How did the French Revolution affect Alfred de Vigny’s aristocratic family?

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Alfred-Victor, count de Vigny Vigny, lithograph by Antoine Maurin, 1832

The French Revolution significantly impacted Alfred de Vigny’s family by reducing them to modest financial circumstances. Despite their aristocratic background—which included a father who was a veteran of the Seven Years’ War and a maternal grandfather who served as a commodore in the royal navy—the family’s wealth and status were diminished by the political and social upheaval of the era.1

This shift in family fortune occurred before Vigny’s birth in 1797, though the family maintained their traditional attachment to the monarchy, which later influenced Vigny’s own early career as a second lieutenant in the king’s guard.1