Research topic: Jean Baptiste Seraphin Joseph comte de Villele

Jean Baptiste Séraphin Joseph Villèle, comte de , 1773-1854, French statesman and premier (1822-28). Elected (1815) a deputy after the Bourbon restoration, he became leader of the extreme royalists in the chamber of deputies. He entered the ministry of the duc de Richelieu in 1820, and in 1822 King Louis XVIII named him president of the council, or premier. He stabilized France's finances to such a degree that they remained sound until the 20th cent. His reactionary government suppressed press freedom, intervened (1823) in Spain against Spanish revolutionaries, prolonged (1824) the... Read more