Pierre Séguier

Pierre Séguier (May 28th 1588 with Paris - January 28th 1672), Chancellor of France, duke of Villemor, is a politician and French magistrate.

Biography

Pierre Séguier is resulting from a famous family lawyers, originating in the Quercy. His/her grandfather, Pierre Séguier (1504-1580), was President with mortar at the Parliament of Paris of 1554 to 1576, and his/her father, Jean Séguier, lord of Autry, occupied the functions of civil lieutenant of Paris at the time of his untimely death in 1596.

Pierre Séguier, initially raises college of the Jesuits of the Arrow, was raised by his uncle, Antoine Séguier, president with mortar at the Parliament of Paris, then main of the requests in 1620.

He marries Madeleine Fabry with whom he had:

Marie Séguier (1618-1710) wife the nephew of Richelieu: Pierre César de Cambout, marquis de Coislin and lieutenant of the armies of the King. She will be the mother of the cardinal of Orleans Pierre IV of Cambout de Coislin
Charlotte Séguier (1622- June 5th, 1704) wife in 1639 Maximilien III of Bethune, Duc of Sully then in 1668 Henri of Bourbon-Verneuil.

From 1621 to 1624, he was intendant of Guyenne, or he bound closely with the duke of Épernon. Beginning its legal career under Louis XIII like advising with the Parliament of Paris, it took again the load of his/her uncle Antoine like President with mortar of the Parliament in 1624.

In 1633, it becomes Minister of Justice of the cardinal of Richelieu, then Chancelier of France on December 11th 1635. It informs of the famous lawsuits like that of the marquis of Five-March in 1642 or of Nicolas Fouquet in 1661.

As of 1631, it is interested in the painter Charles Le Brun and allows him to study the fine arts with Rome between 1642 and 1645. He is his official guard until the Brown one becomes in 1662 first painter of the king Louis XIV. A famous table of Charles Le Brun shows the Séguier Chancellor with horse. With the death of Séguier, the Brown one organizes a sumptuous funerary service via the royal Académie of painting and sculpture.

In 1639, it is charged to fight the Révolte of the Flip-flops in Normandy against the increase in the Gabelle. It organizes a very hard repression, executant the many ones revolted.

After the death of the Richelieu Cardinal in 1642, he becomes the guard of the French Academy, of which he was elected member in 1635.

Bound to the Cardinal Mazarin, it is one of the actors of the accession of Anne of Austria to regency in 1643. It influences in particular the Parliament so that it breaks the will of Louis XIII. When Mazarin becomes chief of the Council, it reaches the rank of minister of state.

In 1652, under the Sling, it joined a time Gaston de France and the prince de Condé, before finding the king with Pontoise in August. It then loses its load of Minister of Justice, which it will find definitively only in 1656.

He dies on January 28th, 1672. Its body is solemnly buried on March 18th, 1672 with the Carmel of Pontoise.

Henri-Charles de Coislin bequeathed to the Abbaye of Saint-Germain the rich person library whom it had received in heritage of the Séguier chancellor, and whose remains were joined together after 1793 with the National library of France. Another part of its documents is preserved at the Musée of the Hermitage to Saint-Pétersbourg: they were exploited by Boris Porchnev, a known Soviet historian for his work on the popular revolts in France under the Old Mode.

Internal bond

Editions Séguier

External bond

Biographical note of the French Academy

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