FALLOUX DU COUDRAY, Frédéric-Alfred-Pierre de. - French politician, b. 1 May 1811 at Angers, d. there 6 Jan. 1885. Descended from a family of merchants ennobled in 1823 by Louis XVIII with the title of viscount, he pursued his studies at the local college before moving 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 extolled the ancien régime, followed four years later by the *Histoire de St. Pie V, pape, de l'Ordre des Frères prêcheurs*, a pontiff whom F. counted among the greatest figures in Church history. Elected deputy in 1846, he joined the legitimist right. Upon the fall of the July Monarchy, he gave his support to the Republic. Opposed to nationalist excesses, as rapporteur for the parliamentary commission established to address them, he proposed their abolition, which led to the June 1848 riots, quelled by General Cavaignac. Favourable to the candidacy of Louis Napoleon Bonaparte for the presidency of the Republic, he became on 20 Dec. 1848 Minister of Public Instruction and Religious Affairs. He appointed an extra-parliamentary commission of 24 members, presided over by Thiers, to reform education; this commission drafted the so-called Falloux Law, approved by the National Assembly on 15 March 1850. Under this law, the Church was granted broad influence and freedom in primary education, and Catholic secondary schools received significant encouragement, their establishment being contingent only on the presentation of a state-issued teaching certificate. F. left the ministry several months before the law’s approval (he was succeeded on 31 Oct. 1849 by Parieu) and was arrested after the coup d’état of 2 Dec. 1851; he was never again elected deputy. In 1867 he took part in the Malines Congress. After the fall of the Second Empire, he supported the fusion of legitimists and Orléanists.