Benjamin Constant

Born

25 October 1767

Died

8 December 1830

A Swiss subject educated at Erlangen and Edinburgh, Benjamin Constant spent the first years of the Revolution as chamberlain at the court of Brunswick and did not settle in France until May 1795. He acquired French standing by purchasing a national property, defended the Directory in a series of pamphlets and supported the coup of 18 Fructidor. Appointed to the Tribunate in December 1799, he made himself Bonaparte’s earliest parliamentary critic and was removed in the purge of 1802. He spent the following years between Coppet, Germany and Paris with Germaine de Staël, writing on constitutional liberty and composing Adolphe. Having denounced Napoleon’s return in March 1815, he then agreed to draft the Additional Act. He led the liberal opposition as a deputy under the Restoration and died in Paris in 1830.

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