Jules de Polignac (14 May 1780 – 2 March 1847) was Prime Minister of France from 8 August 1829 to 29 July 1830, succeeding Jean-Baptiste de Martignac and preceding Jacques Lafitte. He was a leader of the reactionary Ultra-Royalists under Charles X of France, and his implementation of the Four Ordinances in 1830 led to the July Revolution.
Biography[]
Jules de Polignac was born to a family of French nobles in Versailles on 14 May 1780, and his family was forced to go into exile as a result of the French Revolution. In 1804, he joined Georges Cadoudal and Jean-Charles Pichegru during their conspiracy against Emperor Napoleon I, and he was imprisoned until 1813. In 1820, after the Bourbon Restoration, he was made a prince, and he became Louis XVIII of France's ambassador to the United Kingdom in 1823. He became the leader of the Ultra-Royalists faction of French politics, supporting Charles X of France's rule, and he was responsible for the passage of the Four Ordinances of July 1830 as premier, censoring the press, dissolving the Chamber of Deputies, scheduling new elections, and restricting the electorate to weaken the moderate royalists and liberals. This led to the July Revolution, and he was imprisoned at Ham until 1836, when he was exiled. He lived in England for years, later settling in St. Germain after he was allowed to return home on the condition that he not head to Paris. He died in 1847.