CAMBACERES
, Jean-Jacques-Régis, Duke of Parma (Montpellier, October 18, 1753 - Paris, May 1, 1824).
Advisor to the Montpellier Court of Auditors, unlucky candidate for the Estates General in 1789, Cambacérès represented the Hérault at the Convention in 1792. He distinguished himself there by his extreme caution. After the fall of Robespierre, he joined the Committee of Public Safety, met the young Bonaparte who subjugated him. Elected to the Council of Five Hundred, he was considered too moderate to be elected director. Minister of Justice, July 20, 1798, thanks to the protection of Sieyès, he steeped in the plot of 18-Brumaire, became second consul. Along with Lucien and Lebrun, he was one of Bonaparte's mentors, playing an essential role in the development of the Concordat and the Civil Code. As Taine notes,
not very brilliant in spirit, the second consul had rare good sense and boundless devotion to the First Consul”. He presides over the conservative Senate, organizes the Consulate for life, rallies without enthusiasm to the imperial idea. In compensation for the loss of second place in the state apparatus, he was a councilor of state and a member of the Privy Council, received enormous gratuities, was made Duke of Parma in March 1808. Archchancellor of the Empire, poorly defined function, Cambaceres is consulted by Napoleon on all important issues and plays a moderating role. He is not always listened to and the divorce, the expeditions to Spain and Russia are made despite his reservations. When the Emperor was in the army, it was he who exercised the interim, but his daily letters to Napoleon clearly show his total subordination and the absence of any right to initiative. Although he refused to perform his duties during the Hundred Days, Louis XVIII banished him. After two years of stay in Brussels, he obtains to return to Paris. La Revellière-Lépeaux finely noted that he was "even more famous for his childish vanity than known for the designated talents with which he was really endowed, a fine, flexible, slender man...". His table was reputed to be the best in Paris, but the atmosphere was boring and stuffy. The colorful outfits of Cambacérès, his mania for decorations made him the fable of the capital.