Guillaume
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
a French his torian; born in Nîmes, Oct. 4, 1787; educated at the gymnasium of Geneva, Switzerland. In 1805 he commenced legal studies at Paris, but gradually drifted into the literary profession. In 1812 he married Mlle. de Meulan, editor of the "Publiciste," and became Professor of History at the Sorbonne. On the fall of the empire he obtained several public offices, such as councillor of state, and director-general of the department and communal administration. In 1816 he published "The Representative Government, and the Real Condition of France" and "An Essay on Public Instruction." In 1820 the Duc de Barry was assassinated, and Guizot's party fell before an ultra-royalist reaction. In 1825 he was deprived of his chair on account of the political character of his lectures, but it was restored to him in 1828. In 1829 he again became councillor of state, and in 1830 was elected deputy for the arrondissement of Lisieux. After the July revolution he was appointed minister of the interior, but resigned in 1831. After the death of Périer, Guizot, along with Thiers and De Broglie, formed a coalition ministry, and he rendered great service as minister of public instruction. He became ambassador at the British court in 1840, and next year he became the real head of the government of which Soult was the nominal chief. He retained the office of minister of foreign 1848, and during that period affairs until opposed all measures of reform. After the fall of Louis Philippe, Guizot escaped and fled to England. Henceforth he practically retired from public life. Among his numerous works may be mentioned: "History of Civilization in France"; "General History of Civilization in Europe"; "History of the English Revolution"; "Meditations and Moral Studies"; "Memoirs in Regard to the My Time"; "Meditations on History of the Actual State of the Christian Religion"; "Biographical and Literary Miscellanies"; "History of France, told by My Small Children"; "William the Conqueror"; and "Washington." He died in Val-Richer, France, Oct. 12, 1874.
What Has Changed in the Last Century
Collier's filed this life under "Guillaume" — the third of François Pierre Guillaume Guizot's given names — and the biography is essentially the one still given today: Nîmes 1787, the Sorbonne chair, the ministries under Louis Philippe, the flight to England in 1848. Two slips are worth flagging: the man shot in 1820 was the duc de Berry, not "de Barry," and Guizot died on 12 September 1874, not 12 October. What has moved since 1921 is his reputation rather than the facts: the doctrinaire liberal who "opposed all measures of reform" and told the French to enrich themselves rather than widen the franchise has been re-read since the 1980s as a serious political thinker, and his history of European civilisation is now studied as a founding text of liberal historiography rather than as a school textbook.
Written for this edition, 2026.