FALLOUX DU COUDRAY, FRÉDÉRIC-AL-FRED-PIERRE de. — French politician, born on 7 May 1811 at Angers, died there on 6 January 1885. Descended from a family of merchants ennobled in 1823 by Louis XVIII with the title of viscount, he pursued his studies at the college in his native city, from which he went to Paris. In the capital he frequented the circle of a Russian lady converted to Catholicism by De Maistre, Madame Swetchine, who decisively influenced the formation of his character in a monarchist and Catholic direction.
In 1840 he published a Histoire de Louis XVI, in which he exalted the « ancien régime », followed four years later by the Histoire de la Pie V, pape, de l'Ordre des Frères précheurs, a pontiff whom F. counts among the greatest figures in the history of the Church. Elected deputy in 1846, he joined the Legitimist right. At the fall of the July Monarchy he gave his support to the Republic. Opposed to the ateliers nationaux, he proposed, as rapporteur of the parliamentary commission established for them, their abolition, which led to the Paris uprising of June 1848, suppressed by General Cavaignac. Favorable to the candidacy of Louis Napoleon Bonaparte for the presidency of the Republic, on 20 December 1848 he became Minister of Public Instruction and Religious Affairs. He appointed an extra-parliamentary commission for the reform of education, composed of 24 members and chaired by Thiers; this commission drafted the so-called F. law, approved by the National Assembly on 13 March 1850. By virtue of this law, the Church was assured broad influence and freedom in primary education, and Catholic secondary schools received considerable encouragement; their opening was made subject only to the presentation of a certificate of competence to be awarded by special state examining commissions. F. left the ministry several months before the law was approved (Parieu had succeeded him on 31 October 1849) and was arrested after the coup d’état of 2 December 1851; nor was he ever again elected deputy. In 1867 he took part in the congress of Malines. After the fall of the Second Empire he favored the fusion of the Legitimists and the Orleanists.