Joseph de Maistre, French lawyer and diplomat (born 1753)

Joseph Marie, comte de Maistre was a Savoyard philosopher, writer, lawyer, diplomat, and magistrate. One of the forefathers of conservatism, Maistre advocated social hierarchy and monarchy in the period immediately following the French Revolution. Despite his personal and intellectual ties with France, Maistre was Savoyard and a lifelong subject of the Kingdom of Sardinia. As a Sardinian subject, Maistre served in various government positions, including stints in the Savoy Senate (1787–1792), as ambassador to the Russian Empire (1803–1817), and minister of state to the court in Turin (1817–1821).