Xavier Paoli

Born in Corsica in 1833 and later known as Xavier Paoli, he was a French Interior Ministry official as well as a memoirist. He became especially known for his work overseeing the security of royal and imperial visitors to France, a role that gave him unusual access to some of the most famous courts of his era.

That experience shaped the books he is remembered for today, including Their Majesties as I Knew Them, a lively recollection of the rulers he encountered in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. His appeal as an author comes from that insider viewpoint: he wrote not as a distant historian, but as someone who had personally watched great public occasions unfold behind the scenes.

Paoli died in 1923. If you are searching for him as "Xavier Paoli b. 1835," note that the sources found here identify his birth year as 1833.