Gaston Audiffret-Pasquier

Who was Gaston Audiffret-Pasquier?

Edme-Armand-Gaston, duc d'Audiffret-Pasquier, known as Gaston Audiffret-Pasquier, was a French politician and member of the Académie française, Seat 16. He was preceded in his position by Félix Dupanloup and succeeded by Alexandre Ribot.

He was the grand-nephew and adopted son of Baron Etienne Denis Pasquier, an academician. He inherited the title of duke in 1844, and became auditor at the council of state in 1846.

After the revolution of 1848 he retired to private life. Under the empire he was twice an unsuccessful candidate for the legislature, but was elected in February 1871 to the National Assembly of France, and became president of the Centre-right parliamentary group in 1873. After the fall of Thiers, Audiffret-Pasquier directed the negotiations between the different royalist parties to establish the Comte de Chambord as King of France, but as Chambord refused to give up the white flag of the Bourbons in favor of the tricolor, the project failed. Yet he retained the confidence of the chamber, and was its president in 1875 when the constitutional laws were being drawn up.