Charles Maurras: The Beginnings of the Action Française

Abstract

“L’Action Française est née de l’Affaire Dreyfus,” wrote Léon de Montesquiou of the origins of the most resilient, if not the most controversial, political movement in contemporary France.¹ Avowedly Catholic, royalist, and ultranationalist, the Action Française has survived in turn the ban of the Papacy, the repudiation of the House of France, and the condemnation of its leader to national degradation for “intelligence with the enemy” during World War II. To be sure, after 1945 the movement represented little more than a shadow of its former self, and it took on all the aspects of “une chapelle.” Yet the flame continued to flicker, and in the late 1950’s the movement even showed signs of rejuvenation. The domestic career of the Action Française was a stormy one to say the least, and the second generation of Maurrassians has been true to its elders in this as in other ways. Under the Fourth Republic, Maurras’ heritage was bitterly fought over by two weeklies, Aspects de la France and La Nation Française.