Alexandre Auguste Ledru-Rollin (2 February 1807-31 December 1874) was the leader of the socialist faction of French politics at the time of the French Revolution of 1848. After the revolution's failure, Ledru-Rollin was forced into exile.
Biography[]
Alexandre Auguste Ledru-Rollin was born in Paris, France on 2 February 1807, and he was a new lawyer at the time of the July Revolution in 1830. He became a member of the Republican cause in French politics, becoming the deputy for Le Mans in the Chamber of Deputies in 1841. Under King Louis Philippe I, he made large contributions to French jurisprudence, and he also became a notable political writer. Ledru-Rollin used his journalism to champion the laborers of France, leading to even liberals opposing his views. He helped to engineer the French Revolution of 1848 with his inflammatory rhetoric, and he became a member of the Executive Commission of the French Second Republic, unlike fellow radical leader Louis Blanc. In 1849, he led a failed attempt to impeach President Louis-Napoleon Bonaparte, forcing him to go into exile in London, England. He did not return to France until the downfall of the Second French Empire in 1870, and he was elected to the National Assembly in 1874. He died that same year.