In December 1871, the Institute’s biennial Grand Prize, first awarded to Adolphe Thiers in 1861 and worth twenty thousand francs, was awarded to François Guizot at the initiative of the Académie Française. Guizot thanked the Académie with these words:
“The arts really have unparalleled rewards for those who, after having undertaken their worship during the confident ambitions of youth, come at the end of a hectic life to ask them for a dignified rest in an effort that remains always pleasant.”
Guizot used the sum thus received for the endowment of a triennial prize to be awarded for a work relating to an author or a work of French literature: The Guizot Prize of the Académie Française, which still exists, was thus awarded for the first time in 1875.
In 1994, the foundation of the Guizot Prize (whose charge was literary) was combined with the foundation of Baron de Courcel, the Loiseau foundation, the Eugène Piccard foundation and the Feydeau de Brou foundation (whose charges were historical).The group of foundations was responsible for the attribution of the prize under the same name of “Prix Guizot”, of a general history prize. Since 1995, it has continued to honor the memory of its founder, rewarding one or more authors of historical studies each year.