Louis, Duke of Blacas

Early life

He was born in London on 15 April 1815 during the Hundred Days, as the elder son of Pierre-Louis de Blacas d'Aulps, 1st Duke of Blacas and his wife, Henriette-Marie-Félicité du Bouchet de Sourches de Montsoreau (1780-1856). His godfather was Louis XVIII, King of France.

Career

Louis was educated first in France and then in Austria where his father had followed the exiled royal family in 1836. He returned in France only in 1844. He became an antiquarian like his father, inheriting and expanding his father's extraordinary collection of Greek vases, engraved gems and antique coins, cameos (including the famous Blacas Cameo of Augustus) and jewels. He was particularly interested in numismatics. He translated into French, under the title Histoire de la monnaie romaine (Paris 1866), the Geschichte des Römischen Münzwesens (History of Roman Coinage) of Theodor Mommsen (Berlin 1860), with additional notes signed B. The book is still often quoted using the Blacas translation rather than the original German version. Blacas was a member of the Societé des Antiquaires de France and served as its secretary from 1864 to 1865.

After his father's death, Blacas defended him against allegations of unscrupulous gains made by the Duke of Ragusa. He fully supported his father's political views. Like his father, he was an ardent Legitimist. He succeeded him as a premier gentilhomme de la chambre to the exiled Legitimist claimant, the duc d'Angoulême. Blacas was a devoted follower of the duc d'Angoulême's successor, the comte de Chambord, whom he had known since childhood and whom he served all his life. His brother, Count Xavier de Blacas d'Aulps (1819-1876), served the comte similarly. However, contrary to his father and to his own son (who later served as mayor and deputy), Blacas did not directly take part in the political life of the Second Empire.