Alphonse Marie Louis de Prat de Lamartine, October 21,
1790 Mâcon - February 28, 1869 Paris. De Lamartine was
a politician, historian and poet.
Lamartine was born at the end of the 18th century into
a Catholic, Royal family. During his high school period he
studied at the Jesuit college “Peres de la Foi"
at Belley, till 1809. Lamartine refused to serve Napoleon
who he regarded as a usurper. When the Bourbons returned in
power, Lamartine joined the 'Gardes du corps' in 1814 and
he accompanied Louis XVIII during The Hundred Days (of Napoleon).
In June 1820 he married Marianne Birch and he went into diplomatic
service. He moved to Italy to work in the French embassy.
He worked in Naples, Florence and Rome. Additionally he became
well known as a poet. He wrote a poem for the Coronation of
Charles X in 1824 and the king rewarded him with the "Légion
d'honneur". In 1825 he published 'Le Dernier Chant du
pèlerinage de Childe Harold'. Because of a line in
that poem, Lamartine was forced to fight a duel with an Italian
officer, Colonel Pepe, a fight in which Lamartine got wounded.
In 1829 he left Florence and Italy and went on a special mission
to Prince Leopold of Saksen-Coburg, after he had refused a
position in the government Polignac. In November in the same
year he was elected to the 'Académie Française'.
Lamartine had an important part during the February Revolution
in 1848. He was a primary instigator of a temporary government.
In that government he was Secretary of Foreign Affairs (February
24 - May 11). Afterwards he was elected to be one of the five
members of the Executive Committee and so he was for some
weeks one of the most important politicians of Europe. Lamartine
died on February 28, 1869.
Alphonse de Lamartine
1790 - 1869
He used God's name in the book:
