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Foucault, Louvois, and the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 July 2009

L. L. Bernard
L. L. Bernard
Affiliation:
University of Notre Dame
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Extract

In assaying responsibility for the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes and the crescendo of persecution which preceded it, historians have shown rather noteworthy indecisiveness. It would seem that almost every member of Louis XIV's inner circle and every possible combination of individuals within that select group have been stigmatized at one time or another by some memoirist or historian for his part in the events of 1685. Louvois, Le Tellier, Châteauneuf, Harlay, Seignelay, Fr. La Chaise, Mme. de Maintenon, and others have had their reputations alternately blackened and whitewashed, or restored to a fairly satisfactory shade of gray. The Grand Monarch himself has been portrayed both as the innocent victim of unscrupulous and misleading advisers and as the archfanatic in an entourage of fanatics.

Type
Research Article
Information
Church History , Volume 25 , Issue 1 , March 1956 , pp. 27 - 40
Copyright
Copyright © American Society of Church History 1956

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References

1. The subsequent details on Foucault's early life are drawn from Mémoires de Foucault, ed. Baudry, P. (Paris, 1862), pp. 1–17.Google Scholar

2. By the reign of Louis XIV, the intendants were selected almost exclusively from, the ranks of the magistrates called maîtres dea requêtes. There were between sixty-six and eighty of them. The intendant's commission was given to only a certain number of these, at the King's pleasure.

3. Montfançon, Bernard de, l'Antiquité expliquée (Paris, 1721–1757), I, i.Google Scholar

4. The lady in question, Foucault wrote, had been accorded none of the “advantages which can expose a person of her sex to being solicited.” Foucault to Châteauneuf, July 20, 1677, Archives nationales, G7390.

5. “Avis donné à sa Majesté par le sieur Foucault, commissaire départi en la généralite de Montauban, sur la proposition d'exclure les habitons faisant profession de la R.P.R. des charges politiques de la ville de Montanban,” Bulletin de la Société de l'Histoire du Protestantisme français, X (1861), p. 393Google Scholar. Paradoxically, after presenting an an iron-bound case for the Protestants, Foucault concluded that Protestants should be excluded from local office. It was clear where his sympathies lay, but his reluctance to appear a champion of the Protestants was just as clear.

6. Foucault to Châteauneuf, Jan. 4, Jan. 25, March 22. Nov. 22, 1679, Dee. 5, 1680, Bibliothèque nationale, Manuscrits français, no. 4303.

7. Mémoires de Foucault, pp. 79–80.Google Scholar

8. Ibid.

9. Ibid., p. 80.

10. Foucault to Le Pelletier, Jan. 19, 1684, Archives nationales, G7390.

11. Bousset, Camille, Histoire de Louvois (Paris, 1886), III, 457.Google Scholar

12. Ibid.

13. Mémoires de Foucault, p. 112.Google Scholar

14. “Relation des conversions de Béarn,” in Soulice, M. L., l'Intendant Foucault et la Révocation en Béarn (Paris, 1885)Google Scholar, Pièces Justificatives, LXVII, pp. 135–6.Google Scholar

15. Foucault to the Controller General, June 28, 1685 in Correspondance des Contrôleurs Généraux des Finances avec les intendants de provinces., 1683–1715 (Paris, 1874–1897), I, 48.Google Scholar

16. Baird, Henry M., The Huguenots and the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes (New York, 1895), I, 549ffGoogle Scholar. A sampling of representative college texts shows the following treatment of Louvois:

Ferguson and Brunn: “… Louvois encouraged his officers to quarter dragoons and other troops in Huguenot homes, with instructions to make their presence as unpleasant as possible.” Ferguson, W. K. and Bruun, G., A Survey of European Civilization (New York, 1947), Part II, p. 537.Google Scholar

Garrett: “Louvois was the chief agent in employing the … dragonnades … he devised a system whereby troops were sent into Huguenot districts and there quartered wholly or chiefly on the Huguenot inhabitants.” Garrett, Mitchell B.. European History, 1500–1815 (New York. 1940), p. 310.Google Scholar

Ergang: Louvois' letter to a military commander urging the emplovment of the “last severities” against the Huguenots is cited as evidence of his policy years before the Revocation. In reality, this letter was not written until after the Revocation when he did begin to advocate naked force. (See Bousset, , Histoire de Louvois, III, 490.Google Scholar) Ergang, Bobert, Europe from the Renaissance to Waterloo (New York, 1939), p. 471.Google Scholar

Tschan, Grimm and Squires: “In 1681. Louvois, the war minister, ordered his dragoons quartered in Husruenot homes where they were commanded to snare no brutality nor bestiality …” Tschan, F. J., Grimm, H. J., and Squires, J. D.. Western Civilization since 1660 (New York, 1942), p. 801.Google Scholar

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18. Ibid., p. 552.

19. Bousset, , op. cit., III, 444ff.Google Scholar

20. Louvois to Foucault, August 7. 1681, Mémoires de Foucault, Appendix III, p. 509.Google Scholar

21. ibid., p. 118 and letter of Louvois to Foucault, May 2, 1685, Appendix III, p. 510.

22. Foucault to Louvois, May 24 and June 7, 1685, Soulice, , op. cit., Pièces Justificatives, nos. X and XIV.Google Scholar

23. Rousset, , op. cit., III, 459.Google Scholar

24. “Relation des Conversions … depuis le commencement de Mars jusqu' à la fin de Mai de la présente année 1685,” Soulice, , op. cit., Piěces Justificatives, no. XIII.Google Scholar

25. “Relation des conversions qui se sont faites dans le Béarn, pendant le mois de juin, 1685,” Ibid., no. XXXI, p. 104.

26. Mémoires de Foucault, p. 125.Google Scholar

27. So Père La Chaise wrote Foucault in July, 1685. Mémoires de Foucault, Appendix III, pp. 511–12.Google Scholar

28. Rousset, , op. cit., III, 465.Google Scholar

29. “Ephémérides de l'Année de la Révocation de l'Edit de Nantes,” Bulletin, de la Société de l'Histoire du Protestantisme français, XXXIV (1885), p. 372.Google Scholar

30. De Gourges to the Controller General, September 19, 1685, in Boislisle, , op cit., no. 204.Google Scholar

31. De Marillac to the Controller General, Nov. 5, 1685, ibid., no. 211.

32. De Harlay to the Controller General, Dec. 20, 1685, ibid., no. 220.

33. Louvois to La Berchère, Aug. 22, 1685, in Rousset, , op. cit., III, 466.Google Scholar

34. Louvois to Boufflers, Aug. 22, 24, 30, 1685, ibid., 466–67.

35. André, Louis, Michel Le Tellier et Louvois (Paris, 1942), pp. 474–75.Google Scholar

36. Ibid., p. 490; Rousset, , op. cit., III, 467.Google Scholar

37. Louvois t, o Foucault, 11 8, 1685Google Scholar, in Rousset, , op. cit., III, 472.Google Scholar

38. Louvois to Foucault, 10 16, 1685Google Scholar, in André, , op. cit., p. 491.Google Scholar