Barante, Amable-Guillaume-Prosper Brugière, baron de

▪ French statesman, historian, and author

born June 10, 1782, Riom, Fr.

died Nov. 21, 1866, Le Dorat

      French statesman, historian, and political writer, a liberal representative under the Bourbon restoration and a leading member of the narrative school of Romanticist historians who portrayed historical episodes with high literary style and in the vivid and intimate manner of a reportage of current events.

      Educated at the École Polytechnique of Paris, Barante received his first civil service appointment in 1802. Named auditor to the council of state (1806), he went on several political missions to Germany, Poland, and Spain, later becoming subprefect of Bressuire (1807) and prefect of Vendée (1809). During the Hundred Days (1815), Barante took up the prefecture of Loire-Inférieure, and, with the second restoration of the Bourbons, he was made councillor of state and secretary-general of the ministry of the interior. Created a peer in 1819, he used this position to promote liberal reforms but was subsequently removed by the Duke de Richelieu.

      After the revolution of 1830, which brought Louis-Philippe to power, Barante was named ambassador at Turin (1830) and later ambassador at St. Petersburg (1835). Throughout Louis-Philippe's reign he remained a supporter of the government, withdrawing from political affairs, however, after the fall of the monarchy (1848).

      Barante's most important historical work, Histoire des ducs de Bourgogne (1824–28; “History of the Dukes of Burgundy”), won him immediate admission to the Académie Française. Its moving narrative quality, purity of style, and brilliant use of local colour were highly praised; it exhibits, however, a lack of critical discernment and scientific scholarship. His other historical studies include Histoire de la Convention Nationale, 6 vol. (1851–53; “History of the National Convention”), and Histoire du Directoire de la République française (1855; “History of the Directory of the French Republic”). He also wrote biographies of Joan of Arc and other French historical figures, as well as a study of 18th-century French literature; furthermore, he is known as a translator of William Shakespeare and Friedrich von Schiller. Barante's political writings dealt with contemporary views on aristocracy and social organization.

* * *