Prosper de Chasseloup-Laubat

Early life and family

Chasseloup-Laubat was the descendant of a minor noble family from Saintonge whose members were Huguenot but converted to Catholicism in the 17th century. He was the youngest son of the General François de Chasseloup-Laubat, 1st Marquis of Chasseloup-Laubat (1754–1833), and of his wife Anne-Julie Fresneau de La Gataudière, granddaughter of François Fresneau de La Gataudière who had discovered the properties of rubber. His godparents were Emperor Napoleon I and his first wife Empress Josephine. His brother, Justin (1800–1847), 2nd Marquis of Chasseloup-Laubat, was a military and politician and died as he was serving as French ambassador to the German Confederation. At his death, the title of Marquis passed to his brother Prudent (1802–1863), also a military and politician, who as well died childless and was succeeded by Prosper. They had also a sister, Anne-Clémence de Chasseloup-Laubat (1798–1871) who married in 1818 François-Scipion, 1st Baron de Bernon.

Prosper de Chasseloup-Laubat was educated at Lycée Louis-le-Grand then became a civil servant and from 1828 worked at the Conseil d'État, thanks to the good relations of his father.

Career

Under the July Monarchy

Immediately after the July Revolution, Chasseloup-Laubat became aide-de-camp of the commander of the National Guard, Marquis de La Fayette, and despite the change of regime he remained at the Conseil d'État and was promoted inside its inner hierarchy.

In 1836, he was appointed as an assistant to Jean-Jacques Baude, Royal commissary in Algeria, and worked at Alger, and then at Tunis, Bône and Constantine. He was present at the failed siege of Constantine by the French army in November 1836, before turning back to France and reassuming his functions at the Conseil d'État. In 1838 he was appointed a councillor at the Conseiller d'État.

At the same time, he was also beginning a political career. On 3 September 1837, he was elected deputy of Charente-Inférieure, the Department where was situated the family seat, the château of La Gataudière, and he was reelected in November 1837, March 1839, July 1842 and August 1846. He took his seat with the Left Center and approved the government policy. He was also a member and then president of the departmental council of the Charente-Inférieure.

Minister under the Second Empire and advocate of French colonialism

The Revolution of 1848 was a momentary set-back for his career, but on 13 May 1849 he was elected again as a deputy for Charente-Inférieure. During the Second Republic, he voted with the Conservatives of the Party of Order and from 10 April to 26 October 1851 briefly served a first time as Minister of Marine under the Presidency of Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte.

After the coup d'état of December 1851, he was appointed a member of the consultative commission replacing the Chambre des Députés, and was one of the candidates of the government in Charente-Inférieure at the election of February 1852, where he was elected. As deputy to the Legislative Body (a new lower chamber replacing the Chambre des Députés), he worked for the restoration of the Empire, which was approved by referendum in November 1852. Nevertheless, in 1852 he was one of the members of the Legislative Body who took the liberty of criticizing the first budget of the new regime (they were called les budgétaires), and the same year he publicly protested the confiscation of the properties of the House of Orléans. He stayed a deputy until 1859, when he became a minister. On 25 May 1862, he was appointed a Senator of the Empire, a position he retained until the fall of the Empire in 1870.

Chasseloup-Laubat was an enthusiastic proponent of French colonial imperialism.

Member of the "Council of colonisation" which assisted the newly created Ministry for Algeria and the Colonies, in March 1859 he was himself put at the head of the Ministry in replacement of Prince Napoléon. Belonging to a generation of new politicians working to give a coherence to French colonial policy, he was one of the few ministers of Napoleon III who had not already held ministerial offices when the Second Empire was established. Just one month later, he personally visited Algeria, which he had known at the time of its conquest. He lost direct control over Algeria with the reestablishment of the function of Governor General of Algeria, but immediately became Minister of Marine and the Colonies in November 1860 and held that position for an exceptionally long period (1860–1867), making him a key figure of French early colonial expansion. He worked in combination with his counterpart, Foreign Minister Édouard Drouyn de Lhuys.

Private life

On 18 August 1862 at Saint Augustin, he married Marie-Louise Pilié (5 December 1841, New Orleans – April 1921, Paris), a distant relative of his, whose family was from Saintonge, but established in Louisiana. She was the daughter of Louis Armand Pilié and of Rose Elisabeth Eleonore Lapice de Bergondy, and a niece of Confederate General P. G. T. Beauregard. She fostered her husband's career by playing the role of a social hostess for the high society of the Second Empire. They had two sons, who both were notable in sport:

Louis de Chasseloup-Laubat, 5th Marquis of Chasseloup-Laubat (1863–1954) was president of the French Fencing Federation (Fédération française d'escrime) and co-wrote the rules for international fencing competition.

Count Gaston de Chasseloup-Laubat (1867–1903), a race car driver, is known for setting the first recognised automobile land speed record.

The Marquis of Chasseloup-Laubat was President of the Société de géographie from 1864 to his death, and used also that honorary position to propagate his colonial agenda.

Honours

Commander (1851), then Grand Cross of the Legion of Honour (18 September 1860)

Knight Grand Cross of the Order of Saints Maurice and Lazarus

Grand Cross of the Order of Christ (Portugal)

Grand Cross of the Order of the Oak Crown

Grand Cross of the Order of Charles III

Grand Cross of the Order of Isabella the Catholic

Grand Cross of the Order of Glory (Tunisia)

Grand Cross of the Imperial Order of Our Lady of Guadalupe

A bronze statue in his honour was erected at Marennes. It was destroyed during the Vichy regime but replace by a new one after the war.

A street and a school in Saigon were named after him until the independence of Vietnam.

Style

1817-1859: Viscount Prosper de Chasseloup-Laubat

1859-1963: Count Prosper de Chasseloup-Laubat

1863-1873: The Marquis of Chasseloup-Laubat