Count de Sanois

Jean-François Joseph Geffrard of the Mound, count de Sanois (1723-1799).

Little before the Revolution, the count de Sanois, is interned in Charenton under the terms of a lettre de cachet required by its family. Stirring up character, former officer, Breton gentleman set on nobility and tradition, it is also an admiror of Rousseau which it met. He will fight against the injustice of which he is the victim.

Biography

Born in 1723 with Valley-with Izé close to Glazed in Brittany, it integrates the prestigious regiment of the Gardes-Françaises in 1745 and attends for its baptism of fire the Bataille of Fontenoy.

Shortly after its marriage in 1761, it must leave the service and is withdrawn on its grounds. But his wife, only daughter of a rich person adviser at the Parliament of Paris, agrees with difficulty to bury herself in the countryside. In spite of some heritages which ensure a relative ease, the couple will be involved in debt, causing many domestic fights and leading to a public drama.

In 1785, anchylosed of infirmities and despaired by his financial position, the count de Sanois flees in Lausanne. Persuaded wrongly that it carries their fortune, his wife requests a Lettre de cachet near the lieutenant of police force Jean-Pierre Lenoir which launches an inspector to his cases. Sanois is brought back and locked up with the Asile of Charenton. Not ceasing protesting its innocence, it is finally released at the end of nine months and is thrown in a lawsuit against his wife so that she reconsiders her request for separation of goods and washing her honor.

The Sanois business

It is in 1786, the day before the Revolution, that the Sanois business bursts in a social climate particularly tended, transforming banal makes various in lawsuit with feeling. One is indignant at the principle at the lettre de cachets, symbol of the despotism, one feels sorry for the unfortunate old man whom a denatured wife made throw to Charenton. The business thus lends itself to a media exploitation by ambitious and talented lawyers like Pierre Louis de Lacretelle, become the new champion of individual freedoms.

One tears off his Mémoire for the count de Sanois which denounces in the passing the abusive use of the lettre de cachets. Escaping any censure, the legal Mémoire (or factum) became a literary kind with the mode. At the beginning simple work tools written by lawyers for the judges, it is now frightening means of communication which gain the living rooms and the coffees. Thanks to him, the readers impassion themselves for the famous causes like the Affaire of the collar of the queen or the lawsuit Kornmann.

The press also plays a decisive part to poke the curiosity of the public. Among the publications which reveal the lower parts of the topicality, one of most reliable is certainly the '' Mémoires secrecies of Bachaumont '', chronic anonymity partly allotted to some Mouffle of Angerville. This writer does not devote less thirty-four favorable articles to him. In 1788, the count de Sanois gathers them and intercalates his own comments in a work entitled My honor finally justified . And even if it rectifies some errors, generally it extasy, enthusiastic, in front of the authenticity of these chronicles:

“Sirs, you returned this scene with such an exactitude, that there is not a comma to remove some, nor a point to be added there. ”

The defense of the countess is ensured by the lawyer Tronson of Coudray. In 1787 the lawsuit concluded on a transaction: Mrs. de Sanois, preserving the totality of the goods, agrees to pay a revenue with the husband and to recognize that its charges were not founded.

The count de Sanois sets out again then in exile, this time at Neuchâtel, where he hopes to publish the account of his misfortunes near the Typographical Société of Neuchâtel. But it seems that he encounters some difficulties. It is with joy that he learns the news from the convocation of the State-generals and goes back then to Paris to make hear his voice against the lettre de cachets and the “ministerial despotism”.

Near initially to the patriots who ask for reforms, full with enthusiasm, it makes print booklet on booklet in favor of the Revolution. Lord of Puppet, it even will print the register of grievances of his parish accompanied by his own annotations.

Like points out it Lacretelle: “It had initially turned to the ideas of freedom: but soon, the abuse that one did turned over it against them”

Faithful to the king and the religion, he is then imprisoned as counter-revolutionary. Decree twice, it escapes the guillotine and dies out in Paris the 24 pluviôse year VII (February 12th, 1799).

He was lord of Pantin and Sanois, stronghold of the village of Annet-sur-Marne.

Works

Original personality, unrepentant, sure litigant of its right and its bona fide, the count de Sanois, grayed by the notoriety acquired in 1786, benefits from the wind of reform which blew to present its ideas and diffuses until its death about fifty political booklets strewn with many autobiographical testimonys.

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