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{{Short description|French author, politician, poet, and critic (1868–1952)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=July 2020}}
{{Infobox philosopher
| region = [[Western philosophy]]
| era = [[20th century philosophy]]
| name = Charles Maurras
| image = File:Charles Maurras, photo Studio Harcourt, 1937.jpg
| caption = Maurras in 1937
| birth_name=Charles-Marie-Photius Maurras
| birth_date = {{birth date|1868|4|20|df=y}}
| birth_place = [[Martigues]], [[Bouches-du-Rhône]], [[Second French Empire]]
| death_date = {{death date and age|1952|11|16|1868|04|20|df=y}}
| death_place = [[Tours]], [[Fourth French Republic]]
| school_tradition = {{hlist |''[[Maurrassisme]]'' |[[Positivism]] |[[Royalism]] |[[Integral nationalism]] |[[Reactionism]]}}
| main_interests = [[Political philosophy]]
| notable_ideas =
| notable_works = {{Flatlist}} 
* ''[[Enquête sur la monarchie]]''
* ''[[L'Avenir de l'intelligence]]''
* ''[[Kiel et Tanger]]''
* ''[[Devant l'Allemagne éternelle]]''
{{Endflatlist}}
| awards        = [[Order of the Francisque]]
| signature        = [[File:Signature de Charles Maurras.png|150px]]
}}
'''Charles-Marie-Photius Maurras''' ({{IPAc-en|m|ɔː|ˈ|r|ɑː|s}};<ref>{{YouTube|id=ZhpxIN0jQFk|French Resistance 1940 - WW2|time=9m06s}}</ref> {{IPA|fr|ʃaʁl moʁas|lang}}; 20 April 1868 – 16 November 1952) was a French author, politician, poet and critic. He was an organiser and principal philosopher of ''[[Action Française]]'', a political movement that was [[monarchist]], [[medievalism|medievalist]], [[conservative]], [[corporatism|corporatist]], [[integralist]], [[nationalist]], [[Traditionalist conservatism|traditionalist]], and [[counter-revolutionary]]. Maurras also held [[anti-capitalism|anti-capitalist]], [[anti-communist]], [[Liberalism#Criticism|anti-liberal]], [[Anti-Masonry|anti-Masonic]], [[Anti-fascism|anti-Nazi]], [[anti-Protestant]] and [[Antisemitism|antisemitic]] views. His ideas greatly influenced [[National Catholicism]] and [[integral nationalism]],<ref name=Rojas/> and led to the political doctrine of ''[[Maurrassisme]]''.

Raised [[Roman Catholic]], Maurras went deaf and became an [[Agnosticism|agnostic]] in his youth, but remained anti-secularist and politically supportive of the Catholic Church. An [[Orléanist]], he began his career by writing literary criticism and became politically active as a leading [[anti-Dreyfusard]]. In 1926 [[Pope Pius XI]] issued a controversial [[Papal condemnation of Action Francaise|papal condemnation of ''Action Française'']], which was swiftly repealed by [[Pope Pius XII]] in 1939. Maurras was elected to the [[Académie Française]] in 1938, and later expelled in 1945.

In 1936, after voicing death threats against the socialist politician [[Léon Blum]], Maurras was sentenced to eight months in [[La Santé Prison|La Santé]]. While imprisoned he received the support of [[Marie-Pauline Martin]], [[Henry Bordeaux]], Pius XI and up to 60,000 sympathetic citizens.<ref>{{cite book|author=Stéphane Giocanti|title=Charles Maurras : le chaos et l'ordre|year=2006|language=French|pages=392–393}}</ref> During the [[Second World War]] Maurras opposed [[Nazi Germany]] and [[Fascist Italy]], but supported [[Vichy France]], believing that [[Free France]] was a [[puppet state]] of the [[Soviet Union]].<ref>Giocanti, p. 444-447</ref><ref>Octave Martin (alias Charles Maurras), "In the service of Hitler", ''Aspects of the France'', 3 February 1949.</ref> He explained his support for Vichy, writing: "As a royalist I never lost sight of the necessity of monarchy. But to enthrone the royal heir, the heritage had to be saved."<ref name="William">{{cite book|last=Tucker|first=William R.|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/2126615|title=The Legacy of Charles Maurras|work=The Journal of Politics Vol 17 No. 4|date=Nov 1955|volume=17 |issue=4 |pages=570–589 |publisher=University of Chicago Press, Southern Political Science Association |doi=10.2307/2126615 |jstor=2126615 |s2cid=154447641 }}</ref> After Vichy's collapse he was arrested and accused of complicity with the enemy.<ref name="William"/> Following a [[political trial]] he was convicted of incitement to murder, and received ''[[Indignité nationale]]'' and a life sentence. In 1951, after falling ill, he was transferred to a hospital and subsequently received a medical pardon. In his final days he reverted to Catholicism and received the [[last rites]] shortly before his death.

As a political theorist and major right-wing intellectual of 20th-century Europe, Maurras significantly influenced right-wing and [[Far-right politics|far-right]] ideologies, anticipating some of the ideas of [[fascism]].<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.britannica.com/biography/Charles-Maurras|title=Charles Maurras {{!}} French writer and political theorist|work=Encyclopedia Britannica|access-date=2018-07-19|language=en}}</ref> He has been described as the most important [[French conservative]] intellectual,<ref>{{cite web|author=[[Alain de Benoist]]|title=A Celebration of Conservative Politics in France|url=https://kirkcenter.org/reviews/a-celebration-of-conservative-politics-in-france/|work=Kirkcenter.org|date=20 March 2007}}</ref> and has directly influenced a large number of politicians, theorists, and writers on both the left and right. Maurras' legacy has remained controversial to this day. Critics have derided him as a "fascist icon", while supporters, including [[Georges Pompidou]], have praised him as a prophet. Others, including Macron, have taken a nuanced approach, with Macron stating: "I fight all the antisemitic ideas of Maurras, but I find it absurd to say that Maurras must no longer exist."<ref>{{cite web |last=Pinkoski |first=Nathan |date=November 2019 |title=The Revenge of Maurras |url=https://www.firstthings.com/article/2019/11/the-revenge-of-maurras |website=[[First Things]]}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |date=30 December 2020 |title=Macron criticized over comments on antisemitic figure Philippe Pétain |work=[[The Jerusalem Post]] |url=https://www.jpost.com/diaspora/macron-criticized-over-comments-on-antisemitic-figure-philippe-p%C3%A9tain-653570}}</ref>

{{Integralism|people}}

== Biography ==

=== Before the First World War ===
[[File:Charles Maurras 1877.jpg|thumb|left|125px|A young Maurras in 1877.]]
Maurras was born into a [[Provence|Provençal]] family, brought up by his mother and grandmother in a Catholic and monarchist environment. In his early teens, he became deaf.<ref name=Academie>[http://www.academie-francaise.fr/les-immortels/charles-maurras Biographical notice] on Maurras on the [[Académie française]]'s website {{in lang|fr}}</ref> Like many other French politicians, he was affected greatly by France's defeat in the 1870 [[Franco-Prussian War]].<ref name=Slama/> After the 1871 [[Commune of Paris]] and the 1879 defeat of [[Patrice de MacMahon]]'s [[Ordre Moral|Moral Order government]], French society slowly found a consensus for the [[French Third Republic]], symbolised by the rallying of the monarchist [[Orleanist]]s to the Republic. Maurras published his first article at the age of 17 years in the review ''[[Annales de philosophie chrétienne]]''.<ref name=Academie/> He then collaborated on various reviews, including [[L'Événement (1872)|''L'Événement'']], ''La Revue bleue'', ''[[La Gazette de France]]'' and ''La Revue encyclopédique'', in which he praised [[Classicism]] and attacked [[Romanticism]].<ref name=Academie/>

At some point during his youth Maurras lost his Catholic faith and became an [[agnostic]]. In 1887, at the age of seventeen, he came to Paris and began writing [[literary criticism]] in the Catholic and Orleanist ''Observateur''.<ref name=Slama>Alain-Gérard Slama, [http://coursenligne.sciences-po.fr/2004_2005/slama/seance_11b.pdf "Maurras (1858 (sic)-1952): ou le mythe d'une droite révolutionnaire"] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070926002014/http://coursenligne.sciences-po.fr/2004_2005/slama/seance_11b.pdf |date=26 September 2007}}, article first published in ''[[L'Histoire]]'' in 2002 {{in lang|fr}}</ref> At this time Maurras was influenced by Orleanism, as well as [[German philosophy]] reviewed by Catholic thinker [[Léon Ollé-Laprune]], an influence of [[Henri Bergson]], and by the philosopher [[Maurice Blondel]], one of the inspirations of Christian "modernists", who would later become his greatest opponents.<ref name=Slama/> He became acquainted with the Provençal poet [[Frédéric Mistral]] in 1888 and shared the [[federalist]] thesis of Mistral's [[Félibrige]] movement (see [[#Maurras and Félibrige|Maurras and Félibrige]]).<ref name=Slama/> The same year he met the nationalist writer [[Maurice Barrès]].<ref name=AF>[http://www.actionfrancaise.net/histoire-biographies-charles_maurras.htm Biographical notice] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071009034320/http://www.actionfrancaise.net/histoire-biographies-charles_maurras.htm |date=9 October 2007 }} on Maurras on the ''[[Action Française]]''{{'}}s website {{in lang|fr}}</ref>

In 1890 Maurras approved [[Cardinal Lavigerie]]'s call for the rallying of Catholics to the Republic, thus making his opposition not to the Republic in itself, but to "sectarian Republicanism".<ref name=Slama/>

Beside this Orleanist affiliation, Maurras shared some traits with [[Bonapartism]]. In December 1887 he demonstrated to the cry of "Down with the robbers!" during the [[:fr:Scandale des décorations de 1887|military decorations trafficking scandal]], which had involved [[:fr:Daniel Wilson (homme politique)|Daniel Wilson]], the son-in-law of President [[Jules Grévy]].<ref name=Slama/> Despite this, he initially opposed the nationalist-populist [[Georges Ernest Boulanger#The Boulangist movement|Boulangist]] philosophy.<ref name=Slama/> But in 1889, after a visit to Maurice Barrès, Barrès voted for the Boulangist candidate; despite his "[[anti-Semitism]] of the heart" ("''anti-sémitisme de coeur''"), he decided to vote for a [[Jew]].<ref name=Slama/>

During 1894–1895, Maurras briefly worked for Barrès' newspaper ''La Cocarde'' (The [[Cockade]]), although he sometimes opposed Barrès' opinions concerning the French Revolution.<ref name=Slama/> ''La Cocarde'' supported General [[Georges Ernest Boulanger]], who had become a threat to the parliamentary Republic in the late 1880s.

During a trip to Athens for the [[1896 Summer Olympics|first modern Olympic Games]] in 1896, Maurras came to criticise the [[Greek democracy|Greek democratic system]] of the ''[[polis]]'', which he considered doomed because of its internal divisions and its openness towards ''[[métèques]]'' (foreigners).<ref name=Slama/>

====Political involvement====
Maurras became involved in politics at the time of the [[Dreyfus affair]], becoming an anti-Dreyfusard. He endorsed [[Hubert-Joseph Henry]]'s forgery, blaming [[Alfred Dreyfus]], as he considered that defending Dreyfus weakened the Army and the justice system. According to Maurras, Dreyfus was to be sacrificed on the altar of [[national interest]].<ref name=Slama/> But while the Republican nationalist thinker Barrès accused Dreyfus of being guilty because of his Jewishness, Maurras went a step further, vilifying the "Jewish Republic".<ref name=Slama/> While Barrès' anti-Semitism originated both in [[scientific racism|pseudo-scientific racist]] contemporary theories and [[Biblical exegesis]], Maurras decried "scientific racism" in favor of a more radical "[[state anti-Semitism]]."<ref name=Slama/> 
Maurras assisted with the foundation of the nationalist and anti-Dreyfusard [[Ligue de la patrie française]] at the end of 1898, along with Maurice Barrès, the geographer [[Marcel Dubois]], the poet [[François Coppée]] and the critic and literature professor [[Jules Lemaître]].<ref>{{citation |last=Pierrard|first=Pierre|title=Les Chrétiens et l'affaire Dreyfus|page=180 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=UnPtSvuf2O0C&pg=PA180|access-date=2016-03-07 |year=1998|publisher=Editions de l'Atelier|isbn=978-2-7082-3390-4}}</ref>

In 1899 Maurras founded the review ''[[Action Française]]'' (AF), an offshoot of the newspaper created by [[Maurice Pujo]] and [[Henri Vaugeois]] the year preceding.<ref name=Academie/> Maurras quickly became influential in the movement, and converted Pujo and Vaugeois to monarchism, which became the movement's principal cause. With [[Léon Daudet]], he edited the movement's review, ''La [[Revue de l'Action Française]]'', which during 1908 became a daily newspaper with the shorter title ''[[L'Action Française]]''. The AF mixed [[integral nationalism]] with reactionary themes, shifting the [[liberal nationalism|nationalist ideology]], previously supported by left-wing Republicans, to the political right.<ref>[[Michel Winock|Winock, Michel]] (dir.), ''Histoire de l'extrême droite en France'' (1993)</ref> It had a wide readership during the implementation of the [[1905 law on the separation of Church and State]]. In 1899 he wrote a short notice in favour of monarchy, "Dictateur et roi" ("Dictator and King"), and then in 1900 his ''[[Enquête sur la monarchie]]'' (''Investigations on Monarchy''), published in the [[Legitimism|Legitimist]] mouthpiece ''La Gazette de France'', which made him famous. Maurras also published thirteen articles in the newspaper ''[[Le Figaro]]'' during 1901 and 1902, as well as six articles between November 1902 and January 1903 in [[Edouard Drumont]]'s anti-Semitic newspaper, ''[[La Libre Parole]]''.<ref name=AF/>

Between 1905 and 1908, when the ''[[Camelots du Roi]]'' monarchist league was initiated, Maurras introduced the concept of political activism through [[French far-right leagues|extra-parliamentary leagues]], theorising the possibility of a [[coup d'état]].<ref name=Slama/> 
Maurras also founded the Ligue d'Action Française in 1905, whose mission was to recruit members for the Action Française. 
Members pledged to fight the republican regime and to support restoration of the monarchy under [[Prince Philippe, Duke of Orléans (1869–1926)]].<ref>{{citation |last1=Joly |first1=Laurent |title=Les débuts de l'Action française (1899-1914) ou l'élaboration d'un nationalisme antisémite |journal=Revue Historique |date=2006 |volume=308 |issue=3 (639) |pages=695–718 |doi=10.3917/rhis.063.0695 |jstor=40957800}}</ref>

Many early members of the Action Française were practising Catholics, including [[Bernard de Vésins]], the art historian [[Louis Dimier]] and the essayist [[Léon de Montesquiou]]. They helped Maurras develop the royalist league's pro-Catholic policies.<ref>{{citation|page=17 |last=Arnal|first=Oscar L.|title=Ambivalent Alliance: The Catholic Church and the Action Française, 1899–1939|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zGdLhKl6EcIC&pg=PA19 |access-date=2017-07-27|date=1985-04-15|publisher=University of Pittsburgh Pre|isbn=978-0-8229-7705-6}}</ref>

Maurras entered in a conflict with Paul Granier de Cassagnac editor of L'Autorite, and his brother Guy. The affair ended with a sword duel between Paul de Cassagnac and Charles Maurras which took place in [[Neuilly]] on 26 February 1912. Maurras was struck in the forearm. His arm was seriously injured. This brought the combat to a close.

=== From the First World War to the end of the 1930s ===
Maurras then endorsed France's entry into the First World War (even to the extent of supporting the thoroughly republican [[Georges Clemenceau]]) against the [[German Empire]]. During the war the Jewish businessman Emile Ullman was forced to resign from the board of directors of the [[Comptoir d'Escompte]] bank after Maurras accused him of being a German agent. He then criticised the [[Treaty of Versailles]] for not being harsh enough on the Germans and condemned [[Aristide Briand]]'s policy of cooperation with Germany.<ref name=Academie/> In 1923 [[Germaine Berton]] carried out the assassination of his fellow Action Française member [[Marius Plateau]]. Berton had planned to also assassinate [[Léon Daudet]] and Maurras but was unsuccessful.<ref name=":1">{{Cite web |date=2017-08-29 |title="Ce n'est pas rien de tuer un homme" ou le crime politique de Germaine Berton |url=https://www.radiofrance.fr/franceculture/podcasts/la-fabrique-de-l-histoire/ce-n-est-pas-rien-de-tuer-un-homme-ou-le-crime-politique-de-germaine-berton-4157670 |access-date=2022-06-04 |website=Radio France |language=fr}}</ref>

[[File:Charles Maurras - photo Frédéric Boissonnas.jpg|thumb|200px|Maurras in 1925]]
In 1925 he called for the murder of [[Abraham Schrameck]], the [[Interior Minister (France)|Interior Minister]] of [[Paul Painlevé]]'s [[Cartel des Gauches]]'s (left-wing coalition) government, who had ordered the disarming of the [[far-right leagues]].<ref name=AF/> For this death threat, he was sentenced to a fine and a year in jail (suspended).<ref name=AF/>

In 1929 [[Pope Pius XI]] condemned the ''Action Française'', which until then was supported by a large number of Catholics, clergy, and laity alike. Several of the works of the movement's founder Charles Maurras were placed into the ''[[Index Librorum Prohibitorum]]'',<ref name=":2">{{Cite book |last=Duffy |first=Eamon |title=Saints and Sinners : A History of the Popes |date=2014 |publisher=Yale University Press |pages=337}}</ref> alongside the movement's official newspaper.<ref>{{cite news |date=January 10, 1927 |title=Holy See Bans French Paper |page=1 |newspaper=[[Salt Lake Tribune]]}}</ref> This was a devastating blow to the movement. On 8 March 1927, AF members were prohibited from receiving the [[sacraments]]. Many of its members left (two Catholics who were forced to look for a different path in politics and life were the writers [[François Mauriac]] and [[Georges Bernanos]]) and it entered a period of decline.<ref name=":0">Arnal, Oscar L., ''Ambivalent Alliance: The Catholic Church and the Action Française, 1899-1939'', pp.174-75 (Pittsburgh: [[University of Pittsburgh Press]], 1985).</ref>

Maurras again voiced death threats against the President of the Council (prime minister) [[Léon Blum]], organiser of the [[Popular Front (France)|Popular Front]], in the ''Action Française'' of 15 May 1936, emphasising his Jewish origins (he once called him an "old semitic camel").<ref name="AF" /> This other death threat earned him eight months in prison, from 29 October 1936 to 6 July 1937.<ref name="AF" /> Fearing communism, he joined the [[pacifism|pacifist]]s and praised the [[Munich Agreement]] of 1938, which the President of the Council [[Édouard Daladier]] had signed without any illusions. He also wrote in ''Action Française'':

{{blockquote|There are certain conservatives in France who fill us with disgust. Why? Because of their stupidity. What kind of stupidity? [[Hitlerism]]. These French "conservatives" crawl on their bellies before [[Adolf Hitler|Hitler]]. These former nationalists cringe before him. A few zealots wallow in dirt, in their own dirt, with endless [[Sieg Heil|Heils]]. The wealthier they are, the more they own, the more important it is to make them understand that if Hitler invaded us he would skin them much more thoroughly than Blum, [[Maurice Thorez|Thorez]] and [[Joseph Stalin|Stalin]] combined. This "conservative" error is suicidal. We must appeal to our friends not to let themselves be befogged. We must tell them: Be on your guard! What is now at stake is not anti-democracy or anti-Semitism. France above all!<ref>''Action Française'', 25 March 1938. Quoted in Leopold Schwarzschild, ''World in Trance'' (London: Hamish Hamilton, 1943), p. 268.</ref>}}

During the 1930s – especially after the [[6 February 1934 crisis]]<ref>Bruno Goyet, ''Charles Maurras'', [[Institut d'Études Politiques de Paris#Publishing house / Presses de Sciences Po|Presses de Sciences Po]], 1999, p.73</ref>—many of Action Française members turned to fascism, including [[Robert Brasillach]], [[Lucien Rebatet]], [[Abel Bonnard]], Paul Chack and [[Claude Jeantet]]. Most of them belonged to the staff of the fascist newspaper ''[[Je suis partout]]'' (''I am everywhere'').

Influencing [[António de Oliveira Salazar]]'s ''[[Estado Novo (Portugal)|Estado Novo]]'' regime in Portugal, Maurras also supported [[Francisco Franco]] and, until spring 1939, [[Benito Mussolini]]'s [[Italian Fascism|Fascist regime]]. Opposing [[Adolf Hitler]] because he was anti-German, Maurras himself criticised the [[Racial policy of Nazi Germany|racist policies of Nazism]] in 1936, and requested a complete translation of ''[[Mein Kampf]]'' – some passages had been censored in the French edition.

After his failure against [[Charles Jonnart]] in 1924 to be elected to the Académie française, he succeeded in entering the ranks of the "Immortals" on 9 June 1938, replacing [[Henri-Robert]], winning by 20 votes against 12 to [[Fernand Gregh]]. He was received into the Academy on 8 June 1939 by the Catholic writer [[Henry Bordeaux]]. In the same year, [[Pope Pius XII]] repealed his predecessor's condemnation of the ''Action Française''.<ref name=":0" />

=== Vichy regime, arrest and death ===
[[File:Charles Maurras trial 1945.jpg|thumb|250px|Maurras on trial in 1945.]]
In June 1940, articles in ''Action Française'' signed by Maurras, [[Léon Daudet]], and [[Maurice Pujo]] praised General [[Charles de Gaulle]].<ref>François-Marin Fleutot, ''Des Royalistes dans la Résistance'' (Flammarion, 2000)</ref> While Maurras described Marshal [[Philippe Pétain]] as a "divine surprise",<ref>''[[Le Petit Marseillais]]'', 9 February 1941. Quoted by Bruno Goyet, ''op.cit.'', p. 84</ref> the statement is usually quoted without context; Maurras was referring specifically to Pétain having political talent as well as being a symbol of France, and there is no evidence of the remark until February 1941.<ref name="paxton1972">{{Cite book |last=Paxton |first=Robert O. |title=Vichy France: Old Guard and New Order, 1940-1944 |publisher=Alfred A. Knopf |year=1972 |isbn=978-0-8041-5410-9 |location=New York |pages=187 |language=en-US}} See footnote 10.</ref>

[[Vichy France]]'s reactionary program of a [[Révolution nationale|''Révolution Nationale'']] (National Revolution) was fully approved of by Maurras, who inspired large parts of it.<ref name=Academie/> The monarchist newspaper was forbidden in the Occupied Zone and under Vichy censorship in the Southern Zone from November 1942.<ref>[[Jean Sévillia]], ''Historiquement correct'', Tempus, 2006, p. 365</ref> In ''[[La Seule France]]'' (1941) Maurras argued for a policy of ''France d'abord'' ("France First"), whereby France would restore itself politically and morally under Pétain, resolving what Maurras saw as the causes of France's defeat in 1940, before dealing with the issue of the foreign occupation. This position was contrasted to the attitude of the Gaullists, who fled France and continued the military struggle. Maurras savaged the pre-war French governments for taking an increasingly bellicose position vis-à-vis Germany at precisely the same time that these governments were weakening France, militarily, socially and politically, thereby making France's defeat during 1940 all but inevitable. Maurras also criticised the 1940 [[Law on the status of Jews]] for being too moderate.<ref name=Slama/> At the same time, he continued to express elements of his longstanding antipathy towards Germany by arguing in ''[[La Seule France]]'' that Frenchmen must not be drawn to that country's model and by hosting anti-German conferences,<ref>Jean Madiran, ''Maurras toujours là'', Consep, 2004, p.71–72</ref> and he opposed both the "[[Free French Forces|dissidents]]" in London and the collaborators in Paris and Vichy (such as [[Lucien Rebatet]],<ref>In 1942, Rebatet published "Les Décombres" ("The Ruins"), a pamphlet in which he strongly opposed the "en-jewed" Action Française.</ref> [[Robert Brasillach]], [[Pierre Laval]] or [[Marcel Déat]]).<ref>See for example [[Henri Amouroux]], ''La Vie des Français sous l'Occupation. T2: Les Années noires'', Livre de Poche, 1961, p. 342;<br />Bruno Goyet, ''op.cit.'', p. 82;<br />Jean Sévillia, ''op.cit.'', p. 365</ref> In 1943 the Germans planned to arrest Maurras.<ref>[[Robert Paxton]], ''La France de Vichy'', Seuil, 1973, p. 246</ref>

A pre-war admirer of de Gaulle, who himself had been influenced by Maurras' [[integralism]], Maurras then harshly criticised the General in exile. He later claimed he believed that Pétain was playing a "double game", working for an [[Allies of World War II|Allied]] victory in secret.{{citation needed|date=June 2019}}

After the liberation of France Maurras was arrested in September 1944 together with his right-hand man [[Maurice Pujo]], and indicted before the High Court of Lyon for "complicity with the enemy" on the basis of the articles he had published since the beginning of the war. At the end of the trial, during which there were many irregularities such as false dating or truncated quotations,<ref>[[Robert Aron]], ''Histoire de l'épuration'' (second volume), Fayard, 1969, p. 365, 366, 367.<br />Listing these irregularities, Robert Aron describes Maurras' trial as "one of the most pathetic and most characteristic of the [[Épuration légale|épuration]]" (p. 362).</ref> Maurras was sentenced to life imprisonment and deprivation of civil liberties. He was automatically dismissed from the Académie française (a measure included in the ordinance of 26 December 1944<ref name=Academie/>). His response to his conviction was to exclaim ''C'est la revanche de Dreyfus!'' ("It's Dreyfus's revenge!")<ref name=Slama/>

According to the historian [[Eugen Weber]] the trial against Maurras was political and was rigged against him. Weber writes that the jurors who were chosen for Maurras' case were taken from a list drawn up by his political enemies.<ref>Giocanti, p. 466</ref>

Meanwhile, the Académie française declared his seat vacant, as it had for Pétain's, instead of expelling him as it did for [[Abel Hermant]] and [[Abel Bonnard]].<ref name=Academie/> (The academy waited until his death to elect his successor, and chose [[Antoine de Lévis-Mirepoix]], who was himself influenced by Action Française and collaborated with [[Pierre Boutang]]'s monarchist review ''[[La Nation française|La Nation Française]]''.)

After being imprisoned in [[Riom]] and then [[Clairvaux Prison|Clairvaux]], Maurras was released in March 1952 to be hospitalised. He was supported by Henry Bordeaux, who repeatedly asked the President of the Republic, [[Vincent Auriol]], to pardon Maurras. Although weakened, Maurras collaborated with ''Aspects de la France'', which had replaced the outlawed review ''Action Française'' in 1947. He was transferred to a clinic in [[Tours]], where he died soon afterwards. In his last days, he readopted the Catholic faith of his childhood and received the [[last rites]].<ref>Lettre de l'abbé Giraud à Charles Forot, 4 July 1958, archives départementales de Privas, dossier 24J25</ref>

== Maurras' work ==
{{main|Maurassisme}}

=== Maurras and Félibrige ===
{{Main|Félibrige}}

A [[Provence]]-born author, Maurras joined [[Félibrige]], a literary and cultural association founded by [[Frédéric Mistral]] and other Provençal writers to defend and promote Occitan languages and literature. The name of the association was derived from ''félibre'', a [[Provençal dialect|Provençal word]] meaning pupil or follower.

=== Maurras' political thought ===
{{Conservatism in France|Intellectuals}}
[[File:19270508 Défilé Jeanne d'Arc Action française.jpg|thumb|250px|Maurras with [[Action Française]] in 1927.]]
[[File:19340905 Le Comte de Paris et Charles Maurras à bord du Campana à Gênes.jpg|thumb|150px|Maurras with [[Henri, Count of Paris (1908–1999)|Henri of Orléans]] in 1934.]]
Maurras' political ideas were based on intense nationalism (what he described as "[[integralism|integral nationalism]]") and a belief in an ordered society based on strong government. These were the bases of his endorsement for both the French monarchy and the Roman Catholic Church.

He formulated an aggressive political strategy, which contrasted with the [[Legitimist]]s' apathy for political action.<ref name=Slama/> He managed to combine the paradox of a [[reactionary]] thought which would actively change history, a form of Counter-revolution opposed to simple conservatism.<ref name=Slama/> His "integral nationalism" rejected all [[democratic principles]] which he judged contrary to "natural inequality", criticising all evolution since the 1789 [[French Revolution]], and advocated the return to a hereditary monarchy.<ref name=Academie/>

Like many people in Europe at the time, he was haunted by the idea of "[[decadence]]", partly inspired by his reading of the publications of [[Hippolyte Taine]] and [[Ernest Renan]], and admired [[classicism]]. He felt that France had lost its grandeur during the [[French Revolution]] in 1789, a grandeur inherited from its origins as a province of the [[Roman Empire]] and forged by, as he put it, "forty kings who in a thousand years made France." The French Revolution, he wrote in the ''[[Observateur Français]]'', was negative and destructive.

He traced this decline further back, to the [[Age of Enlightenment|Enlightenment]] and the [[Protestant Reformation|Reformation]]; he described the source of the evil as "Swiss ideas", a reference to the adopted nation of [[John Calvin]] and the birth nation of [[Jean-Jacques Rousseau]]. Maurras further blamed France's decline on "Anti-France", which he defined as the "four confederate states of Protestants, Jews, [[Freemason]]s and foreigners" (his actual word for the latter being the xenophobic term ''[[métèques]]''). Indeed, to him the first three were all "internal foreigners."<ref>See, for example, [https://counterenlightenment.blogspot.com/2011/04/charles-maurras-on-four-confederate.html this extract] from his ''Dictionnaire politique et critique''.</ref>

[[Antisemitism]] and [[anti-Protestantism]] were common themes in his writings. He believed that the [[Protestant Reformation|Reformation]], the [[Age of Enlightenment|Enlightenment]] and the eventual outcome of the [[French Revolution]] and [[Napoleonic Wars]] had all contributed to individuals valuing themselves more than the nation, with consequent negative effects on the latter, and that democracy, modernism and secular liberalism were only making matters worse.

Although Maurras advocated the revival of monarchy, in many ways, Maurras did not typify the French monarchist tradition. His endorsement of the monarchy and Catholicism was explicitly pragmatic, as he alleged that a state religion was the only way of maintaining public order. By contrast with [[Maurice Barrès]], a theorist of a kind of [[Romantic nationalism]] based on the Ego, Maurras claimed to base his opinions on reason rather than on sentiment, loyalty, and faith.

Paradoxically, he admired the [[Positivism|positivist]] philosopher [[Auguste Comte]], like many of the [[French Third Republic|Third Republic]] politicians he detested, with which he opposed [[German idealism]]. Whereas the [[Legitimist]] monarchists refused to engage in political action, retreating into an intransigently conservative Catholicism and a relative indifference to a modern world they believed was irredeemably wicked and apostate, Maurras was prepared to engage in political action, both orthodox and unorthodox (the Action Française's [[Camelots du Roi]] league frequently engaged in street violence with left-wing opponents, as well as [[Marc Sangnier]]'s socialist Catholic [[Le Sillon]]). Maurras was twice convicted of inciting violence against Jewish politicians, and [[Léon Blum]], the first Jewish French prime minister, nearly died from the injuries inflicted by associates of Maurras.<ref>{{Cite news|last=McAuley|first=James|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/europe/two-parisian-bookstores-side-by-side-are-waging-a-culture-war/2019/06/13/d234c051-a5f2-48f1-bd11-48f6bbe71677_story.html|title=Two Parisian bookstores, side by side, are waging a culture war|newspaper=The Washington Post|access-date=2019-06-14|language=en}}</ref> His slogan was the phrase "La politique d'abord!" ("Politics first!"). Other influences included [[Frédéric Le Play]], [[Empiricism#British empiricism|British empiricism]], which allowed him to reconcile [[Rationalism#René Descartes (1596–1650)|Cartesian rationalism]] with empiricism,<ref name=Slama/> and [[François-René de La Tour du Pin Chambly, marquis de La Charce|René de La Tour du Pin]].

Maurras' religious views were likewise less than orthodox. He supported the political Catholic Church both because it was intimately involved with French history and because its hierarchical structure and clerical elite mirrored his image of an ideal society. He considered the Church to be the mortar which held France together, and the association linking all Frenchmen together. However, he distrusted the Gospels, written, as he put it, "by four obscure Jews",<ref>''Le Chemin du Paradis'', 1894</ref> but admired the Catholic Church for having allegedly concealed much of the [[Bible]]'s "dangerous teachings". Maurras' interpretation of the [[Gospel]]s and his integralist teachings were fiercely criticised by many Catholic clergy. However, towards the end of his life, Maurras eventually converted from agnosticism to Catholicism.

Notwithstanding his religious unorthodoxy, Maurras gained a large following among French monarchists and Catholics, including the [[Assumptionists]] and the [[Orleanist]] pretender to the French throne, the [[Philippe, comte de Paris|comte de Paris, Philippe]]. Nonetheless, his agnosticism worried parts of the Catholic hierarchy, and in 1926 [[Pope Pius XI]] placed some of Maurras's writings on the [[Index Librorum Prohibitorum|Index of Forbidden Books]]<ref name=":2" /> and condemned the Action Française philosophy as a whole. Seven of Maurras' books had already been placed on this list in 1914 and a dossier on Maurras had been submitted to Pius X.

It was not just his agnosticism which worried the Catholic hierarchy, but that by insisting upon ''politiques d'abord'' he questioned the primacy of the spiritual and thus the teaching authority of the Church and the authority of the Pope himself. That this was the basis of the matter is shown by [[Jacques Maritain]]'s book ''Primauté du Spirituel''. Maritain was associated with L'Action Française and knew Maurras. While his unease with the movement pre-dates the 1926 crisis, it was this which occasioned his alienation from Maurras and L'Action Française. This papal condemnation was a great surprise to many of his devotees, who included a considerable number of French clergy, and caused great damage to the movement. The papal ban was later ended by [[Pope Pius XII]] in 1939, a year after Maurras was elected to the ''Académie française''.<ref>Friedländer, Saul. ''Nazi Germany and the Jews: The Years of Persecution'', 1997, New York: HarperCollins, p. 223</ref>

===Legacy===
[[File:Tête de Charles Maurras dans son jardin de Martigues.jpg|thumb|150px|Bust of Maurras' head in [[Martigues]]]]
Maurras was a major intellectual influence of [[national Catholicism]], far-right movements, Latin [[conservatism]], and [[integral nationalism]].<ref name=Rojas>Miguel Rojas-Mix, "''Maurras en Amérique latine''", ''[[Le Monde diplomatique]]'', November 1980 (republished in ''Manières de voir'' n°95, "''Les droites au pouvoir''", October–November 2007)</ref> He and the ''Action Française'' influenced many people and movements including General [[Francisco Franco]], [[José Antonio Primo de Rivera]], [[António Sardinha]], [[Leon Degrelle]], the historian and journalist [[Álvaro Alcalá-Galiano y Osma]] and autonomist movements in Europe. The Christian Democrat [[Jacques Maritain]] was also close to Maurras before the papal condemnation of the AF in 1927,<ref name=Rojas/> and criticised democracy in one of his early writings, ''Une opinion sur Charles Maurras ou le devoir des catholiques''.<ref name=Rojas/> Furthermore, Maurrassism also influenced many writings from members of the ''[[Organisation armée secrète]]'' who theorised "[[counter-revolutionary warfare]]".<ref name=Rojas/> In Spain the ''[[Acción Española]]'' adopted not only its far right monarchism but also its name from Maurras's movement.<ref>[[Stanley G. Payne]], ''Spain's First Democracy: The Second Republic, 1931–1936'', 1993, p. 171</ref>

The influence extended to [[Latin America]], as in Mexico where Jesús Guiza y Acevedo<ref name=Rojas/> was nicknamed "the little Maurras", as well as the historian [[Carlos Pereyra (writer)|Carlos Pereyra]] or the Venezuelan author [[Laureano Vallenilla Lanz]], who wrote a book titled ''Cesarismo democrático'' (Democratic [[Caesarism]]).<ref name=Rojas/> Maurras' thought also influenced Catholic fundamentalist supporters of the [[History of Brazil (1964–1985)|Brazilian dictatorship]]<ref name=Rojas/> (1964–85) as well as the ''Cursillos de la Cristiandad'' (Christendom Courses), similar to the ''[[Cité Catholique]]'' group, which were initiated during 1950 by the bishop of [[Ciudad Real]], Mgr. Hervé.<ref name=Rojas/> The Argentine militarist [[Juan Carlos Onganía]], who overthrew [[Arturo Illia]] in a military putsch in 1966, as well as [[Alejandro Agustín Lanusse]], who succeeded Onganía after another coup, had participated in the ''Cursillos de la Cristiandad'',<ref name=Rojas/> as did also the Dominican militarists [[Antonio Imbert Barrera]] and [[Elías Wessin y Wessin]], chief of staff of the military and an opponent of the restoration of the 1963 Constitution after [[Rafael Trujillo]] was deposed.<ref name=Rojas/> In Argentina he also influenced the nationalist writers of the 1920s and 1930s such as [[Rodolfo Irazusta]] and [[Juan Carulla]].<ref>Sandra McGee Deutsch, ''Las Derechas'', 1999, p. 197</ref>

In 2017 Michael Crowley wrote that [[Steve Bannon]], then chief strategist to [[Donald Trump]], the [[president of the United States]], "has also expressed admiration for the reactionary French philosopher Charles Maurras, according to French media reports confirmed by ''[[Politico]]''."<ref name="Crowley">{{cite news|url=https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2017/03/trump-steve-bannon-destroy-eu-european-union-214889/ | last=Michael | first=Crowley | date=March 2017 | access-date=6 June 2018| publisher=Politico | title=The Man Who Wants to Unmake the West}}</ref>

== Works ==
{|width=100%
|valign="top" width=50%|
* 1889 : ''Théodore Aubanel''
* 1891 : ''Jean Moréas''
* 1894 : ''Le Chemin du Paradis, mythes et fabliaux''
* 1896–1899 : ''Le voyage d'Athènes''
* 1898 : ''[[L'Idée de la décentralisation]]''
* 1899 : ''Trois idées politiques : Chateaubriand, Michelet, Sainte-Beuve''
* 1900 : ''[[Enquête sur la monarchie]]''
* 1901 : ''Anthinéa : d'Athènes à Florence'' (with ''[[Lettres des Jeux olympiques]]'')
* 1902 : ''Les Amants de Venise, George Sand et Musset''
* 1905 : ''[[L'Avenir de l'intelligence]]''
* 1906 : ''Le Dilemme de Marc Sangnier''
* 1910 : ''[[Si le coup de force est possible]]''
* 1910 : ''[[Kiel et Tanger]]''
* 1912 : ''La Politique religieuse''
* 1914 : ''L'Action Française et la Religion Catholique''
* 1915 : ''L'Étang de Berre''
* 1916 : ''Quand les Français ne s'aimaient pas''
* 1916–1918 : ''Les Conditions de la victoire'', 4 volumes
* 1921 : ''Tombeaux''
* 1922 : ''Inscriptions''
* 1923 : ''Poètes''
* 1924 : ''L'Allée des philosophes''
* 1925 : ''La Musique intérieure''
* 1925 : ''Barbarie et poésie''
* 1927 : ''[[L'Action française et le Vatican]]''
* 1927 : ''Lorsque Hugo eut les cent ans''
* 1928 : ''Le prince des nuées''
* 1928 : ''Un débat sur le romantisme''
* 1928 : ''Vers un art intellectuel''
* 1928 : ''L'Anglais qui a connu la France''
* 1929 : ''Corps glorieux ou Vertu de la perfection''
* 1929 : ''Promenade italienne''
* 1929 : ''Napoléon pour ou contre la France''
* 1930 : ''De Démos à César''
* 1930 : ''Corse et Provence''
* 1930 : ''Quatre nuits de Provence''
* 1931 : ''Triptyque de Paul Bourget''
* 1931 : ''Le Quadrilatère''
* 1931 : ''Au signe de Flore''
* 1932 : ''Heures immortelles''
|valign="top" width=50%|
* 1932–1933 : ''Dictionnaire politique et critique'', 5 volumes
* 1935 : ''Prologue d'un essai sur la critique''
* 1937 : ''Quatre poèmes d'Eurydice''
* 1937 : ''L'amitié de Platon''
* 1937 : ''Jacques Bainville et Paul Bourget''
* 1937 : ''Les vergers sur la mer''
* 1937 : ''Jeanne d'Arc, Louis XIV, Napoléon''
* 1937 : ''[[Devant l'Allemagne éternelle]]''
* 1937 : ''[[Mes idées politiques]]''
* 1937 : ''La Dentelle du Rempart''
* 1940 : ''Pages africaines''
* 1941 : ''Sous la muraille des cyprès''
* 1941 : ''Mistral''
* 1941 : ''[[La Seule France]]''
* 1942 : ''De la colère à la justice''
* 1943 : ''Pour un réveil français''
* 1944 : ''Poésie et vérité''
* 1944 : ''Paysages mistraliens''
* 1944 : ''Le Pain et le Vin''
* 1945 : ''Au-devant de la nuit''
* 1945 : ''[[L'Allemagne et nous]]''
* 1947 : ''Les Deux Justices ou Notre J'accuse''
* 1948 : ''L'Ordre et le Désordre''
* 1948 : ''Maurice Barrès''
* 1948 : ''Une promotion de Judas''
* 1948 : ''Réponse à André Gide''
* 1949 : ''Au Grand Juge de France''
* 1949 : ''Le Cintre de Riom''
* 1950 : ''Mon jardin qui s'est souvenu''
* 1950 : ''[[Le Mont de Saturne]]''
* 1951 : ''Tragi-comédie de ma surdité''
* 1951 : ''Vérité, justice, patrie'' (with [[Maurice Pujo]])
* 1952 : ''À mes vieux oliviers''
* 1952 : ''La Balance intérieure''
* 1952 : ''Le Beau Jeu des reviviscences''
* 1952 : ''Le Bienheureux [[Pius X|Pie X]], sauveur de la France''
* 1953 : ''Pascal puni'' (published posthumously)
* 1958: ''Lettres de prison (1944–1952)'' (published posthumously)
* 1966: ''Lettres passe-murailles, correspondance échangée avec [[Xavier Vallat]] (1950–1952)'' (published posthumously)
|}

'''English translations'''
* 2016: ''The Future of the Intelligentsia & For a French Awakening'', [[Arktos Media]]. {{isbn|978-1910524985}}

== References ==
{{reflist|22em}}

== Further reading ==
* Curtis, Michael (2010). [https://books.google.com/books?id=Q8YXpC7UKLEC ''Three Against the Third Republic: Sorel, Barrès and Maurras''], Transaction Publishers.
* Kojecky, Roger (1972). "Charles Maurras and the Action Française," in ''T.S. Eliot's Social Criticism''. New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux, pp.&nbsp;58–69.
* Molnar, Thomas (1999). [https://maurras.net/pdf/molnar/molnar-maurras-english.pdf "Charles Maurras, Shaper of an Age,"] ''Modern Age'' '''41''' (4), pp.&nbsp;337–342.
* Serina, Elena (2020). ''Nuovi elementi sul rapporto fra Action Française e Santa Sede: il ruolo di Louis Dimier nella difesa di Maurras'', "Rivista di Storia del Cristianesimo" (2), pp.&nbsp;497–518.

==External links==
*[http://maurras.net/textes/ Maurras.net online library : works of Charles Maurras] (in French).
*[http://www.dreyfus.culture.fr/en/bio/bio-html-charles-maurras.htm Dreyfus Rehabilitated] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180429165430/http://www.dreyfus.culture.fr/en/bio/bio-html-charles-maurras.htm |date=29 April 2018 }}
*{{PM20|FID=pe/019539}}

{{Charles Maurras}}
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