Two hundred years ago: Frédéric Gard (1767-1848)

History, according to Nietzsche, ends for many men at the time of their grandfather. In this year when we celebrate the bicentenary of the entry of the Valais into the Swiss Confederation, a year of memory and identity, I feel it is my duty to pay tribute to an ancestor, Frédéric Gard, who, as deputy for the Entremont dizain, voted for the union of the Valais with Switzerland.

Born in 1767 into a dynasty of convict notaries, Frédéric Gard first served as a captain in the Spanish service, before taking up the feudal position of banneret and captain of Entremont.[1] His enthusiasm for liberal ideas was evident early on, as he took part in the Lower Valais revolution of 1798 as a member of the Comité Général des Communes du Bas-Valais (independent government).[2])[3]. What's more, his brother, the doctor and knight Arnold Gard, known for having introduced vaccination into Valais[4], will marry a niece of the grand-bailiff of Rivaz[5], a major and sometimes unfortunate player in this revolutionary period.

In the years that followed, Captain Gard supported Napoleon, offered him five hundred men, became «centurion d'Entremont», changed sides and took advantage of the clergy's troubles to buy the Abbaye du Châble in 1810, the convict residence of the Abbé de Saint-Maurice, becoming its first lay owner.[6]. Legend has it that the abbot threatened excommunication to anyone who dared to buy his home, but this did little to frighten Frédéric Gard, who had been a Freemason since 1803 and was excommunicated anyway. de facto for a long time. It was this house that later passed into the Maurice Troillet family.

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After Napoleon's defeat and the disappearance of the Simplon département in 1814, Frédéric Gard took part in the extraordinary Diet from May 30 to May 1 as president and deputy of the Entremont dizain.^er June of the same year, which voted for Valais to join the Confederation, effective August 4, 1815.[7]. His political career did not end there, however, as he went on to become Prefect and Grand-Châtelain of Entremont, and a member of the Grand Council during the Sonderbund era, just before his death in 1848. However, after the union of Valais with Switzerland, it was above all his son, Louis Gard, famous for his satirical songs, who made his mark on public opinion in Valais. A member of the Constituent Assembly in 1839 and of the first Grand-Conseil in 1840, this Mazzinian anticlerical was one of the founders of the Jeune Suisse valaisanne in 1835.[8].

Born into a patrician family, heir to feudal offices, Frédéric Gard is one of those influential and atypical personalities who, driven by their progressive convictions, showed the way for the Young Swiss and the opening up of the canton. As the Valais celebrates its entry into the Swiss Confederation, we should also celebrate those who, during troubled times, helped forge the identity of a more modern, more Swiss Valais. And to be proud of them.

Sources:

For dates and functions: notes on Frédéric and Louis Gard in Bagnes families, from the 12th to the 20th century, published by the Commune de Bagnes and CREPA, 2005. Volume III, p.223-225

Biollay, Emile: «Des treize cantons du département aux treize dizains du canton», in Annales Valaisannes, 1965

Historical Dictionaries of Switzerland (online): article «Gard»

[1] Bagnes families, from the 12th to the 20th century, published by the Commune de Bagnes and CREPA, 2005. Volume III, p.224

[2] https://www.vs.ch/encyclo/navig.asp?mnu=know&idRubrique=902&idLangue=1 Accessed August 2, 2015

[3] Donnet, André: The Valais Revolution of 1798, 1984, p. 155 in Bibliotheca Valesiana

[4] http://www.wikivalais.ch/index.php/Population_au_XVIIIe_si%C3%A8cle Accessed August 2, 2015

[5] Donnet, André : Etienne-Louis Macognin de la Pierre (1731-1793), his family and his buildings at Saint-Maurice in Vallesia, p. 242, 1959 (consulted on http://doc.rero.ch August 2, 2015)

[6] Bagnes families, from the 12th to the 20th century, published by the Commune de Bagnes and CREPA, 2005. Volume III, p.224

[7] http://www.valais.ch/fr/information/landingpage/valais-2015/dates-historiques Accessed August 2, 2015

[8] http://www.wikivalais.ch/index.php/Chronologie_du_Valais_-_XIXe_si%C3%A8cle Accessed August 2, 2015