Jean Baptiste Villèle

Born Apr. 4, 1773, in Toulouse; died there Mar. 13, 1854. Count; French statesman and politician.

During the Great French Revolution Villele lived on Reunion Island; he returned to France in 1807. After the restoration of the Bourbons in 1815 he was appointed mayor of Toulouse, and he led the white terror. In 1815 he was elected to the Chamber of Deputies, where he became a leader of the Ultraroyalists. Villele was minister without portfolio in A. E. Richelieu’s government during 1820-21 and head of the government from 1822 to 1827. The activity of Villele’s cabinet was characterized by its adoption of reactionary laws on the restriction of the press, on sacrilege, and on compensation for royalist emigres. After receiving instructions from the Holy Alliance, Villele carried out a military intervention against the revolution in Spain.