Broglie family

   A French family descended from a 17th century Piedmontese noble Francesco maria broglia, who entered the service of France and, in 1643, received the title of count de Broglie. The most important of his descendants, many of whom served France as soldiers, statesmen, or scientists, include his son, Victor Maurice, count de Broglie (1646-1727), who was named marshal of France in 1724. François-Marie Broglie (1671-1745), third son of Victor Maurice, was made a marshal of France in 1734 and won military victories in Italy (Parma, Guastalla), and was made duke of Broglie in 1742. Victor François, duke de Broglie (1718-1804), the son of François Marie, was born in Munster and distinguished himself during the seven years' war. He was named marshal of France and prince of the Holy Roman Empire in 1759. He emigrated at the time of the revolution of 1789, and led the princes' army (1792) before entering the service of the Russian czar. Charles Louis Victor de Broglie (1756-94), son of Victor François, was a deputy for the nobility to the estates general in 1789. He was executed during the Terror. Achille Léon Charles Victor, duke de Broglie (1785-1870) was born in Paris, a descendant of the third duke de Broglie. He entered the diplomatic service under Napoléon Bonaparte and was charged with several diplomatic missions during the Empire. He was later a member of the Chamber of Peers under the Restoration. A constitutional moderate and a liberal, desirous of reconciling the gains of the Revolution with the political regime of the Restoration, he supported louis-philippe after the july revolution of 1830. He then served as premier (1835-36) and as a minister. Elected a representative to the Legislative Assembly after the revolution of 1848, he took a position against the democratic movement and retired from political life after December 2, 1851. His Souvenirs (4 volumes, posthumous, 1885-88) are a useful reference for the Napoleonic and restoration periods. Achille, duke de Broglie was elected to the Académie Française in 1855. Albert, duke de Broglie (18211901), the son of Achille, was born in Paris and, under the Third Republic, was an Orléanist deputy to the National Assembly (1871). He also served as ambassador to London (1871-72). He played a role in the downfall of louis-adolphe thiers (May 24, 1873) and his government, and became deputy premier but had to resign after the second attempt to restore monarchy failed (see chambord, count of) in May 1874. Recalled by Marshal edme mac-mahon to lead the government after the dismissal of jules Simon (May 16-17, 1877) for trying to bring the ordre moral to power, he dissolved the chamber, which had a republican majority, but was forced to resign himself after a new republican victory in the election of November 19, 1877. Albert de Broglie is also the author of a number of works on European history—L'Église et l'Empire romain au IVe siècle (1856-66), Frédéric II et Marie-Thérèse (1882), Mémoires de Talleyrand (1891)—and was elected to the Académie Française in 1862. Maurice, duke de Broglie (1875-1960), the grandson of Albert, was born in Neuilly-sur-Seine. A physicist, he studied the spectrums of x-rays, and invented a method of determining crystalline structures by diffraction (the revolving crystal method) and discovered the photoelectrical nuclear effect (1921). He was elected to the Academy of Sciences in 1924 and to the Académie Française in 1934. Louis, (later duke) de Broglie (1892-1987), the brother of Maurice, was born in Dieppe and was also a physicist. A Nobel laureate, he made important contributions to the theory of quantum mechanics. The founder of ondulatory mechanics, he demonstrated that all corpuscles can be considered as a wave (and vice versa), and established the formula that allowed the calculation of a wave as it is associated with a particle ("De Broglie's formula"). In his work, he attempted to rationalize the dual nature of matter and energy, and his studies of electromagnetic radiation form the basis for the modern quantum theory. He also published popular works on science (La Physique nouvelle et les Quanta 1937). Louis de Broglie, a professor of theoretical physics at the university of Paris, was awarded the Nobel Prize in physics in 1929, was elected to the Academy of Sciences in 1933 and the Académie Française in 1944, and in 1945 became adviser to the French Atomic Energy Commission.