Garnier-pagès, Louis Antoine

Related Category: French History: Biographies

(lwē äNtwän´ gärnyā´-päzhĕs´), 1803–78, French politician. Becoming active in politics after his brother's death, he was elected (1842) to the chamber of deputies. He opposed the government of King Louis Philippe and was a leader of the banquet campaign (1847–48) that helped bring about its downfall in the February Revolution of 1848. He was mayor of Paris and finance minister in the provisional government (1848). After 1864 he was a member of the parliamentary opposition to Emperor Napoleon III, and in 1870–71 he was a member of the government of national defense, formed after Napoleon's defeat at Sedan in the Franco-Prussian War.