Guillaume-Chrétien de Lamoignon de Malesherbes
Chrétien -Guillaume de Lamoignon de Malesherbes (December 6, 1721 Paris, † April 23, 1794 ) was a French statesman, minister and later defense of Louis XVI ..
Life and work
He was born into a family of lawyers, his father was the Guillaume de Lamoignon de Malesherbes (1683-1772) of his characters president of the Parlement Président à mortier au Parlement de Paris. His mother was in the period 1723 to 1736 the Anne Elisabeth Roujault (1692 -1734 ) and the couple had two more children Barbe Nicole de Lamoignon de Malesherbes († 1794) and Marie Elisabeth de Lamoignon de Malesherbes (* 1715 ). It was the second marriage, both of them were married 1715. His first marriage to Madeleine Louise d' Aligre ( 1697-1714 ), they were married in 1711, had no children.
Chrétien -Guillaume studied law. After a short time as a lawyer, he was appointed the virtue of its performance in 1750 as President cour des aides of the Paris Parliament, after his father, Guillaume de Lamoignon de Blanc Mesnil, Chancellor, chancelier de France had been promoted. The duties of a chancellor was the control of the press, and this duty was entrusted to Malesherbes of his father during his eighteen years in office and brought him much more than his judicial duties in contact with the public.
1741, he was bestallt Deputy Attorney General of the Parliament of Paris, procureur général du parlement de Paris. Thereafter, he served in 1744 as a consultant, conseiller and was then first president of the Cour des Aides, cour des aides de Paris. He married in 1749 Françoise Thérèse Grimod de la Reynière ( 1732-1771 ). They had two daughters, Marguerite Thérèse de Lamoignon de Malesherbes (1756-1794) and Françoise Pauline de Lamoignon de Malesherbes ( 1758-1827 ).
In order to exercise efficiently, he kept in touch with the literary leaders in Paris - in particular Denis Diderot, Friedrich Melchior Grimm - even going so far as to say that the Encyclopédie ou Dictionnaire raisonné des sciences, des arts et des métiers without Malesherbes ' Help would probably not have been published because as Malesherbes Oberzensor, Censure had royale 1751 Encyclopédie awarded the royal privilege. This advantage would Malesherbes quite decide not to grant because it also implied could have let pass the work.
In 1771 he was asked to get involved in politics; the Parliaments' in France had been dissolved, and a new method for the administration of justice had been designed by Maupeou. It was laudable in itself, since it was aimed at a better and faster administration of justice, but was harmful because it had a tendency to over- centralization and the hereditary nobility of office abolished, the - in spite of all its shortcomings - had kept his spirit forth independence and control the power of the king exercised. Malesherbes presented a vigorous remonstrance against the new system and was immediately banished to his country estate in Castle Malesherbes. After the accession of Louis XVI. however, he was called back together with the old Parliament and made 1775 Minister of the maison du roi.
He served only nine months of this office, during which he, however, his attention to the Police of the Kingdom devoted, which was rolled up into his area, and he did much to curb the odious practice of issuing lettres de cachet. The protest of the cour des aides in 1775 is one of the most important documents of the old regime in France. It contains an inventory of the corrupt and inefficient administration and confronted the king with completely outspoken criticism.
After his retirement from the Cabinet with Turgot in 1776, Malesherbes went entirely into a contented land and home life and traveled through Switzerland, Germany and the Netherlands. An essay on Protestant marriages (1787 ) contributed much to their state recognition in France.
Malesherbes was a passionate botanist. At the age of 24 he studied botany with Bernard de Jussieu. His avenue planted at Château de Malesherbes was exceptional; he had written on behalf of the botanist against Buffon, who had attacked them, and had been elected already in 1750 as a member of the Académie des sciences. Malesherbes was admitted to the Académie française and employed on his retirement home more and more intense with scientific and literary topics. However, the king of increasing political difficulties wanted his support and called him back into the Cabinet in 1787, the Conseil du roi de France. Malesherbes kept his office but only for a short time - 1787 to 1788 - and returned as the problems can not be solved were back at his country estate.
In 1792 he left his asylum to which he had retired for reasons of age. With François Tronchet and Raymond de Sèze he took over the defense of the king to the Convention, national convention, he finally brought the king the news of his conviction. After this company he again returned to the country, but in December 1793, he was arrested Le Peletier de Rosambô ( 1747-1794 ) and his grandchildren with his daughter Antoinette de Lamoignon de Malesherbes, his son Louis. On Wednesday, April 23, 1794, he was guillotined, after he had been forced to watch as all that he had loved in the world, had been executed to him for their relationship before his eyes.
Works (selection)
- Malesherbes à Louis XVI ou les avertissements de Cassandre: mémoires inédits (1787-1788) édités par Valérie André, Tallandier 2011, ISBN 978-2847347081.
- Sur la nécessité de les diminuer dépenses
- Mémoire sur les moyens d' accélérer les progrès de l' économie Rurale en France, [ lu à la Société royale d'agriculture ]. Impr de Ph.-D. Pierre, Paris, 1790, in-8 °, 88 p. Disponible dans Gallica
- Idées d'un agriculteur patriote sur le défrichement of terres incultes, sèches et maigres, sous le nom de connues country, scrublands, Gatines, Friches Impr ... de Ve Hérissant, Paris in 1791, in-8 °, 18 p.