Gustave Bord

Gustave Bord (26 January 1852 – 21 April 1934) was a French historian, specialist on the French Revolution.

Biography

Gustave Bord was born in Limoges, the son of Alcide Bord, a public works contractor (who built the Penhoët and Boulogne-sur-Mer docks and participated in the construction of the Suez Canal) and to Joséphine Jazerat. He married Jeanne-Dolorès Lefebvre des Vallières in Saint-Nazaire on July 26, 1880. She was the daughter of the regent of the Bank of France, Anatole Lefebvre-Desvallières, and Louisa de Barberia, and a first cousin of George Desvallières. The couple had two sons: Georges (1881) and Jacques (1882), both born in the same commune of Saint-Nazaire.

His first historical studies, already undertaken in the Revue de la Bretagne et de la Vendée, concern this region, such as "Saint Nazaire under the Revolution" (1881) and mainly "The storming of the Bastille and the consequences of this event in the provinces until the days of October 3-5, 1789" (1882). A convinced legitimist and animated by a great Christian faith, he was one of the five members of the monarchist party who attended the funeral of the Count of Chambord in 1883. The same year, he founded with Charles d'Héricault the Revue de la Révolution and published (1884–1885), in collaboration with him, two important series of "Documents for the History of the French Revolution". He also tried to clarify "The truth about the conviction of Louis XVI" (1885).

Twenty-five years later, he published a series of masterpieces, including "The Revolutionary Conspiracy of 1789, the Accomplices, the Victims" (1909) as well as "Freemasonry in France, from the Origins to 1815" (1909), and shortly thereafter, a series of "Studies on the Question of Louis XVII. Around the Temple (1792–1795)", in 4 volumes published in 1912 where he concludes to the survival of the Dauphin. Although he was wealthy because of his inheritance, he was unable to combine his father's business with his work in history. The considerable expenses necessary for his research having almost ruined him, he was forced to give up at low prices art objects and most of a collection of documents and autographs on the Revolution and to establish himself in Saint-Malo as a professor of history at the free college.

In 1907, he lost an eye, but he continued his untiring work of erudition. He was a regular contributor to L'Intermédiaire des chercheurs et curieux, directed by his friend Georges Montorgueil, and collaborated with various newspapers and periodicals, mainly Le Salut of Saint-Malo. During the years 1913 and 1914, he provided the Revue internationale des sociétés secrètes with a series devoted to the Bavarian Illuminati and maintained, alongside Charles Nicoullaud, a polemic around the subject of the "unknown Superiors" against René Guénon. After the war, as a tribute to his merits as a historian, the Académie Française paid him a modest grant for a few years. He died in Saint-Malo on April 21, 1934, leaving a body of work that includes no less than twenty-five books and pamphlets.

References

• Odoevsky Maslov, Loup (2020). "Gustave Bord, Gloire et Ruine d'un Nazairien. Première Partie: La Montée en Gloire", Histoire & Patrimoine, No. 99, pp. 46–59.
• Odoevsky Maslov, Loup (2021). "Gustave Bord, Gloire et Ruine d'un Nazairien. Seconde Partie: Ivresse de la Fortune et Chute", Histoire & Patrimoine, No. 100, pp. 32–49.

External links

• Works by Gustave Bord at Gallica
• Le Château des Charmilles, dit Chateau de Porcé, à Saint-Nazaire