Voltaire

François-Marie Arouet (November 21, 1694 – May 30, 1778), better known by the pen name Voltaire (also called The Dictator of Letters), was a French Enlightenment writer, deist and philosopher.

Biography

Early years

Voltaire was born in Paris as François Marie Arouet, to François Arouet and Marie-Marguerite Daumart or D'Aumard. Although he was the son of a notary and belonged to a middle-class family, later in life Voltaire sometimes implied that he came from a noble background.

Related Topics:
Paris - Notary - Noble

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Voltaire's mother died when he was seven years old. At age ten, he was sent to the Jesuit Collège Louis-le-Grand, and remained there till 1711. Though he derided the education he had received, it formed the basis of his considerable knowledge, and probably kindled his lifelong devotion to theater.

Related Topics:
Jesuit - 1711 - Knowledge

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

When he graduated and returned home at the age of seventeen, Voltaire planned to start a career in writing, but his father opposed. He studied law, at least nominally, and later pretended to work in a Parisian lawyer's office, but began writing libelous poems. As a result, in 1714 his father sent him to stay for nearly a year in the country. Here he was still supposed to study law, but instead devoted himself to literary essays and historical gossip.

Related Topics:
Law - Libelous - 1714 - Historical

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Imprisonment in the Bastille

Voltaire returned to Paris around the time of the death of Louis XIV. Again he became involved in high society, and showed Oedipe, his first play, to his acquaintances. He lent himself to the duchess' duchesse du Maine's frantic hatred of the regent, Philippe II of Orléans, and composed satire about him. A spy coaxed Voltaire into making a confession, and for insulting the regent, he was sent to the Bastille on May 16, 1717. Here he recast Oedipe, began the Henriade and decided to change his name.

Related Topics:
Louis XIV - Oedipe - Duchesse du Maine's - Philippe II of Orléans - Satire - Bastille - May 16 - 1717

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

He was released 11 months later when it was found out that he had been wrongly accused. Oedipe was performed at the Théâtre Français on November 18 and was well received. It had a run of forty-five nights and brought him both fame and wealth, with which Voltaire seems to have begun his long series of successful financial speculations.

Related Topics:
Théâtre Français - November 18

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

After his release from the Bastille in April 1718 he was known as Arouet de Voltaire, or simply Voltaire, though legally he never abandoned his patronymic. The origin of the name has been much debated, and some suggest that it was an abbreviation of a childish nickname, "le petit volontaire". The most commonly accepted hypothesis is that it is an anagram of the name "Arouet le jeune" or "Arouet l.j.", 'u' being changed to 'v' and 'j' to 'i' according to the ordinary convention.

Related Topics:
1718 - Patronymic - Anagram

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Voltaire continued to write plays, completing Artemire in Feburary 1720. This play was a failure, and Voltaire never published it in whole, although it was later recast with some success and he reused parts of it in other work. Other works published during this period include the tragedy Marianne and the comedy L'Indiscret.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Exile to England

In late 1725 Voltaire was insulted by a young nobleman, the Chevalier de Rohan, and replied with his usual sharpness of tongue. In revenge, Rohan later had several of his men give Voltaire a beating while he looked on.

Related Topics:
1725 - Chevalier de Rohan

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Voltaire planned to challenge the young nobleman to a duel, but the Rohan family had a lettre de cachet issued to avoid any problems. During this period, when a person of influence wanted an enemy arrested but no crime had been committed, they could obtain a secret warrant called a lettre de cachet. The person named in the letter had to go into prison or exile, either abroad or in France. Because there was no trial, the accused could not clear himself of wrongdoing. On the morning appointed for the duel, Voltaire was arrested and sent for the second time to the Bastille. He chose exile in England instead of imprisonment. The incident left an indelible impression on Voltaire, and from that day onward he became an advocate for juidicial reform.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

While in England Voltaire was attracted to the philosophy of John Locke and ideas of Sir Isaac Newton. He studied England's constitutional monarchy, its religious tolerance, its philosophical rationalism and most importantly the natural sciences. Voltaire also greatly admired English religious tolerance and freedom of speech, and saw these as necessary prerequisites for social and political progress. He saw England as a useful model for what he considered to be a backward France.

Related Topics:
John Locke - Isaac Newton - Constitutional monarchy - Religious tolerance - Rationalism - Natural sciences - Freedom of speech - France

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Return to Paris

Voltaire returned to France after three years in exile, and continued his literary career. During this period he published poems (Henriade), plays (Brutus), and tragedies (Zaire, Eriphile). He criticized war in the historical work The History of Charles XII (1731).

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

In 1733 he published the Lettres philosophiques sur les Anglais ("Philosophic Letters", also known as the "English Letters"), praising the religious and political freedom in England. This was intepreted as criticism of the French political system and an attack on the Church. The book was condemned (June 10, 1734), copies were seized and burned, a warrant issued against the author, and his residence searched. Voltaire himself was safe in the independent duchy of Lorraine with Émilie de Breteuil, marquise du Châtelet. He began an intimate relationship with her in 1733, and took up his abode with her at the château of Cirey, on the borders of Champagne, France and Lorraine.

Related Topics:
1733 - Lettres philosophiques sur les Anglais - June 10 - 1734 - Burned - Lorraine - Émilie de Breteuil, marquise du Châtelet - Cirey - Champagne, France

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Cirey

The 1911 Encyclopaedia Britannica comments that,"If the English visit may be regarded as having finished Voltaire's education, the Cirey residence was the first stage of his literary manhood." Having learnt from his previous brushes with the authorities, Voltaire began his future habit of keeping out of personal harm's way, and denying any awkward responsibility.

Related Topics:
Encyclopaedia Britannica - Cirey

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Cirey was a half-dismantled country house on the borders of Champagne, France and Lorraine, but by the summer of 1734 it had been repaired and furnished with Voltaire's money. The place became the headquarters of himself, his hostess, and occasionally, her accommodating husband. Cirey provided him with a safe and comfortable retreat, and with every opportunity for literary work. The principal literary results of his early years here were the Discours en vers sur l'Homme, the play of Aizire and L'Enfant prodigue (1736), and a long treatise on the Newtonian system which he and Madame du Châtelet wrote together.

Related Topics:
Champagne, France - 1736

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

In March 1735 Voltaire was permitted to return to Paris, but he did so rarely. a year later he received his first letter from Frederick II of Prussia, then crown prince. He was soon in trouble again, this time for the poem, Le Mondain, and he at once crossed the frontier and made for Brussels. He spent about three months in the Low Countries, but in March 1737 returned to Cirey and continued writing, making experiments in physics (he had a large laboratory by this time), and busying himself with iron-founding, the chief industry of the district.

Related Topics:
1735 - Frederick II of Prussia - Low Countries - 1737 - Physics - Iron

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

The best-known accounts of Cirey life, those of Madame de Graffigny, date from the winter of 1738-39, depicting the frequent quarrels between Madame du Châtelet and Voltaire, his intense suffering under criticism, his constant dread of the surreptitious publication of the Pucelle (which Émilie actually hid from him to prevent him from publishing it and losing his life, but which he kept reciting to visitors), and so forth.

Related Topics:
Madame de Graffigny - 1738 - Madame du Châtelet

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

In April 1739 a journey was made to Brussels, to Paris, and then again to Brussels, which was the headquarters for a considerable time, owing to some law affairs, of the Du Chatelets. Frederick, now king of Prussia, made not a few efforts to get Voltaire away from Madame du Chatelet, but unsuccessfully, and the king earned the lady's cordial hatred by persistently refusing or omitting to invite her.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

At last, in September 1740, master and pupil met for the first time at Cleves, an interview followed three months later by a longer visit. Brussels was again the headquarters in 1741, by which time Voltaire had finished two of his best plays, Mérope and Mahomet.

Related Topics:
1740 - Cleves - 1741

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Mahomet was first performed at Lille in that year; it did not appear in Paris till August next year, and Mérope not till 1743. This last was, and deserved to be, the most successful of its author's whole theatre. It was in this same year that he received the singular diplomatic mission to Frederick which nobody seems to have taken seriously, and after his return the oscillation between Brussels, Cirey and Paris was resumed.

Related Topics:
Lille - 1743

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

During these years much of the Essai sur les moeurs and the Siècle de Louis XIV was composed. He also returned, not too well advisedly, to the business of courtiership, which he had given up since the death of the regent. He was much employed, owing to Richelieu's influence, in the fetes of the dauphin (Louis, dauphin de France)'s marriage, and was rewarded through the influence of Madame de Pompadour on New Year's Day 1745 by the appointment to the post of historiographer-royal, temporarily achieving a secure social and financial position.

Related Topics:
Dauphin - Louis, dauphin de France - Madame de Pompadour - 1745

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

In the same year he wrote a poem on Fontenoy, he received medals from the pope and dedicated Mahomet to him, and he wrote court divertissements and other things to admiration. But he was not a thoroughly skilful courtier, and one of the best known of Voltairians is the contempt or at least silence with which Louis XV received the maladroit and almost insolent inquiry Trajan est-il content? addressed in his hearing to Richelieu at the close of a piece in which the emperor had appeared with a transparent reference to the king.

Related Topics:
The pope - Louis XV - Trajan

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

All this assentation had at least one effect. He, who had been for years admittedly the first writer in France, was at last elected to the Académie française in the spring of 1746.

Related Topics:
Académie française - 1746

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Then the tide began to turn. His favour at court had naturally exasperated his enemies; it had not secured him any real friends, and even a gentlemanship of the chamber was no solid benefit, except from the money point of view. He did not indeed hold it very long, but was permitted to sell it for a large sum, retaining the rank and privileges. He had various proofs of the instability of his hold on the king during 1747 and in 1748. He once lay in hiding for two months with the duchesse du Maine at Sceaux, where were produced the comedietta of La Prude and the Tragedie de Rome sauvée, and afterwards for a time lived chiefly at Lunéville; here Madame du Chatelet had established herself at the court of King Stanislaus I of Poland, and carried on a liaison with the soldier-poet, Jean François de Saint-Lambert, an officer in the king's guard. In September 1749 she died after the birth of a child.

Related Topics:
1747 - 1748 - Sceaux - Rome - Lunéville - Stanislaus I of Poland - Jean François de Saint-Lambert - 1749

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Madame du Chatelet's death is another turning-point in Voltaire's life. He was deeply disturbed for a time, and considered settling down in Paris. He went on writing satires like Zadig, and engaged in a literary rivalry with Crébillon père, a rival set up against him by Madame de Pompadour.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Frederick the Great

In 1751, Voltaire accepted Frederick of Prussia's invitations and moved to Berlin.

Related Topics:
1751 - Frederick of Prussia

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

At first the king behaved altogether like a king to his guest. He pressed him to remain; he gave him (the words are Voltaire's own) one of his orders, twenty thousand francs a year, and four thousand additional for his niece, Madame Jenis, in case she would come and keep house for her uncle. Voltaire insisted for the consent of his own king, which was given without delay. But Frenchmen regarded Voltaire as something of a deserter; and it was not long before he bitterly repented his desertion, though his residence in Prussia lasted nearly three years. It was quite impossible that Voltaire and Frederick should get on together for long. Voltaire was not humble enough to be a mere butt, as many of Frederick's lead poets were; he was not enough of a gentleman to hold his own place with dignity and discretion; he was constantly jealous both of his equals in age and reputation, such as Maupertuis, and of his juniors and inferiors, such as Baculard D'Arnaud. He was restless, and in a way Bohemian. Frederick, though his love of teasing for teasing's sake has been exaggerated by Macaulay, was a martinet of the first water, had a sharp though one-sided idea of justice, and had not the slightest intention of allowing Voltaire to insult or to tyrannize over his other guests and servants.

Related Topics:
Prussia - Maupertuis - Bohemian

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Voltaire had not been in the country six months before he engaged in a discreditable piece of financial gambling with Hirsch, the Dresden Jew. He was accused of forgery -- of altering a paper signed by Hirsch after he had signed it. The king's disgust at this affair (which came to an open scandal before the tribunals) was so great that he was on the point of ordering Voltaire out of Prussia, and Darget the secretary had trouble resolving the matter (February 1751). However, he succeeded in finishing and printing the Siècle de Louis XIV, while the Dictionnaire philosophique is said to have been devised and begun at Potsdam.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

In the early autumn of 1751 one of the king's parasites, and a man of much more talent than is generally allowed, horrified Voltaire by telling him that Frederick had in conversation applied to him (Voltaire) a proverb about "sucking the orange and flinging away its skin", and about the same time the dispute with Pierre de Maupertuis, which had more than anything else to do with his exclusion from Prussia, came to a head. Maupertuis got into a dispute with one Konig. The king took his president's part; Voltaire took Konig's. But Maupertuis must needs write his Letters, and thereupon (1752) appeared one of Voltaire's most famous, though perhaps not one of his most read works, the Histoire du docteur Akakia et du natif de Saint-Malo. Even Voltaire did not venture to publish this lampoon on a great official of a prince so touchy as the king of Prussia without some permission, and if all tales are true, he obtained this by another piece of something like forgery—getting the king to endorse a totally different pamphlet on its last leaf, and affixing that last leaf to Akakia. Of this Frederick was not aware; but he did get some wind of the diatribe itself, sent for the author, heard it read to his own great amusement, and either actually burned the manuscript or believed that it was burnt. In a few days printed copies appeared.

Related Topics:
Pierre de Maupertuis - 1752

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Frederick did not like disobedience, but he still less liked being made a fool of, and he put Voltaire under arrest. But again the affair blew over, the king believing that the edition of Akakia confiscated in Prussia was the only one. Alas! Voltaire had sent copies away; others had been printed abroad; and the thing was irrecoverable. It could not be proved that he had ordered the printing, and all Frederick could do was to have the pamphlet burnt by the hangman. Things were now drawing to a crisis.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

One day Voltaire sent his orders back; the next Frederick returned them, but Voltaire had quite made up his mind to fly. A kind of reconciliation occurred in March, and after some days of good-fellowship Voltaire at last obtained the long-sought leave of absence and left Potsdam on the 26th of the month (1753). It was nearly three months afterwards that the famous, ludicrous and brutal arrest was made at Frankfurt, on the persons of himself and his niece, who had met him meanwhile.

Related Topics:
1753 - Frankfurt

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

There was a rather distinct excuse for Frederick's wrath. In the first place, the poet chose to linger at Leipzig. In the second place, in direct disregard of a promise given to Frederick, a supplement to Akakia appeared, more offensive than the main text. From Leipzig, after a month's stay, Voltaire moved to Gotha. Once more, on the 25th of May, he moved on to Frankfurt. Frankfurt, nominally a free city, but with a Prussian resident who did very much what he pleased, was not like Gotha and Leipzig. An excuse was provided in the fact that the poet had a copy of some unpublished poems of Frederick's, which would have implicated Frederick's homosexuality were they to be published, and as soon as Voltaire arrived hands were laid on him, at first with courtesy enough. The resident, Freytag, was not a very wise person (though he probably did not, as Voltaire would have it, spell "poésie" (poetry) "poéshie"); constant references to Frederick were necessary; and the affair was prolonged so that Madame Denis had time to join her uncle. At last Voltaire tried to steal away. He was followed, arrested, his niece seized separately, and sent to join him in custody; and the two, with the secretary Collini, were kept close prisoners at an inn called the Goat.

Related Topics:
Leipzig - Gotha - 25th of May

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

This situation was at last put an end to by the city authorities, who probably felt that they were not playing a very creditable part. Voltaire left Frankfurt on the 7th of July, travelled safely to Mainz, and thence to Mannheim, Strasbourg and Colmar. The last-named place he reached (after a leisurely journey and many honours at the little courts just mentioned) at the beginning of October, and here he proposed to stay the winter, finish his Annals of the Empire and look about him.

Related Topics:
Mainz - Mannheim - Strasbourg - Colmar

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Voltaire's second stage was now over. Even now, however, in his sixtieth year, it required some more external pressure to induce him to make himself independent. He had been, in the first blush of his Frankfort disaster, refused, or at least not granted, permission even to enter France proper. At Colmar he was not safe, especially when in January 1754 a pirated edition of the Essai sur les moeurs, written long before, appeared. Permission to establish himself in France was now absolutely refused. Nor did an extremely offensive performance of Voltaire's—the solemn partaking of the Eucharist at Colmar after due confession—at all mollify his enemies. His exclusion from France, however, was chiefly metaphorical, and really meant exclusion from Paris and its neighbourhood. In the summer he went to Plombières, and after returning to Colmar for some time, journeyed in the beginning of winter to Lyons, and thence in the middle of December to Geneva.

Related Topics:
1754 - Plombières - Lyons - Geneva

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Voltaire had no plans to remain in the city, and immediately bought a country house just outside the gates, which he named Les Délices. He was here practically at the meeting-point of four distinct jurisdictions—Geneva, the canton Vaud, Sardinia, and France, while other cantons were within easy reach; and he bought other houses dotted about these territories, so as never to be without a refuge close at hand in case of sudden storms. At Les Délices he set up a considerable establishment, which his great wealth made him able easily to afford. He kept open house for visitors; he had printers close at hand in Geneva; he fitted up a private theatre in which he could enjoy what was perhaps the greatest pleasure of his whole life—acting in a play of his own, stage-managed by himself. His residence at Geneva brought him into correspondence (at first quite amicable) with the most famous of her citizens, Rousseau. His Orphelin de Chine, performed at Paris in 1755, was very well received; the notorious La Pucelle appeared in the same year. The earthquake at Lisbon, which appalled other people, gave Voltaire an excellent opportunity for ridiculing the beliefs of the orthodox, first in verse (1756) and later in the unsurpassable tale of Candide (1759).

Related Topics:
Vaud - Sardinia - France - Les Délices - Geneva - Rousseau - 1755 - Lisbon - 1756 - Candide - 1759

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

All was, however, not yet quite smooth with him. Geneva had a law expressly forbidding theatrical performances in any circumstances whatever. Voltaire had infringed this law already as far as private performances went, and he had thought of building a regular theatre, not indeed at Geneva but at Lausanne. In July 1755 a very polite and, as far as Voltaire was concerned, indirect resolution of the Consistory declared that in consequence of these proceedings of the Sieur de Voltaire the pastors should notify their flocks to abstain, and that the chief syndic should be informed of the Consistory's perfect confidence that the edicts would be carried out. Voltaire obeyed this hint as far as Les Délices was concerned, and consoled himself by having the performances in his Lausanne house. But he never was the man to take opposition to his wishes either quietly or without retaliation. He undoubtedly instigated d'Alembert to include a censure of the prohibition in his Encyclopédie article on "Geneva," a proceeding which provoked Rousseau's celebrated Lettre à D'Alembert sur les spectacles. As for himself, he looked about for a place where he could combine the social liberty of France with the political liberty of Geneva, and he found one.

Related Topics:
Lausanne - 1755 - D'Alembert - Encyclopédie

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Ferney

At the end of 1758 he bought the considerable property of Ferney, about four miles from Geneva, and on French soil. At Les Délices (which he sold in 1765) he had become a householder on no small scale; at Ferney (which he increased by other purchases and leases) he became a complete country gentleman, and was henceforward known to all Europe as squire of Ferney. Many of the most celebrated men of Europe visited him there, and large parts of his usual biographies are composed of extracts from their accounts of Ferney. His new occupations by no means quenched his literary activity - he reserved much time for work and for his immense correspondence, which had for a long time once more included Frederick, the two getting on very well when they were not in contact.

Related Topics:
1758 - Ferney - 1765

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Above all, he now being comparatively secure in position, engaged much more strongly in public controversies, and resorted less to his old labyrinthine tricks of disavowal, garbled publication and private libel. The suppression of the Encyclopédie, to which he had been a considerable contributor, and whose conductors were his intimate friends, drew from him a shower of lampoons directed now at l'infâme. These were directed at literary victims such as Lefranc de Pompignan or Palissot. Further lampoons were directed at Fréron, an excellent critic and a dangerous writer, who had attacked Voltaire from the conservative side, and at whom the patriarch of Ferney, as he now began to be called, levelled in return the very inferior farce-lampoon of L'Ecossaise, of the first night of which Fréron himself did an admirably humorous criticism.

Related Topics:
Lefranc de Pompignan - Fréron

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

How he built a church and got into trouble in so doing at Ferney, how he put "Deo erexit Voltaire" on it (1760-1761) and obtained a relic from the pope for his new building, how he entertained a grand-niece of Corneille, and for her benefit wrote his well-known "commentary" on that poet, are matters of interest, indeed.

Related Topics:
1760 - 1761

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Here, too, he began that series of interferences on behalf of the oppressed and the ill-treated which is an honour to his memory. Volumes and almost libraries have been written on the Calas affair, and we can but refer here to the only less famous cases of Sirven (very similar to that of Calas, though no judicial murder was actually committed), Espinasse (who had been sentenced to the galleys for harbouring a Protestant minister), Lally (the son of the unjustly treated but not blameless Irish-French commander in India), D'Etalonde (the companion of La Barre), Montbailli and others.

Related Topics:
Calas affair - Sirven - Espinasse - Lally - La Barre - Montbailli

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

In 1768 he entered into controversy with the bishop of the diocese; he had differences with the superior landlord of part of his estate, the president De Brosses; and he engaged in a long and tedious return match with the republic of Geneva. But the general events of this Ferney life are somewhat of that happy kind which are no events.

Related Topics:
1768 - Republic

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

In this way Voltaire, who had been an old man when he established himself at Ferney (now Ferney-Voltaire), became a very old one almost without noticing it. The death of Louis XV and the accession of Louis XVI excited even in his aged breast the hope of re-entering Paris, but he did not at once receive any encouragement, despite the reforming ministry of Turgot. A much more solid gain to his happiness was the adoption, or practical adoption, in 1776 of Reine Philiberte de Varicourt, a young girl of noble but poor family, whom Voltaire rescued from the convent, installed in his house as an adopted daughter, and married to the marquis de Villette.

Related Topics:
Ferney-Voltaire - Louis XVI - Turgot - 1776

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Voltaire returned to a hero's welcome in Paris at age 83 in time to see his last play, Irene, produced. The excitement of the trip was too much for him and he died in Paris on May 30, 1778. Because of his criticism of the church Voltaire was denied burial in church ground. He was finally buried at an abbey in Champagne. In 1791 his remains were moved to a resting place at The Panthéon in Paris.

Related Topics:
May 30 - 1778 - 1791 - The Panthéon

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~