Louis de Rouvroy, duke of Saint-Simon

Biography

Youth

Titrated in his youth Vidame of Chartres, Louis de Rouvroy receives a neat education. He becomes at this time friend of the duke of Chartres, the future Régent. Another character who plays a great part in his life: Rancid, the Abbot of the Trap door, close Percheron close to his/her father and who plays for Saint-Simon the part of mentor as regards religion. It is interested especially in the Histoire and likes the reading, in particular those of memories, which give him the “desire for also writing memories of what will see, in the desire and the hope to be of something, and knowing best than will be able the businesses of one time. ” It will start to write its futures Mémoires in July 1694. He does not neglect therefore the physical exercises horsemanship and Escrime and proclamation the desire to be used for the army. In 1691, whereas it is 16 years old, his/her father, already old (86 years) intrigue to insert it in the Mousquetaire S gray and it takes part in 1692 in the head office of Namur. Little time after, Louis XIV gives him the third company of cavalry of the Royal-Roussillon.

In April 1693, his/her father dies and it becomes even Duc and at 18 years. Little time afterwards, Louis buys the Régiment Royal-Police officers and becomes Mestre of camp. Its military responsibilities however pass in the second plan vis-a-vis the responsibilities for peerage. Saint-Simon takes his new row very in heart, and engages quickly in a great lawsuit against the marshal-duke of Luxembourg, which wants to make modify its row among the even . He is also indignant at the “intermediate row” granted to bastard of Louis XIV (the duke of Maine and the count de Toulouse), which makes them pass above the even . In 1695, it marries Marie-Gabrielle de Durfort de Lorge, oldest daughter of the marshal-duke of Lorge, from which the mother, born Frémont, comes from a commoner family but provides an important dowry. The marriage seems particularly happy for the time. The September 8th 1696 is born his/her first Charlotte daughter. The child is counterfeited and remains all his life with the load of his parents. This birth, followed those of two wire of Saint-Simon, as little reluisants intellectually as physically, cruelly wounds Saint-Simon in his pride of father and duke. In its Mémoires it evokes only hardly his children. In 1697 it carries out under the marshal of Choiseul a forwarding in Alsace. It is its last stay with the armies: it more and more badly supports the obligation which is made to him spend two months per annum to its regiment. Moreover, it his is reformed and it is nothing any more but “Mestre of camp after”, under the orders of a simple gentleman. In July 1698 is born the first wire of Saint-Simon, Jacques-Louis titrated vidame of Chartres. This child, even smaller than his father, so much so that it is called “basset hound”, is one of the great sorrows of his father, of which it seems not to have inherited neither intellectual qualities nor honesty. In 1699, worried by the width which take its Mémoires whose its first project had been that they are burned with its death, it consults Rancé to know which rule to adopt. This last undoubtedly does not encourage it to continue a newspaper but rather to collect documents without giving free course to its emotions on paper, pride towards God signs. It possible that starting from this date Saint-Simon constitutes documentary files, is then supplemented personal notes. These files to which he adds the anecdotes of which he remembers are the base of the written Mémoires afterwards forty years. The August 12th is born its second Armand-Jean wire whom it titrates marquis de Ruffec. In 1702, whereas he neglects his regiment for the life of Court, Louis is seen exceeded for a promotion by officers more recent than him in their rank. Among them, the count d' Ayen, future duke of Noailles, which was, its life during, the sworn enemy of the duke ( the snake who tried Eve, who reversed Adam by it, and which lost mankind, is the original whose duke of Noailles is the most exact copy and most faithful declares this last in the Mémoires ). In front of what he regards as an obvious injustice, Saint-Simon leaves the army pretexting of the health reasons. Louis XIV will hold rigor of this defection a long time to him.

In Versailles

In 1702, always, it obtains an apartment for him and his wife with the Château of Versailles: it is the old apartment of the marshal of Lorge, in the northern wing. It will occupy it until in 1709. From now on, it is in full heart of the company of court, which it observes and consigns with passion in its Mémoires . In 1706, its name is proposed for that of the ambassador in Rome, to replace the cardinal of Janson. But at the last time, a promotion of cardinal having been made, Louis XIV decides to send the new whole rather cardinal of Trémoille.

In 1709, it loses its housing. Pontchartrain lends some to him another, located on the 2nd floor of the right wing of the ministers, then in 1710, Saint-Simon - or rather its wife, named woman of honor of the duchess of Berry - obtains a large apartment, allotted before to the duchess Sforza and the Duchesse of Antin. The new apartment has moreover kitchens, which will make it possible Saint-Simon to frequently give suppers and dinners, and to still enrich its Mémoires .

In 1711, Monseigneur, wire of Louis XIV, dies. Saint-Simon, friend of the duke of Burgundy, first in the line of succession, hopes to reach the capacity by his intermediary, but in 1712, the duke of Burgundy dies in its turn. To comfort itself, Saint-Simon launches out in the writing of reform projects in the line of aristocratic liberalism. He dreams of a absolute monarchy, but is not therefore a cantor of egalitarianism: he wants to give again with the nobility, strictly hierarchical, a major political role, even hegemonic. Its writings, signed or not, are diffused at the court and it becomes a kind of character there. In parallel, it continues to quarrel for questions of precedence and to fulminate against the bastard ones, the duke of Maine in the highest degree, especially after the edict of 1714 inserting the bastard ones in the line of succession.

The political reflection of Saint-Simon is founded on the role which it grants to the group of the even of France to which it belongs. For him, this group, the highest expression of the nobility and thus of the French company, have the role and the function natural to advise of the king. The ministerial system, blank as of the reign of Henri IV but set up with force under Louis XIV, is in charge of all the evils, since substituent with the “government of council” of the king and his noble, moreover largely phantasm by Saint-Simon, a “government of execution” where the king only decides and makes carry out his orders by ministers and Secretaries of State, “people of little”, commoners or of fresh nobility. Doesn't Saint-Simon dare to reproach the king, in an anonymous letter made up after death of the duke of Burgundy, to have had a reign “for oneself all alone”?

In the shade of the Regent

In September 1715, Louis XIV dies out. The duke of Orleans, friend of childhood of Saint-Simon, becomes regent. For Saint-Simon, it is the moment to make triumph its political theories. Member of the council of regency, it is at the origin of the system of the Polysynodie, instituting in the place of the ministries for the councils where the aristocracy dominates. For Saint-Simon, this role is the only worthy one of an even of France, adviser born of the king, but not civil servant, even of high vol. Ainsi it refuses the presidency of the council of Finances, which it entrusts even to one his sworn enemies, the duke of Noailles. On the other hand, it accepts the most prestigious honors of the court: the justaucorps with patent and large entries in the king. He is also made allot a cross of Saint-Louis, normally reserved to the soldiers. The honesty of Saint-Simon also prevents it from benefitting from this passage to the capacity to solve its difficult financial position. On the other hand, it repairs its pride broken while taking part in the ousting of bastard of their row of princes of blood.

Not very suited to the political operations, it is supplanted more and more by the cardinal Dubois, former tutor of the Regent and future Prime Minister. Philippe of Orleans preserves his friendship to him and lends to him even in 1719 the castle of Meudon, considerable honor, followed several proposals of station that Saint-Simon refuses under various pretexts. In 1721, it accepts nevertheless the embassy in direction of the Spain, country which it admires much, with an aim of marrying Louis XV with a infante of Spain, but this gilded episode which sees it returning Grand of Spain is its song of the swan: when it returns in 1722 from there, it is Dubois who is named Prime Minister. In 1723, the death of the Regent makes him lose any access to the capacity and while depriving it of his/her last friend, moves away it from the Court.

Saint-Simon withdraws himself then in his Château of Ferté-Vidame, where it carries out a life of country squire, relatively concerned of the living conditions of his peasants, and trying to modernize their techniques. He will be made even ironmaster. He also devotes himself to the drafting of historico-genealogical treaties. He reads the Journal Dangeau and, starting from 1739, he gathers his notes and is harnessed with the drafting itself of its Mémoires . In 1749, it completes their drafting, making them stop in 1723, with died of the Regent. It considers one moment a continuation, which will never be written. He dies in 1755.

Work

Major work of Saint-Simon, the Mémoires awaited their publication a long time. It is not the fact of the direct heirs, obérés by the succession. The manuscript will be kept in a notary and it will be necessary to await the nephew of the small duke, the general of Saint-Simon, to begin the great work of publication. The first large edition is that of Chéruel, starting from 1858, followed by that of Boislile, of 1879 with 1930. These are the editions which will make the glory of Saint-Simon, détrônant the cardinal of Retz with the Pantheon of the memorialists and devoting it like major historical source for the reign of Louis XIV.

Literary aspects

Better still, Saint-Simon gained the title of true writer. The admirors of its prose are numerous among the French-speaking authors, and it is one of the rare memorialists to be read for his style. However, Saint-Simon himself acknowledges: I do not prick myself to write well. From an academic point of view, he tells truth. Its grammar is not always rigorous and its vocabulary is antiquated: this one remains fixed with the first part of the reign of Louis XIV.

It is that even which makes the originality of the style of Saint-Simon: he does not supervise himself, and at his place the sentence is hustled, chopped and feverish, all in ellipses, so much so that Chateaubriand will say of him: He writes with the devil for the posterity . Its sentence seems sometimes, as at Proust, to want to embrace all the aspects of a question and to die out only when the subject was exhausted. Sometimes, on the contrary, it removes the verb and accumulates the fast notations. Thus it describes the tsar Pierre Large the at the time of its visit in Paris in 1717:

It is also a good storyteller, telling clearly and meticulousness of the often muddled stories, knowing to spare its effects and its suspense, transforming a minor anecdote into true comedy. Lastly, Saint-Simon is characterized by ardor from his speech. It with easy indignation, the twisted insult and the well sharpened feather. Well little finds thanks to its eyes. It thus offers to the reader a panorama sometimes unjust, but often amusing, court of Louis XIV.

Work is not homogeneous. To passages of anthology (portrait of the personalities disappeared, death-watch from Louis XIV) “tunnels are opposed” to which the modern reader is less sensitive: thus it writes long essays on the relative hierarchy of large of the kingdom. It is that Saint-Simon does not only write to tell his time, but also to promote its political ideas, to even promote itself. The historians consider indeed that it often exaggerated the importance of its own role in the political matters of the years 1710-1723. Its work itself always does not provide its sources. Saint-Simon draws abundantly from the Newspaper of Dangeau for the anecdotes of the court, but hardly evokes it but to criticize it when it finds errors there. It is also based on the newspaper of Torcy for the international events.

Literary posterity of Saint-Simon

French great writers were influenced by the work of Saint-Simon. One can quote, as examples, Stendhal and Proust.

First could know the Memories by the publications of extracts carried out between 1781 and 1819, before the heirs do not return in possession of the manuscripts on this date and do not authorize a first publication in 1829, complete but very perfectible. Stendhal was fascinated by the Memories, which it summarized by the famous joke: “I have two passed, the spinaches and Saint-Simon! ”. It borrows many literary processes to him “modern” which the duke in spite of his reputation of archaism uses, in particular the subjective description, which consists in describing a scene only through the details that a character perceives some. In Chartreuse of Parma of Stendhal, descriptions of the intrigues of court and the portraits of many supporting characters are openly inspired by Saint-Simon, who is expressly quoted besides. Marcel Proust was an enthusiastic admiror of the memorialist, whose it made besides a length and tasty pastiche ( Pastiches and mixtures , 1919). The evocation in With the research of time lost of the aristocratic living rooms of the beginning of the 20th century owes as much with the memories society men of Proust itself as with the scenes of the Court of Louis XIV as it had read in Saint-Simon, very often quoted in the novel, in particular at the time of the passages where the high character colors of the baron of Charlus appears. Proust as sought to recreate in these passages a certain manner of speaking as Saint-Simon called, but without giving examples, the “spirit Mortemart”, name of large a noble family to which belonged the Marquise of Montespan: “(…) a natural eloquence, an accuracy of expression, a singularity in the choice of the terms which ran source and which always surprised, with this turn particular to Mrs. de Montespan and her sisters, and who passed only to the people of its familiarity or that it had raised. ” ( Memories , portrait of the duchess of Orleans.) Proust sought to illustrate this spirit through its character of the Duchesse of Guermantes, without being fully satisfied with the result besides. But in a major way, Proust was fascinated by the success of the literary project of Saint-Simon, who ressuscite by the writing a world disappeared since thirty years: like the duke-memorialist, the Narrateur of Research understands on late that disappointments of the life and the certainty of dead can be transcended by the literature.

Historical aspects

History according to Saint-Simon

It is a historical intention which Saint-Simon continues. It is justified some in a foreword which is not without pointing out the foreword of the Ab Urbe condita of Tite-Live. It starts by recalling that the history is “study recommended”, practiced by the saints and, better still, by the Holy Spirit (allusion to the books known as historical of the Bible). Insisting that the relevance of reading and writing the history when one is Christian, Saint-Simon is opposed vigorously to the obscurantism: it is not necessary to conceal the defects and the defects of its predecessors in the name of charity. “Let us not put safety that the Redeemer acquired us at the price unworthy of the absolute degradation”. He concludes that the history, far from being against charity, can serve it.

Saint-Simon defines then what must be the history, not the simple enumeration of the events, but also “their origins, their causes, their continuations and their connections of the ones with the others”. And for him, that cannot be done without also telling the history of the actors, their personality, which drives them, their relations between them. Lastly, which can better depict the history, if not somebody who itself lived it?

“To write the history of its country and its time, it is to pass by again in its spirit with much reflection all that one saw, handled, or knew of original without reproach, which occurred on the theater from the world, the various machines, often the apparent riens, which have mû the springs of the events which had the most continuation and which gave birth to others of them. ”

All that shows, according to Saint-Simon, the vanity of the existences and nothing of the ambitions. The history thus fulfills a moral goal, better than the books of morals themselves, because the history marks more the reader: “it is of the opinions and the councils that receive readers of each blow of brush with regard to the characters, and each event by the account of the occasions and the movements which produced it. ” Lastly, the history generally speaking about died people, it can be allowed to be true all while not shocking anybody.

Saint-Simon and the Historiography

August 1st

Editions

Memories . Many editions exist. That of Boislile, in 43 volumes published of 1879 with 1930, is the edition of reference of the historians. That of Yves Coirault, in 8 volumes published starting from 1983 (collection “the Pleiad”, Gallimard) is most practical and most useful for the amateur. The first integral edition in conformity with the original manuscript, the edition Chéruel of 1856, is available here in full text cherchable.
Treated political and other writings , Gallimard, “Pleiad”, 1996. Scattered papers of Saint-Simon on various subjects, generally of the questions of Ceremonial or Genealogy.

See too

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