Jean-Jacques Guizot
Just two years younger than François, Jean-Jacques Guizot, who owed his first name to his maternal grandfather much more than to Rousseau, lived in the shadow of his brother, whose vigorous mind and conquering temperament he lacked. The two of them, brought up and brought up together, got on perfectly well. Described as light-hearted, whimsical and generous, he was always protected by his elder brother. «You know how much I love him», Guizot wrote to his mother in 1809, «there is nothing I would not do for him. I look on him as my own child. Jean-Jacques was living with his mother in Nîmes with the Bonicel grandparents and, at the age of twenty, was doing nothing right, even going so far as to let himself grow a beard. To get him out of this situation, in 1812 Guizot found him a position at the Régie des Tabacs.
He then moved to Paris and, devoid of jealousy, raved about François's success: «His place in the history chair is assured. M. de Fontanes treats him with great distinction, everyone honours him, there is nothing but a murmur around him».»
From then on, he never left his brother's side, and in 1815 he was appointed to the office of supplies at the Ministry of the Interior. In 1819 he was appointed sub-prefect of Saverne, and in 1820 sub-prefect of Marvejols. Dismissed in 1823 by the ultra-reaction, he helped his brother with his publishing and translation work, as he read English and German.
He paid close attention to his nephew and godson François, who was very attached to him. In 1826, he married Amélie Vincens, from a very good Protestant family in Nîmes, whose uncles were deputies from the Gard, one at the Legislative Assembly and the other during the Hundred Days, and whose father Émile had a successful career at the Ministry of Commerce and the Council of State. As soon as the July Revolution came to an end, François took his brother with him to the Ministry of the Interior as head of personnel, then appointed him, with the Légion d'honneur, to the Conseil d'État as maître des requêtes. The future Marshal de Castellane had this to say about him: «He was a good boy, small and ugly and quite ridiculous. He was never called anything but ‘J.-J.’».»
After the death of his wife Éliza in 1833, Guizot relied heavily on Jean-Jacques and Amélie, who had no children of their own and looked after their own. But Jean-Jacques died on 25 February 1835, and Amélie eighteen months later. Guizot felt this loss very keenly. Going to dinner at Émile Vincens's house in September 1837, he wrote to his mother: «I never enter that house without a bitter pang in my heart! We had two creatures there who were so deeply attached and devoted to us, to you, to me, to my children! And I can't go and take my poor brother there, nor good Amélie, to take them with me to the country! They were now part of those dear departed who occupied the heart and memory of Guizot until the end of his life.