BIGNON, Louts PIERRE EDOUARD (1771-1541). A French diplomat and historian. born at Guerbaville, in the Department of Seine InfC•rieure. During the Revolution be entered the army as a volunteer, but transferred, after some years, to the diplomatic service, and in 1801 was made secretary of legation at 'Berlin, becoming in the following year d'atfaires. Ile subsequently was Minister Plenipotentiary to Cassel (1804-06) anti, after the battle of Jena, was administrator of finances and public domains in the Prussian provinces occupied by the French. After acting as French Ambassador at the Court of Baden and as administrator-gen eral in Austria (1800) he was sent in the follow ing year on a secret mission to Warsaw where he remained for three years. His encouragement and advice contributed to arouse the Poles to an energetic resistance against Russia and Austria.
After the fall of Napoleon he lived in retirement, but during the Hundred Days beca me Under-Seere ta ry of State for Foreign Affairs, and subsequent ly head of that department. From 1817 to 1837 he was a member of the Chamber of Deputies, and from July to November, 1S30, held the port folio of foreign affairs. He was raised to the peerage in 1837. Designated by in his will. to write the diplomatic history of France after the establishment of the Consulate, Rignon performed his task in the Histoire de France depuis Ic 18 bramairc jusqu'it /a pair de Tilsit (7 vets., 182,0-30) and //istnire dr •t-ancc drpuis la pair de Tilsit jusqu'rn I8I2 (4 vols., 183S). lie also wrote Expos(' rompa•atif de l'Oat financier, politiyur et moral de la France ct des principales puissance& dr !'Europe (1815).