French historian whose many works were of popular interest and valuable because of their use of documents, though largely compilations and not wholly trustworthy.
Beauchamp became an officer in a Sardinian regiment (1784), but after the outbreak of war between Sardinia and the French republic in 1792 he refused to fight for what he considered an unjust cause and was imprisioned for about a year.
Upon his release in 1793 he went to Paris and was employed in the office of the committee of general security. After taking part in the conspiracy that led to the fall an execution of Maximilien de Robespierre, the revolutionary leader, Beauchamp was transferred in 1794 to the bureau of the minister of police in the capacity of superintendent of the press.
His position gave him access to materials that he uesed in his first and most popular book, Historie de la Vendée et des Chouans (3 vol., 1806), an account of a counter-revolution in the west of France in the 1790s.
Accused of revealing state secrets, he was relieved of his post; when the third edition appeared in 1809, he was banished from Paris and went to live in Reims. In n1811 he obtained permission to return and again received a government appointment.
Beauchamp wrote extensively for newspapers and magazines; his numerous biographies and historical treatises include biographies of Gen. Jean-Victor Moreau, Marshal Joachim Murat, the war between Spain and Portugal, and the edited and revised memoires of Joseph Fouché, the notorious police minister.
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