
Pierre-Denis, comte de Peyronnet (9 October 1778, inBordeaux – 2 January 1854) was the president of theBordeaux Court inFrance in 1815,Minister of Justice from 1821 to 1828 and four timesMinister of Interior. Opposed toNapoleon's Empire, he rallied himself to theBourbons during theRestoration. AnUltra-royalist, he supported theAnti-Sacrilege Act, the 1827 law restrictingpress freedom, and theloi du droit d'aînesse.
The Count of Peyronnet's father had bought a charge of secretary to the King, thus conferring himself a noble title. He was guillotined during theTerror. After law studies, Pierre-Denis de Peyronnet was received as a lawyer in 1796. On 26 October 1815, he was named president of the first instance Court of Bordeaux, and then, a year later, public prosecutor inBourges.
The Count of Peyronnet was elected deputy on 13 November 1820, and established himself in Paris. Nominated general prosecutor at the Royal Court ofRouen, he was then called for on 14 December 1821 to becomeMinister of Justice (and remained so until 1828). From 6 September to 29 October 1822, he was also interimMinister of Interior. There, he defended before the National Assembly the law project restricting press freedom (1822).
Reelected on 6 March 1824 as both deputy of theCher and of theGironde, he chose to sit as a Gironde deputy.
He was again interim Interior Minister from 9 July to 2 August 1825, and defended theAnti-Sacrilege Act. He was again Interior Minister from 30 August to 19 September 1826, and defended the press censorship bill (loi de justice et d'amour) of 1827. The King named himpair of France on 4 January 1828, and he left the Ministry the following day.
On 19 May 1830, he became Interior Minister for the fourth time, and remained so until the fall of the regime. He counter-signed the 25 July Ordinances which provoked the 1830July Revolution. He was then charged ofhigh treason, alongside three other ministers of Charles X,Jules de Polignac,Jean de Chantelauze andMartial de Guernon-Ranville, and was condemned by the Court of Pairs to a life sentence and civil degradation.
Detained in the fort of Ham, he benefitted from a collective pardon issued by thefirst cabinet of Louis Mathieu Molé on 17 October 1836. He finally died on 2 January 1854 in theChâteau de Montferrand in Gironde.