Jean-Gilbert Victor Fialin, Duc de Persigny (11 January 1808 – 12 January 1872) was astatesman of theSecond French Empire.
Fialin was born atSaint-Germain-Lespinasse in theLoire, where his father was Receiver of Taxes, and was educated atLimoges. He enteredSaumur Cavalry School in 1826, becomingMaréchal des logis in the4th Hussars two years later. The role played by hisregiment in theJuly Revolution of 1830 was regarded asinsubordination, resulting in Fialin being dismissed from thearmy. He then became a journalist, and after 1833, a strongBonapartist, assuming thestylevicomte de Persigny, said to be dormant in his family.[1]
He was involved in the abortive Bonapartist coups atStrasbourg in 1836 and atBoulogne-sur-Mer in 1840. After the second coup, he was arrested and condemned to twenty years' imprisonment in a fortress, commuted to mild detention atVersailles. There he wrote a book to prove that theEgyptian pyramids were built to prevent theNile from silting up. The book was published in 1845 under the titleDe la destination et de l'utilité permanente des Pyramides.[1]
During the1848 Revolution, Fialin was arrested by the Provisional Government. After his release, he played a prominent part in securingPrince Louis-Napoleon Bonaparte's election to thepresidency. Together withCharles de Morny (Bonaparte's half-brother) andMarshal Saint Arnaud he plotted theRestoration of the Empire and was a devoted adherent of Napoleon III. He succeeded Morny asFrench Minister of the Interior in January 1852 and becamesenator later that year. He resigned in 1854, and was appointedAmbassador to the United Kingdom the next year, a post he occupied with a short interval (1858–1859) until 1860, when he resumed the portfolio at the Interior Ministry. But the growing influence of his rivalEugène Rouher prompted his resignation in 1863, after which Napoleon created him a duke.[1]
A more dangerous enemy than Rouher wasEmpress Eugénie, whose marriage Fialin had opposed and whose presence on the Council he deprecated in a memorandum which was leaked to the Empress.[1]
He sought in vain to see Napoleon before theFranco-Prussian War in 1870, and the breach was further widened when the master and servant were in exile. Persigny returned to France in 1871 and died inNice on 12 January 1872.[1]
A devoted and fanatical follower of Louis-Napoleon, whose service dated back to the future Emperor's wilderness years of exile and imprisonment, Persigny stood out among the Emperor's motley political entourage as the most passionate ideologue ofBonapartism. The Emperor's famous wry comment: "TheEmpress is aLegitimist,Morny is anOrleanist,Prince Napoleon is aRepublican, and I myself am aSocialist. There is only one Bonapartist, Persigny – and he is mad!"[2]
This article incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Persigny, Jean Gilbert Victor Fialin, Duc de".Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 21 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 252.| Political offices | ||
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| Preceded by | Minister of the Interior 1852–1854 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Minister of the Interior 1860–1863 | Succeeded by |
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| Justice | ||
| Foreign Affairs | ||
| Interior and Beaux-Arts | ||
| Police | Charlemagne de Maupas (1852) | |
| Defense | ||
| Navy and Colonies | ||
| Public Education and Religious Affairs | ||
| Public Works | ||
| Agriculture and Commerce | ||
Third cabinet of Napoleon III (2 December 1852 - 17 July 1869) | ||
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| Justice | ||
| Foreign Affairs | ||
| Interior | ||
| Police | ||
| Finance | ||
| Defense | ||
| Marine, Colonies and Algeria | ||
| Education and Cults | ||
| Public works | ||
| Agriculture and Commerce | ||
| Beaux-Arts | ||
| Emperor's Household | ||
| Ministers of State | ||
| Ministers without portfolio | ||
Preceded bySecond cabinet of Louis Napoleon • Followed byFourth cabinet of Napoleon III | ||
