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THIERRY

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Originally appearing in Volume V26, Page 848 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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THIERRY , the name of two See also:

French historians, the See also:brothers Augustin and Amedee, both of whom, though their See also:literary and See also:historical See also:powers were far from being equal, displayed the same devotion to historical study. I. JACQUES See also:NICOLAS AUGUSTIN THIERRY (1795-1856), the See also:elder and more gifted, was See also:born at See also:Blois on the loth of May 1795. He had no advantages of See also:birth or See also:fortune, but was greatly distinguished at the Blois See also:Grammar School, and entered the Ecole normale superieure (1811). In 18r3 he See also:left it, and was sent as a See also:professor to See also:Compiegne, but stayed there a very See also:short See also:time. His ardent and generous nature led him to embrace the ideas of the French Revolution with See also:enthusiasm, and he became fired with See also:Saint See also:Simon's ideal society of the future. He became the secretary, and, as he would say himself, the " adopted son " of the famous visionary (1814—17); but, while most of Saint Simon's followers turned their See also:attention to the affairs of See also:life, devoting themselves to the problems, both theoretical and See also:practical, of See also:political See also:economy, Thierry turned his to See also:history. His See also:imagination had been powerfully impressed by See also:reading See also:Les Martyrs, in which See also:Chateaubriand had contrasted the two civilizations and the two races from which the See also:modern See also:world has sprung. His romantic ardour was later still further nourished by the See also:works of See also:Sir See also:Walter See also:Scott, and though he did not himself actually write romances, his conception of history fully recognized the dramatic See also:element. His See also:main ideas on the Germanic invasions, the See also:Norman See also:Conquest, the formation of the Communes, the See also:gradual ascent of the nations towards See also:free See also:government and See also:parliamentary institutions are already observable in the articles contributed by him to the Censeur europeen (1817—20), and later in his Lettres sur l'histoire de See also:France (182o). From See also:Fauriel he learnt to use the See also:original authorities; and by the aid of the Latin See also:chronicles and the collection, as yet very See also:ill understood, of the Anglo-Saxon See also:laws, he composed his Histoire de la Conqufte de l'Angleterre See also:par les Normands, the See also:appearance of which was greeted with See also:great enthusiasm (1825). It was written in a See also:style at once precise and picturesque, and was dominated by an See also:idea, at once generous and false, that of Anglo-Saxon See also:liberty resisting the invasions of See also:northern barbarians, and reviving, in spite of defeat, in the parliamentary See also:monarchy.

His See also:

artistic See also:talent as a writer makes the weaknesses and deficiencies of his See also:scholar-See also:ship less obvious. This See also:work, the preparation of which had required several years of hard work, cost Thierry his See also:eye-sight; in 1826 he was obliged to engage secretaries and in 186o became quite See also:blind. Notwithstanding, he continued to See also:pro-duce works. In 1827 he republished his Lettres sur l'histoire de France, with the addition of fifteen new ones, in which he described some of the more striking episodes in the history of the rise of the See also:medieval communes. The chronicles of the rith and 12th centuries and a few communal charters provided him, without requiring a great amount of erudition, with materials for a solid work. For this See also:reason his work on the communes has not become so out of date as his Norman See also:Con-quest; but he was too See also:apt to generalize from the facts furnished by a few striking cases which occurred in a small portion of France, and helped to spread among the public, and even among professional historians, mistaken ideas concerning one of the most complex problems See also:relating to the social origins of France. Thierry was ardent in his See also:applause of the See also:July Revolution and the See also:triumph of liberal ideas; at this time, too, his See also:brother Amedee was appointed See also:prefect, and he went to live with him for four years. He now re-edited, under the See also:title of See also:Dix ans d'etudes historiques, his first essays in the Censeur europeen and the Courrier See also:francais (1834), and composed his Recits See also:des temps merovingiens, in which he reproduced in a vivid and dramatic See also:form some of the most characteristic stories of See also:Gregory of See also:Tours. These Recits appeared first . in the Revue des deux mondes; when collected in See also:volume form, they were preceded by See also:long and interesting Considerations sur l'histoire de France. From the 7th of May 1830, Thierry had already been a member of the Academie des See also:Inscriptions et Belles Lettres; in 1841, on the See also:motion of See also:Villemain, the French See also:Academy awarded him the first Prix Gobert, which became a See also:kind of literary See also:inheritance for him, being renewed in his favour fifteen years in See also:succession. Moreover, he had been allotted the task of See also:publishing in the See also:series of the Documents inedits a selection of acts bearing on the history of the Third See also:Estate. By the aid of zealous collaborators (including Bourquelot and Louandre) he compiled, in four volumes, a valuable Recueil des monuments inedits de l'histoire du Tiers Etat (1850-7o), which, however, See also:bear only on the northern See also:part of France.

The See also:

preface appeared afterwards in a See also:separate volume under the title of Histoire du Tiers Etat. To Thierry belongs the See also:credit for inaugurating in France the really See also:critical study of the communal institutions, and we cannot make him responsible for the neglect into which it relapsed after his See also:death. The last years of his life were clouded by domestic griefs and by illness. In 1844 he lost his wife, Julie de Querengal, an intelligent woman, who had been to him a collaborator as capable as she was devoted. The revolution of 1848 inflicted on him a final See also:blow. by overturning that regime of the Liberal bourgeoisie the triumph of which he had hailed and justified as the necessary outcome of the whole course of French history. He began to distrust the rationalistic opinions which had hitherto estranged him from the See also:Church. When See also:Catholic writers animadverted on the " historical errors " in his writings he promised to correct them, and accordingly we find that in the final edition of his Histoire de la Conqueete his severe judgments on the policy of the See also:court of See also:Rome, together with some faults of detail, are eliminated. Though he did not renounce his Liberal See also:friends, he sought the conversation of enlightened priests, and just before his death he seems to have been disposed to enter the See also:pale of the Church. He died in See also:Paris on the 22nd of May 1856, after several years of suffering endured with heroism. II. AMEDEE SIMON DOMINIQUE THIERRY (1797-1873) was the younger brother of Augustin, and was born on the 2nd See also:August 1797.

He began life See also:

asa journalist (after an See also:essay, like his brother, at schoolmastering), was connected with the famous romantic See also:harbinger the Globe, and obtained a small government clerkship. His first See also:book was a brief history of See also:Guienne in 1825, and three years later appeared the first volume of the Histoire des Gaulois, which was received with much favour, and obtained him, from the royalist premier See also:Martignac, a history professor-ship at See also:Besancon. He was, however, thought too liberal for the government of See also:Charles X., and his lectures were stopped, with the result of securing him, after the revolution, the important See also:post of prefect of the Haute-See also:Saone, which he held eight years. During this time he published nothing. In 1838 he was transferred to the See also:council of See also:state as See also:master of See also:requests, which post he held through the revolution of 1848 and the coup d' Nat till 186o, when he was made senator—a paid See also:office, it must be remembered, and, in effect, a lucrative See also:sinecure. He also passed through all the ranks of the See also:Legion of See also:Honour, became a member of the Academie des Inscriptions in 1841, and in 1862 received the honorary degree of D.C.L. at See also:Oxford. He had, except during the time of his prefecture, never intermitted his literary work, being a See also:constant contributor to the Revue des deux mondes, his articles (usually worked up afterwards into books) almost all dealing with See also:Roman See also:Gaul and its See also:period. The See also:chief were the Histoire des Gaulois, 3 vols. (1828, 1834, 1845; the 8th edition of vol. i. appeared in 187o); Histoire de la Gaule sous l'See also:administration romaine (3 vols., 1840-47 2nd ed. 1871); Histoire d'See also:Attila, de ses fels et successeurs jusqu'd l'etablissement des Hongrois en See also:Europe (1856; 5th ed. in 1874); Tableau de l'See also:Empire romain (1862; 5th ed. in 1871; now quite out of date); Recits de l'histoire romaine au Ve siecle: la lutte contre les Barbares, and les luttes religieuses (186o; 2nd ed. in 6 vols. 188o). He died in Paris on the 27th of See also:March 1873.

His son, See also:

Gilbert Augustin Thierry (born 1843), who began a literary career by articles on Les Revolutions d'Angleterre (1864) and some Essais d'histoire religieuse (1867), afterwards confined himself to the See also:writing of novels. (C.

End of Article: THIERRY

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