Charles Maurras (20 April 1868-16 November 1952) was a French ultra right-wing intellectual and the principal philosopher of Action Francaise.
Biography[]
Charles Maurras was born in Martigues, France in 1868, and he was brought up in a Catholic and monarchist family. In his early teens he became deaf, and he became a literary critic at the age of 17, also becoming an agnostic. He became involved in politics at the time of the Dreyfus Affair, endorsing the forgery blaming Alfred Dreyfus due to his refusal to weaken the French Army and the justice system. In 1899, he founded Action Francaise, a monarchist and chauvinist party. He supported his party through various anti-Semitic and anti-clerical writings, and he backed the Vichy government during World War II. He was sentenced to lifelong imprisonment in 1945, but was released in the year of his death, 1952.