born April 1, 1753, Chambéry, France
died Feb. 26, 1821, Turin, kingdom of Sardinia
French polemical writer and diplomat.
A member of the Savoy senate, he moved to Switzerland after the French invasion of Savoy in 1792. He served under the king of Sardinia as envoy to Russia (180317), then settled in Turin as chief magistrate and minister of state of the Sardinian kingdom. He was an exponent of the absolutist, conservative tradition and opposed the progress of science and liberal beliefs in such works as Essay on the Generative Principle of Political Constitutions (1814), On the Pope (1819), and The St. Petersburg Dialogues (1821). It was as a logical thinker, pursuing consequences from an accepted premise, that Maistre excelled.