Vicomte de La Guéronnière
(1816-1875)

Louis Étienne Arthur du Breuil, vicomte de La Guéronnière, was a French politician and aristocrat, and a member of the notable Poitou family. He was also a journalist and noted pamphleteer.

The second son of five children of an old aristocratic family, Arthur de la Guéronnière was born at the Château de Thouron, near Limoges, into the ancient nobility of Poitou. His literary career only began in 1840 with some articles published in L’Avenir national, a legitimist journal founded at Limoges by his older brother, Alfred, comte de la Guéronnière. An admirer of René Chauteaubriand and Alphonse de Lamartine, Arthur espoused a belief in legitimacy sanctioned by popular sovereignty. During the February Revolution of 1848, he moved to Paris, becoming a 'republican' and Lamartine's aide. His Portraits politiques, published shortly before the coup d’état which brought Louis-Napoléon to power, established him as one of the most important journalists in Paris.

At first he angrily opposed Louis-Napoléon but was gradually converted into supporting him. Although he condemned the coup d'état of December 1851, he soon openly declared his loyalty to the new regime. He became more or less the pamphleteer of Louis Napoléon and his regime and was generously rewarded for his services, eventually with a seat in the Senate (5 July 1861). It was there that his career as semi-official pamphleteer ended, but he remained outspoken on the issues of the day and made a number of notable speeches as a senator, particularly on the questions of Italy and of the development of liberty in France.