Conférence: Une famille influente sous le 1er Empire: le clan Perregaux par Nicolas Liénert

Jean-Frédéric Perregaux, president of the regency council of the Bank of France, was at the heart of a powerful network of alliances. He belonged to a group of Neuchâtel merchants and bankers established in Paris. In Neuchâtel, the stronghold of Marshal Berthier, his brother rose to the highest positions in the principality. Encouraged by the clan's marriage pacts with Marshals Marmont and Macdonald, his nephew, Charles Alexandre de Perregaux, embarked on a brilliant military career, which he continued under the Restoration and the July Monarchy. A shared past at Madame Campan's boarding house connected the banker's daughter, who became Duchess of Ragusa, to Queen Hortense, thus forging a valuable link with the Beauharnais clan. A brother-in-law, David François de Gaudot, a leading diplomat and philosopher, maintained friendly ties with the opposition circle gathered around Madame de Staël. The substantial collection of personal writings housed in the Perregaux family archives in Neuchâtel offers a documented account of this crossroads of personal trajectories, a tapestry woven between loyalty and betrayal. It also sheds light on the fragility of an imperial fiefdom resisting the accelerated pace of history imposed by its new rulers. ► Nicolas Liénert lives between Zurich and Cerneux-Péquignot (Canton of Neuchâtel). After studying history and philosophy, he dedicated himself to teaching and headed a Zurich high school. For over a decade, he has devoted himself to the personal writings of the Perregaux family. He is also president and curator of the Archives of Everyday Life, an institution dedicated to the study of the history of Neuchâtel sensibilities. He has published several studies, including "Becoming a Woman in Her Own Right: The Love Correspondence of Marie de Perregaux, the First Female Lawyer in Neuchâtel" (2020) and "From Principality to Republic" (2023). ► Discover Napoleonica conferences: https://fondationnapoleon.org/activit...