ROCHEFORT, HENRI, MARQUIS DE ROCHEFORT-LUcAY (183o–I913), French politician, was born in Paris on Jan. 3o, 183o. He was already known as a successful journalist and writer of vaudevilles when he started a paper of his own, La Lanterne. The paper was seized on its eleventh appearance, and in August 1868 Rochefort was fined 10,000 francs, with a year's imprison ment. He then published his paper in Brussels, whence it was smuggled into France. Printed in French, English, Spanish, Italian and German, it went the round of Europe. After a second prose cution he fled to Belgium. A series of duels, of which the most famous was one fought with Paul de Cassagnac apropos of an article on Joan of Arc, kept Rochefort in the public eye. In 1869 he was returned to the Chamber of Deputies by the first circonscription of Paris. He renewed his onslaught on the empire, starting a new paper, the Marseillaise, as the organ of political meetings arranged by himself at La Villette. The staff was ap pointed on the votes of the members, and included Victor Noir and Pascal Grousset. The violent articles in this paper led to the duel which resulted in Victor Noir's death at the hands of Prince Pierre Bonaparte. The paper was seized, and Rochefort and Grousset were sent to prison for six months. The revolution of September was the signal for his release. He became a mem
ber of the government of National Defence, but he openly expressed sympathy with the Communards, and on May II, 1871, he fled in disguise from Paris. A week earlier he had resigned with a handful of other deputies from the National Assembly rather than countenance the dismemberment of France.
Condemned under military law to imprisonment for life, he was transported to New Caledonia. In 1874 he escaped to San Fran cisco. He lived in London and Geneva until the general amnesty permitted his return to France in 1880. He then founded L'Intransigeant in the Radical interest. He was condemned to detention in a fortress in August 1889 at the same time as General Boulanger, whom he had followed into exile. After his return (1895) to Paris he became a leader of the anti-Dreyfusards. Sub sequently he was editor of La Patrie. Rochefort died at Aix-les Bains in 1913.
Besides his plays and articles in the journals he published several separate works, among them being: Les Petits Mysteres de l'Hotel des Ventes (1862), a collection of his art criticisms; Les Depraves (Geneva, 5882) ; Les Naufrageurs (1876) ; L'Evade (1883) ; Napoleon dernier (3 vols., 1884) ; and Les Aventures de ma vie (5 vols., 1896).