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an old document with writing on it and a pen in the middle of it
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483 - Chrétien-François I de LAMOIGNON, Marquis de BASVILLE (1644–…
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Estimate €500 - €700
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Description
Chrétien-François I de LAMOIGNON, Marquis de BASVILLE (1644–1709), magistrate, judge wearing a judge’s cap at the Parliament of Paris. Autograph manuscript; 28 folio pages in a single volume bound in modern marbled paper, with a title label on the upper cover (worn hinge). A biography of his father, Guillaume I de Lamoignon, Marquis of Basville (1617–1677), magistrate and First President of the Parliament of Paris, recounting his career with particular emphasis on his integrity, his sense of duty and his generosity. The manuscript, written by Chrétien-François shortly after his father’s death (10 December 1677), contains erasures and corrections, as well as marginal additions. Following his father’s death, Guillaume de Lamoignon found himself, at the age of eighteen, serving as a councillor in Parliament; he spent his free time studying: ‘he would often spend entire nights there’, yet he did not neglect hunting and his dogs. In 1640, he married Magdeleine Potier, and distinguished himself in his post through his modesty and reserve. Then came the troubled times (the death of Louis XIII on 14 May 1643 and the beginning of the Regency) when no one knew which side to take; in December 1644, he became: ‘In the wake of these troubled times, he was presented with a thousand opportunities to demonstrate his great discernment; he never strayed from the bounds of his duty, and chose from each faction what was best, never seeking the favours of princes. […] As poverty was rife at that time in Paris and in the vicinity of his family estate, he redoubled his charitable works’”… After the Fronde, he sided with the King, and Cardinal Mazarin, having noted his zeal and skill, offered him the commission of the Estates of Brittany (1655), ‘which he discharged 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 President of the Parliament of Paris (1658), a post he held until his death ‘to restore justice and peace there’. The text mentions 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 caused a rift between him and Colbert), court intrigues, and so on. After recounting his father’s final moments, the writer concludes with emotion: ‘I shall not speak of the loss I have suffered in terms of my fortune; I have not yet had the leisure to reflect upon it, and whenever I consider that I have lost my father, grief prevents me from seeing in it anything other than the loss of the best father and the best friend who ever lived. ” Enclosed is the *Historical Eulogy of Louis-François de Paul Lefèvre d’Ormesson de Noiseau* by Abbé Gaubert (1789).
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About the sale Letters and Autograph Manuscripts – Part II
Auction location
Auction time 10/14/2026 at 2:00 PM
Pictures credits: Contact the Auction House
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