François-Xavier-Marc-Antoine de Montesquiou-Fézensac

François -Xavier -Marc -Antoine de Montesquiou - FEZENSAC (* August 13, 1756 at Castle Marsan, Gers department, † February 6, 1832 at Schloss Cirey- sur -Blaise ) was a French clergyman and politician. He was twice president of the Constituent Assembly in 1790 and 1814 during the Restoration under Louis XVIII Interior Minister ..

Life

He came from the old noble family Montesquiou, joined the clergy and became the abbot of Beaulieu and later received another abbey at Le Mans. In 1785 he was general agent of the clergy. In 1789 he was elected as a deputy of the clergy of the city of Paris to the Estates-General. He remained with the principles of the ancien regime faithful. On July 16, he nevertheless declared in the name of the first prior to the accession of the clergy to the Constituent Assembly.

He spoke in a row against the transformation of the ecclesiastical possessions in national property, but turned according to the relevant decision as a Commissioner in the implementation. In 1790 he was twice president of the Constituent Assembly. He turned in the Constituent Assembly against the abolition of the religious orders. He also criticized the Civil Constitution of the Clergy. He was not elected to the Legislative Assembly, and retired into private life.

After the storming of the Tuileries in August 1792, he went into exile. In the absence he was sentenced to death. At first he lived in England and then in the United States. At the time of the Directory, he returned to France. He worked for the Royalist cause, and was a member of the royalist committee of Paris. He appealed to Napoleon Bonaparte as first consul to bring the Bourbons returned to the throne. He had to withdraw to Menton in the track from Paris.

After the first restoration he was in May 1814, Louis XVIII. Interior Minister in the Provisional Government and participated in the drafting of the Charter Constitutionnelle. With the domination of one hundred days he lost his position and went to England. After the second restoration he was briefly Minister of State and a peer of France. He was a member of the Chamber of Peers. In 1817 he was elevated to the Count and 1821 for Duke. Since 1816 he was a member of the Academie francaise, without taking part in the meetings. He was also a member of the Académie des Inscriptions et Belles Lettres