Chrétien-François I de LAMOIGNON, Marquis de BASVILLE (1644– - Lot 483

Lot n° 483
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500 - 700 EUR
Chrétien-François I de LAMOIGNON, Marquis de BASVILLE (1644– - Lot 483
Chrétien-François I de LAMOIGNON, Marquis de BASVILLE (1644–1709), magistrate, president wearing a judicial cap at the Parliament of Paris. Autograph manuscript; 28 folio-sized pages in a single volume bound in modern marbled-paper cardboard, with a title label on the top cover (worn hinge). A biography of his father, Guillaume I de Lamoignon, Marquis de Basville (1617–1677), magistrate and First President of the Parliament of Paris, recounting his career with an emphasis on his integrity, sense of duty, and generosity. The manuscript, written by Chrétien-François shortly after his father’s death (December 10, 1677), contains erasures and corrections, as well as marginal additions. After his father’s death, Guillaume de Lamoignon, at the age of eighteen, found himself serving as a counselor in Parliament; he spent his free time studying: “he often spent entire nights at it,” but did not neglect hunting and his dogs. In 1640, he married Magdeleine Potier and distinguished himself in his position through his modesty and reserve. Then came the troubled times (the death of Louis XIII on May 14, 1643, and the beginning of the Regency) when no one knew which side to take; in December 1644: “In the wake of these troubled times, he had countless opportunities to demonstrate his great discernment; he never strayed from the bounds of his duty, and chose from each party what was best, never seeking the favor of princes. […] As poverty was widespread at that time in Paris and in the vicinity of his family estate, he redoubled his charitable efforts”… After the Fronde, he sided with the King, and Cardinal Mazarin, having noted his zeal and skill, offered him the commission for the Estates of Brittany (1655), “which he carried out to everyone’s complete satisfaction, and he found a way to reconcile the governor, the parliament, the clergy, the nobility, and the people.” The cardinal then appointed him head of the Parliament of Paris (1658), where he remained until his death “to restore justice and peace.” The text discusses the power struggles with Parliament, the marriage of Louis XIV, the death of Mazarin, the growing influence of Colbert, the arrest of Superintendent Fouquet and his trial (which Lamoignon refused to preside over, a decision that strained his relationship with Colbert), court intrigues, and so on. After recounting his father’s final moments, the writer concludes with emotion: “I do not speak of the loss I have suffered in terms of my fortune; I have not yet had the leisure to think about it, and whenever I consider that I have lost my father, the grief prevents me from seeing in it anything other than the loss of the best father and the best friend who ever lived.” Attached is the “Historical Eulogy of Louis-François de Paul Lefèvre d’Ormesson de Noiseau” by Abbé Gaubert (1789).
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