the Athénée. In the spring of 1824 appeared his Histoire de la Révolution Française, a sane and admirable summary—the first complete history by one other than an actor in the great drama. Mignet joined the staff of the National, and with
Thiers signed the famous protest of the journalists on July 25, 1830. After the revolution of 1830 he became Keeper of the Archives at the Foreign Office, but lost this in 1848. In 1833 he went on a confidential mission to Spain, and used the opportunity to explore the famous Simancas Archives. Elected to the Academy of Moral Sciences at its foundation in 1832, he succeeded Comte as its perpetual secretary in 1837, and was elected to fill Raynouard's chair among the Forty in 1836. He died 24th March 1884, within three months of Henri Martin. Mignet was the first great specialist in French history who devoted himself to the complete study of particular periods, and in his work he displayed a marvellous mastery of documents.
His works include Négociations relatives à la Succession d'Espagne sous Louis XIV. (1836-42); Antonio Perez et Philippe II. (1845); Vie de Franklin (1848); Histoire de Marie Stuart (1851); Charles Quint, son Abdication, son Séjour et sa Mort au Monastère de Yuste (1854); Éloges Historiques (1843 and 1864); and Rivalité de François I. et de Charles V. (1875). For a great projected history of the Reformation, he is said to have collected hundreds of volumes of manuscript correspondence. See Trefort, Mignet und seine Werke (Budapest, 1885); the Life by E. Petit (Paris, 1889); and Jules Simon, Mignet, Michelet, Henri Martin (1889).