13 Facts About Pierre Waldeck-Rousseau

Pierre Waldeck-Rousseau studied law at Poitiers and in Paris, where he took his licentiate in January 1869.

Pierre Waldeck-Rousseau further voted for the abrogation of the law of 1814 forbidding work on Sundays and fast days, for one year of compulsory military service for seminarists and for the re-establishment of divorce.

Pierre Waldeck-Rousseau made his reputation in the Chamber by a report which he drew up in 1880 on behalf of the committee appointed to inquire into the French judicial system.

Pierre Waldeck-Rousseau sought to put down the system by which civil posts were obtained through the local deputy, and he made it clear that the central authority could not be defied by local officials.

Pierre Waldeck-Rousseau introduced the bill which became the 27 May 1885 act establishing penal colonies, dubbed "Law on relegation of recidivists", along with Martin Feuillee.

Pierre Waldeck-Rousseau had begun to practise at the Paris bar in 1886, and in 1889 he did not seek re-election to the Chamber, but devoted himself to his legal work.

Pierre Waldeck-Rousseau received 184 votes, but retired before the second ballot to allow Faure to receive an absolute majority.

Pierre Waldeck-Rousseau declared that religious associations were now being subjected for the first time to the regulations common to all others and that the object of the bill was to ensure the supremacy of the civil power.

Pierre Waldeck-Rousseau led the anti-clerical coalition on the left, facing opposition primarily organized by the pro-Catholic Action liberale populaire,.

The result was a decisive victory for the left and Pierre Waldeck-Rousseau considered his task ended.

Pierre Waldeck-Rousseau emerged from his retirement to protest in the Senate against the construction put on his Associations Bill by Emile Combes, who refused en masse the applications of the teaching and preaching congregations for official recognition.

In January 1904, Pierre Waldeck-Rousseau announced that he was suffering from "calculus of the liver".

Pierre Waldeck-Rousseau died on August 11,1904, after further surgery.