Haussonville, Joseph Othenin Bernard De Cleron, Comte D'
HAUSSONVILLE, JOSEPH OTHENIN BERNARD DE CLERON, COMTE D' (1809-1884), French politician and historian, was born in Paris on the 27th of May 1809. His grandfather had been " grand louvetier " of France; his father Charles Louis Bernard de Cleron, comte d'Haussonville (1770-1846), was chamberlain at the court of Napoleon, a count of the French empire, and under the Restoration a peer of France and an opponent of the Villele ministry. Comte Joseph had filled a series of diplomatic appointments at Brussels, Turin and Naples before he entered the chamber of deputies in 1842 for Provins. Under the Second Empire he published a liberal anti-imperial paper at Brussels, Le Bulletin franqais, and in 1863 he actively supported the candidature of Prevost Paradol. He was elected to the French Academy in 1869, in recognition of his historical writings, Histoire de la politique exterieure du gouvernemenl franqais de 1830 a, 1848 (2 vols., 1850), Histoire de la reunion de la Lorraine a la France (4 vols., 1854-1859), L'Eglise romaine et le premier empire 1800-1814 (5 vols., 1864-1879). In 1870 he published a pamphlet directed against the Prussian treatment of France, La France el la Prusse devant I' Europe, the sale of which was prohibited in Belgium at the request of King William of Prussia. He was the president of an association formed to provide new homes in Algeria for the inhabitants of AlsaceLorraine who elected to retain their French nationality. In 1878 he was made a life-senator, in which capacity he allied himself with the Right Centre in defence of the religious associations against the anti-clericals. He died in Paris on the 28th of May 1884.
His wife Louise (1818-1882), a daughter of Due Victor de Broglie, published in 1858 a novel Robert Emmet, followed by Marguerite de Valois reine de Navarre (1870), Lajeunesse de Lord Byron (1872), and Les Dernieres Annees de Lord Byron (1874).
His son, GABRIEL PAUL OTHENIN DE CLERON, comte d'Haussonville, was born at Gurcy de Chatel (Seine-et-Marne) on the 21st of September 1843, and married in 1865 Mile Pauline d'Harcourt. He represented Seine-et-Marne in the National Assembly (1871) and voted with the Right Centre. Though he was not elected to the chamber of deputies he became the righthand man of his maternal uncle, the due de Broglie, in the attempted coup of the 16th of May. His Etablissements penitentiaires en France et aux colonies (1875) was crowned by the Academy, of which he was admitted a member in 1888. In 1891 the resignation of Henri Edouard Bocher from the administration of the Orleans estates led to the appointment of M d'Haussonville as accredited representative of the comte de Paris in France. He at once set to work to strengthen the Orleanist party by recruiting from the smaller nobility the officials of the local monarchical committees. He established HAUTE-GARONNE HAUTE-MARNE new Orleanist organs, and sent out lecturers with instructions to emphasize the modern and democratic principles of the comte de Paris; but the prospects of the party were dashed in 1894 by the death of the comte de Paris. In 1904 he was admitted to the Academy of Moral and Political Science. The comte d'Haussonville published: C. A. Sainle-Beuve, sa vie et ses ceuvres (1875), .tudes biographiques et litter aires, 2 series (1879 and 1888), Le Saloh de Mme Necker (1882, 2 vols.), Madame de La Fayette (1891), Madame Ackermann (1892), Le Comte de Paris, souvenirs personnels (1895), La Duchesse de Bourgogne et I' alliance savoy arde (1898-1903), Salaire et miseres de femme (1900), and, with G. Hanotaux, Souvenirs sur Madame de Maintcnon (3 vols., 1902-1904).
Note - this article incorporates content from Encyclopaedia Britannica, Eleventh Edition, (1910-1911)
