Born at Montpellier, 1753; died at Paris, 1824.
He belonged to an ancient family of the Long Robe, and many of his
ancestors and family connections had been distinguished lawyers and
churchmen. He was intended for the magistrature, and made law his
chief study. In 1789 he proceeded to Paris and became a popular leader
during the first years of the Revolution. He was elected a member of
the Convention in 1792. Through the next two stormy years Cambacères,
by the exercise of extreme prudence, kept himself free from suspicion,
although he was never identified with the extreme party, and opposed
the execution of Louis XVI. He was President of the Assembly in 1794,
and a member of the Committee of Public Safety. He was Minister of
Justice during the Directory, and when Napoleon Bonaparte assumed the
head of affairs after the eighteenth Brumaire he appointed Cambacères
as Second Consul, with power to act for the First Consul during the
latter’s absence.
When Napoleon assumed the title of Emperor Cambacères was created
Arch-Chancellor, with perpetual Presidency of the _Senate_. He
held this position during the whole of the reign of Napoleon I. None
of his councillors were esteemed more highly by the Emperor than
Cambacères; his advice was usually moderate and sensible. He opposed
the Austrian marriage and the Russian campaign. It was he who in 1814
conducted Marie Louise and her child to Blois and delivered them over
to the Austrian commissioners. Her flight from Paris was contrary to
his advice.
During “the hundred days” he resumed his position as Chancellor. The
Second Restoration banished him from France as a regicide. In 1818 the
decree of his banishment was reversed, and he returned to Paris, where
he died six years later at the age of seventy-one.