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Felix Faure

Felix Francois Faure (30 January 1841-16 February 1899) was President of France from 17 January 1895 to 16 February 1899, succeeding Jean Casimir-Perier and preceding Emile Loubet.

Biography[]

Felix Francois Faure was born in Paris, France in 1841, and he worked as a tanner and merchant in Le Havre before entering politics as a member of the left-wing Republican Union and being elected to the Chamber of Deputies in 1881. From 1882 to 1885, he served as Under-Secretary for the Colonies in Jules Ferry's administration, and again under Pierre Tirard in 1888. In 1894, he was unexpectedly elected President of the French Third Republic on Jean-Casimir Perier's resignation. He granted amnesty to the anarchist movement in 1895, took Marguerite Steinheil as his high-profile mistress in 1897, was unimpressed with France's booming automobile industry after 1898, concluded an alliance with the Russian Empire, and controversially regarded the Dreyfus affair as a settled matter, resulting in Emile Zola's J'accuse! letter. On 16 February 1899, he died of a seizure while receiving oral sex from his mistress, generating numerous puns and jokes about his unusual manner of death.

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