Félix Faure

President of France

Félix François Faure 30 January 1841 10th arrondissement of Paris, France

16 February 1899 (aged 58) Élysée Palace, Paris, France

17 January 1895 – 16 February 1899

7th President of the French Republic Félix François Faure (French pronunciation: ​ ; 30 January 1841 – 16 February 1899) was a French politician who served as President of France from 1895 until his death in 1899. A native of Paris, he worked as a tanner in his younger years. Faure became a member of the Chamber of Deputies for Seine-Inférieure in 1881. He rose to prominence in national politics up until unexpectedly assuming the presidency, during which time France's relations with Russia improved. Writer Émile Zola's famous J'Accuse…! open letter was written to Faure in L'Aurore in 1898 in the course of the Dreyfus affair. Faure's state funeral at Notre-Dame Cathedral on 23 February 1899 was the scene of an attempted coup d'état led by nationalist poet Paul Déroulède, who was later exiled to Spain.