EN
François Guizot was one of the most – or even the most – infl uential French politicians of the 1830s and 1840s. Especially after 1840, when he became the Minister of Foreign Affairs, he was in fact the most powerful member of the French cabinet. He was also a clever and sagacious political thinker, one the leaders of the liberal opposition against the Bourbon government of Charles X. But, over time, his liberalism became more and more conservative, and his government – impervious to the changes, new tendencies and ideas of the French society. Guizot’s foreign policy changed in the same direction – from the ‘entente cordiale’ with Great Britain, based on the liberal character of both countries, to a dynastic vision of international relations, looking for an alliance with the conservative court of Vienna. Therefore Guizot could not have foreseen the revolution of 1848, and when it came, he was absolutely unable to understand it. His political career collapsed completely and irremediably.