Alphonse Marie Louis de Prat de Lamartine, Knight of Pratz; (21 October 1790 - 28 February 1869) was a French author, poet, and statesman who was instrumental in the foundation of the Second Republic and the continuation of the Tricolore as the flag of France. Lamartine was born in Mâcon, Burgundy. His family were members of the French provincial nobility, and he spent his youth at the family estate. Around 1830, Lamartine's opinions shifted in the direction of liberalism. When elected in 1833 to the National Assembly, he quickly founded his own "Social Party" with some influence from Saint-Simonian ideas and established himself as a prominent critic of the July Monarchy, becoming more and more of a republican in the monarchy's last years.