Elie Deoazes, duke, a French statesman, born at St. Martin du Laye, Gironde, Sept. 28, 1780, died Oct. 24, 1860. He studied law at Libourne, became an advocate, and in 1805 went to Paris, where he married the daughter of Count Muraire, president of the court of cassation. In 1806 he went to Holland by invitation of King Louis, whom he served even after his abdication in 1810. He officiated as secretary of Letizia Bonaparte, but joined the cause of the Bourbons in 1814, and under the second restoration discharged the duties of prefect of police at Paris. He became intimate with Louis XVIIL, and in 1815 was made minister of police. By his conciliatory policy he gave umbrage to the ultra royalists, without giving satisfaction to the extreme liberal party. In 1818 he was appointed minister of the interior, and in November, 1819, prime minister. The opposition of the royalist party broke out with renewed virulence on the assassination of the duke de Berry in 1820, when a deputy openly charged Decazes with being an accomplice of the murderer.

He then resigned, and Louis XVIIL made him a duke and ambassador to England, where he remained till December, 1821. Under the reign of Charles X. he opposed the extreme measures of the government, and after the revolution of 1830 adhered to Louis Philippe. In 1834 he was appointed grand referendary of the chamber of peers. Subsequently he devoted himself to the establishment and superintendence of large iron works at Decazeville in Aveyron. On his marriage in 1818 with his second wife, Mile, de Saint-Aulaire, a relative of the duke of Holstein-Gliicksburg, the title of duke of Gliicksburg was conferred on him by Frederick VI. of Denmark.