Life of Saint Elizabeth of Hungary - Duchess of Thuringia #271320

Charles Forbes René De Montalembert was born in London May 29, 1810.His grandfather, Count Jean de Montalembert, was one of the noblemen who were driven from France by the Bevolution; and his father, who was fifteen years of age at the time of the emigration, took service with the English army in India. In 1808 the latter married the only child of James Forbes, an English gentleman who had spent several years in India, and was a writer upon philosophical and scientific subjects.<br><br>After the restoration, Charles' father returned to France, was made Minister Plenipotentiary to Stuttgart by Louis XVIII, and afterwards served as Ambassador to Sweden under Charles X.<br><br>The first eight years of our author's life were spent in Loudon, at the home of his grandfather, Mr. James Forbes. He was educated at the College Sainte-Barbe, in Paris, and in 1831, upon the death of his father, entered the Chamber of Peers.<br><br>The revolution of 1848 abolished the Chamber of Peers, and the following year Montalembert was elected a member of the National Assembly, for the Department of Doabs, the old province of Franche-Comté.<br><br>In 1852 he was elected a member of the French Academy.