Jean-Gilbert-Victor Fialin, duke de Persigny

Jean-Gilbert-Victor Fialin, duke de Persigny (born Jan. 11, 1808, Saint-Germain-Lespinasse, France—died Jan. 12, 1872, Nice) was a French statesman who helped pave the way for Louis-Napoléon’s rise to power as the emperor Napoleon III.

Born of a petty noble family, he served in the hussars from 1825 to 1831, when he was dismissed for participation in a political rebellion. Thereafter he devoted himself to the restoration of the empire and to the cause of Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte. He was active in the latter’s attempted coups in 1836 and 1840 and in his eventual election to the presidency in 1848. He was then appointed aide-de-camp to Louis-Napoléon and was simultaneously deputy for Loire (1849–51), enjoying an important backstairs influence.

As minister of the interior (1852–54) he accelerated the proclamation of the Second Empire and worked energetically to organize a Bonapartist party. As French ambassador in London (1855–58 and 1859–60), he sought to strengthen Anglo-French relations. He was minister of the interior again in 1860–63, but his conduct at the elections in 1863 gave rise to criticism, and he was dismissed. Napoleon III gave him the ducal title (1863) and was grateful to him but now looked upon his views as being too extreme and disregarded the advice that Persigny, frustrated by inactivity, continued to send. Gradually their relations deteriorated, particularly as Persigny and the empress Eugénie were bitter enemies. Persigny’s Mémoires appeared in 1896.