Étienne-Denis Pasquier
President of the Chamber of Peers
In office 3 August 1830 – 24 February 1848
Preceded by	Claude-Emmanuel de Pastoret
Succeeded by	Jérôme Bonaparte (as President of the Senate)
President of the Chamber of Deputies
In office 12 November 1816 – 13 November 1817
Preceded by	Joseph Lainé
Succeeded by	Hercule de Serre
Personal details
Born	(1767-05-21)21 May 1767 Paris,France
Died	5 July 1862(1862-07-05) (aged 95) Paris, France
Occupation	French statesman

Étienne-Denis, duc de Pasquier (21 April 1767 – 5 July 1862),Chancelier de France, (a title revived for him by KingLouis Philippe I in 1837), was a French statesman. In 1842, he was elected a member of theAcadémie française, and in the same year was created a duke by Louis-Philippe.

Born in Paris in a family of thenoblesse de robe, with ancestors such asÉtienne Pasquier, he was destined for the legal profession and was educated at theCollège de Juilly near Paris. He then became a counsellor of theparlement de Paris, and witnessed many of the incidents that marked the growing hostility between that body andLouis XVI in the years preceding theFrench Revolution of 1789.^[1]

His views were those of a moderate reformer, determined to preserve theHouse of Bourbon in a renovated France; his memoirs depict in a favorable light the actions of hisparlement (an institution soon to be abolished towards the end of the year 1789, under growing revolutionary pressures).^[2]

For some time, and especially during theReign of Terror (1793–1794), Pasquier remained in obscurity; but this did not save him from arrest nor his father from execution in the year 1794.^[3] He was incarcerated for two months in theSaint-Lazare Prison shortly before the start ofThermidorian Reaction, and released after the fall and execution ofMaximilien Robespierre at the end of July 1794.^[2]

He did not re-enter the public service until the period of theFirst French Empire, when the arch-chancellorJean Jacques Régis de Cambacérès used his influence withNapoleon to procure for him the office ofmaître des requêtes to theConseil d'État. In 1809, he becamebaron of the Empire, and in February 1810 counsellor of State. In October 1810, the Emperor made himprefect of police of Paris.^[2]

The main challenge of his career was the strangeconspiracy of therepublican generalClaude François de Malet (October 1812); Malet, spreading false news that Napoleon had died in theRussian campaign, managed to surprise and capture some of the ministers and other authorities in Paris, among them Pasquier. However, the attempt's manifest failure enabled Pasquier to speedily regain his liberty.^[2]

When Napoleon abdicated in April 1814, Pasquier continued to exercise his functions for a few days in order to preserve order, and then resigned from the prefecture of police, whereuponLouis XVIII allotted to him theCorps des Ponts et Chaussées. He distanced himself from the Imperial restoration at the time of theHundred Days (1815), and, after the finalBourbon Restoration, becameKeeper of the Seal (July 1815). Finding it impossible to work with theUltra-royalists of theChamber of Deputies (theChambre introuvable), he resigned office in September. Under the more moderate ministers of succeeding years, he again held various appointments, but refused to join thereactionary cabinets of the close of the reign ofCharles X.^[2]

After theJuly Revolution (1830), he became president of theChamber of Peers, a post which he held through the whole of the reign ofLouis Philippe I (1830–1848). After theabdication of Louis-Philippe in February 1848,Chancelier Pasquier retired from active life and set to work to compile the notes and reminiscences of his long and active career. He died in Paris at the age of ninety-five on 5 July 1862.^[2]

•  This article incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain: Rose, John Holland (1911). "Pasquier, Étienne Denis, Duke". InChisholm, Hugh (ed.).Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 20 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 884–885. In turn, it cites as references:
  • Mémoires du Chancelier Pasquier (6 vols., Paris, 1893–1895; partly translated into English, 4 vols.,London, 1893–1894)
  • L. de Vieilcastel,Histoire de la Restauration, vols. i.iv.

• 1767 births
• 1862 deaths
• 19th-century police officers
• Writers from Paris
• Dukes of Pasquier
• 18th-century French lawyers
• French memoirists
• Prefects of police of Paris
• Members of the Académie Française
• People of the French Revolution
• Grand Cross of the Legion of Honour
• French interior ministers
• Members of the Chamber of Peers of the Bourbon Restoration
• Members of the Chamber of Peers of the July Monarchy
• French male non-fiction writers
• 19th-century French lawyers

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