François-Alexandre-Frédéric, duc de La Rochefoucauld-Liancourt
François-Alexandre-Frédéric, duc de La Rochefoucauld-Liancourt (born January 11, 1747, La Roche-Guyon, France—died March 27, 1827, Paris) was an educator and social reformer who founded the École Nationale Supérieure des Arts et Métiers at Châlons and whose model farm at Liancourt contributed to the development of French agriculture.
La Rochefoucauld-Liancourt, the son of François-Armand de La Rochefoucauld, duc d’Estissac, served in the army and, after going to England in 1769 to study farming methods, established his model farm, where he raised English and Swiss breeds of cattle and experimented with soils and grasses. He also founded an arts and crafts school for the children of poor soldiers, which in 1788 became the École des Enfants de la Patrie under the patronage of King Louis XVI. A representative of the nobility of Clermont and Beauvais, he went to the States General of 1789, became president of the Assembly on July 18, and defended the interests of the royal party. When the Bastille prison fell on July 14 and the king exclaimed, “Why, this is a revolt!” he replied, “No, sire, it is a revolution.” He served as president of the medical committee of the National Assembly and established cotton mills at Liancourt in 1790.
Appointed to the command of a military division in Normandy, La Rochefoucauld-Liancourt offered Louis XVI a refuge in Rouen and, failing in that effort, donated a large sum of money for his support. After the capture of the king’s palace in Paris in August 1792, he fled to England and then to the United States, not returning to France until 1799. During the Napoleonic era, he served on state commissions dealing with health, manufacturing, and prisons; he continued to sponsor progressive reforms, including the introduction of smallpox vaccination. He was a member of the Société de la Morale Chrétienne and a leader in the movement to abolish slavery. From 1800 to 1823 he served as government inspector of his school of arts and crafts, which had been moved to Châlons. In 1814 he was made a peer of France by Louis XVIII, and, on his return to Liancourt in 1825, he established one of the first savings banks.
La Rochefoucauld-Liancourt’s writings, primarily on economic questions, include books on the English system of taxation, relief of the poor, and education, as well as on his experiences in the United States.