Alexis Guignard, comte de Saint Priest
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Alexis Guignard, comte de Saint Priest (1805 - September 29, 1851), was the son of an émigré French nobleman Armand Guignard, comte de Saint Priest (1782-1863) and his Russian wife, Princess Sophie Galitzine. His grandfather, François-Emmanuel Guignard, comte de Saint-Priest, was one of Louis XVI's last ministers.
Educated in Russia, where his father was the Governor of Podolia and Odessa, he returned to France with his father in 1822. During the July Monarchy, he departed from the Legitimist tradition of his family, particularly that of his uncle Emmanuel Louis Marie de Guignard, vicomte de Saint Priest, to become a warm friend to King Louis-Philippe of the French, whom he served between 1833 and 1838 as an ambassador in Brazil, Portugal and Denmark.
In the 1840's, he made his mark as a historian and writer. His most important works were the Histoire de la royauté considéré dans ses origines jusqu'à la formation des principales monarchies de l'Europe (2 vols, 1842), the Histoire de la chute des Jésuites (1844) and the Histoire de la conquête de Naples (4 vols, 1847-1848). In recognition of his literary talents, he was elected to the Académie Française in January 1849.
He died, while on a visit to Moscow, on September 29, 1851.
This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.
