Charles de Montalembert

Charles Forbes René de Montalembert (15 April 1810 in London – 13 March 1870 in Paris) was a French publicist, historian and Count of Montalembert, Deux-Sèvres.

Charles Forbes René de Montalembert who was born on 15 April 1810, was of French and Scots ancestry. His father, Marc René, belonged to the family of Angoumois, which could trace its descent back to the 13th century, while charters show the history of the house even two centuries earlier. For several generations the family had been distinguished, both in the army and in the field of science. Montalembert senior had fought under Condé, and subsequently served in the British army. He married Eliza Rose Forbes, whose father, James Forbes, belonged to a very old Scottish Protestant family. Charles, their eldest son, was born in London. At the French Restoration of 1814, Marc René returned to France, was raised to the peerage in 1820, and became ambassador to Sweden, where Charles completed his education in 1826.

Montalembert's early years were spent in England; afterwards he studied at the Lycée Bourbon and at the Collège Sainte-Barbe in Paris. In 1829 he was a contributor to the review Le Correspondant. In September and October 1830, he travelled in Ireland, where he met Daniel O'Connell; he was thinking of assisting the cause for which O'Connell was struggling by writing a history of Ireland, when he learned that the House of Commons had passed the Irish Emancipation Act.

Charles de Montalembert was under twenty-five at his father's death in 1831 and therefore too young to take his seat as a peer, but he retained other rights. Combined with his literary and intellectual activity, this made him a person of some importance. He was a Liberal, in the English sense, and disagreed with the new regime on only the religious question. He would have approved of the policy of the golden mean represented by Louis Philippe. He wished to see the Church free from state control and attacked the monopoly of public instruction by which the monarchy fortified its position. This latter scheme first brought Montalembert to public attention when he was formally charged with unlicensed teaching. He claimed the right of trial by his peers and made a notable defence with a deliberate intention of protest in 1832.

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