Campbell P. Power and Politics in Old Regime France, 1720-1745
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NOTES
348
dogme en matieres qui vont dcvenir fondamentales dans la Religion il semble que la prudence
exige de prendre autres resolutions’—Arsenal, ms. 3857, p. 292.
27 Anonymous memoir, 1727, A.A.E., Mém. et Doc., France, 1260, fol. 156.
28 F.Ravaisson, ed., Archives de la Bastille, 19 vols, Paris, 1866–1904, XIV, p. 98, note.
29 On this little-known episode, see P.Clément, Portraits historiques, Paris, 1855, ‘Les frères Pâris’, pp.
326–69.
30 For further details, see G.T.Matthews, The Royal General Farms in Eighteenth-century France, New York,
1958.
31 Villars, Mémoires, LXX, p. 264.
32 Sorba to Richelieu, 4 July 1726, F.R., 31, fol. 83; see also the ‘gazetins de police’, 13 July 1726,
Arsenal, A.B., 10156, fol. 299, and 11 October 1726, fol. 399; Walpole to Newcastle, 25 June 1726,
B.L., Add. Mss 32746, fol. 294.
33 Richelieu to Silly, 25 July 1726, F.R., 31, fol. 94.
34 Idem to idem, loc. cit., fol. 113.
35 Mme d’Harbigny to Montesquieu, 24 Sept. 1726, Correspondance de Montesquieu, ed. F.Gebelin and
A.Manzé, 2 vols, Paris, 1914, I, letter 138, pp. 174–6.
36 Pierre d’Echerac, La jeunesse de Belle-Isle, Paris, 1908, pp. 115–17.
37 Richer d’Aube, ‘Réflexions’, loc. cit., 9515, pp. 31–6.
38 Ibid., 9511, p. 15.
39 Baudrillart, ‘Les prétentions’, p. 127.
40 Silly to Richelieu, 21 May 1727, F.R., 32, fol. 199.
41 Silly to Richelieu, 16 April 1727, F.R., 32, fol. 78.
42 A.A.E., Mém. et Doc., France, 1260, fols 54–7.
43 Quoted in Baudrillart, ‘Les prétentions’, p. 128.
44 Silly to Richelieu, 6 May 1727, F.R., 32, fols 107–8, and, for the latter part of the quotation, letter of
21 May, loc. cit., fol. 199.
45 For this episode see Hardy, Le cardinal de Fleury, pp. 87–110.
46 For this sequence of events, never previously clarified, see especially Richelieu to Silly, 20 August
1727. F.R., 33, fols 95–7, for the chronology; idem to idem, 14 September 1727, ibid, fols 128–31;
count Albert to court of Bavaria, Kastenschwarz, 17094; Chambrier to Frederick William of
Prussia, 25 August 1727, A.A.E., C.P., Prusse, 83, fols 270–1.
47 See cardinal de Rohan to Dubois, February 1722, A.A.E., Mém. et Doc., France, 1251, fols 270–1.
48 Toussaint, Anecdotes curieuses, op. cit., pp. 63–4; d’Argenson, Journal et mémoires, I, pp. 73–8; Richer
d’Aube, ‘Réflexions’, loc. cit., 9511, pp. 25–31; Hénault, Mémoires, ed. Rousseau, p. 152.
49 Richer d’Aube, ‘Réflexions’, loc. cit., 9511, p. 28.
50 Ibid., p. 25.
51 Ibid., pp. 29–30.
52 D’Argenson, Journal et mémoires, I, p. 77.
53 Toussaint, Anecdotes curieuses, p. 63.
54 Richer d’Aube, ‘Réflexions’, 9511, p. 30.
55 Richer d’Aube, ‘Réflexions’, 9513, p. 457.
56 Chambrier to Frederick William of Prussia, 25 August 1727, A.A.E., C.P., Prusse, 83, fol. 271.
57 E.J.F.Barbier, Chronique de la régence et du règne de Louis XV (1718–1763), ed. Charpentier, 8 vols,
Paris, 1857, II, p. 14.
58 Richer d’Aube, ‘Réflexions’, 9511, pp. 16–17.
59 Ibid., 9511, pp. 206–10.
60 See the copy of a letter from Fleury to a farmer general on 9 October 1726, Arsenal, ‘Gazetins de
police’, A.B., 10156, fol. 393.
61 Richer d’Aube, ‘Réflexions’, 9511, pp. 17–18.
62 ‘Gazetins de police’, report on 21 January 1729, A.B. 10159, fol. 23.
63 See the memoir on finances by Chauvelin, 31 December 1728, A.A.E., Mém. et Doc., France,
1262, fols 230–44. The marginal note reads ‘ce memoire du garde des sceaux Chauvelin ne
contient que des generalites pour le retablissement des finances du Royaume; et a pour principal
objet de decrier 1’administration du controleur general Peletier des forts’.
64 See the anonymous letter probably to Fleury, explaining and denouncing the scandal, 9 March
1730, A.A.E., Mém. et Doc., France, 1266, fols 176–82; see also Richer d’Aube, ‘Réflexions’, 9511,
pp. 45–6.
NOTES
349
65 Apparently Le Blanc had led him to believe this, while knowing full well that Fleury intended to
avoid war if at all possible.
66 Richer d’Aube, ‘Réflexions’, 9511, pp. 49–53. This ‘empire building’ of Chauvelin’s was typical of
conflicts between ministers during the reign of Louis XIV: see C.Frostin, ‘L’organisation
ministérielle sous Louis XIV: cumul d’attributions et situations conflictuelles’, Revue historique de
droit français et étranger, LVIII, 1980, pp. 201–26.
67 Richelieu to * * * * [duchesse de Duras?], February 1728, La vie privée, I, p. 280.
6 THE CONTROL OF PATRONAGE AND POLICY
1 There are, however, several studies that consider important aspects of the period: H. de Jouvencel,
Le contrôleur-général des finances au XVIIIe siècle, Paris, 1901; G.Hardy, Le cardinal de Fleury et le
mouvement janséniste, Paris, 1925; H.de Luçay, Des origines du pouvoir ministériel en France. Les secrétaires
d’état depuis leur institution jusqu’à la mort de Louis XV, Paris, 1881; P.Viollet, Le roi et ses ministres pendant
les trois derniers siècles de la monarchie, Paris, 1912; R.Vaucher, Robert Walpole et la politique de Fleury
(1731–1742), Paris, 1924; A.M.Wilson, French Foreign Policy During the Administration of Cardinal Fleury,
1726–1743, Cambridge Mass., 1936. The foregoing studies were all written more than fifty years
ago, and the latter two focus on foreign policy. More recent studies have very little to say on
ministerial politics in this period: M.Antoine, Le conseil du roi sous le règne de Louis XV, Geneva, 1970,
is the standard study of the working of the council; his Louis XV, Paris, 1989, excellent on
institutions and the daily life of Louis XV, barely mentions faction or patronage in these early
years; J.Shennan, ‘The political role of the parlement of Paris under Cardinal Fleury’, English
Historical Review, LXXXI, 1966, pp. 520–42 does not examine the ministerial viewpoint.
2 For membership of corporate, household and administrative bodies, see the annual Etat de la
France, Paris, 1726 etc.; for the individuals, see the indispensable works of reference by M. Antoine,
Le gouvernement et l’administration sous Louis XV, Paris, 1978, and J.F.Bluche, L’origine des magistrats du
Parlement de Paris au XVIIIe siècle (1715–1771), Paris, 1956.
3 For Louis XIV, see especially A.Corvisier, Louvois, Paris, 1983; D.Dessert, Fouquet, Paris, 1987; J.
Meyer, Colbert, Paris, 1984; C.Frostin, ‘L’organisation ministérielle sous Louis XV: cumul
d’attributions et situations conflictuelles’, Revue historique de droit français et étranger, 58, 1980, pp.
201–26. For the reign of Louis XVI, see J.Hardman, French Politics, 1774–1789, London, 1995.
4 For the ordinances, see A.Regnault, Les ordonnances civiles du chancelier Daguesseau, 3 vols, Paris, 1929,
1938 and 1965, for a sketch of his role as Chancellor, see A.Boulée, Histoire de la vie et des ouvrages du
chancelier d’Aguesseau, 2 vols, Paris, 1848. See below, pp. 139–41.
5 See below, pp. 150–1.
6 See below, pp. 147–9 and 157–68.
7 The constitution of their fortunes has been studied. See D.Roche, ‘Aperçus sur la fortune et les
revenus des princes de Condé à l’aube du XVIIIe siècle’, Revue d’histoire moderne et contemporaine,
1967, pp. 217–43; J.Dumas, ‘Les Bourbon-Penthièvre à Rambouillet: la constitution d’un duché
pairie au XVIIe siècle’, Revue d’histoire moderne et contemporaine, XXIX, 1982, pp. 291–304; F.-C.
Mougel, ‘La fortune des princes de Bourbon-Conty: revenus et gestion, 1655–1791’, Revue
d’histoire moderne et contemporaine, XVIII, 1971, pp. 30–49.
8 The whole of the collection of documents in the ministry of foreign affairs relating to Fleury has
been investigated. In the series ‘Mémoires et Documents, France’ some seventy volumes contain
much of what remains of the correspondence of the Cardinal with both ministers and individuals
of greater or lesser importance inside France. Many volumes dealing with individual provinces
were also consulted where they contain letters to or from Fleury; those for Provence, Languedoc,
Brittany and the Ile de France were particularly useful. The scope of this book being limited to the
structure of internal politics, the volumes of ‘Correspondance politique’ with the French
ambassadors and other powers in Europe have chiefly been used in a way which permits
conclusions about who was responsible for the drawing up of memoirs on policy at crucial
periods. Ministerial memoranda provide an invaluable source of evidence on this topic,
particularly if they have been annotated or replied to. The collections in the Archives nationales
and Bibliothèque nationale have provided much further information on ministerial activity.
9 Report to Hérault, 6 August 1729, Arsenal, A.B. 10159, fol. 270.
10 Silly to Richelieu, 28 June 1726, in J.-L. Soulavie, ed., Piéces inédites sur les règnes de Louis XIV, XV, et
Louis XVI, 2 vols, Paris, 1809, II, p. 257; Chambrier to Frederick William, 4 January 1727, A.A.E.,
C.P., Prusse, 83, fol. 173.
NOTES
350
11 See also Antoine, Le conseil du roi, pp. 598–620, and idem, Louis XV, Paris, 1989.
12 Richer d’Aube, ‘Réflexions’, B.N., N.a.f., 9515, pp. 270–1.
13 E.Appolis, Entre jansénistes et zélanti, un tiers parti catholique au dix-huitième siècle, 1960. See also E.
Appolis, ‘A travers le XVIIIe siècle catholique. Entre jansénistes et constitutionnaires: un tiers
parti’, Annales E.S.C., VI, 1951, pp. 154–71, esp. pp. 157–8: other moderates appointed were
Claude-Antoine de Choiseul-Beaupré to Châlons-sur-Marne, Charles-Joseph de Quiqueron de
Beaujeu to Mirepoix, Guillaume-Samuel de Verthamon de Chavagnac to Luçun, François de Fitz-
James to Soissons. They replaced ardent ‘constitutionnaires’.
14 Vintimille was thought to be a moderate and a politique in his attitude towards the Bull Unigenitus.
His letters to Fleury when he was in Paris appear to confirm this. See B.R.Kreiser, Miracles,
Convulsions and Ecclesiastical Politics in Early Eighteenth-century Paris, Princeton, 1978, pp. 54–7. However,
the tone of the letters conceals the fact that when confronted with the recalcitrant Jansenists, he
adopted a less moderate, more doctrinaire attitude which caused him to insert provocative
statements into his pastoral instructions, thus causing problems for the ministry.
15 A.A.E., Mém. et Doc., Rome, 58, p. 1.
16 Bibliothèque Mazarine, mss 2357–8.
17 Bouffonidor, Les fastes de Louis XV, de ses ministres, maîtresses, généraux et autres notables personnages de son
règne, 2 vols, Villefranche, 1782, I, p. 201. ‘Couturier étoit à la tête du département de toutes les
affaires ecclésiastiques’ is an ambiguous phrase when translated because the word département still
had the meaning of ‘a sharing out’, rather than a bureaucratic body.
18 Couturier to Fleury, May 1738, A.A.E., Mém. et Doc., France, 1314, fols 203–4; idem to idem, fols
222–3.
19 A.Sicard, L’ancien clergé de France, les évêques avant la révolution, 3 vols, Paris, 1905 9, I, Chap. 1; N.
Ravitch, Sword and Mitre. Government and Episcopate in France and England in the Age of Aristocracy, The
Hague, 1966, Chap. 2.
20 Honoré de Beaujeu to Fleury, (1728?) in ‘Pièces fugitives en vers et en prose sur les affaires du
temps 1721–41’, Arsenal, ms 2976, not paginated. The letter is perhaps apocryphal, but the point
well made.
21 A.A.E., Mém. et Doc., 1266 and 1267, passim.
22 Hardy, Le cardinal de Fleury, pp. 209–14, citation from p. 214.
23 Ibid., p. 303.
24 Ibid.
25 Some volumes contain almost nothing but requests for patronage: see, for example, A.A.E., Mém.
et Doc, France, 1274 (for 1732) and 1314 (for 1739).
26 For example, the duchesse douairière d’Orléans to Fleury, January 1732, A.A.E., Mém. et Doc,
1274, fol. 144.
27 See the letter from Toulouse to Noailles on this subject on 3 August 1732, A.A.E, Mém. et Doc,
141, fol. 139.
28 For example, the duc du Maine to Fleury, 11 August 1731, loc. cit., 1270, fols 103–4. For a fuller
examination of how to make it in the world of finance and the role of the court, see Y.Durand, Les
fermiers généraux au XVIIIe siècle, Paris, 1971, Chap. 2.
29 For example, the comte de Charolais to Fleury, 28 August 1731, loc. cit., 1270, fol. 153.
30 For example, the duc d’Orléans to Fleury, 30 September 1733, loc. cit., 1784, fol. 68.
31 For example, the duc du Maine to Fleury, n.d, loc. cit, 1269, fols 35–6. For the importance of the
office of secrétaire du roi in facilitating social mobility through access to the nobility, see D.Bien, ‘The
secrétaires du roi: absolutism, corps and privilege under the ancien régime’, in E.Hinrichs, E. Schmitt
and R.Vierhaus, eds, Vom ancien régime zur Französischen Revolution, Göttingen, 1978.
32 ‘Réflexions’, 9511, p. 205.
33 On 4 September 1731, the due du Maine requested a favour from Fleury by letter instead of by
audience: le scrupule que je me faits d’interrompre pour si peu de chose les importantes
occupations que la conjoncture presente exigent de V Emc
e
m’a engage a solliciter auprès d’elle,
cette audience par escrit’—A.A.E, Mém. et Doc., France, 1270, fol. 192.
34 There is a satirical description of Fleury’s coucher in d’Argenson, Journal et mémoires, I, p. 113.
35 Bouffonidor, Les fastes, I, p. 202.
36 On this subject see C.F.X.Millot, Mémoires politiques, V, pp. 144–52, esp. the letter from Fleury to
Noailles on 13 August 1728, cited on pp. 144–5.
37 A.A.E., Mém. et Doc, France, 147, fols 14–16, 135–42, 143–53.
38 A.A.E, Mém. et Doc., France, 1310, fols 131, 189–90, 191–2 and 200.
NOTES
351
39 E.Martin, Histoire de Lodève, 2 vols, Montpellier, 1900, II, p. 216; E.Appolis, Un diocèse languedocien
an milieu du XVIIIe siècle: le diocèse civil de Lodève, Albi, 1951, pp. 479–81; L.Dutil, L’état économique du
Languedoc à la fin de l’ancien régime, (1750–1789), 1911, pp. 421–5. On the development of the cloth
industry in the region see in particular J.K.J.Thomson, Clermont de Lodève, 1633–1789; Fluctuations in
the Prosperity of a Languedocian Cloth-making Town, Cambridge, 1982.
40 For example, the proprietors of the salt mines of Peccais to Fleury, 18 February 1725, A.A.E.,
Mém. et Doc., France, Petits fonds, Languedoc, 1643, fols 237–8; the cour des comptes de
Montpellier to Fleury, n.d., 1725, loc. cit., fols 239–40.
41 Cited in H.de Jouvencel, Le contrôleur-général des finances au XVIIIe siècle, 1901, p. 68. For information
on the numbers of premiers commis in the central administration, see M.Antoine, Le conseil du roi,
op. cit., p. 319, note 206. Thirty premiers commis accompanied the court to Fontainebleau in
November 1735, and Fleury took with him four secretaries. See also J.F.Bosher, ‘The “premiers
commis des finances” in the reign of Louis XVI’, French Historical Studies, III, 1964, pp. 475 94, who
tends to emphasise their modernity and takes no note of this sort of patronage.
42 F.Mosser, Les intendants des finances au XVIIIe siècle, Paris, 1978; Antoine, Le conseil du roi.
43 J.Samoyault, Les bureaux du secrétariat d’état des affaires étrangères sous Louis XV: Administration, personnel,
Paris, 1971.
44 The public discovery of this state of affairs was to prepare the ground for the accusations of
‘ministerial despotism’ which became current from the middle years of the century when Louis
XV was truly his own first minister.
45 ‘Réflexions’, 9511, p. 23.
46 A table showing all those ministers who held bureaucratic posts forms Appendix 1. The full range
of duties of these ministers has not been indicated in detail. For further particulars, see the Etat de
la France, 1736, IV, pp. 3–46; R.Mousnier, The Institutions of France under the Absolute Monarchy, 2 vols,
Chicago, 1979 84, II, part 3.
47 For his role as Chancellor, see Antoine, Le conseil du roi, op. cit., pp. 206–10. His discussion also
includes an exposition of the various functions of the Chancellor and the Keeper of the Seals. For
the ordinances, see Regnault, Les ordonnances civiles, op. cit.
48 A.Boulée, Histoire de la vie et des outrages du chancelier d’Aguesseau, 2 vols, Paris, 1848, I, pp. 413–34 and
II, pp. 54–5.
49 Antoine, Le conseil du roi, p. 124.
50 A.A.E., Mém. et Doc., France, 1267, fol. 155.
51 See below, pp. 212–13 and 219–20.
52 Toussaint, Anecdotes curieuses, pp. 12–13.
53 ‘M.le chancelier n’a pas du être fort flatté du peu d’empressement qu’a montre M.le cardinal a faire
usage de ses lumieres, apres en avoir tant fait pour le faire arriver. En effet, apres un entretien asses
court, et tres vague, dit-on, S.E.lui a fait entendre qu’elle avoit a travailler avec M.le Garde des
Sceaux et 1’a congedie’—B.N., Mss fr., 10232, pp. 27–8.
54 Hénault, Mémoires, ed. Vigan, p. 296.
55 Ibid., p. 314.
56 It is in his role as minister for the marine that Maurepas has been best studied, by Chabault-
Arnault in the 1890s, by Dagnaud in 1912, and more recently, since the sale of most of the
minister’s private documents to America, by historians of the colonies. There is an excellent and
more recent study by M.Filion, Maurepas, ministre de Louis XV. 1715–1749, Montreal, 1967; there are
also two books by R.Lamontagne: Ministère de la marine. Amérique et Canada, d’aprés les documents
Maurepas, Montreal, 1966; and Textes et documents Maurepas, Montreal 1967.
57 ‘Réflexions’, 9511, p. 196.
58 M.Filion, Maurepas, pp. 40–4. For the genealogy, see L.Boisnard, Les Phélypeaux. Une famille de
ministres sous l’ancien régime, Paris, 1986.
59 Saint-Simon, XXXIII, p. 96 and Filion, Maurepas, op. cit., p. 47.
60 Hénault, Mémoires, ed. Rousseau, p. 205; d’Argenson, Journal et mémoires, ed. Rathery, IV, pp. 185
9; Silly to Richelieu, 24 January 1727, F.R. 31, fol. 209.
61 Chambrier to Frederick II, 17 June 1740, in J.Flammermont, ed., Correspondance des agents
diplomatiques étrangers, Paris, 1896.
62 For his duties with the marine, see R.D.Bourland, Jr, ‘Maurepas and the administration of the
French navy on the eve of the war of the Austrian succession, 1737–1742’, PhD thesis, University
of Notre Dame, 1978; Filion, Maurepas; and the excellent study by M.Filion, La pensée et l’action
coloniale de Maurepas vis-à-vis du Canada, 1723–1749, Montreal, 1972.
NOTES
352
63 On his administration of Paris, which necessitated working closely with the lieutenant-general of
police, see the introduction to the Lettres de M.de Marville au ministre de Maurepas, A.de Boislisle, ed.,
3 vols, Paris, 1896–1905.
64 C.-P.Albert, duc de Luynes, Mémoires sur la cour de Louis XV (1735–1758), ed. L.Dussieux and
E.Soulié, 17 vols, Paris, 1860–5, IX, p. 120. See also X, pp. 118–20.
65 He was an influential member of the ‘regiment de la calotte’, whose ‘commissions’ were spitefully
witty poems, and he collected songs. See E.Raunié, ed., Chansonnier historique du XVIIe siècle, 10 vols,
Paris, 1879–84.
66 Richer d’Aube, ‘Réflexions’, 9511, p. 201.
67 Ibid., pp. 198–9.
68 Wilson, French Foreign Policy, pp. 71–3.
69 ‘Situation du commerce Exterieur du Roiaume, exposee le 3 oct’, B.N., Mss. fr., 11332, fols 663–701.
70 Filion, Maurepas, p. 49.
71 French Foreign Policy, Chap. 2.
72 Filion, La pensée et l’action coloniale, pp. 74–5.
73 Ibid., pp. 152–4.
74 Maurepas to the bishop of Troyes, May 1728, Arsenal, ms. 3893, fol. 18.
75 One example, sent to the bishop of Laon on 22 July 1731, is to be found in A.N., A.P. 257, carton
19, doc. 24.
76 A.N., A.P. 257, carton 8, doc. 32.
77 Richer d’Aube, ‘Réflexions’, 9511, p. 200.
78 Ibid., pp. 232–3.
79 Ibid., pp. 212–13.
80 Millot, Mémoires politiques, V, p. 271 .
81 Ibid.
82 Arsenal, Ms., 6620, fol. 216.
83 ‘Le sieur Amelot est si dépendant du cardinal qu’il n’est pas aisé de dire ce qu’il pourrait et
voudrait s’il était maître dans son département’, Chambrier to Frederick II, 31 December 1742,
quoted in M.Sautai, Les préliminaires de la guerre de succession, Paris, 1907, p. 470.
84 A.J.Bourde, Deux registres (H 1520–H 1521) du contrôle général des finances aux Archives nationales 1730–
1736. Contribution à l’étude du ministère d’Orry, Aix-en-Provence, 1965, p. 9.
85 Ibid., p. 11.
86 The whole process of proto-industrialisation was of course extremely complex: see J.K.J.
Thomson, Clermont de Lodève, 1633–1789; Fluctuations in the Prosperity of a Languedocian Cloth-making
To w n , Cambridge, 1982.
87 Mosser, Les intendants, p. 79.
88 Ibid., p. 11.
89 The register in the Archives nationales, G
7
1841–8, which includes some documents listing the
affairs to be presented to the council in 1729 is a unique example. Hence for the 1730s the only
complete year is 1736. See M.Antoine, Le conseil royal des finances au XVIIIe siècle et le registre E3659 des
Archives nationales, Geneva, 1973.
90 A.A.E., Mém. et Doc., France, 1283, fol. 394.
91 Isambert, Recueil, XXI, pp. 380–1.
92 Bourde, Deux registres, p. 15, note.
93 A.A.E., Mém. et Doc., France, 1274, fol. 4.
94 Chambrier to Frederick William, 17 June 1740, in J.Flammermont, Correspondance des agents
diplomatiques étrangers, p. 8.
95 ‘Réflexions’, 9511, pp. 174–94; 9512, pp. 12–15, 319–77; 9513, pp. 206–19, 357–61, 469–502.
96 F.McLynn, France and the Jacobite Rising of 1745, Edinburgh, 1981, p. 48. On the dixième see M.
Marion, L’impôt sur le revenu au dix-huitième siècle principalement en Guyenne, Paris, 1910, repr. Geneva,
1976, pp. 136–46.
97 Richer d’Aube, ‘Réflexions’, 9512, pp. 319–77.
98 Chauvelin, memoir, 19 October 1736, A.A.E., Mém. et Doc., France, 418, fol. 223, also cited by
Wilson, French Foreign Policy, p. 262.
99 ‘Réflexions’, 9517, p. 244.
100 Hoym to Augustus II, 1 September 1727, in J.Pichon, La vie de Hoym, 2 vols, Paris, 1880, II, pp.
287–8.
101 ‘Réflexions’, 9511, pp. 30–1.
NOTES
353
102 See Antoine, Le conseil du roi, pp. 135–6.
103 See below, pp. 260–9.
104 A.N., A.P., 257, carton 8.
105 These memoirs are scattered among the series Mémoires et documents in the A.A.E. Several may
be found in Mém. et Doc., France, 503 and 505.
106 Richer d’Aube, ‘Réflexions’, 9513, p. 456. A marginal note reads ‘il y a encore bien des gens, qui
ignorent cela, mais que cela n’est pas moins vray’.
107 See Part 2 Chapters 10 and 11.
108 A.A.E., Mém. et Doc., France, 1274, fol. 3.
109 D’Argenson to Chauvelin, 25 July 1732, A.A.E., Mém. et Doc., France, 1276, fols 248–51.
110 E.Driault, ‘Chauvelin 1733–1737’, Revue d’histoire diplomatique, VII, 1893, pp. 31–74 is the most
prominent example. See also H.de Luçay, Les secrétaires d’état, p. 273 and 276; H.Martin, Histoire de
France, XI, p. 212; A.E.C.Dareste de la Chavanne, Histoire de France, 9 vols, Paris, 1865–79, VI, p.
322; Baudrillart, Philippe V, IV, p. 19.
111 Frederick II to Chambrier, 19 November 1740, in Flammermont, Correspondance des agents
diplomatiques, p. 11.
112 P.Vaucher, Robert Walpole et la politique de Fleuy (1731–1742), Paris, 1924, pp. 111–12.
113 A.A.E., Mém. et Doc., France, 457, fol. 63.
114 See below, pp. 157–8 and 260–9.
115 For an example of this correspondence, see Chauvelin to Fleury, with marginal notes by Fleury, 6
February 1737, A.A.E., Mém. et Doc., France, 1309, fol. 94, also in Campbell, The conduct of
politics’, Appendix III.
116 Albert to comte de Terring, December 1736, Munich, HSA, Kastenschwarz, 17147, no. 3.
117 Richer d’Aube wrote that l’etroite subordination dans laquelle M. le Cardinal de Fleury le tien,
doit empecher qu’on ne luy attribue ce qui se fait de mal dans les parties de 1’administration qui le
regardent’: ‘Réflexions’, 9513, pp. 605, 613–14.
118 F.-V.Toussaint, Anecdotes curieuses de la cour de France sous le règne de Louis XV, ed. P.Fould, Paris, 1908,
pp. 112–13.
119 Richer d’Aube, ‘Réflexions’, 9513, p. 605.
120 Notice des principaux evenements du ministere de mr Amelot qui a commence le 20 fevrier 1737
et a fini le 26 avril 1744—A.A.E., Mém. et Doc., France, 457, fol. 159 ff.
121 B.N., N.a.f, 490, and replies in ibid., 491.
122 J.Sareil, Les Tencin: Histoire d’une famille au XVIIIe siècle, Geneva 1969, p. 296.
123 B.N., Mss fr., 7190.
124 Villeneuve to Fleury, 31 January 1738, loc. cit., 490, fol. 17.
125 Notwithstanding the accretion of political functions, the police’s involvement in the everyday life
of the citizens of Paris was vast and wide-ranging. Police records have enabled A.Farge to
reconstruct so much of the fragile lives of the populace, see Fragile lives, Oxford, 1994; and A. Farge
and J.Revel, The Vanishing Children of Paris: Rumour and Politics before the French Revolution, Cambridge
Mass., 1992.
126 Luynes, II, pp. 53–4, quoted in A.de Boislisle, ed., Lettres de M.de Marville, lieutenant gènèral de police,
au ministre Maurepas, (1742–1747), 3 vols, Paris, 1896–1905, p. xliii. See also S.Pillorget, Claude-Henri
Feydeau de Marville, lieutenant général de police de Paris, Paris, 1978, and A.Williams, The Police of Paris,
1718–1789, Baton Rouge, 1979.
127 See especially A.A.E., Mém. et Doc., France, 1270, and (Ile de France) 1600.
128 Williams, Police, p. 110, n. 65. According to Williams’ calculations (p. 111), in 1780 the number of
spies could have been only around 350 men and women.
129 In 1780 the figure was only 20,000 livres a year; see ‘Souvenirs historiques et notices sur la police
de Paris par M.Lenoir’, in J.Peuchet, Mémoires tirés des archives de police, 6 vols in 3, Paris, 1838, III,
pp. 1–101; A.Gazier, ed., ‘La police de Paris en 1770, mémoire inédit composé par ordre de G.de
Sartine’, Mémoires de la société de l’histoire de Paris et de l’lle de France, V, 1878, pp. 1–131; R.Darnton,
‘The memoirs of Lenoir, lieutenant de police of Paris, 1774–1785’, English Historical Review,
LXXXV, 1970, pp. 532–59.
130 Barbier, Journal, ed. Charpentier, II, p. 211.
131 Albert, Prince Grimberghen to Count Terring, 30 January 1743, Kastenschwarz 17171.
132 A.N., A.P., 257, cartons 14–19. Many letters to and from bishops are contained in the series
A.A.E., Mém. et Doc., France.
133 See below, pp. 241–4.
NOTES
354
134 The correspondence between Fleury and Gillbert de Voisins is in the A.N., U 877. On 18 July 1729
Fleury wrote to Voisins: ‘je prens done la liberte, sans vouloir afreusement vous rien prescrire,
dont je suis infiniment eloigne, de vous envoyer mes observations que je sousmets a vos lumieres
et a votre zele pour le bien de l’etat. Vous en ferez tout l’usage que vous trouverez bon. Si j’osois je
vous prierois de vouloir bien supprimer en entier l’article qui commence par le mot “Enfin”.’
135 For the reign of Louis XIV, see R.Mettam, Power and Faction in Louis XIV’s France, Oxford, 1988, and
the chapters on the control of Brittany, the Lyonnais, Languedoc and Provence in his 1967
Cambridge University PhD thesis, ‘The role of the higher aristocracy in France under Louis
XIV’.
136 For a more extended discussion of the power of the Noailles clan, in the context of the struggle for
the succession to Fleury, see below, pp. 166–76.
137 ‘Etat de la cour de France’, anon., 1730, A.A.E., Mém. et Doc., France, 1266, fols 174–5.
138 B.N., N.a.f., 23929–37.
139 There several in A.A.E., Mém. et Doc., France, 503 and 504.
140 ‘Etat de la cour de France’, 1730, A.A.E., Mém. et Doc., France, 1266, fol. 174.
141 See below, pp. 162–4.
142 A.N., G
7
1841–8; see also Antoine, Le conseil du roi, pp. 202–5.
143 A.N., G
7
1841–9, doc. 236.
144 Ibid., doc. 239.
145 Ibid., doc. 241.
146 Ibid., doc. 244.
147 Antoine, Le conseil du roi, pp. 202–5.
148 Villars, Mémoires, LXX, p. 376.
149 Ibid., p. 386.
150 Ibid., p. 392.
151 Ibid., p. 475.
152 D’Argenson, Journal et mémoires, ed. Rathery, IV, p. 240; Antoine, Le conseil du roi, pp. 298–301;
Antoine, ‘Les comités des ministres sous le règne de Louis XV’, Revue historique de droit français et
étranger, 1951, pp. 193–230; E.C.G.Cruickshanks, ‘Factions at the court of Louis XV’, PhD thesis,
London University, 1956, p. 352.
153 Antoine, Le conseil du roi, pp. 82–3, 140, 278–80.
7 THE POLITICS OF FACTION
1 A.A.E., Mém. et Doc., France, 1266, fols 19–20. A marginal note reads: ‘e’est ce memoire la meme
qui a cause la disgrace des ducs d’epernon et de gevres’. Other memoirs were composed at
different times, see loc. cit., 1268, fols 184–8, and B.N., N.a.f, 6505.
2 D’Argenson, Journal et mémoires, ed. E.J.B.Rathery, 9 vols, Paris, 1859–67, I, pp. 228–9; Ranchon,
‘Histoire d’André-Hercule, cardinal de Fleury’, B.N., N.a.f, Ms. 2076, pp. 702–8; Barbier,
Chronique de la régence et du règne de Louis XV (1718–1763), ed. Charpentier, 8 vols, Paris, 1857, II, pp.
126–7.
3 Neither of these rumours seems to have been true. See d’Argenson, Journal et mémoires, ed.
Rathery, I, p. 229.
4 ‘Etat de la cour’, A.A.E., Mém. et Doc., France, 1269, fol. 23: ‘Elle est toujours la principale actricc
de la scene muette que jouent certains ennemies secrets de cette Emce et elle a dissimulee avec un
front serein tous les travers qu’elle a essuyes a ce sujet, aussy est elle toujours sortie du jeu, sans y
rien perdre.’
5 F.-V.Toussaint, Anecdotes curieuses de la cour de France sous le règne de Louis XV, ed. P.Fould, Paris, 1908,
pp. 71–2. In his Journal for July 1732 d’Argenson noted a revival of factional intrigue—I, ed.
Rathery, pp. 127–8. In one of his memoirs on the parlement, he suggested to Chauvelin that the
faction of the due de Bourbon might be involved in the opposition to royal policy.
6 A remark by Louis XV about Monteynard, the minister for war in the 1760s, indicates the need
for a minister to have more than the support of the King. ‘II faudra bien qu’il lombe, car il n’y a
que moi qui le soutienne’, quoted in E.Boutaric, Correspondance secrète inédite de Louis XV, 2 vols,
Paris, 1866, I, p. 5.
7 D’Argenson, Journal et mémoires, ed. Rathery, I, p. 235.
NOTES
355
8 ‘On parle avec tout l’eloge possible de m.le cardinal de Fleury. Les uns disent quo son eminence a
plus conquis en deux ans de guerre que Louis quatorze n’a fait dans tout son Rayne sous le
ministere de ceux qui sont passes pour estre de grand genie. D’autres disent que son eminence a
scu acquerir au Roy l’epitette de grand sans qu’il en couste beaucoup de sang ny danger a la nation
francaise.’ Conversation overheard in the palais royal, ‘gazetins de police’, 10 January 1736,
Arsenal. A.B., 10165, fol. 15.
9 See dowager duchesse d’Orléans to Fleury, May 1732, A.A.E., Mém. et Doc., France, 1275,
fols 68–9.
10 D’Argenson, Journal et mémoires, ed. Rathery, I, p. 228–33; quotation from pp. 238–9.
11 E.G.Cruickshanks, ‘Factions at the court of Louis XV, PhD thesis, University of London, 1955,
pp. 18–21; A.M.Wilson, French Foreign Policy During the Administration of Cardinal Fleury, 1726–1743,
Cambridge Mass., 1936, p. 272.
12 Cruickshanks, ‘Factions at the court’, p. 18; Baudrillart, Philippe V, IV, p. 129.
13 Waldegrave to Newcastle, 16 August 1735, in W.Coxe, Memoirs of the Life and Administration of Sir
Robert Walpole, III, London, 1798, p. 275.
14 ‘Gazetins de police’, 30–1 May 1736, Arsenal, A.B., 10165, fol. 236. On 18 July a report said:
‘On dit dans le public que M.le cardinal de fleury estoit malade…on pretend que celuy qui
pouvoit perdre le plus a sa mort, ce seroit Mr le garde des Sceaux, parce quil a beaucoup
dennemis et qui sont puissant, qui ne manqueroit de tacher de la desservir au pres du Roy’
ibid., fol. 310.
15 ‘Réflexions’, 9513, p. 458.
16 Ibid. p. 461.
17 Cruickshanks, ‘Factions at the court’, p. 37.
18 See pp. 281–6.
19 The reports are in Munich, Hauptstaatsarchiv, Kastenschwarz, 17147, docs 1–20.
20 Albert, prince Grimberghen, to count Terring, 4 January 1737, Kastenschwarz, 17147, no. 4,
quoted in Campbell, ‘The conduct of politics’, PhD thesis, 1985, Appendix V. This report is
particularly interesting because it gives a very vivid impression of the cardinal de Fleury at
court. On 1 February Albert wrote, ‘Quant a sa situation, elle n’a pas change de face, et les
memes choses que l’on publioit ci devant sur l’instabilite ou il estoit dans son poste se disent
toujours egalement ses ennemis ayant grand soin d’entretenir les memes bruits dans le public
pour le decrediter, et par la enhardir un chacun a l’atlaquer a tort, et a travers pres du cardinal,
mais ce qu’il y a de plus extraordinaire, c’est que dans le nombre de raisonneurs il ny en a pas
un seul, qui cite un fait veritable contre luy, et quand l’on allegue ceux qui crient le point haut
demeurent court’—loc. cit., no. 13.
21 For a different view, see J.M.J.Rogister, ‘A minister’s fall and its implications: the case of Chauvelin
(1737–1746)’, in D.J.Mossop et al., eds, Studies on the French Eighteenth Century, Durham, 1978, p. 203:
‘Chauvelin’s official relations with Fleury at this time…seem to have been marked by a spirit of
mutual confidence as late as 6 February’. The relationship between the crisis in the parlement and
the fall of Chauvelin, an issue first raised by Rogister, is further discussed on pp. 281–8.
22 Kastenschwarz, 17147, no. 17.
23 For an exploration of this aspect, see J.M.J.Rogister, ‘New light on the fall of Chauvelin’, English
Historical Review, LXXXIII, 1968, pp. 314–30. Although he has used the evidence of
Daguesseau de Plainmont who was an avocat général, and the letters of chancellor Daguesseau,
Rogister apparently did not have access to the police reports, the reports of the Bavarian
ambassador, nor the secret registers of the debates in the parlement, nor material on the
Jansenist parlementaire strategies. Taken together, these sources suggest a different
interpretation. See pp. 281–6.
24 ‘Gazetins de police’, 16–23 February, Arsenal, A.B., 10166, fol. 47.
25 Waldegrave to Newcastle, 6 March 1737, in Coxe, Memoirs of…Sir Robert Walpole, III, p. 457.
26 Albert, prince Grimberghen to probably count Terring, 24 February 1737, Kastenschwarz, 17147,
no. 20. My quotation marks inserted.
27 Idem to idem, 4 March 1737, loc. cit., no. 21.
28 Louise Elizabeth de Bourbon, princesse de Conti, to Fleury, 20 February 1737, A.A.E., Mém. et
Doc., France, 1309, fol. 129; Louise Françoise de Bourbon-Condé to Fleury, 20 February 1737,
ibid., fol. 130.
29 Mouffle d’Angerville, Vie privée de Louis XV, ou principaux événemens, particularités et anecdotes de son règne,
4 vols, London, 1781, II, p. 33; see also Saint-Simon, Mémoires, XVI, p. 259.
NOTES
356
30 Louise Françoise de Bourbon-Condé to Fleury, 20 February 1737, A.A.E., Mém. et Doc., France,
1309, fols 132–3.
31 Louise Françoise de Bourbon-Condé to the cardinal de Fleury, A.A.E., Mém. et Doc., France,
1309, fols 188–90. Other letters of interest from this period are: 6 June 1737, loc. cit. 1310, fols 19–
20; 22 June 1737, ibid., fols 141–2; 2 July 1737, ibid., fol. 161; 3 July 1737, ibid., fols 165–6.
32 Louis d’Orléans to Fleury, 20 February 1737, A.A.E., Mém. et Doc., France, 1309, fol. 127.
33 D’Argenson, Journal et mémoires, ed. Rathery, I, pp. 251–4.
34 A.A.E., Mém. et Doc., France, 1310, fol. 165–6. Underlined in original.
35 Richer d’Aube, ‘Réflexions’, 9513, pp. 461–3.
36 A.A.E., Mém. et Doc., France, 1310, fols 119–20.
37 Waldegrave to Newcastle, 31 January 1740, P.R.O., S.P. 78/222, fol. 60, quoted in Cruickshanks,
‘Factions at the court’, p. 39.
38 Cruickshanks, ‘Factions at the court’, p. 38.
39 On this affair see Richer d’Aube, ‘Réflexions’, 9513, pp. 469–77.
40 For the foreign policy, see Wilson, French Foreign Policy, pp. 265–89, passim.
41 Hénault, Mémoires, ed. Vigan, 2 vols, Paris, 1855, p. 346.
42 This paragraph is based on Wilson, French Foreign Policy, pp. 32–8, and Sautai, Les préliminaires. I find
Black’s argument for a reassessment of French foreign policy in this period unconvincing: see
J.Black, ‘French foreign policy in the age of Fleury reassessed’, English Historical Review, CIII, 1988,
pp. pp. 359–84.
43 Millot, Mémoires politiques et militaires d’après les manuscrits du marechal de Noailles, 5 vols, Lausanne, 1778,
III, p. 283.
44 Wilson, French Foreign Policy, p. 333.
45 For a different point of view with different conclusions, focused upon the outcome of the
struggle for the succession to Fleury, see the meticulously documented thesis by
Cruickshanks, ‘Factions at the court’. However, its structure might lead to confusion, because
the chapters focus upon the five potential successors to Fleury rather than upon the actual
system of factions, of which there were three, which saw considerable overlapping and
fluidity in the groups.
46 ‘Mémoire particulier sur le choix a faire d’un premier ministre, en cas de mort du Cardinal
Fleury’, A.A.E., Mém. et Doc., France, 511, fols 121–8.
47 Cruickshanks, ‘Factions at the court’, Chap. I, pp. 45–53.
48 Fleury to Tencin, 7 May 1740, in Hénault, Mémoires, ed. Vigan, p. 339. There is a document in the
Archives de la Bastille revealing the complicity of Chauvelin and the princesse de Carignan in a
matter of finance, for which Chauvelin wanted a ‘pot de vin’ of 100,000 livres—Arsenal, A.B.,
11351, Carignan, fols 61–6.
49 Cruickshanks, ‘Factions at the court’, pp. 47–8.
50 Ibid., pp. 466–7; d’Argenson, Journal et mémoires, ed. Rathery, I, pp. 257–70.
51 ‘On ne parle plus du tout ici de M.Chauvelin; il est toujours à Bourges. On dit cependant qu’il a
encore un parti dans ce pays-ci’: Luynes, Mémoires sur la cour de Louis XV (1735–1758), ed. L.
Dussieux and E.Soulié, 17 vols, Paris, 1860–5, III, p. 373.
52 The information from this and the following paragraph comes principally from Cruickshanks,
‘Factions at the court’, pp. 226–49.
53 Luynes, Mémoires, VIII, p. 218.
54 The Archives de la Guerre contain a good deal of his correspondence from 1727 onwards, which
has been analysed by both Sautai and Cruickshanks. See Cruickshanks, ‘Factions at the court’,
Chap. II, pp. 71–161; Sautai, Les préliminaires, pp. 133–40.
55 Silly to Richelieu, 11 September 1726, in Soulavie, Piéces inédites, II, pp. 273–4.
56 Saint-Simon, XXXVI, pp. 73–4.
57 D’Argenson, Journal et mémoires, ed. Rathery, I, p. 273.
58 Bibliothèque Victor Cousin, Fonds Richelieu, 11.
59 Richer d’Aube, ‘Réflexions’, 9515, pp. 28–81, 154–69, 181–6; ‘Copie de la lettre de Mgr St Simon
a Mr le cte de Laval, a la ferté, 20 December 1741, A.A.E., Mém. et Doc., France, 1324, published
in A.P.Faugère, Ecrits inédits de Saint-Simon, 6 vols, 1880–3, V, pp. 180–6.
60 Sautai, Les préliminaires, pp. 152–60 and 605–9.
61 ‘Journal du maréchal de Belle-Isle pendant son séjour a Versailles, du 10 au 25 juillet 1741’, in
Sautai, Les préliminaires, pp. 605–9; quotation from p. 605.
62 Saint-Simon, loc. cit.: ‘les ministres ne font qu’expédier à son mot’.
NOTES
357
63 For the composition of Belle-Isle’s faction in the summer of 1741, see Cruickshanks, ‘Factions at
the court’, pp. 107–16.
64 At this point Belle-Isle was mooted for premier ministre—see Richer d’Aube, ‘Réflexions’,
9515, p. 52.
65 D’Argenson, Journal et mémoires, ed. Rathery, IV, pp. 21–2; Richer d’Aube, ‘Réflexions’, 9515, pp.
267–8.
66 Richer d’Aube, ibid., p. 52.
67 Ibid., p. 267.
68 Cruickshanks, ‘Factions at the court’, p. 126.
69 Toussaint, Anecdotes curieuses, p. 175.
70 Richer d’Aube, ‘Réflexions’, 9515, p. 267.
71 ‘Le Cardinal de Fleury a scu fraper un coup d’autorite qui deroute egalement ces deux partis, qu’il
avoit autant a craindre 1’un que 1’autre’—ibid., p. 269.
72 On Tencin, see in particular M.Boutry, Intrigues et missions diplomates de Tencin à Rome, une créature du
cardinal Dubois, Paris, 1902; and J.Sareil, Les Tencin, Geneva, 1969.
73 Op. cit., pp. 306–10.
74 Versailles, 11 August 1742, Bibliothèque Victor Cousin, F.R., 64, fols 69–70.
75 Correspondance du cardinal de Tencin, ministre d’état et de madame de Tencin sa sœur, avec le due de Richelieu,
Paris, 1790. [Rare: B.N., Res. 8° Lb
38.
56, but republished in a critical edition of Laborde’s La vie
privée and the mémoire autographe: O.Wormser, ed. Amours et intrigues du maréchal de Richelieu, Paris,
1955, pp. 665–85.]
76 D’Argenson, Journal et mémoires, ed. Rathery, IV, p. 35. On their appointment he wrote: ‘ceci réunit
tous ces partis de seigneurs au parti Belleisle et Chauvelin—p. 24.
77 Mme de Tencin to Richelieu, 1 December 1742, Correspondance, p. 29.
78 Idem to idem, 5 November 1742, ibid., p. 10.
79 ‘Relation de ce qui s’est fait et passé d’esentiel avant et pendant la maladie du Cardinal de Fleury,
et depuis son deces’, B.N., N.a.f, 498, fols 172–5.
80 Richer d’Aube, ‘Réflexions’, 9515, p. 306.
81 Cruickshanks, ‘Factions at the court’, Conclusion, and a summary in A.Cobban, A History of
Modern France, 3rd edn, 3 vols, London, 1963, pp. 50–2.
82 See Mme de Tencin to Richelieu, 3 January 1743 and 16 August 1743, Correspondance, pp. 35 and
164 respectively.
83 Cruickshanks, ‘Factions at the court’, pp. 143–9. Belle-Isle returned to favour in 1744, played host
to Louis XV when he took personal command of the army at Metz and seemed set for even
greater power—only to have his chances ruined on being captured by the British in December 1744
and taken to Windsor. When he was released seven months later he was out of the running: ibid.,
pp. 149–61.
84 For an extended analysis of the way factions exploited and misrepresented military activities in an
earlier period, see the important PhD thesis of I.Crysafidou, ‘Richelieu and the grands’,
University of Sussex, 1991.
85 Luynes, Mémoires, V, p. 36. For a useful survey of this period see especially Sareil’s chapter entitled,
‘En l’absence d’un premier ministre’, in Les Tencin.
86 Tencin to Richelieu, 29 August 1743, B.V.C., F.R., 62, no. 67. This letter is previously
unpublished.
87 See Cruickshanks, ‘Factions at the court’, p. 306–12.
88 His influence may be measured by the correspondence with Louis XV: C.Rousset, ed.,
Correspondance de Louis XVet du maréchal de Noailles,…d’aprés les manuscrits du dépôt de la guerre, 2 vols,
Paris, 1865. On Noailles in this period, see Cruickshanks, ‘Factions at the court’, pp. 255–84.
89 Loc. cit., no. 68.
90 D’Argenson, Journal et mémoires, ed. Rathery, IV, p. 160.
91 Richer d’Aube, ‘Réflexions’, 9515, p. 303.
92 Bernis, Mémoires, II, p. 341 (15 November 1758, to Mme de Pompadour) and his memoir, II, pp.
83–93. The scheme foundered because of courtly and ministerial opposition, particularly from the
ministers for war and navy.
93 See M.Price, Preserving the Monarchy, Cambridge, 1995, Chaps 3 and 4. Price seems unaware of the
precedents in the 1750s.
94 Richer d’Aube, ‘Réflexions’, 9515, p. 307.