Polignac, Jules Armand, prince de [key], 1780–1847, French statesman. Belonging to one of the oldest families of France, he emigrated with them during the French Revolution. Under Napoleon I he was imprisoned (1804–14) for his part in the conspiracy of Georges Cadoudal. In 1815, Louis XVIII named him a peer of France. He served as ambassador to England from 1823 to 1829. A champion and leader of the ultraroyalists in the reigns of Louis XVIII and Charles X, Polignac was strongly clerical, even refusing to take the oath to the constitutional charter on religious grounds. He became minister of foreign affairs and premier in Aug., 1829, and by his reactionary measures precipitated the July Revolution of 1830. In Mar., 1830, a majority of the chamber of deputies demanded the dismissal of the Polignac ministry. Instead, the chamber was dissolved, and when the new elections again resulted in a liberal majority, Polignac issued (July 26, 1830) the July Ordinances, which dissolved the new chamber even before it met, established a new electoral law, and ended the freedom of the press. The revolution broke out immediately. Polignac was arrested and condemned by the chamber of peers to life imprisonment. Amnestied in 1836, he was banished and went to England. He returned in 1845. He wrote Considérations politiques (1832, tr. 1832), Études historiques, politiques et morales (1845), and Réponse à mes adversaires (1845).
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