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University Microfilms International 300 North Zeeb Road Ann Arbor, Michigan 48106 USA St. John's Road, Tyler's Green High Wycombe, Bucks, England HP10 8HR 7812314 ANDERSON, HAROLD PAUL the police of Paris under louis xivi the IMPOSITION OF ORDER BY MARC"RENE DE VOYe R DE PAÛLMY d ’a RGENSQN, l i e u t e n a n t GENERAL DE POLICE (1697-1718),

t h e OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY, PH.O,, 1978

Universiç/ MicraiFilms International so on , z e e b noA n, a n n a h b o r . mi is io e

© Copyright by

Harold Paul Anderson

1978 THE POLICE OF PARIS UNDER LOUIS XIV: THE IMPOSITION OF

ORDER BY MARC-RENE DE VOYER DE PAULMY D'ARGENSON,

LIEUTENANT GENERAL DE POLICE (I697-I718)

DISSERTATION

Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for

the Degree Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate

School of The Ohio State University

By

Harold P. Anderson, B.A., M.A.

*****

The Ohio State University

1978

Reading Committee: Approved By John C. Rule John Rothney Franklin J. Pegues Adviser Department of History For Kathy

11 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

So many persons and institutions have served to guide, influence and assist me along the way to the completion of this dissertation, it is difficult, if not impossible, to give adequate credit to them all.

Some of their contributions began long before a formal topic was even chosen. In the classroom, in seminars, in conversations, and in the authorship of historical studies, certain persons symbolized the type of scholarship and excellence in intellectual pursuits that was periodically recalled to serve as an inspiration or a model.

In thinking back over the years to the nascent period of my interest in history during my undergraduate education at Villanova

University, I have often recalled with fondness the courses taken and the work done for Alexander Rudhart, Donald Kelley, and Daniel Carroll.

During subsequent trips back to Pennsylvania over the past decade, I especially looked forward to visiting with this last-named teacher and friend. As a teacher, he always demanded excellence of his students; as a scholar, he was a model of excellence himself; and, as a friend, he always had warm words of encouragement. Tragically, he passed away this past year--far too soon for his years; and I deeply regret that I will not be able to present him with a completed copy of this study. Though he will be sorely missed, he will always be remembered by me as an historian worthy of the greatest respect.

Ill From time to time along the way I have also often recalled with benefit the ideas, the experiences and the training received during an excellent graduate education at The Ohio State University. Among those whom I wish to thank for providing these things are Philip Poirier,

Peter Larmour, Harold Grimm, Franklin Pegues, Clayton Roberts, Robert

Bremner, Glenda Riley, John Burnham, and John C. Rule. I owe a special debt of thanks to my dissertation adviser. Dr. Rule, who provided stimu­ lating and thoughtful guidance in the field of early modern European history, and who continually urged thoroughness and accuracy in research and writing. Where this study lacks these qualities, the fault is entirely mine. My thanks go also to Franklin Pegues and John Rothney of the Department of History and to Charles Williams of the Department of Romance Languages and Literature for taking the time to read and comment on the dissertation in draft form. I also wish to express my gratitude for the financial assistance provided by the Graduate School and the Department of History in the form of a University Fellowship and a Teaching Associateship. The fellowship made it possible for me to spend fifteen months in the archives and manuscript repositories of Paris doing the primary research in the sources which forms the basis for the greater part of this study; and the teaching experience led me to think about the study in the context of Western Civilization. Thanks go also to my good friend and fellow graduate student Andrew Szarka who provided encouragement and good humor along the way. And thanks to Evelyn Arnold and Carla Blazac for easing the way administratively.

IV I am grateful to the Department of History of Stanford University for the Teaching and Research Fellowship which brought me into contact with numerous stimulating scholars and students of history. Among those

I would particularly like to cite are Gordon A. Craig, Lewis Spitz,

Gordon Wright, and Carolyn Lougee. Nor can I omit to mention the good company and discussions provided by fellow "TARFS" Cissie Bonini,

Jeffry Diefendorf, Paul Mazgaj, Carl Zangerl, James Shedel, Michael

Von Herzen, Erna Hellerstein, Nancy Padgett, and Louis Nigro.

Others who offered suggestions and insights, great and small, along the way, and who I would like to thank, include Emmanuel Le Roy

Ladurie, Robert Forster, Leon Bernard, Josef Konvitz, and Ben Trotter.

By gratitude is equally extended to all of the cooperative and friendly archivists, curators and librarians in France who assisted me at: the Archives Nationales, the Bibliothèque Nationale, the Biblio­ thèque de l’Arsenal, the Archives des Affaires Etrangères, the Archives de la Guerre (Vincennes), the Bibliothèque Historique de la Ville de

Paris, the Archives de la Préfecture de Police, the Archives de la Ville de Paris et de l'ancien département de la Seine, the Bibliothèque de l'Institut, the Archives de l'Académie Française, the Bibliothèque de la Chambre des Députés, and the Bibliothèque Mazarine; and, in the

United States, in the library systems of The Ohio State University,

Stanford University, and the University of California, Berkeley. Special thanks to Philip Hoehn, map librarian of the Bancroft Library, for timely assistance in a moment of need. I also especially wish to acknowledge Mrs. Jane Edwards whose painstaking typing from manuscript and editorial assistance is something for which I will always be grateful.

I offer my thanks to my father and mother who always encouraged me in my academic endeavors.

Finally, my deepest debt of gratitude is to the two most important persons in my life, Kathy and Katie, my wife and daughter. The former offered years of loving support and encouragement to see this project to completion; the latter, at a tender age, offered on numerous occasions to illustrate it with crayons. They both will always have my heartfelt thanks.

VI VITA

October 4, 1946 ...... Born— Darby, Pennsylvania

1968 ...... B.A., Villanova University Villanova, Pennsylvania

1968-1972 ...... University Fellow and Teaching Associate, Department of History, The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio

1969 ...... M.A., The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio

1973-1975 ...... Teaching and Research Fellow, Department of History, Stanford University, Stanford, California

1975-1977 ...... Library Specialist, Archives Department, Hoover Institution on War, Revolution and Peace, Stanford University, Stanford, California

1976 ...... Certificate in Archival Admini­ stration, The Archives Institute of the National Archives and Records Service, Library of Congress, and the American Uni­ versity, Washington, D.C.

1977-1978 ...... Assistant Archivist, Wells Fargo Archives, San Francisco, California

Fields of Study

Major Field: History of Early Modern Europe, Professor John C. Rule. History of the Renaissance and Reformation. Professors Franklin J. Pegues and Harold J. Grimm. History of England. Professors Clayton R. Roberts and Philip P. Poirier. History of Modern Europe. Professor Peter Larmour. United States Social and Economic History. Professors Robert H. Bremner and Glenda Riley.

vii TABLE OF CONTENTS

Page

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ...... iii

VITA ...... vii

LIST OF TABL E S ...... xi

LIST OF F I G U R E S ...... xii

INTRODUCTION ...... I

PART I: SETTING AND CONTEXT: THE CITY, THE POLICE, AND THE D'ARGENSON FAMILY

CHAPTER

I. PARIS AT THE BEGINNING OF THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY ...... 13

P o p u l a t i o n ...... 13 The Division of Quarters ofI70I-1702 ...... 18 La Caille's Description de la V i l l e ...... 22 The S e i n e ...... 29 Quartier de la C i t é ...... 35 The Right B a n k ...... 38 Quartier Saint-Jacques de la Boucherie . . . 42 Quartier Sainte-Opportune ...... 44 Quartier des H a l l e s ...... 45 Quartier du Louvre (or. Saint-Germain­ i' Auxerrois) ...... 46 Quartier Saint-Eustache ...... 49 Quartier de la G r è v e ...... 50 Quartier Sainte-Avoye (or. La Verrerie) . . 52 Quartier Saint-Paul (or. La Mortellerie) . . 53 Quartier Saint-Antoine ...... 54 Quartier du Temple (or. Marais) ...... 58 Quartier Saint-Martin ...... 60 Quartier Saint-Denis ...... 61 Quartier Montmartre , ...... 63 Quartier du Palais Royal ...... 66 The Left B a n k ...... 70

Vlll TABLE OF CONTENTS (Continued)

CHAPTER Page

I. (Continued)

Quartier de la Place Maubert...... 72 Quartier Saint-Benoît ...... 76 Quartier Saint-Andrê ...... 79 Quartier Saint-Germain-des-Prés ...... 81 Quartier Luxembourg ...... 84

II. THE POLICE OFPA R I S ...... 87

The Early-Eighteenth-Century Conception of the Evolution of the Idea of "Police" .... 87 The Historical Development of the Administra­ tion of the Police of Paris to 1697 ...... 96 Police Personnel ...... 126

III. FRCM SWORD TO ROBE: THE CASE OF THE VOYER DE PAULMY D'ARGENSON FAMILY ...... 144

Family Origins ...... 144 René de Voyer d ' A r g e n s o n ...... 152 René II de Voyer d'Argenson ...... 157 Marc-René de Voyer de Paulmy d'Argenson .... 163

PART II: THE ADMINISTRATION, THE ACTIVITIES, AND THE ATTITUDES OF THE POLICE OF PARIS, 1697-1715

IV. THE MAINTENANCE OF PUBLIC ORDER: PREVENTION AND SUPPRESSION...... 176

Laws, Regulations, and 'Lettres deCachet' . . 181 Crime and V i o l e n c e ...... 194 Poverty, Vagrancy, and Beggary ...... 212

V. THE POLICING OF ECONOMIC AFFAIRS...... 225

The Role of the Lieutenant Général de Police in the Economic Affairs of P a r i s ...... 227 Protecting the Sustenance of the People: The Case of Grain and B r e a d ...... 256 Protecting French Industry: The Pursuit of the 'Toiles Peintes'...... 276

IX TABLE OF CONTENTS (Continued)

CHAPTER Page

VI. THE POLICING OF RELIGIOUS A F F A I R S ...... 287

Protestants...... 289 J a n s e n i s t s ...... 297 Quietists...... 308 J e w s ...... 311 The C l e r g y ...... 314 Churches and Religious Observances ...... 322

VII. THE POLICING OF MORALS, MANNERS, AND MAGIC .... 326

Sexual Morality and Family Honor ...... 326 Games, Gambling, and Extravagance ...... 360 Sorcerers, Magicians, Fortune-Tellers, Alchemists and Other Practitioners of the Magical A r t s ...... 367

VIII. FOREIGN AFFAIRS AND THE WAR E F F O R T ...... 383

Foreigners and S p i e s ...... 383 The Tost Office, Censorship, and Propaganda . . 403 The 'Prisoner Without Name' ...... 413 Swindlers, Recruiters, and Suppliers ...... 421

IX. ANCILLARY SERVICES ...... 433

Street-Lighting and Street-Cleaning ...... 433 Fire Prevention and Fire-Fighting ...... 439 Prison and Hospital Administration ...... 442 C e n s o r s h i p ...... 450

CONCLUSIONS ...... 462

BIBLIOGRAPHY ...... 474 LIST OF TABLES

TABLE Page

Houses, Streets, and Lanterns by Quarter in 1 7 1 4 ...... 25

XI LIST OF FIGURES

FIGURE Page

Plan de la Ville et Fauxbourgs de Paris, dresses sur les Observations Astronomiques de 1'Académie Roya.lG des Scien.ces gt sur les Opera.tio^s Geora. de Guillaume De l'Isle I©^ Geog.r du Roy de la meme Académie. Juin 1716. [The high­ lighting of city limits on this example of De 1'Isle's map postdates its publication.] Courtesy of the Bancroft Library ......

The Twenty Quarters of Paris, 1701-1702. [Designed by author to accompany Guillaume De L'Isle's Plan de la Ville et Fauxbourgs de Paris, 1716, contained in this study in Figure 1.] ......

3. La Banlieue de Paris, par N. de Fer, Géographe de sa Majesté Catolique, 1717. Courtesy of the Bancroft Library......

•k All Figures are contained in the packet at the end of this study.

Xll INTRODUCTION

This study is an attempt to assess certain aspects of urban administration and social history in France at the end of the reign of

Louis XIV. In large part, it is a study of the administration, the activities, and the attitudes of the police of Paris as reflected in the office of lieutenant general de police. Hopefully it will contribute to a better understanding of how the classic "absolutist" government of

Louis XIV actually had its policies and laws enforced on a day-to-day basis, and of how a police system was related to the emergence of a centralized state in pre-industrial Europe. Hopefully, it will also provide another chapter to the equally classic saga of the encounter between the police and the people.

The force which policed the raucous social environment of early modern Paris was reorganized during the reign of Louis XIV as part of a program of administrative reform carried out by the Roi-bureaucrate and his ministers. Paris, capital and largest city of the kingdom, weighted heavy on the minds of these men; "la bonne Ville de Paris" had to be administered well to provide the guiding example of determined royal control to the rest of France. For Louis XIV, "to police" Paris was to rule Paris; and, as unsavory as the capital was to his royal sensibili­ ties, Louis never hesitated to rule it firmly. He wanted no repetition of the disorders of the mid-century Frondes. Even his own déménagement to Versailles did not lessen his interests in the affairs of the capital. He was no longer present in person, but his agents of order were. Of these agents, the lieutenant général de police was unquestionably one of the most important.

The lieutenant general de police shared the responsibility of the administration of Paris with other officials, though frequently the limits of their respective areas of authority were in dispute. Never­ theless, the office of lieutenant general grew in importance from the time of its inception in 1667 because the King and the Secretary of

State of the Maison du Roi (the man primarily responsible for overseeing the administration of Paris), as well as other government ministers, chose to rely more upon the lieutenant general de police than upon other municipal officials to enforce royal decisions and to provide informa­ tion. In part, this was due to the fact that he, like the royal provincial intendants, was directly responsive to their decisions; but, in no small measure, it was also due to the ability and initiative of the two men who held the office as head of the police between 1667 and

1715. This study hopefully serves to illuminate the historical role of the second of these men, Marc-René de Voyer de Paulmy, marquis d'Argenson, lieutenant general de police from 1697 to 1718.

It seems appropriate to examine these topics at this time because of the growing interest and reassessment in recent years of the last decades of Louis X I V s reign, and because of the relative lack of major studies dealing with government policy and its practical application vis-à-vis the populace of Paris during this period.^ There are many

^For a review of the historiography of Louis XIV's reign, one questions that need to be answered for a better understanding of the twilight years of Louis's seventy-two year reign, among them: How did the monarchy and its administrative elite respond to the daily problems posed by difficult conditions at home and abroad during this period?

What role did the police play in the resolution of these problems? How did the lieutenant general de police act to transform policy into police action? How did he influence policy and its implementation? What was his attitude towards government policy and the people whom it affected?

How did the people of Paris react towards the government's agents of order? In what sense was Louis XIV an "absolute" ruler of Paris?

The study itself was undertaken as the result of a curiosity about the police of Paris that began with the writing of a Master's thesis at The Ohio State University in 1969 on the quietist controversy, a religious affair with political overtones that occurred in late seventeenth-century France. The author was struck at the time by the involvement of the police of Paris in what was essentially a debate over the mystical tradition in the Catholic religion. Why would the police of the capital, and in particular the head of the police, be involved in such an affair? The mystics were hardly about to initiate a war of religion; and, surely the police had more serious problems to attend to.

should see: John B. Wolf, "The Reign of Louis XIV: A Selected Biblio­ graphy of Writings Since the War of 1914-1918," Journal of Modern History, XXXVI (1964), 127-144; the extensive "Bibliography" in John C. Rule, ed., Louis XIV and the Craft of Kingship (Columbus, Ohio, 1969), pp. 407-462; Ragnhild Hatton, "Louis XIV: Recent Gains in Historical Knowledge," Journal of Modern History, XLV (1973), 277-291; and William F. Church, Louis XIV in Historical Thought: From Voltaire to the Annales School (New York, 1976). Yet, in the background of this same affair, there stood the figures of

secretaries of state, important prelates of the Church, great noblemen,

Madame de Maintenon, and even the King himself.

The answer to the question began to develop in the winter of

1970 in Professor John Rule's seminar on the history of early modern

France. The police, it was discovered, were involved in practically

every aspect of Parisian life. Indeed, they perhaps reflected their monarch's own desire to be informed (or, at least seem to be informed)

about all things down to "the least detail." Seminar topic became dis­

sertation topic, and the current study was planned. At the time, the

author hardly realized just how deeply involved in all aspects of Pari­

sian life the police really were.

The research was carried" out with an awareness and an apprecia­

tion of the concept of histoire totale (though with an equal awareness

that this study could not attempt to duplicate the exhaustive theses

d 'état of French academia). The author simply tried to take into ac­

count as many of the factors (political, social, economic, religious, moral, intellectual, physical, etc.) as possible that affected the

history of the period in relation to Paris and its police. In part,

the subject matter lent itself to such treatment, for the police were

involved in practically everything. At the same time, the author tried

to maintain an awareness and appreciation of the individual human ele­

ment that makes history a humanistic endeavor as well as a social

science. We can never know "what really happened" (as von Ranke hoped

we could) in an absolute sense— though we certainly try. However, we can at least come close, on occasion, to knowing what people thought was happening; and, in some ways this is even more important, because this is what influences conscious human motivation and action.

Organizationally, the study is divided into two parts. Part I,

"Setting and Context: The City, the Police, and the D'Argenson Family," is an attempt to recreate the physical setting and the historical context in which the city of Paris, the concept and institution of police, and a member of an important French noble family were conjoined in an active relationship for approximately two decades at the end of Louis XIV's reign. Its purpose is to provide the background against which the

Marquis d'Argenson and the police carried out their duties in an attempt to impose order on Paris.

The study begins with a lengthy description of Paris at the beginning of the eighteenth century in order to provide the reader with a picture of the physical and demographic factors that affected the work of the police, and to provide an initial indication of how the police attempted to administer a city of half a million people.

The description of Paris is followed in Chapter II by a con­ temporary assessment of the idea of "police" in order to suggest how the police viewed themselves, by a history of the police up to 1697 in order to indicate the gradual evolution of the police organization up to and including Louis's reign, and, by a description of police personnel in order to indicate the fragmented nature of the police organization and the attempts of the monarchy to control it more closely. Chapter III, a history of the Voyer de Paulmy d'Argenson family,

is intended as a case study of the successes and setbacks encountered by one of the important families of the administrative elite of France in their rise to the grand emplois— a rise that was tied to the develop­ ment of the royal bureaucracy, and in the case of Marc-Rene de Voyer de

Paulmy d'Argenson, to the development of the police under Louis XIV.

Part 11, "The Administration, the Activities and the Attitudes of the Police of Paris, 1697-1715," deals with the police in relation

to the administrative bureaucracy which governed (or tried to govern)

Paris, and in relation to Parisian society itself during the final decades of Louis XIV's reign. The chapters are divided to reflect the variety of police activities, as they ranged from a primary concern for public order through attendant concerns about the Parisian economy, religion, morality, foreign affairs, military affairs, prisons and social services. The common threat holding these chapters together is the role of lieutenant general de police D'Argenson. The fact that he held office as head of the police for so long provided an opportunity to use his career as the constant factor in the investigation of the police. The fact that he was an indefatigable, intelligent, humane and articulate servant of the Crown made the investigation interesting.

The period from 1697 to 1715 is, of course, interesting in itself be­ cause of the combined military and economic difficulties which made it one of the most troubled periods in early modern French history. These chapters on the police offer a partial explanation of how Louis XIV's government responded to the challenge of imposing order in Paris--a traditional site of violence and disorder— during this troubled period.

As to the sources upon which the study is based: the original correspondence and reports of the police of Paris during the reign of

Louis XIV have become scattered with time as the ravages of war, revo­ lution, fire, neglect, and the seemingly ever-present unknown persons or causes have taken their toll. Still, what remains is remarkable

(and in some cases the history of its preservation is a story in itself).'

In the course of writing this study the author has attempted to utilize as much of the original manuscript material as possible (though given its physical condition, some of it will probably not exist much longer).

Fortunately, the bulk of it is still in Paris (though it requires an undue familiarity with the Paris metro system, and an encyclopedic knowledge of all of the daily and annual openings and closings of nearly a dozen Parisian archives and manuscript repositories to utilize it all).

Aside from the, fact that the use of original source material is at the heart of primary historical research, and thus would have been pursued anyway in the normal course of this study, the author discovered that the published volumes of source material on the police and

D'Argenson are far from complete and in some instances are rather 3 unevenly edited.

2 See, for instance, the story of the preservation of the archives of the Bastille in: Frantz Funck-Brentano, Archives de la Bastille, Vol. IX of Catalogue des manuscrits de la Bibliothèque de l'Arsenal (Paris, 1892). 3 Among the printed sources that are reasonably accurate, though heavily abridged in terms of complete letters and reports are: Marc-Rene The main collections of existent source materials on the police

of the ancien regime and on D'Argenson are housed in several locations.

At the Archives Nationales, the cartons and registers of the "0^,"

"G^," and "Y" series, which contain the records of the Maison du Roi,

the Contrôle general des finances, and the Chatelet, respectively, are particularly important. The 0^ series contains, among other things, the

retained copies of correspondence sent by the Secretary of State of the

Maison du Roi as well as by the King himself (or, at least in his name) n to the lieutenant general de police. The G series contains the original

letters and reports received by the Controller General of Finances from

the lieutenant general de police, as well as copies and drafts of

letters sent to him in return. The Y series contains material related

to the Chatelet— prison, seat of justice, and preeminent police insti­

tution in Paris.

At the Bibliothèque Nationale, in the Département des Manuscrits,

the vast fond known as the Manuscrits Français contains, among other

de Voyer de Paulmy, marquis d'Argenson, Rapports inédits du lieutenant de police René d'Argenson (1697-1715) publies d'après les manuscrits conserves a la Bibliothèque nationale, ed. by Paul Cottin (Paris, 1891); Arthur de Boislisle, éd.. Correspondance des Contrôleurs Généraux des finances avec les intendants des provinces, 3 vols. (Paris, 1874-1897); and, G. B. Depping, éd.. Correspondance administrative sous le règne de Louis XIV, 4 vols. (Paris, 1850-1855), II. Among the works that should be used with caution are: Marc-René de Voyer de Paulmy, marquis d'Argenson, Notes de René d'Argenson, lieutenant général de police, intéressants pour l'histoire des moeurs et de la police a Paris a la fin du regne de Louis XIV, ed. by L. Larchey and E. Mabille (Paris, 1866), which has phrases and sentences added by the editors apparently for effect; and, François Ravaisson, ed.. Archives de la Bastille, documents inédits, 16 vols. (Paris, 1866-1884), X, XI, XII, XIII, which is plagued by misattributions of authorship and location of the original documents. things: the original letters of lieutenant général de police d'Argenson to the Secretary of State of the Maison du Roi; the papers of commissaire au Chatelet Nicolas Delamare; the papers of Chancellor of France Louis de Pontchartrain; and, the papers of First President of the Parlement

Achille de Harlay. All of these collections within the larger fond con­ tain letters of the lieutenant general de police and other officials with police functions, as well as valuable materials on the police in general.

The Archives des Affaires Etrangères, at the Ministry of Foreign

Affairs on the Quai d'Orsay, houses, in the series known as Mémoires et

Documents and Correspondance Politique, the correspondence between the

Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs and the lieutenant général de police on matters related to foreign affairs, the postal service, and propaganda and censorship.

The Archives de la Guerre of the Service Historique of the

Ministry of the Army, housed in the Chateau de Vincennes on the out­ skirts of Paris, contains, in the A^ series, the correspondence between the Secretary of State for War and the lieutenant général de police on matters related to the conduct of military personnel in Paris, recruit­ ment, military supplies, and military prisons.

At the Bibliothèque de l'Arsenal, just down the street from the site of the long-since demolished Bastille, the Archives de la Bastille still exist. It contains a wealth of source material generated by the lieutenant général de police, primarily in the form of dossiers on individual prisoners. 10

As for the basic genealogical sources used in tracing the history of the Voyer de Paulmy d'Argenson family, these are located, in great part, in the Cabinet des Titres of the Département des Manu­ scrits of the Bibliothèque Nationale. The Cabinet is comprised of a series of collections which contain original documents and copies of original documents collected during the eighteenth century in a grand attempt to certify the nobility of all of those families who claimed that distinction. The Minutier Central at the Archives Nationales, the official depository of the records of Parisian notaries, contains the original testaments, marriage contracts and other legal documents generated by various members of the D'Argenson family.

Other repositories which contain some of the source materials on the police, on D'Argenson, and on the city of Paris which were utilized in this study include: the Archives de la Prefecture de

Police, the Archives de l'Académie Française, the Bibliothèque de l'Institut, the Bibliothèque de la Chambre des Députés, the Biblio­ thèque Historique de la Ville de Paris, and the Bibliothèque

Mazarine.

As for the history of Paris— archival material aside— the essential learning experience came from walking the streets of the city with Guide Michelin, Guide Bleu, and Connaissance du Vieux Paris in hand.^ Beyond that, the two basic facilities used for obtaining printed

Paris, Les Guides verts Michelin, 16th ed. (Paris, [1968]); Georges Huisman and Georges Poisson, Les monuments de Paris, Biblio­ thèques des Guides Bleus ([Paris], [1966]]; Jacques Hillairet, Connaissance du Vieux-Paris, 3 vols. (Paris, 1951-1954). 11 source materials and historical studies on the city's history were the Département des Imprimées of the Bibliothèque Nationale and the

Bibliothèque Historique de la Ville de Paris, the latter housed in the restored Hôtel Lamoignon in the Marais. PART I:

SETTING AND CONTEXT: THE CITY, THE POLICE,

AND THE D'ARGENSON FAMILY

12 CHAPTER I

PARIS AT THE BEGINNING OF THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY

Population

At the end of the seventeenth and beginning of the eighteenth centuries, "la bonne ville de Paris," even without Louis XIV and his court, was still the largest and most important city of France and one of the great cities of Europe. It was the capital of the kingdom of France and a great religious, judicial, administrative, economic, and cultural center.^ It was a city of beauty and magnificence, but also a city of squalor and misery. After a six-month stay in Paris in

Two of the best introductions to the growth and functions of Paris have been published under the auspices of the Centre de Recherches pour l'Enseignement de la Civilisation in a series entitled "Colloques, Cahiers de Civilisation," as: Paris, croissance d'une capitale (Paris, 1961); and, Paris, fonctions d'une capitale (Paris, 1962). Both works contain excellent articles and bibliographies by well-known specialists on the history of Paris. Excellent introductions to Paris in historical perspective are: Erwin A. Gutkind, International History of City Development, Vol. V: Urban Development in Western Europe: France and Belgium (New York, 1970); Pierre Couperie, Paris au fil du temps: atlas historique d'urbanisme et d'architecture (Paris, [1968]); and Michel Mollat, Histoire de l'Ile de France et de Paris ([Toulouse], 1971). Among the works which serve well as introductions to Paris during the reign of Louis XIV are: Paul de Crousaz-Cretet, Paris sous Louis XIV, 2 vols. (Paris, 1922-1923); Roland Mousnier, Paris au XVI1^ siecle,""Les cours de Sorbonne" (Paris, [1961]); Leon Bernard, The Emerging City: Paris in the Age of Louis XIV (Durham, N.C., 1970); and, Orest Ranum, Paris in the Age of Absolutism: An Essay (New York, 1968). In reading through this chapter, the reader may wish to consult the maps contained at the end of the study.

13 14

1698, the English physician and scientist Martin Lister wrote of the city: "I must needs confess it to be one of the most Beautiful and

Magnificent in Europe"; but, he added, "Palaces and Convents have eat up Peoples Dwellings, and crouded them excessively together, and pos­ sessed themselves of far the greatest part of the Ground." And while the "figure" of the "People of Quality" was to be admired, the "great

Multitude of poor Wretches in all parts of the City is such, that a

Man in a Coach, a-foot, in the Shop, is not able to do any business for 2 the numbers and importunities of Beggars. ..."

Guidebooks to Paris were, quite naturally, more lavish in their praise of the city. Saugrain, for instance, wrote in Les

Curiositez de Paris:

II faut avouer avec justice que la Ville de Paris est aujourd'hui la plus célèbre 8 la plus florissante Ville du monde dans toutes ses parties. Sa grandeur est prodigieuse, le nombre de ses Eglises 8 de ses Maisons Ecclesiastiques 8 Religieuses est suprenant. La magnificence de ses Palais, de ses Ponts, de ses Places publiques, de ses Fontaines, de ses Rues, 8 pardessus tout, le nombre presque infini de ses Habitants, la rendent la plus grande, la plus admirable 5 la plus fameuse Ville de l'Europe.3

Paris was indeed large. Yet, the actual size of the city's population during the last decades of Louis XIV's reign is not

2 Martin Lister, A Journey to Paris In the Year 1698, 3d ed. (London, 1699; facsimile reprint ed., Urbana, 111., 1967), pp. 7-22. 3 [Claude-Marin Saugrain], Les Curiositez de Paris, de Versailles, de Marly, de Vincennes, de S. Cloud, et des environs, avec les adresses pour trouver facilement tout ce qu'ils renferment d'agreable S d'utile, 2 vols. (Leiden, 1728 [rpt. with illus. of 1716 edition]. I, 13. 15

accurately known.^ Estimates during the seventeenth and eighteenth

centuries varied considerably, ranging from about 400,000 up to

1.000.000. In 1637, the commissaires of the Chatelet figured, probably

on the basis of tax rolls for street-cleaning, that there were between

20,300 and 20,400 houses and between 412,000 and 415,000 inhabitants

in Paris.^ At mid-century, Pierre Petit, author of the Notice which

accompanied the map of Paris by Jacques Gomboust, thought that there were 30,000 houses and 900,000 inhabitants.^ Two young Dutchmen who tra­ velled in France from 1656 to 1658 thought that there were perhaps

1.000.000 persons in Paris; but the Dutch ambassador informed them

Curiously, the important Mémoire de la généralité de Paris, drawn up between,1697 and 1700 for the instruction of the Due de Bourgogne, did not indicate the population of Paris proper, although it did note that there were 856,938 âmes (souls) in the généralité of Paris. See: Arthur de Boislisle, ed.. Mémoires des intendants sur l'état des généralités dressés pour l'instruction du duc de Bourgogne, Vol. I: Mémoire de la généralité de Paris (Paris, 1881), pp. 147-148. Boislisle's "Introduction" and "Appendice" contain additional material on the subject. See also: Louis Trenard, Les mémoires des intendants pour l'instruction du duc de Bourgogne (1698): Introduction generale (Paris, 1975).

^Bibliothèque Nationale, Ms. Joly de Fleury 1428, fols. 1-4. This document which concerns the population and food supply of Paris has also been published in Boislisle, Mémoire, pp. 656- 659. Roland Mousnier has suggested (Paris au XVTie siecle, pp. 20-22) that the population figures of the commissaires might be derived from the registers of contemporary tax rolls for street- cleaning which are also conserved at the Bibliothèque Nationale. See also: Roland Mousnier, Recherches sur la stratification sociale à Paris aux XVII® et XVIIje siècles: L'échantillon de 1634, 1635, 1636 (Paris, 1976).

^Cited in Mousnier, Paris au XVII^ siècle, p. 18. 16 during their visit with him that he estimated that there were about 7 600.000 persons. In 1685, C. Le Maire, author of a popular guidebook to Paris, used statistics compiled by the municipal officials of the

Hotel de Ville to calculate that there were about 92,353 heads of families located in about 23,120 houses.^ Equally in the 1680Vs, Sir

William Petty, an Englishman, wrote that the city had a population of

488,000.^ Maréchal de Vauban, on the basis of a 1694 source, attributed

720.000 inhabitants to Paris.Saugrain, who was involved in printing a statistical report about the kingdom of France in the first decade of the eighteenth century,wrote in Les Curiositez de Paris (1716) 12 that there were 700,000 Parisians. The numbers game continued throughout the eighteenth century, with estimates of the size of the 13 population generally ranging between 500,000 and 900,000. However,

y ^ Cited in Boislisle, Mémoire, p. xx. g C. Le Maire, Paris ancien et nouveau, 3 vols. (Paris, 1685), I, 9-15. Mousnier has pointed out (Paris au XVII^ siecle, pp. 22-23) that Le Maire's information is probably derived from a survey conducted by officials of the Hôtel de Ville. The survey itself is conserved in the Bibliothèque Nationale as Mss. Français 8633-8634. 9 ^ Cited in Boislisle, Mémoire, p. xx.

^^Sébastien Le Prestre de Vauban, Projet d'une dixme royale, ed. by E. Coornaert (Paris, 1933; [orig. publ. 1707]), pp. 157-161. Vauban himself was skeptical of the population figure.

^^Claude-Marin Saugrain, ed.. Dénombrement du royaume par généralités, elections, paroisses et feux, 2 vols. (Paris, 1709). 12, 'Saugrain, Curiositez de Paris, I, 14.

1 ■z ^The principal estimates are cited in Boislisle, Mémoire, pp. xxi-xxii. 17 the higher figures have tended to be discounted; and, at present, the most commonly accepted estimate of the size of the Parisian population at the beginning of the eighteenth century is that it numbered about half a million persons.

Whatever its actual size, the population of Paris was growing-- contrary to the desire of the government. Throughout the seventeenth century, the government had tried without success to control the ex­ panding population by limiting the city's physical growth. But the city had expanded in all directions; and even its center, the lie de

Notre-Dame (the present-day lie Saint-Louis) was more extensively developed. Paris burst out of the confines of its medieval walls, its military ramparts, and its old city gates--though not beyond the reach

The problems involved in accurately determining the size of the population, and some of the previous attempts to do so, are de­ scribed in Mousnier, Paris au XVIsiecle, pp. 23-45. See also: Pierre Goubert, "La Force du nombre" (Part I, Book I, Chapter I), in Ernest Labrousse, e^t al., Histoire économique et sociale de la France, Vol. II: Des derniers temps de l'age seigneurial aux pré­ ludes de l'âge industriel (1660-1789) (Paris, 1970), pp. 9-21; and, especially, E. Chariot and Jacques Dupâquier, "Mouvement annuel de la population de la Ville de Paris de 1670 à 1821," Annales de démo­ graphie historique (1967), pp. 511-519; and, Jacques Dupâquier, "Sur la population française au XVIie et au XVIII® siècle," Revue historique, CCXXXIX (1968), 43-79. An attempt to deal with another demographic problem of this period, the composition of the social structure of Paris, has been initiated by the students of Roland Mousnier and partial results, in the form of mémoires de maitrises, have been published in micro­ form as "Structure Sociales r ous l'Ancien Regime" / "Urban Society under the Old Regime" (New York: Clearwater Publishing Company, 1974 [1968-1972]). Perhaps not surprisingly, these studies tend to support Mousnier's model of the social structure of the ancien régime as a society of "orders" rather than of class. 18 of duty collectors and inspectors. The demolition of the old forti­ fications and the transformation of their sites into tree-lined promenades (referred to as cours, remparts, or b o u l e v a r d s ) changed

Paris into a ville ouverte, an open city.^^

Judging by contemporary accounts and police reports, the growth of the city was spurred in great part by an influx of people from the provinces and abroad. And indeed, the growth in turn spurred a drive on the part of the government for better administrative con­ trol over the mass of humanity. Thus, there were periodic attempts by the government to develop an effective administrative and police force.

The Division of Quarters of 1701-1702

Paris was traditionally divided for administrative and police purposes into quartiers, or "quarters." As the city grew, the number of "quarters" was increased; but, from the end of the fourteenth century until mid-seventeenth century the number of quarters remained constant at sixteen. Then, in 1642, the Faubourg Saint-Germain was added, at least by the officials of the Chatelet, as the seventeenth quarter. From mid-seventeenth century until the beginning of the

These were the three terms used by contemporaries to describe various sections of what eventually became known as the grands boulevards.

^^See: Pierre Lavedan, Historié de 1 'urbanisme. Vol. Ill: Renaissance et Temps modernes, 2d ed. (Paris, 1959), pp. 337-340; and, Roland Mousnier, "Paris, capitale politique, au Moyen Age et dans les temps modernes (environ 1200 a 1789)," La plume, ■la faucille et le marteau (Paris, 1970 [art. orig. publ. 1962J), p. 122. 19 eighteenth century the city continued to grow rapidly.As Nicolas

Delaware described it in the Traite de la Police:

Les bâtimens des Cultures de saint Eloy, de sainte Catherine, de sainte Anastase, des Marais du Temple, de la Villeneuve, de la Bute saint Roch, S des anciens Fauxbourgs qui ont été renfermez dans une nouvelle enceinte, avoient aussi tellement accru les Quartiers de saint Antoine, de sainte Avoye, de saint Martin, de saint Eustache S de saint Honoré qu'il y a peu de Villes en France qui égalassent en grandeur l'un de ces Quartiers.

Moreover, Saint-Germain, the largest quarter of all, was still expanding with a profusion of streets, hotels, and other buildings.

The quarters varied considerably in size. In some, there were as few as ten streets; in others, there were more than sixty.

The great size of the large quarters was, in commissaire Delamare's 19 words, "un obstacle perpetual a 1'execution des Reglemens de Police."

And the police were anxious to remove the obstacle.

17 On the history of the quarters of Paris, see: Nicolas Delamare, Traité de la Police, 2d ed. rev. and cont. by Le Cler-du- Brillet, 4 vols. (Paris, 1722-1738), I, 107-112, passim. The first three volumes of this important work were originally published by Delamare, a commissaire du Chatelet, in 1705, 1710, and 1719, re­ spectively; the fourth volume. Continuation du Traité de la Police, was published by Le C1er-du-Brillet in 1738. See also: Michel Felibien, Histoire de la Ville de Paris, rev. and cont. by Guy-Alexis Lobineau, 5 vols. (Paris, 1725), II, 1524, IV, 395-397, passim; the last three volumes of this work are documentary sources. And espe­ cially see: René Pillorget and Jean de Viguerie, "Les quartiers de Paris aux XVII® et XVIII® siècles," Revue d'histoire moderne et contemporaine, XVII (April-June, 1970), 253-277. 18 Delamare, Traité de la Police, I, 107. Delamare estimated that the city, including its faubourgs, had so increased in size that it was "deux lieues de diamettre, 8 six lieues de circonférence." See also: Pierre Couperie, Paris au fil du temp (Paris, 1968), Chapter 11. IQ Delamare, Traite de la Police, I, 107. 20

An opportunity to do so presented itself in 1701 when the

Conseil du Roi was considering the establishment of revenue collectors for street-lighting and street-cleaning to replace the receveurs bourgeois who had previously exercised the function. Marc-Rene de

Voyer de Paulmy d'Argenson, lieutenant general de police at the time, took the opportunity to point out to the Council the great disparity in the size of the city’s quarters, particularly the hugeness of

Saint-Germain which comprised about one-fourth of the city's area, 20 and the problems which this created for the police. The council agreed to try to rectify the situation by redividing the city into twenty quarters. This was done in December of 1701 through an edict which created twenty offices of receveurs particuliers des deniers, two offices of receveurs généraux des deniers ("destinez pour l'entretien des Lanternes, S pour le nettoyement des rues de la Ville

§ Fauxbourgs de Paris"), and four offices of conseillers du Roi, quarteniers (which brought the number of such offices to twenty) for 21 the new quarters. The new boundaries of the twenty quarters were 22 set forth in an arrêt du conseil of February 14, 1702, and confirmed

20 Jean de La Caille, Description de la Ville et des Fauxbourgs de Paris (Paris, 1714), fol. 2r (the folio numbers of this rare work refer to the copy conserved in the Département des Cartes et Plans of the Bibliothèque Nationale; more information on La Caille's work is contained in the following section of this chapter). La Caille estimated, though it is not clear on what basis, that Paris had in­ creased in size by at least one-third since the beginning of Louis XIV's reign.

21 Delamare, Traité de la Police, I, 108. 22 Printed in ibid., pp. 108-110. The exact date of the arrêt may have been January 14 rather than February 14. 21

^ 23 in a declaration du Roi of December 12, 1702. They were designed to correct the great inequality of size— though in effect it was only a partial correction— which had been rendering "le service du Roy, § 24 les soins de la Police S du bien public beaucoup plus difficile."

The twenty quarters by name (and four of them had double names) were:

"Quartier de la Cité"; "Quartier de saint Jacques de la Boucherie";

"Quartier de sainte Opportune"; "Quartier du Louvre ou de saint Germain de 1 'Auxerrois"; "Quartier du Palais Royal"; "Quartier de Montmartre";

"Quartier de saint Eustache"; "Quartier des Halles"; "Quartier de saint

Denis"; "Quartier de saint Martin"; "Quartier de la Greve"; "Quartier de saint Paul ou de la Mortellerie"; "Quartier de sainte Avoye ou de la Verrerie"; "Quartier du Temple ou du Marais"; "Quartier de saint

Antoine"; "Quartier de la Place Haubert”; "Quartier de saint Benoist";

"Quartier de saint André"; "Quartier de Luxembourg"; and, "Quartier de 25 saint Germain des Prez."

This new division of quarters was intended to be valid for both major municipal administrative institutions, the Chatelet and the

Hotel de Ville. The arrêt, for instance, ordered the lieutenant général de police to redistribute the commissaires du Chatelet among the twenty quarters; and, the prévôt des marchands and échevins were likewise ordered to redistribute the quarteniers of the Hôtel de Ville.

^^Printed in ibid., pp. 110-112.

^^From the arrêt, ibid., p. 108. 25 From the arrêt and déclaration, ibid., pp. 108-112. 22

However, true to form, the two rival institutions could not agree.

The officials of the Hotel de Ville did not care for the new arrange­ ment, and they were successful in obtaining an arret du conseil in

February, 1703, which restored, at least for them, the division of

Paris into the sixteen quarters that they had previously recognized.

This dichotomy of municipal administrative divisions persisted

throughout the remainder of the ancien regime. However, the success of the Hôtel de Ville in this matter was actually a hollow victory because the Chatelet was much more the dominant administrative force

in Paris. In this particular case, the dominance was subsequently reflected in the maps, guides, and descriptions of Paris produced

from 1702 to 1789 which, almost without exception, utilized the

twenty-quarter division recognized by the Chatelet. As Pillorget and

Viguerie have aptly remarked: "Les Parisians ont affaire de plus en 27 plus aux commissaires, de moins en moins aux quarteniers."

La Caille's Description de la Ville

The concern of the government’s agents of order, and in par­

ticular those at the Chatelet, with the growth of Paris led to the preparation of a description of Paris which proved to be one of the most notable attempts to map, inventory and describe everything that was noteworthy about the capital from the point of view of the police.

See: Pillorget and Viguerie, "Les quartiers de Paris," pp. 268-277. 27 Ibid., p. 273. 23

The description prepared by Jean de'La Caille, imprimeur de la police, under orders from lieutenant général de police d'Argenson, was printed in 1714 as: Description de la Ville et des Fauxbourgs de Paris en Vingt

Planches, Dont chacune représente un des Vingt Quartiers suivant la

Division qui en a este faite par la Declaration du Roy du 12 Décembre

1702 rendue en exécution de l'Edit du mois de Décembre 1701. Avec un Détail exact de toutes les Abbaies ^ Eglises, des Convents,

Communautéz. Colleges, Edifices Publics, principaux Palais S Hôtels, des Places, Rues, Fontaines, Maisons, Lanternes, 5 de tout ce qu'il y a de plus remarquable dans chaque Quartier. Dresse § gravée sous les ordres de M. D'ARGENSON, Conseiller du Roy en son Conseil d'Etat,

Lieutenant Général de Police de la Ville, Prëvostê 5 Vicomte de Paris.

Dediêe à Monseigneur DESMARETZ, Ministre d'Etat, Controlleur General des Finances. As its title indicated, the work was more than a col­ lection of maps of th'e twenty quarters of Paris. It was a guide to everything that was remarquable, or noteworthy, in each of the quarters.

Beyond this, the Description de la Ville provided a list of all the streets in each quarter (describing where each began and ended), and the number of houses and lanterns on each street. The information was needed according to La Caille's "Preface" because of "la difficulté d'establir ou de maintenir à Paris une exacte Police, augmentant nécessairement avec le nombre de ses maisons S de ses habitants. 28 ..." The specific purpose of the work was to provide police

no La Caille, Description de la Ville, fol. 2r. 24 officials of the Chatelet with useful information about the capital in order to facilitate the execution of regulations and ordinances and

/ • ^ 29 thus assure "la seurete S la tranquilite publique." In effect. La

Caille's Description de la Ville represented a concise profile of

Paris and each of its twenty quarters at the end of Louis XIV's reign.

La Caille estimated that Paris had about 22,000 houses, not including churches, convents, religious communities, colleges, chapels, and the 800 or 900 shops or boutiques in which merchants conducted 30 business but did not reside. He also estimated that there were

896 streets and 74 culs-de-sac, and that these were illuminated at 31 night by 5,532 lanterns.

By adding up his figures for each of the individual quarters.

29 Ibid., fols. 2r, 3v. La Caille wrote; ". . . pour mieux connoistre I'estendu S le detail de chacun de ces vingt Quartiers, § afin qu'il soit plus facile à Messieurs les Commissaires 5 aux Inspecteurs de Police d'y faire observer les mêmes regies, G d'assurer 1 'execution des Ordres du Roy dans l'estendue du département commis à leurs soins, M. DARGENSON a desire qu'on en gravât séparé­ ment les Plans, 8 qu'on y joignît une description exacte des maisons, des rues, des lanternes qui les éclairent, 8 de ce qu'il y a de plus remarquable. . . ."

^^Quite possibly. La Caille's estimate also did not include prisons, hôpitaux, chateaux, major hotels, troop posts, or other buildings where ordinary citizens did not normally reside, for these are listed separately (though it should be noted that several list­ ings overlap). 31 La Caille's gross statistics about Paris are located mainly in the "Table Alphabétique, Historique 8 Chronologique de tout ce qu'il y a de plus considerable dans cette Description de la Ville 8 Fauxbourgs de Paris," Description de la Ville, fols. 39r-42v. How­ ever, the author has compiled some of the statistics by adding the figures given by La Caille in the descriptions of each of the twenty quarters. 25

32 the following configuration of houses, streets, and lanterns emerges:

TABLE 1

HOUSES, STREETS, AND LANTERNS BY QUARTER IN 1714

Streets Quarter Houses (rues/culs- Lanterns de sac)

La Citées (Ile de Palais) 1300 60/6 311 (Ile de Notre-Dame) 308 13/0 96

Saint-Jacques de la Boucherie 1018 36/5 181

Saint-Opportune 640 34/2 158

Le Louvre (or, Saint-Germain- 1 'Auxerrois) * 752 27/6 192

Palais Royal 1006 51/4 332

Montmartre 756 38/1 282

Saint-Eustache 480 27/3 248

32 Obviously, the chart gives only a rough idea of the population density and topography of the quarters because it does not indicate which quarters have large open spaces (such as places or gardens) or numerous religious enclosures. In this regard it becomes useful to consult a map or plan of the city or its quarters (La Caille, of course, provided plans of each of the quarters). Also, it may be noticed that there are slight numerical differences between La Caille's gross statistics and the quarter-by-quarter additions. La Caille also lists some streets which are not included in the street count for each quarter. The reasons for this are not entirely clear.

The Quartier de la Cité included the Ile du Palais, the Ile de Notre-Dame, the Ile de Louvier, and the bridges which connected these islands to the Right and Left Banks. La Caille, Description de la Ville, fols. 6r-7v; Delamare, Traité de la Police, I, 108. 26

TABLE 1 (Continued)

Streets Quarter Houses (rues/culs- Lanterns de sac)

Les Halles 735 27/0 140

Saint-Denis 1619 48/8 304

Saint-Martin 1740 52/7 415

La Grève 980 38/2 199

Saint-Paul (or. La Mortellerie) 664 25/7 174

Sainte-Avoye (or. La Verrerie) 447 17/1 173

Le Temple (or. Le Marais) 852 51/5 361

Saint-Antoine^^ . 856 29/4 329

Faubourg Saint-Antoine 939 37/0 0

Place Maubert 1707 65/5 300

Saint-Benoît 1382 51/7 304

Saint-Andre 1100 56/3 310

Luxembourg 1321 58/0 330

Saint-Germain-des-Pres 1215 52/2 393

Total 21,817 892/78 5,532

34 Though listed separately, the Faubourg Saint-Antoine was technically part of the Quartier Saint-Antoine. 27

This rough profile, along with La Caille’s maps (as well as other maps from the period) indicate that the administrative division of 1701-1702 did not really make the quarters equal in size, but rather served to reduce the size of the largest quarters. In essence, the quarters of

Saint-Eustache, Place Maubert, and Saint-Germain-des-Pres were broken more or less in half to form six quarters where previously there had been three. Thus, the former Saint-Eustache became the new Saint-

Eustache and Montmartre; the former Place Maubert became the new Place

Maubert and Saint-Benoît; and, the former Saint-Germain-des-Pres became the new Saint-Germain-des-Pres and Luxembourg.

Besides the approximately 22,000 houses, Paris had eight structures which La Caille referred to as "chasteaux," and 200 which he termed "hôtels considerables." The chateaux (de la Bastille, de

Bicetre, du Grand Chatelet, du Petit Chatelet, de Clovis, du Louvre, de la Toumelle, des Tuileries) were, for the most part, prisons or royal palaces. One, the Chateaux de Clovis, was more readily known as the Abbey of Sainte-Genevieve.

La Caille also listed a host of religious edifices and communi­ ties which made Paris a great religious center. Among these were: three abbeys for men (Sainte-Genevieve, Saint-Germain-des-Pres, and

Saint-Victor); eight abbeys for women; eleven priories for men; six priories for women (most of these were attached to convents); thirteen chapters (the most important being that of Notre-Dame); four collegiate

35 Pillorget and Viguerie, "Les quartiers de Paris," p. 269, 28 churches; twenty-five communautés of men (or, convents d'hommes); fourteen communautés of women; forty-three convents for women; eleven seminaries; forty chapels or churches where the Mass was celebrated; forty-seven parishes; two commanderies (the Temple and Saint-Jean-de-

Latran); and twenty crosses (which presumably inspired the holy, and, on occasion, served as sites at which corporal punishment was meted out to the unholy). There was generally a sizable religious presence in schools and hôpitaux, too. In all. La Caille mentioned five "Grandes

Ecoles" (the Sorbonne, Droit Canon et Civil, Médicine, Chirurgie, and

Jardin des Plantes du Roi), forty-four collèges of which thirteen were

"avec exercise," and thirty-five petites ecolés de charité consigned to the care of the Sisters of Charity. As for the hôpitaux. La Caille specifically mentioned twenty-six of which most seemed to function for one or more of four main purposes: to treat the ills of the body and mind, to serve as a refuge for the helpless, to correct moral laxity, or to deal with poverty.

Among the other features of Paris which La Caille found im­ portant enough to tally were: fifty public squares; fifty public fountains; thirty bridges, spanning the Seine, the Bievre (or.

Gobelins), and the city's forty-five sewers; thirty quais; twenty-five ports (where all types of merchandise was loaded and unloaded); two river ferries; eighty laundryboats; twenty-five watering places for horses (abreuvoirs); nine water-mills (moulins à eau) for grinding grain; twelve marketplaces (marchés); fifty-two butcheries (boucheries) containing a total of 280 stalls; fifty shops and boats which sold 29 fish; four free fairs (foires franches); eight portes or arcs de triomphe; four major public libraries; six royal academies; eight gardens which served as promenades for the public; one royal printing office (imprimerie); eighty-two tip-carts (tombereaux) which served for the removal of mud, filth, and rubbish to the refuse-dumps (during the summer, there were fifty-five tip-carts); and, two water-pumps, one on the Pont Notre-Dame and another on the Pont Neuf.

The Seine

As guidebooks and maps of the period indicate, the "Ville de

Paris" was generally regarded as being divided into three major areas: the Cite, which included the lie du Palais (the present-day lie de la

Cite), the main inhabited island in the Seine; the Université, which referred to the central part of the Left Bank; and the Ville, which referred to the central part of the Right Bank. Beyond these three

The description of Paris at the beginning of the eighteenth century (c. 1697-1718) contained in the remaining sections of this chapter is broadly based on descriptions, guidebooks, histories, and maps of Paris written or drawn up during the last quarter of the seventeenth century and the first quarter of the eighteenth century. Primary among these are the already-cited works of Delamare, Felibien, Saugrain, Lister, and La Caille, as well as the Mémoire de la généralité de Paris. Added to these are: Henri Sauvai, Histoire et Recherches des Antiquitez de la Ville de Paris, 3 vols. (Paris, 1724; written before 1670); Germain Brice, Description nouvelle de la ville de Paris, 3d éd., 2 vols. (Paris, 1698; [1684]); Jean-Paul Marana, Lettre d'un Sicilien à un de ses amis [1692], intro. and notes by Valentin Dufour (Paris, 1883); Jean Aymar Piganiol de la Force, Description de Paris, 8 vols. (Paris, 1742); Jean Lebeuf and Fernand Bournon, Histoire de la Ville et de tout le diocese de Paris, rev. éd., 7 vols. (Paris, 1883-1893; [1754]) (Vol. 1 of this edition deals with the city of Paris; Vol. VI contains the very valu­ able "Rectifications et Additions" by Bournon (1890); and Vol. VII 30 areas were the "Fauxbourgs," or the outskirt areas that were gradually

contains the "Table Analytique" by Bournon and Adrien Augier (1893); a réimpression of the complete seven volumes was made in Brussels in 1969-1970). In conjunction with the guidebooks to Paris, two very useful articles, both by Maurice Dumolin, are: "Notes sur les vieux guides de Paris," Mémoires de la Société de l'Histoire de Paris et de 1'Ile-de-France, XLVII (1924), pp. 209-285; and, "Les 'Curiosités de Paris' du Pseudo-Le Rouge," ibid., XLVIII (1925), 164-173. As for the maps of Paris, the most useful are those of: Jacques Gomboust (1647-1652); Jean Boisseau (1652); Jouvin de Roche­ fort (1676, and [1690]); Nicolas de Fer (1694, 1697, 1705 [which ap­ peared in the Traité de la Police], 1717 [which includes the banlieu around Paris]), Bullet and Blondel (1710; [1676]); Bernard Jaillot (1713); La Caille (1714); Guillaume de L'Isle (1711 [of the prevote et vicomte de Paris], 1716); Jean Delagrive (1728); and, Turgot (1734- 1739). Most of these plans were reproduced in reduced size in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries; but, the best examples of many of the maps are in the Département des Cartes et Plans of the Bibliothèque Nationale and the Fonds des Cartes et Plans of the Archives Nationales. See: Leon Vallée, Catalogue des plans de Paris et des cartes de l'Ile de France, de la généralité, de 1 'election, de l'archevêché, de la vicomte, de l'université, du grenier â sel et de la cour des aides de Paris, conservées a la Section des Cartes et Plans de la Bibliothèque Nationale (Paris, 1908); M. Hebert and J. Thirion, Catalogue general des cartes, plans et desseins d'architecture conservés aux Archives Nationales, Vol. I: Paris et le département de la Seine (Paris, 1958); see also: Alfred Bonnardot, Etudes archéologique sur les anciens plans de Paris des XVI®, XVII^, et XVIIie siècles, 2 vols. (Paris, 1851- 1877); and cf., Alfred Franklin, Les anciens plans de Paris, notices historiques et topographiques, 2 vols. (Paris, 1878-1880). While works from the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries form the basis for the ensuing description of Paris, several more recent works were very useful in tracing name changes, following the topo­ graphical development of areas, and pinpointing present-day locations. Among these were: Jacques Hillairet, Dictionnaire historique des rues de Paris, 2 vols. (Paris, [1961-1964]); idem., Connaissance du Vieux- Paris. 3 vols. (Paris, [1951-1954]); idem.. Evocation du Vieux-Paris, 3 vols. (Paris, 1951-1953); Charles Braibant, Albert Mirot, and Michel Le Moël, Guide historique des rues de Paris, "Bibliothèque des Guides Bleues" ([Paris], 1965); Adrien Friedmann, Paris, ses rues, ses paroisses, du Moyen Age à la Révolution: Origine et évolution des circonscriptions paroissiales (Paris, 1959); Amedee Boinet, Les églises parisiennes, 3 vols. (Paris, 1958-1964); Georges Huisman and Georges Poisson, Les monuments de Paris, "Bibliothèque des Guides Bleus" ([Paris], 1966); Louis Hautecoeur, Histoire de l'architecture classique en France, 7 vols. (Paris, 1943-1957), especially Vol. II: Le règne de Louis XIV (Paris, 1948); Jeanne Pronteau, Les numérotages des maisons 31 united with the city. The three major areas plus the faubourgs were divided for administrative and police purposes into quartiers of which 37 there were twenty by 1701-1702.

The physical feature which had caused the natural division of

Paris into three parts, and which had played such an important role in the development of the city from Gallo-Roman times, was the Seine

River. The Seine was the lifeline of Paris. It was the basic means by which provisions and merchandise of all sorts flowed to and from the capital. It was a major artery through the city and a major source of the city's water supply. Sadly, it was also a major sewer for the refuse of an urban society.

The most important function of "la riviere," as the Parisians called it, was to bring needed supplies to the city's large population.

Grain, hay (for horses), wine, wood, and charcoal, all arrived via riverboats to the ports along the river. Some of the ports even bore

de Paris du XV siecle à nos jours (Paris, 1966); Alfred Franklin, Dictionnaire historique des arts, metiers, et professions, exercés dans Paris depuis le treizième siecle (Paris and Leipzig, 1906); Jules Cousin and Paul Lacombe, "La nomenclature des rues de Paris," Mémoires de la Société de l'Histoire de Paris et de l'Ile-de-France, XXVI (1899), 1-24; and, Bernard Champigneulle, Paris, architectures, sites, 5 jardins ((Paris), 1973). 37 Prior to the use of these terras, the expression Outre- Grand-Pont was used to refer to the inhabited area of Paris beyond the bridge (at the site of the present-day Pont Notre-Dame) which connected the Cité to the Right Bank; the expression Outre-Petit- Pont was likewise used to refer to the inhabited area of Paris beyond the bridge (at the site of the present-day Petit Pont) which con­ nected the Cité to the Left Bank. See the street lists and explana­ tory notes in Lebeuf and Bournon, Histoire de la Ville, I, 350-377, VI, 402-430. 32

the name of the incoming commodity, as in the case of the Port au Bled,

the Port au Foin, the Port au Vin, the Port au Bois Neuf, and the Port

au Charbon. Fishing boats of the men who fished the Seine and Marne for fresh-water fish (poisson d'eau douce) were usually congregated near the Pont Marie where the catches were sold to the public. Laundry­ boats upon which the washerwomen (blanchisseuses) of Paris plied their

trade were located at many spots along the Seine. Ferryboats and passenger barks crossed back and forth across the river where there were no bridges. Larger passenger boats (couches d 'eau) carried persons and merchandise up and down the Seine and connecting rivers.

Water-mills ground grain. Large trains of lumber (bois flotte) were

floated into the ports of Paris and added to the general confusion.

The circulation of the dense river traffic was hindered by numerous man-made and natural hazards in, along, and across the river.

Sunken wrecks, rocks, bridges, water pumps, general debris, as well as periodic flood waters and ice, all made navigation hazardous. Nor was the purity of the river's water aided by the quantities of human and animal waste, garbage, sewer runoffs, industrial pollutants (as

from the tanning industry) and the remnants of the Parisian laundering process, all of which found their way into the Seine. The problem

was greatest along the banks where the water was shallow and under

the bridges where backwash and slow currents allowed the refuse to

accumulate. Water carriers (porteurs d'eau) were forever being warned

by the authorities that they had to draw water from the parts of the

river where the currents were the swiftest (and theoretically the 33 water the cleanest). Despite the problems, native Parisians drank the river's water, bathed in it, and fished in it without difficulty 38 (though for visitors to Paris, it was a different matter). Some natives even regarded the healthful effects, of the water as a source of municipal pride. Nevertheless, the contamination of the river and its tributaries posed a health hazard which kept the authorities of the Chatelet and the Hotel de Ville continually busy.^^

The hustle and bustle of activity on the river was paralleled by the animated life along the ports and quais. Boatmen delivered cargoes to merchants who had the goods carted away to markets and shops,

Haulers and carriers, some with carts and horses, jammed the area.

Horses were watered at special watering-places (abreuvoirs). The general public mingled about, occasionally buying certain items directly from the riverboats. Mendicants scrounged the area for hand­ outs and discarded (or stolen) items. In the midst of the din and clatter, an army of municipal officials inspected, weighed, and measured goods, collected duties, levied fines, and generally policed the bedlam. Strollers could view the spectacle from along the quais, or shop in the nearby boutiques. The Quai des Orfèvres, for instance, on the lie du Palais, housed most of the best-stocked goldsmith and

38 Dr. Lister, for instance, commented (Journey to Paris, pp. 234-235) about the "fluxes" and "dysenteries" that frequently resulted from the "unwholsomeness of the River Water"; cf.: Brice, Description nouvelle, II, 4-6.

^^See, for instance: Delamare, Traité de la Police, I, 576-591, passim; and, Crousaz-Cretet, Paris sous Louis XIV, II, 299-321. 34 silversmith shops in the city; and the Quai de la Mégisserie housed an active market that specialized in trees, flowers, plants, and birds.

The three major areas of the city were connected by a series of stone bridges which spanned the Seine. All of the bridges, except the

Pont Royal and Pont Neuf, used the islands in the Seine as one of their termini/*^ and all, except the Pont Royal, Pont Neuf, and Pont de la

Toumelle, were lined with multi-story houses in which the first floor was frequently a merchant's shop. Life on all the bridges was color­ fully animated by a constant flow of humanity moving like a cross current to the river itself.

The longest, widest, and most famous of the bridges was the

Pont Neuf, which had been completed during the reign of Henry IV. The twelve arches of the bridge extended across the river and spanned the western end of the lie du Palais. Unencumbered by houses, the Pont

Neuf offered Parisians a good view of the city in the direction of the

Louvre and the Tuileries. The sidewalks (the first in Paris) and demi-lunes which lan the length of the bridge on either side, afforded persons on foot a slight measure of safety from the carriages which

clattered across the structure. Attached to the bridge were two of

the city's most popular monuments: the Cheval de Bronze, an equestrian statue of Henry IV erected on a marble base and enclosed within an iron grillwork, and the Samaritaine, a structure built by a Flemish engineer

The Pont Royal extended directly from the Left Bank to the Right Bank near the Palais des Tuileries; the Pont Neuf crossed the lie du Palais near its western tip. 35 during the reign of Henri IV to house the city's first water pump. The latter monument took its name from the biblical scene of the Good

Samaritan depicted on its ornate façade. The exuberance and frequent rowdiness of those who visited the Pont Neuf and its boutiques porta­ tives made it necessary to station permanently on the bridge two corps de gardes (each composed of ten soldiers and a sergeant) and a group of police officers from the Châtelet to maintain order and 41 prevent pick-pocketing and other chicanery.

Quartier de la Cité

At the end of the reign of Louis XIV, the central quarter of

Paris, Quartier de la Cite, consisted of three oblong islands in the

Seine. The H e d,u Palais, largest of the islands, was the location of some of the most important judicial and religious institutions in

France. The Palais, the former royal residence from which the island took its name, housed the jurisdictional seat of the Parlement of

Paris, the most important sovereign court in France, and the sovereign courts known as the Chambre des Comptes, the Cour des Aides, and the

Cour des Monnaies. It was also the jurisdictional seat of a number of other important administrative and judicial bodies, including:

41 La Caille, Description de la Ville, fols. 6r, 9r.

^^"Le Quartier de la Cite [sera compose] des Iles du Palais, de Notre-Dame S Louviers, depuis la pointe Orientale de l'Ile Louviers, jusqu'à la pointe Occidentale de l'Ile du Palais, S de tous les Ponts desdites Iles, y compris la culée du Pont au Change." Declaration du roi, December 12, 1702, in Delamare, Traité de la Police, I, 110-112. 36 the Cour des Eaux et Forêts, the Connêtablîe et Marechausée de France, the Amirauté, the Bureau des Finances et Chambre du Domaine, the

Élection de Paris, the Matrîse particulière des Eaux et Forêts, the 43 Maçonnerie, the Basoche, and the Bailliage du Palais. This last institution gave the Palais administrative and judicial control over itself. In addition to serving large numbers of magistrates, litigants, and administrative officials, the Palais also accommodated numerous merchants and their customers in an area known, appropriately enough, as the Galerie Marchande, as well as in several other areas. Attached to the Palais was the structure noted (then,as now) for its magnificent stained-glass windows, the Sainte-Chapelle.

While the Palais dominated the western part of the island, religious institutions dominated the eastern part. The area was towered over by the Cathedral of Notre-Dame, the most imposing reli­ gious edifice in Paris and the focal point of many major religious and royal ceremonies.

The chanting of a T£ Deum at Notre-Dame was one of the princi­ pal methods of celebrating great events such as the birth of a royal child, a military victory, or a treaty of peace. The cathedral was the seat of the diocese of Paris; and the Archbishop of Paris resided in the Palais de 1 'Archevêché on the cathedral's south side. The

43 For the functions of these judicial and administrative insti­ tutions, see: the series of articles in Michel Antoine, et al.. Guide des recherches dans les fonds judiciaires de l'Ancien Régime (Paris, 1958); Boislisle, Mémoire, pp. 173-205; and, Mousnier, Paris au XVII^ siècle, pp. 73-95, passim. 37

Officialitê, the primary judicial body of the diocese, was also lo­

cated on the south side. The Cloister of Notre Dame, residence of the

canons of the Cathedral Chapter, was located on the cathedral's north

side and extended around it to the east. The Chapter, which had its

own Officialitê, served as the jurisdictional seat of the grand chantre

of Paris, the man who controlled the city's petites écoles and thus 44 the greater part of its system of primary education.

Located catty-corner to the south tower of Notre-Dame was the

Hôtel-Dieu, a large hospital administered by the Augustinians. And directly across the square from Notre Dame was the Enfants Trouves, a hospital and orphanage maintained by the Sisters of Charity (or Gray

Sisters) for small children who had been abandoned in the streets and

churches of Paris.

The judicial and religious centers on the lie du Palais were

separated from each other by a cluster of small streets occupied by houses, shops and churches, and by two important north-south traffic arteries. The one stretched across the island from the Pont au Change

to the Pont Saint-Michel; the other stretched from the Pont Notre-Dame

to the Petit Pont.

The lie de Notre-Dame (the present-day lie Saint-Louis) was

located in the Seine just east of the lie du Palais. It was connected

to its larger neighbor by the Pont de Bois (which collapsed into the river in 1712), and to the Right and Left Banks by the Pont Marie and

44 On the difficulties encountered by the grand chantre during Louis XIV's reign, see: Bernard, The Emerging City, pp. 260-282. 38

the Pont de la Tournelle, respectively. During the seventeenth century,

this island became one of the fine examples of planned urban develop­ ment in Paris. The island's developers, Marie, Le Regrattier, and

Poulletier, had to form the island from two smaller isles (the lie de

Notre-Dame and the lie aux Vaches) which were largely unoccupied at

the beginning of the century. They planned the development according

to a prearranged lotissement (division into lots). Thus, the streets

of the island's interior were laid out at right angles which permitted a more uniform lot division and construction pattern. While the most

fashionable residences, like the Hotel de Bretonvilliers, Hotel Lambert, and Hotel Lauzan, were build along the island's quais, other fashion­

able houses lined the interior streets. Construction of the Church of 45 Saint-Louis, the island's only church, was begun by Le Vau in 1664.

The lie Louvier, smallest of the three islands in the Seine, was located just to the east of the lie de Notre-Dame. It was con­ nected to the Right Bank by the wooden Pont de Gramont, and was used 46 primarily as a storage area for wood and lumber.

The Right Bank

Spreading to the north of the right bank of the Seine, roughly

in the shape of a demi-lune, was the area of Paris referred to since the

The development of the lie de Notre-Dame (the present-day lie Saint-Louis) is described in Maurice Dumolin, Etudes de topographie parisienne. H I (Paris, 1931).

^^The H e Louvier was permanently attached to the Right Bank in the 1840's. 39

Middle Ages as the Ville. Properly speaking, the Ville was the area located within a perimeter previously delineated by the city's medieval wall and ramparts. Much of the growth of Paris throughout the seven­ teenth century involved expansion up to and beyond these fortifica­ tions into the fields of the surrounding faubourgs; and, in fact, during Louis XIV's reign, the fortifications themselves were demolished and their sites converted into wide, tree-lined promenades. The limits of the faubourgs beyond the new promenades were officially extended during the 1670's, and further growth was recognized in the division of the city into twenty quarters in 1701-1702. The city was said to extend to the "extremitez" of its faubourgs, though much of the area added by this action was still farmland or marshland. For the most part, the development of the Right Bank during the seven­ teenth century proceeded to the east in the direction of the Faubourg

Saint-Antoine, to the northwest in the direction of the areas known as the Quartier du Palais-Royal and Quartier Montmartre, and to a lesser extent to the northeast in the vicinity of the Temple.

The Right Bank, and the Ville in particular, was regarded as the center of commercial and artisanal activities in Paris. The bulk of provisions and merchandise which came to the capital were unloaded and sold in this area. The Hailes, the largest marketplace in the city, and many other large marches were located in the area. The most important bankers, financiers, and assorted hommes d'affaires lived and conducted their business there; and thousands of artisans lived and plied their trades there. 40

The Ville was also the area of Paris in which royal influence was most evident: in royal residences, in royal places, in monuments dedicated to the King, and in structures (such as the Bastille) which represented the military power of the King.

Located around the periphery of the Ville, where as late as

1670 the fortifications of the city still remained, were eight major portes (or, gates), as well as several other arteries leading into the city. With the transformation of the old fortifications into the new promenades, the portes were, for the most part, either demolished or remade into arcs de triomphe in the fashion of those of ancient

Rome.^^ The most important of these entrance points to the Ville were, from east to west: the Porte Saint-Antoine, which was located immediately to the north of the Bastille and which served as the main entrance way from the Faubourg Saint-Antoine; the Porte Saint-Louis and Pont aux Choux which were located to the north of Saint-Antoine and served as a gateway into the Marais from Pincourt (the present-day

Popincourt); the entrance near the demolished Porte du Temple which was located on the northeast edge of the periphery near the Temple, and led into the city proper from the Faubourg du Temple and La

Courtille; the Porte Saint-Martin which was one of the two main northern entrance ways into the city and the site of a famous arc de

The fate of the various portes is described in: Delamare, Traite de la Police, I, 104-106; Saugrain, Curiositez de Paris, I, 68-70, passim; and Felibien and Lobineau, Histoire de la Ville, II, 1497-1499, 1514-1515, 1519, 1524, IV, 271-274. 41

48 triomphe built in 1674 by Pierre Bullet; the Porte Saint-Denis, which was located just to the west of the Porte Saint-Martin, and was the site of another famous arc de triomphe built in 1672 by François 49 Blondel; the entrance near the demolished Porte de Montmartre which was located farther to the west and gave access to the city from the

Faubourg Montmartre; the Porte Saint-Honore, which was still farther west, and gave access to the Rue Saint-Honoré, one of the main east- west arteries within the Ville; and, the Porte de la Conference, which was located near the bank of the Seine between the Quai des

Tuileries and the Cours-la-Reine, and served as the primary exit from

Paris for excursions to Chaillot, Passy, Auteuil, Bois de Boulogne,

Saint-Cloud, and other favored spots to the west of the city.^^

After the new division of Paris into twenty quarters in 1701-

1702, the Right Bank consisted of fourteen quarters. Of the fourteen, eight had their boundaries clearly delineated by the fact that they were bordered on all sides by either the Seine or the streets of other quarters. The other six had their boundaries clearly delineated within the Ville, and even at the points where they entered into the faubourgs; however, their outer limits were not precise, but were said to extend

48 Described in Saugrain, Curiositez de Paris, 1, 134-135.

^^Ibid., pp. 126-127.

^^Access to the Porte de la Conference from the Left Bank was facilitated by the Pont Royal, a stone structure built on the former site of the wooden Pont Rouge which collapsed into the Seine for the last time in 1684. See: Delamare, Traité de la Police, I, 105-106. 42 to the "extremitez of the faubourgs into which they entered.Of the eight clearly defined quarters, seven [be Louvre, Saint-Eustache. Les

Halles, Sainte-Opportune, Saint-Jacques de la Boucherie, La Grève, and

Sainte-Avoye) formed a ragged-edged interior core of the Ville. Saint-

Paul, the eighth, was the only one of the eight quarters which extended as far as the ramparts on the edge of the Ville. The outer-six Right

Bank quarters (Palais-Royal, Montmartre, Saint-Denis, Saint-Martin,

Le Temple, and Saint-Antoine) surrounded the eight interior quarters in concentric fashion and were considerably larger in size, the division of 1701-1702 notwithstanding.

Quartier Saint-Jacques de la Boucherie

Located in the center of the Ville, and extending northward from the Seine between the Pont au Change and the Pont Notre-Dame, was 52 the Quartier Saint-Jacques de la Boucherie, The quarter took its name from the Church of Saint-Jacques-la-Boucherie which overlooked the area with one of the highest towers in Paris (the present-day Tour

Saint-Jacques is all that remains of the church). The church itself

A project to clearly define the exact location of the "extre­ mitez" of the faubourgs, for the purpose of limiting the city's growth, was carried out under Louis XV in the 1720's. The relevant government documents were printed by Le Cler-du-Brillet in ibid., IV, 404-434.

^^"Le Quartier de saint Jacques de la Boucherie sera borne à l'Orient par les rues Planchemibray, des Arcis, S de saint Martin ex­ clusivement, au Septentrion par la rue aux Ours exclusivement, â l'Occident par la rue saint Denis, depuis le coin de la rue aux Ours, jusqu'à la rue de Gêvres, y compris le Marche de la Port de Paris, S le grand Châtelet Inclusivement, § au Midy par la rue & le Quay de Gêvres inclusivement." Déclaration du roi, December 12, 1702, in ibid.. I, 110-112. 43 took its name from the Boucherie de la Porte de Paris (butchery and 53 meat mart) which stood not far away. The area around the Boucherie served as a major marketplace for foodstuffs (though not pain), and occasionally as a site for the sale of horses and carriages confiscated by law enforcement officials. Also close by was the Place aux Veaux, the major marketplace in the city for the sale of tallow.

Located near the church and the Boucherie, just to the north of the Pont au Change, was the Grand Châtelet, an imposing structure which housed one of the most important judicial and administrative complexes in Paris.

The Grand Châtelet, or as it was more commonly known, the

Châtelet, was the jurisdictional seat of ordinary royal justice, both civil and criminal, for the very large region in and around Paris known as the prévôté et vicomte de Paris. It was equally the offi­ cial administrative seat of the police of Paris. One wing of the

Châtelet housed the city morgue where the bodies of persons found in the city's streets, rivers, and sewers were publicly displayed.

Another wing housed a large prison facility. The main building, between the two wings, had an arcade (the Porte de Paris) through which persons could pass from the vicinity of the Pont au Change to

53 On the Boucherie de la Porte de Paris, or "Grande Boucherie," see: René Héron de Villefosse, "La Grande Boucherie de Paris," Bulletin de la Société de l'Histoire de Paris et de l'Ile-de-France, LV (1928), 39-73.

^^On the Châtelet and prévôté et vicomté, see Chapter II of this study. 44 the marketplace around the Boucherie de la Porte de Paris.

Quartier Saint-Jacques was also the location of the Bureau des Marchands Merciers (situated on the Rue Quincampoix later made famous by John Law),^^ and of numerous shops specializing in spices, confectionary goods, and dyes.^^

Quartier Sainte-Opportune

Immediately to the west of the oblong Quartier Saint-Jacques were two of the smallest quarters of Paris, Sainte-Opportune and the 57 Hailes. The Quartier Sainte-Opportune, which took its name from the Parish Church of Sainte-Opportune, was bordered on the south by the Seine between the Pont au Change and the Pont Neuf, and on the north by the Quartier des Halles. For its size, the quarter was heavily populated. Within its boundaries, there were several note­ worthy establishments, including: the prison known as For-1'Evêque; the

Grenier à Sel, the great salt distribution center which also housed the

^^La Caille, Description de la Ville, fol. 8r; Franklin, Dictionnaire historique, p. 480.

^^Saugrain, Curiositez de Paris, I, 118. 57 V "Le Quartier de sainte Opportune sera borné â 1'Orient par le Marché de la Porte de Paris, 8 la rue saint Denis exclusivement, au Septentrion par la rue de la Ferronnerie, y compris les Charniers des Saints Innocens du coté de la même rue, 8 par une partie de la même rue saint Honoré inclusivement, depuis ladite rue de la Ferronnerie, jusqu'aux coins des rues du Roulle 8 des Prouvaires, â l'Occident par les rues du Roulle 8 de la Monnoye, § par le carrefour des trois Maries jusqu'à la riviere, le tout exclusivement, S au Midy par les quays de la vieille Vallée de Misere, S de la Megisserie inclusivement." Déclaration du roi, December 12, 1702, in Delamare, Traité de la Police, I, 110-112. 45 tribunal which dealt with cases involving salt and the salt-tax 58 (gabelle); the Bureau Général de la Poste, where letters could be 59 posted for both France and abroad; the Bureau des Marchands Drapiers

(drapers and clothiers)and the Charnier des Saints-Innocents, the charnel-house located next to one of the most famous cemeteries in

Paris.

Quartier des Halles

The Quartier des Hall e s , located immediately to the north of Sainte-Opportune, was, according to one contemporary, "1'endroit de Paris le plus commode pour trouver facilement la vie S l'habit, c'est à dire toutes les choses nécessaires à la vie."^^ The Halles itself was the largest and most famous marketplace in Paris, and actually consisted of more than a dozen major markets and hundreds

ro Boislisle, Mémoire, pp. 202-203; La Caille, Description de la Ville, fol. 9r. 59 Saugrain, Curiositez de Paris, I, 112.

Caille, Description de la Ville, fol. 9r; Franklin, Dictionnaire historique, p. 272.

^^"Le Quartier des Halles sera borné à l'Orient par la rue de saint Denis exclusivement, depuis le coin de la rue de la Ferronnerie, jusqu'au coin de la rue Mauconseil; au Septentrion, par la rue Mauconseil exclusivement; â l'Occident par les rues Comtesse d'Artois, 5 de la Tonnellerie inclusivement; S au Midy, par la rue de la Ferronnerie, ^ partie de celle de saint Honoré exclusivement." Declaration du roi, December 12, 1702, in Delamare, Traité de la Police, I, 110-112.

^^Saugrain, Curiositez de Paris, I, 105. 46 of merchants and vendors engaged in the wholesale and retail distribu­ tion of grain, flour, bread, meat, fish, butter, cheese, eggs, herbs, vegetables, and fruits, as well as new and used furniture, clothes, candles, pottery, thatch, cord, hides, cloth, and linen, among other things. In the midst of all of this, in the open-air section of the marketplace, stood the Pilory, the residence of the executeur de la justice and the place where the perpetrators of frauds were exposed to the ridicule and abuse of the public. The Hailes was one of the liveliest, noisiest, most crowded and colorful areas in Paris. But, by a quirk of fate, the symbols of life and death existed side-by-side, for next to the Hailes were the decaying ruins of the Cemetery of the

Saints-Innocents which for centuries had been the largest public burying-piace in Paris.

Quartier du Louvre (or, Saint-Germain I'Auxerrois)

Immediately to the west of the Hailes and Sainte-Opportune were two more of the interior quarters of the Ville, the Quartier du

Louvre [also known as the Quartier Saint-Germain-1’Auxerrois) and the

Quartier Saint-Eustache. The Quartier du Louvre,which bordered

"Le Quartier du Louvre ou de saint Germain de 1’Auxerrois sera borne â l'Orient par le Carrefour des trois Maries, 5 par les rues de la Monnoye S du Roulle inclusivement; au Septentrion par la rue saint Honoré, y compris la Clôture de saint Honoré inclusivement, â prendre depuis les coins des rues du Roulle § des Prouvaires, jusqu'au coin de la rue Fromenteau, à l'Occident par la rue Fromenteau jusqu'à la riviere inclusivement, § au Midy par les quays inclusivement depuis le premier Guichet du Louvre, jusqu'aux Carrefours des trois Maries." Déclaration du roi, December 12, 1702, in Delamare, Traité de la Police, I, 110-112. 47

on the Seine between the Pont Neuf and the Rue Fromenteau, took its

name from the Palais du Louvre, a royal château built for defensive purposes early in the thirteenth century by Philippe Auguste.

Charles V converted it into a more habitable royal residence during

the fourteenth century. After Charles, however, the Louvre was not

a favored residence of French kings until the reign of Francis 1.

In the second quarter of the sixteenth century, Francis I ordered

construction to correct the dilapidated condition into which the

Louvre had fallen. The donjon was demolished, but further work pro­

ceeded very slowly. The rebuilding of the various wings in an expanded

form (at first on the west and south) took place in fits and starts

under the last Valois kings and the first two Bourbons. Under

Catherine de Medici's impetus, construction was begun on a long

gallery designed to connect the Louvre (from its southwest comer)

with the Palais des Tuileries. Henry IV finally completed that pro­

ject. Under Louis XIII, the focus of attention again was turned to

construction on the site of the vieux Louvre. The length of the west

wing was doubled before construction was halted for lack of funds.

Under Louis XIV, plans were revived to continue the other wings in

order to achieve a large cour carré. La Vau supervised the construc­

tion which included doubling the length of the south wing and adding

on new north and east wings. Perrault carried on the work and added

the famous colonnade to the façade of the east wing. However, further

construction at the Louvre was halted once the King's building inter­

ests shifted from Paris to Versailles in the 1670's. 48

After Louis XIV and his court abandoned the Louvre, various royal academies gradually began to install themselves there; and, by the end of Louis's reign, the Académie Française, the Académie des

Inscriptions et des Médailles, the Académie des Sciences, the Académie d'Architecture, and the Académie de Peinture et Sculpture were all meeting in the Louvre.

Located near the Louvre was the Church and Chapter of Saint- 64 Germain-1'Auxerrois. The dean of the Chapter was an important church official in Paris; and, at the end of Louis's reign. Abbé

Bignon, then dean, was also an important figure in the royal academies.

Also in the quarter were the Hotel de la Monnoye du Roy, 66 where gold and silver species were minted, and the jurisdictional seat of the Grand Conseil. Finally, at the intersection of the Rues de Saint-Honoré, de 1'Arbre-Sec, and des Prouvaires, stood the Croix du Tiroir (or Trahoir) near which public executions were sometimes carried out.

Besides contemporary descriptions and accounts of the Louvre (such as Saugrain, Curiositez de Paris, 1, 52-63), see: Adolphe Berty and H. Legrand, Topographie historique du Vieux Paris, Vols. 1 and 11: Région du Louvre et des Tuileries, 2d éd.. Histoire Générale de Paris (Paris, 1885); and, Louis Hautecoeur. Histoire du Louvre, 2d ed. (Paris, 1942).

^^Lebeuf and Bournon, Histoire de la Ville, 1, 33-34; Boislisle, Mémoire, p. 24. On Abbe Bignon, see: Jack A. Clarke, "Abbé Jean-Paul Bignon: 'Moderator of the Academies' and Royal Librarian," French Historical Studies, Vlll, no. 2 (Fall 1973), 213-235.

^^La Caille, Description de la Ville, fol. lOr.

On the Grand Conseil, see: Boislisle, Mémoire, pp. 179-181; 49

Quartier Saint-Eustache

The Quartier Saint-Eustache,^^ located directly to the north

of the Quartier du Louvre, was part of the cluster of quarters which

formed the financial and commercial heart of Paris. The quarter took

its name from the Church of Saint-Eustache, described by Saugrain

as "une des plus belles [eglises] de Paris.Constructed, for the most part, between the 1530's and the 1630's, the church served as a

final resting place for several well-known persons including Louis

XIVs famous finance minister Jean-Baptiste Colbert. The neighborhood around the church, being in close proximity to the Hailes and several

other major commercial and financial enterprises and institutions,

served as a convenient gathering place for bankers, financiers, tax-

farmers, and merchants, many of whom lived or worked in the large

hotels for which the quarter was also noted.Among the hotels were

the Hotel de Soissons, whose gardens were a well-known meeting-place

for financiers, and the Hotel des Fermes du Roi (the former Hotel

Séguier), which housed the bureaux of the Fermiers Généraux (Farmers

and, Jean-Paul Laurent, "Grand Conseil," in Antoine, et al.. Guide des recherches, pp. 27-60.

^^"Le Quartier de saint Eustache sera borné à l'Orient par les rues de la Tonnellerie, Comtesse d'Artois § Mortorgueil exclusivement, jusqu'au coin de la rue Neuve saint Eustache; an Septentrion, par les rues Neuve saint Eustache, des Fossez Montmartre S Place des Victoires exclusivement; à l'Occident, par la rue des Bons-Enfans inclusivement; 5 au Midy, par la rue saint Honoré exclusivement." Déclaration du roi, December 12, 1702, in Delamare, Traité de la Police, I, 110-112. 69 Saugrain, Curiositez de Paris, I, 100.

^^See, for instance: Jacques Saint-Germain, Les financiers sous Louis XIV. Paul Poisson de Bourvalais (Paris, 1950), pp. 136-138, passim. 50

General). The Douanne (Customs House) backed up against the Hotel des Fermes; and the Ferme du Tabac was just across the street in the

Rue du Bouloi.

The quarter was also the location of the Hotel de la Vrilliere, known after 1713 as the Hotel de Toulouse (having been obtained by the Comte de Toulouse, legitimized son of Louis XIV), which faced on the Rue de la Vrilliere near the Place des Victoires.

Quartier de la Grève

The last two interior quarters of the Ville, Sainte-Avoye and La Grève, were located to the east of Quartier Saint-Jacques-la-

Boucherie. The Quartier de la Grève extended eastward along the Seine from the Pont Notre-Dame to a point opposite the eastern end of the lie de Notre-Dame, and in fact took its name from the stretch of sand and gravel beach along that part of the river.The Quai de la

Grève, as this section of the river bank was known, was one of the busiest commercial ports of Paris. The western border of the quarter which extended northward from the Pont Notre-Dame along the Rue des

Arcis and Rue Blanche-Mibray, formed part of the main north-south artery through Paris.

71 ^ ^ "Le Quartier de la Greve sera borné à l'Orient par la rue Geoffroy Lasnier, § par la vieille rue du Temple exclusivement; au Septentrion, par les rues de la Croix Blanche, S de la Verrerie exclusivement; à l'Occident, par les rues des Arcis, § Planchemibray inclusivement; S au Midy, par les Quays Pelletier S de la Greve inclusivement, jusqu'au coin de la rue Geoffroy Lasnier." Déclaration du roi, December 12, 1702, in Delamare, Traité de la Police, I, 110-112. 51

Just north of the river was the Place de Grève, a large public gathering place which served as the site of many popular celebrations and public executions. Facing on the Place de Grève was the Hotel de

Ville, the city hall of the municipality of Paris, and the jurisdic­ tional seat of the prévôt des marchands and échevins, the municipality's chief administrative and magisterial officials (though it should be 72 noted that their authority was limited under Louis XIV). The Bureau

General des Pauvres (or Grand Bureau des Paroisses de Paris) and the

Hôpital du Saint-Esprit were also located on the Place de Grève. The former was a secular organization which rendered assistance to the

Parisian poor; the latter was a hospital which cared for native

Parisian orphans.

Directly behind the Hôtel de Ville was the Church of Saint-

Jean-en-Grève, noted for its collection of relics, and as the reposi­ ez tory of the famous Sainte-Hostie. One block farther west was the

Church of Saint-Gervais, noted for its classical facade, and as the final resting place of two of the Chancellors of France under Louis

XIV, Michel Le Tellier and Claude Boucherat. (Later, Voysin, the last of Louis's chancellors, was also buried there.) The Hôtel de Charni on the Rue des Barres, behind Saint-Gervais, was the location of the

72 /N On the Hôtel de Ville, see: A. J. V. Le Roux de Lincy, Histoire de l'Hôtel de Ville de Paris (Paris, 1846); Marius Vachon, L'Ancien Hotel de Ville de Paris, 1553-1871 (Paris, 1882); and, Fêlibien and Lobineau, Histoire de la Ville, I, i-cxxviii.

^^Lebeuf and Boumon, Histoire de la Ville, I, 88-89, VI, 62-63. 52

Bureau Général des Aides. The Place du Cimetière de Saint-Jean, north of Saint-Gervais, was one of the important marketplaces of Paris.

Quartier Sainte-Avoye (or. La Verrerie)

The Quartier Sainte-Avoye (or. Quartier de la Verrerie), the last of the interior quarters of the Ville, was situated north of the Quartier de la Grève. However, unlike La Grève, Sainte-Avoye did not border on the Quartier Saint-Jacques, for part of the Quartier

Saint-Martin separated them. The quarter took its name from the 75 Convent of Sainte-Avoye which was maintained by the Ursuline Order.

There were several other well-known convents and monasteries within the quarter, including: Les Blancs-Manteau.<, La Merci, Les Billettes, and Saint-Croix-de-la-Bretonnerie. There were also several notable hotels, including: the impressive Hotel de Soubise, occupied by

François de Rohan, Prince de Soubise; the Hotel de Strasbourg (later known as the Hotel de Rohan), built for Cardinal de Rohan, the Arch- bishop of Strasbourg and grand aumônier de France; the Hôtel de

"Le Quartier de sainte Avoye ou de la Verrerie sera borné à l'Orient par la vieille rue du Temple exclusivement; au Septentrion, par les rues des Quatre Fils § des vieilles Audriettes aussi exclu­ sivement; à l'Occident, par les rues de saint Avoye, § Bardubec inclusivement, depuis le coin de la rue des Vieilles Audriettes, jusqu'à la rue de la Verrerie; S au Midy, par les rues de la Verrerie S de la Croix Blanche inclusivement, depuis le coin de la rue Bardubec, jusqu'à la vieille rue du Temple." Déclaration du roi, December 12, 1702, in Delamare, Traité de la Police, I, 110-112. 75 The Convent of Sainte-Avoye was closed during the French Revolution, and the last buildings disappeared in 1838. See: Lebeuf and Boumon, Histoire de la Ville, I, 171-172, VI, 139-140.

The Palais Soubise and the Hotel de Roh, presently house the Archives Nationales of France. See: J.-P. Babelon, Histoire et description des bâtiments des Archives Nationales (Paris, 1958). 53

Beauvilliers; the Hotel de Caumartin; and, the Hôtel de Mesmes (formerly

the Hôtel de Montmorency).

Quartier Saint-Paul (or. La Mortellerie)

The Quartier Saint-Paul (or, Quartier de la Mortellerie) extended eastward from the Quartier de la Grève to the ramparts of the 77 Ville. Its northern border was formed by the Rue Saint-Antoine, its southern border was formed by the Seine. The quarter took its name from the Church of Saint-Paul which administered one of the 78 largest parishes in Paris. Just to the north of the church, on the

Rue de Saint-Paul, was the prison known as Saint-Eloi. Closer to the river was the Convent of the Daughters of the Ave Maria which occupied almost an entire block between the Rues des Barrières and the Rue de

Jouy. The religious rule of the Cordelières who lived there was "la plus austere de toutes les Communautéz de Paris," according to 79 Saugrain. Farther to the east, along the Rue de Petit-Musc, stood the Convent of the Celestins, notably enriched by royal tombs and

77 "Le Quartier de saint Paul ou de la Mortellerie sera borné a l ’Orient par les remparts inclusivement, depuis la riviere jusqu’à la Porte saint Antoine; au Septentrion, par la rue saint Antoine exclusivement; à l'Occident par la rue Geoffroy Lasnier inclusive­ ment; § au Midy, par les Quays inclusivement, depuis le coin de la rue Geoffroy Lasnier, jusqu'à 1 'extrémité du Mail." Declaration du roi, December 12, 1702, in Delamare, Traité de la Police, I, 110-112. 78 The Church of Saint-Paul, not to be confused with the present-day Church of Saint-Paul-Saint-Louis in the same vicinity, no longer exists. See: Lebeuf and Boumon, Histoire de la Ville, I, 320-329, VI, 331-335. 79 Saugrain, Curiositez de Paris, I, 195. 54

80 valuable art works.

Much of the eastern part of the quarter, from the Celestins to the site of the old ramparts, was occupied by the Grand and Petit

Arsenals and their gardens. Under Louis XIV, the arsenals served several purposes: as an arms magazine; as the residence and jurisdic­ tional seat of the grand maître de l'artillerie de France (the Duc de

Maine at the end of the reign); as a foundry for the forging of bronze statues which embellished royal residences and gardens; and, as the location of special chambres de justice such as were held for the trial of Fouquet and for the affaires des poisons. Located between the Grand

Arsenal and the edge of the river was a popular promenade known as the

Mail. Along the tree-lined Mail, one could play the "jeu du Mail" by 81 knocking a ball through a series of iron wickets with a wooden mallet.

Situated at the end of the Mail, on the river, was the brigade des bateaux du Mail which guarded against smugglers attempting to enter the city along the river. The Quartier Saint-Paul also boasted several important hotels including the Hotel d'Aumont, the Hôtel de Sens, and the Hôtel de Lesdiguières.

Quartier Saint-Antoine

The Quartier and Faubourg Saint-Antoine were located to the

described in ibid.. I, 197-203. 81 ^ See the chapter on "Le Mail" in Marcel Poète, La promenade a Paris au XVTI® siècle (Paris, 1913), pp. 136-142. 55

82 north and east of the Quartier Saint-Paul. Both took their names from the Abbey of Saint-Antoine-des-Champs, the long-existent abbey for women located beyond the limits of the Ville.

By the division of quarters of 1701-1702, the Quartier Saint-

Antoine and its faubourg technically formed one large quarter. However, the location of the faubourg beyond the old ramparts and the special privileges enjoyed by the abbey combined to give the Faubourg Saint-

Antoine a character of its own. As a whole, the Quartier Saint-Antoine stretched eastward from the Vieille Rue du Temple to the site of the old ramparts. There it increased greatly in size as the limits of the

Faubourg Saint-Antoine branched northward to Pincourt and southward to the Seine. The Rue de Saint-Antoine and the Rue du Faubourg Saint-

Antoine, which formed the main artery between the quarter proper and the faubourg, was the main route into Paris from the east.

The Quartier Saint-Antoine, with its elegant hotels and its

Place Royale, was at the heart of the old aristocratic section of Paris that was particularly fashionable until about the mid-seventeenth cen­ tury (though, to be sure, it was frequently a case of brilliance in the midst of squalor). There were more than two dozen notable hotels in the

82 V. "Le Quartier de saint Antoine sera borné a 1 'Orient par les extremitez des Fauxbourgs inclusivement; au Septentrion, par l'ex­ trémité des mêmes Fauxbourgs, S par les rues du Menil-montant. Neuve saint Gilles, du Parc Royal, § de la Perle exclusivement; à l'Occident, par la Vieille rue du Temple inclusivement, depuis les coins des rues des Quatre Fils, 5 de la Perle, jusqu'à la rue de saint Antoine; § au Midy, par la rue de saint Antoine inclusivement, depuis le coin de la Vieille rue du Temple, jusqu'à l'extrémité du Fauxbourg." Déclaration du roi, December 12, 1702, in Delamare, Traité de la Police, I, 110-112. 56 area of the quarter within the Ville. Among them were: the Hôtel d'Argenson, the residence of the second lieutenant general de police under Louis XIV; the Hôtel Pelletier des Forts (formerly the Hôtel d ’Effiat); the Hôtel d'O (converted into a refuge for the poor known as the Hôpital de Sainte-Anastase); the Hôtel Rouille de Coudray; the

Hôtel d'Angoulême (also known as the Hôtel Lamoignon, it currently houses the Bibliothèque Historique de la Ville de Paris); the Hôtel de Beauvais; the Hôtel Carnavalet (which currently houses the Musée

Carnavalet); the Hotel de la Force (or, Saint-Paul); the Hôtel de

Vitry; the Hôtel de Sully; the Hôtel de Mayenne; the Hôtel de Lorraine

(or Desmaretz); and the Hôtel de Tresmes. But it was the Place Royale

(the present-day Place des Vosges) which assured the quarter of its 83 aristocratic reputation. Planned and built between 1604 and 1612 under the impetus of Henry IV, the Place Royale consisted of a large, square, open space surrounded by symmetrically constructed pavillions, or residences, which presented an almost uniform façade on all four sides facing upon the interior of the square. An arcade which extended around the entire length of the interior ground-level of the Place

Royale offered a sheltered walkway for strollers. In 1639, an equestrian statue of Louis XIII mounted on a large marble base was erected in the center of the square. Later, a high iron fence was also added. Behind the facade of the Place Royale were several large

83 On the development of the Place Royale, see: Lavedan, Histoire de l'urbanisme. III, 281-284; Poète, La promenade, pp. 32- 69; and, Lucien Lambeau, La Place Royale (Paris, 1906). 57 hotels, including the Hotel de Richelieu, the Hôtel de Dangeau, and the Hôtel de Rohan. The development of the Place Royale (as well as the almost simultaneous development of the Place Dauphine on the lie du Palais) marked one of the important contributions of the monarchy to the evolution of French urban architecture inasmuch as it served as a prototype--and, indeed lent its name— to subsequent architectural ensembles generally referred to as places royales.

The Quartier Saint-Antoine naturally had a number of important religious establishments, among which were the Grands Jésuites which consisted of the Church of Saint-Louis and the main Jesuit house in

Paris.

Next to the Porte Saint-Antoine and the old ramparts stood the formidable chateau-fortress known as the Bastille. Originally built in the fourteenth century to protect the city on the east, the

Bastille in the late-seventeenth and early-eighteenth centuries served 84 mainly as a state prison and arms magazine.

Beyond the Bastille and the Porte Saint-Antoine was the Fau­ bourg Saint-Antoine, one of the fastest growing areas of Paris. The faubourg was populated largely by artisans and laborers who were attracted to it because it was outside the jurisdiction of the corporations (guilds) of Paris as a result of the special privileges

84 The Bastille, particularly its interior, was not a subject of detailed description in contemporary guidebooks. For a descrip­ tion and history of this famous prison, see: Fernand Bournon, La Bastille: Histoire et description des bâtiments, administration, regime de la prison, evenements historique. Histoire Generale de Paris (Paris, 1893). 58

85 of the Abbey of Saint-Antoine-des-Champs.

Besides the Abbey of Saint-Antoine, there were nearly adozen

other religious establishments and a similar number of hôtels in the

faubourg. Most notable among these was the Hôtel des Mousquetaires

which was built in 1701 at the city's expense as a residence for the

Mousquetaires Noirs (the Black Musketeers, or Second Company of Muske­

teers) . The faubourg was also the site of the Royal Manufacture des

Glaces, the large mirror-polishing and finishing establishment which

often employed as many as four hundred men.^^

At the end of the Rue du Faubourg Saint-Antoine (in the 87 present-day Place de la Nation) stood the uncompleted Trône, the

grandiose triumphal arch constructed on the spot where Louis XIV and his bride Marie-Therese had stopped in 1660 to receive the official welcome of the citizens of Paris as part of their triumphal entrance

into the capital.

Quartier du Temple (or. Marais)

The Quartier du Temple was located .to the north of the

O r La Caille, Description de la Ville, fol. 27r; Felibien and Lobineau, Histoire de la Ville, II, 1466, V, 147-148; Lebeuf and Boumon, Histoire de la Ville, VI, 363-366. The site of the Abbey, which was closed during the French Revolution, is currently the location of the Hôpital Saint-Antoine.

^^Saugrain, Curiositez de Paris, I, 185; Lister, Journey to Paris, pp. 142-143; Franklin, Dictionnaire historique, pp. 364-365. 87 See: Lister, Journey to Paris, pp. 55-56; Brice, Description nouvelle, I, 348-350; Saugrain, Curiositez de Paris, I, 186-187; and also, Felibien and Lobineau, Histoire de la Ville, II, 1469- 1472, V, 171-176. 59

88 Quartiers Saint-Antoine and Sainte-Avoye. To the east it bordered a section of the old ramparts and the Rue de Ménîlmontant, the latter of which extended its limits out into the Faubourg du Temple and La

Courtille. To the west the quarter bordered the Quartier Saint-Martin.

The Quartier du Temple took its name from the large enclosure of buildings known as the Commanderie du Temple which originally was a preserve of the Knights Templar. After their suppression by Philip the Fair, the Temple came under the control of the Hospitaliers de

Saint-Jean-de-Jeruselem, otherwise known as the Knights of Malta. As of the eighteenth century the Temple was still a lieu privilégie

(privileged place) under the jurisdiction of the grand prieur de France

"Le Quartier du Temple ou du Marais sera borné à [1’Orient] par les remparts, § la rue du Menil-montant inclusivement; au Septentrion, par les extremitez des Fauxbourgs du Temple, § de la Courtille inclusivement; â l ’Occident, par la grande rue des mêmes Fauxbourgs, S de la rue du Temple inclusivement, jusqu’au coin de la rue des Vieilles Audrietes; ê au Midy, par les rues des Vieilles Audriettes, des Quatre Fils, de la Perle, du Parc Royal, § Neuve saint Gilles inclusivement." Déclaration du roi, December 12, 1702, in Delamare, Traité de la Police, I, 110-112. It should be pointed out here, in regard to the specialized use of the term "the Marais," that during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries "the Marais" referred to an area somewhat different from the area which the term presently designates. Even at the end of Louis XIV’s reign, the area popularly known as "the Marais" did not correspond completely to the boundaries of the Quartier du Temple ou de Marais as delineated in 1701-1702 (see, for instance. Delisle's map of Paris in 1716). On the varied usage of the term in an historical context, see: J[acques] W[ilhelm], "Marais," Dictionnaire de Paris, pp. 313-322. In the article (p. 313), Wilhelm notes: "Dans 1 ’usage courant 'le Marais’ désigné aujourd’hui [that is, c. 1964] toute la zone historique de la rive droit limitée à l ’est par les boulevards Beaumarchais et des Filles-du-Calvaire, â l'ouest par la rue du Temple, au sud par la rue Saint-Antoine ou même, selon certain historiens, par la Seine." 60 who had the right to administer justice in the area. Consequently, several thousand persons, mostly artisans, lived within the enclosure which consisted of about 100 houses, a church, a towering donjon, the 89 Hotel du Grand Prieur, and gardens. In addition to the Temple, the quarter also had several other religious establishments and notable hotels including the Hotel de Boucherat with its much-admired gardens, and the Hotel de Voysin (the Paris residence of Daniel Voysin, Chan­ cellor of France under Louis XIV and the Due d'Orleans).

Quartier Saint-Martin

Situated to the west of the Quartiers du Temple and Sainte- 90 Avoye was the Quartier Saint-Martin. This quarter extended northward from the Quartier* de la Grève out beyond the ramparts and the Porte

Saint-Martin into the Faubourgs Saint-Martin and Saint-Laurent. On the west, it bordered the Quartiers Saint-Jacques de la Boucherie and

Saint-Denis. The Rue Saint-Martin, which formed the quarter's western border, was the longest street in Paris and part of the main north- south artery into the city.

89 Saugrain, Curiositez de Paris, I, 144-147; La Caille, Description de la Ville, fols. 24v, 40r; Boislisle, Mémoire, pp. 106- 112, passim; Lebeuf and Bournon, Histoire de la Ville, VI, 160-161.

^^"Le Quartier de saint Martin sera borné â l'Orient par les rues Bar-du-bec, de sainte Avoye, S du Temple exclusivement; au Septentrion, par les extremitez des Fauxbourgs inclusivement; à l'Occident, par la rue de saint Martin, § par la grande rue du Faubourg inclusivement; S au Midy, par la rue de la Verrerie inclusivement, depuis le coin de la rue saint Martin, jusqu'au coin de la rue Bardubec." Déclaration du roi, December 12, 1702, in Delamare, Traité de la Police, I, 110-112. 61

The quarter took its name from the Priory of Saint-Martin-des-

Champs, a wealthy prieure commendataire subordinate to the Abbey of

Cluny. Like the Temple, the priory was a privileged enclosure where

non-guild artisans found a haven. Moreover, as a bailliage, it too 91 had special judicial rights.

Directly south of the priory, on the Rue des Fontaines, was

the Convent of the Madeleine (more commonly known as the Madelonnettes) where women who lived disorderly lives were frequently sent to do penance and to be corrected. In the southern part of the quarter, near

the heart of the commercial district of the Ville, was the Parish

Church of Saint-Merry (or. Saint Mederic). A building behind the

church housed the tribunal of the Juges-Consuls which had jurisdic­

tional control over commercial matters involving the merchants of 92 Paris. At the northern extremity of the quarter, in the Faubourg

Saint-Laurent, was the Hôpital Saint-Louis, constructed under Henri IV

to accommodate victims of the plague, but ordinarily used as a conva­

lescent center for patients of the Hôtel-Dieu.

Quartier Saint-Denis

To the west of the Quartier Saint-Martin was another of the 93 large perimeter quarters, the Quartier Saint-Denis. It extended

91 Saugrain, Curiositez de Paris, I, 132-133; La Caille, Description de la Ville, fol. 19v; Boislisle, Mémoire, p. 28. 92 Boislisle, Mémoire, pp. 203-204; Franklin, Dictionnaire historique, pp. 411-412. 93 ^ ^ "Le Quartier de saint Denis sera borné à l'Orient par la rue 62 northward from the Quartiers des Halles and Saint-Jacques de la

Boucherie beyond the tree-lined rampart into the Faubourgs Saint-Denis,

Saint-Lazare, and Saint-Laurent. On the east, it bordered the Quartiers

Saint-Eustache and Montmartre.

The quartier was almost divided in half by the Rue Saint-Denis which comprised part of the route leading northward from Paris to the famous Abbey of Saint-Denis. Besides providing the quarter with its name, the Rue Saint-Denis was also one of the largest and longest streets in Paris (somewhat like the nearby Rue Saint-Martin). Along much of its length the street was lined with well-built houses occupied 94 by some of the richest négociants (wholesale merchants) in Paris.

Beyond the ramparts, along the Rue du Faubourg Saint-Denis, was the House of Saint-Lazare, a former leper hospital which became the main house of Vincent de Paul's Congregation of the Mission. It also served as a place of detention for those who were in need of moral 95 correction. Across the street from Saint-Lazare was the mother-house of the Sisters of Charity. This religious order, which Vincent de Paul also helped to establish, supplied the parishes and hospitals of Paris

de saint Martin, S par celle du Fauxbourg exclusivement; au Septentrion par le Fauxbourg de saint Denis S de saint Lazare inclusivement; à l'Occident, par les rues de sainte Anne, des Poissonniers, G Montorgueil inclusivement, jusqu'au coin de la rue Mauconseil; G au Midy, par les rues aux Ours G Mauconseil inclusivement." Déclaration du roi, December 12, 1702, in Delaware, Traité de la Police, I, 110-112. 94 Described by Saugrain, Curiositez de Paris, I, 122. qc Lebeuf and Bournon, Histoire de la Ville, I, 298-302, VI, 315-320. 63 with persons willing to care for the pauvres malades (sick poor) and

orphans, as well as to educate poor youngsters in the petites écoles de charité (charity schools).Also across the street from Saint-

Lazare was the Foire de Saint-Laurent, a large enclosure of booths which belonged to the Lazarist fathers. Each year, a great fair with numerous merchant displays, cafes, marionettes, and other attractions, was held there. During the last years of Louis XIV's reign, the fair was held annually from July 14 until the end of September. The

lieutenant general de police, accompanied by a procureur du roi, an avocat du roi, and some commissaires and other officers of the

Chatelet, presided at the opening of the annual event, after which he 97 held an audience de police in the House of Saint-Lazare.

Quartier Montmartre

The Quartier Montmartre, which took its name from the high hill near which Saint-Denis and his companions were martyred, was

located to the west of the Quartier Saint-Denis and to the north of 98 the Quartiers Saint-Eustache and Palais-Royal. It extended out from

96 La Caille, Description de la Ville, gives the location of the establishments of the Sisters of Charity in each quarter. See also: Chapter 1 of Marcel Fosseyeux, "Les écoles de charité à Paris sous l'ancien régime et dans la première partie du XIX siècle," Mémoires de la Société de l'Histoire de Paris et de l'Ile-de-France, XXXIX (1912), Chapter 1, 249-299. 97 La Caille, Description de la Ville, fols. 17v, 41r. 98 ^ K "Le Quartier de Montmartre sera borné à l'Orient par les rues de la Poissonnerie é de sainte Anne exclusivement, jusqu'à 1 'extrémité des Fauxbourgs; au Septentrion, par les extrémitez des Fauxbourgs inclusivement; à l'Occident, par les marais des Percherons inclusivement; 64 the Ville beyond the site of the rampart built under Louis XIII into the areas known as the Faubourg Montmartre, the Percherons, and Nouvelle

France.

Montmartre itself was known for its windmills, its plaster quarries, and, because of its height, its exceptional view of the 99 entire city. Situated on the hill were the Abbey of Montmartre (a

Benedictine convent for women) and the Church of Saint-Pierre.

The most developed area of the quarter, however, was located within the ramparts of the Ville; and, much of the development had taken place during the seventeenth century as the quarter became a fashionable residential area for financiers. Saugrain wrote of it at the end of Louis XIV's reign: "Ce quartier est présentement un des plus embellis de Paris, par le choix qu'en fait les Financiers qui n'epargnent rien pour orner les maisons qu'ils y font bâtir.

Several prominent ministerial families had also maintained residences in the quarter at one time or another during Louis XIV's reign as the name of some of the hotels indicated— as in the case of the Palais

Marazin, Hôtel Colbert, Hôtel Louvois, Hôtel de Torcy, Hôtel de

é au Midy, par la rue Neuve des Petits-Champs, Place des Victoires, é les rues des Fessez Montmartre, S Neuve saint Eustache inclusive­ ment." Déclaration du roi, December 12, 1702, in Delamare, Traité de la Police, I, 110-112. 99 Lister visited the quarries in 1698, and described them in Journey to Paris, pp. 146-147.

^*^*^Saugrain, Curiositez de Paris, I, 98-99; Lebeuf and Bournon, Histoire de la Ville, I, ‘440-455, VI, 522-550; Poète, La promenade, pp. 195-196.

^^^Saugrain, Curiositez de Paris, I, 87. 65

Chamillart, Hôtel Desmaretz, and Hôtel Pontchartrain (formerly the

Hôtel Lionne). The Hôtel de Tresmes, residence of the Due de Tresmes, gouverneur of Paris, was also in the quarter.

However, the architectural jewel of the quarter was the Place des Victoires, one of the two places royales constructed in Paris during Louis XIV’s reign. In the middle of the Place des Victoires stood a large bronze statue of Louis being crowned by Victory; and on the pedestal of the work, done by Desjardins, were bas-reliefs which represented Louis’s successes. On the perimeter of the place, near four of its entrances, were four groups of triangularly-arranged columns atop which were large lanterns designed to illuminate the place at night. The place was designed by Jules Hardouin-Mansart in

1684-1685 as a classical showplace for the already completed statue of the King. Circular in form, the place had two groups of uniformly constructed houses along its circumference. The Due de la Feuillade, who had conceived the idea of the statue and the place, was ruined trying to finance the project; and the municipality of Paris had to 102 expend more than 400,000 livres to continue it.

Elsewhere in the quarter, there were a number of important religious establishments, including: the House of the Petits Pères; the Convent of the Capucines; the Convent of the Filles de Saint

102 Saugrain, Curiositez de Paris, I, 87-91; Felibien and Lobineau, Histoire de la Ville, II, 1515, IV, 274-284; Arthur de Boislisle, "Notices historiques sur la Place des Victoires et sur la Place de Vendôme," Mémoires de la Société de l ’Histoire de Paris et de l’Ile-de-France, XV (1888), 1-93, passim; and, Lavedan, Histoire de 1 ’urbanisme, III, 284-289. 66

Thomas d'Aquin; the Convent of Nouvelles Catholiques (where converts were given religious instruction); and, the Church and Cemetery of 103 Saint-Joseph (where Molière is thought to have been buried).

On the western outskirts of the quarter, in the area known as the Percherons, numerous popular cabarets served up large quantities of wine to imbibers who no doubt were in great part inspired by the low prices which resulted from the area's exemption from entrance duties.104

Quartier du Palais-Royal

The Quartier du Palais-Royal, another of the areas greatly affected by the seventeenth-century growth of Paris, was located south of the Quartier Montmartre, west of the Quartiers du Louvre and Saint-

Eustache, and north of the Seine. It extended westward to the end of the Faubourgs du Roulle and Saint-Honoré.

The quarter took its name from the former Palais-Cardinal, a residence built by Cardinal Richelieu during the 1630's and willed by the Cardinal-minister to Louis XIII. Upon Louis's death in 1643,

103 See: Lebeuf and Bournon, Histoire de la Ville, I, 68, VI, 36-37.

^^^Saugrain, Curiositez de Paris, I, 97.

^^^"Le Quartier du Palais Royal sera borné a l'Orient par les rues Promenteau § des Bons-Enfans exclusivement; au Septentrion par la rue Neuve des Petits-Champs exclusivement; à l'Occident, par les extrémitez des Fauxbourgs de saint Honoré § du Roulle inclusivement; 8 au Midy, par les quays inclusivement depuis le premier Guichet du côté du quay de l'Ecole," Declaration du roi, December 12, 1702, in Delamare, Traité de la Police, I, 110-112. 67 it was chosen by Anne d'Autriche, the Queen Mother, as a residence for her five-year-old son, Louis XIV, and was renamed Palais Royal. Fifty years later, Louis XIV gave the Palais^Royal as an appanage to his brother Philippe, Due d'Orleans, who in turn left it to his son

Philippe II, Due d'Orleans. When the Due d'Orleans became Regent of

France following Louis XIV's death, he continued to use the Palais-

Royal as his residence.

Behind the palace itself, which faced on the Rue Saint-

Honore, there was a large rectangular garden which was open to the public; and, the public apparently enjoyed it, for as Dr. Lister remarked, "it was ever full of good Company."^^^

Located southwest of the Palais-Royal was another famous palace, the Palais des Tuileries, which extended from the Grand Ecurie

(stables) near the Rue Saint-Honoré to a quai along the Seine near 108 the Pont Royal. Construction of this palace, built on the site of a former tile works, had begun under Catherine de Medici and continued intermittently under Henry IV and Louis XIV, the latter of whom re­ sided in it during construction work at the Louvre. (Afterwards, of course, both palaces were abandoned for Versailles.) The interior of the Tuileries was decorated with fine furniture and art work, and

Saugrain, Curiositez de Paris, I, 77-78. See also: Jacques Hillairet, Le Palais des Tuileries, le palais royal et imperial et son jardin (Paris, 1965).

^^^Lister, Journey to Paris, pp. 189-190. 108 Saugrain, Curiositez de Paris, pp. 63-65; also, Hillairet, Palais des Tuileries. 68 contained a theater, known as the Salles des Machines, which was fre­ quently used for the production of ballets and comedies during the early part of Louis's reign.

The Tuileries was connected to the Louvre by a long gallery, known as the Galerie du Louvre, which extended along the Seine and consisted of a series of apartments occupied by distinguished artisans, the Imprimerie Royale, the Balancier du Roi (where commemorative medals were struck), and the Petite Ecurie. Located between the Louvre and the Tuileries was the Place du Carrousel, named after the elaborate carrousel (grand ceremonial trooping) held there in 1662 on the occasion 109 of the birth of the Grand Dauphin. Also located nearby was the

Jardin des Tuileries, a popular garden-promenade, laid out by Le Nôtre

in the 1670's, and frequented by "personnes de la premiere qualité,

S de la Bourgeoisie.From the garden, promenaders had direct access to the Cours-la-Reine and the Champs-Elysées, two very popular

cours (public drives) in the faubourgs, and from there, further easy

access to either the Bois de Boulogne or the route to Versailles

The Quartier du Palais-Royal was also the site of Place Louis-

^^^Pelibien and Lobineau, Histoire de la Ville, II, 1478-1480.

^^^Saugrain, Curiositez de Paris, I, 67. See also: Lister, Journey to Paris, pp. 186-187; and, Albert Babeau, "Le Jardin de Tuileries au XVII® et XVIII® siècle," Mémoires de la Société de l'Histoire de Paris et de l'Ile-de-France, XXVIII (1901), 86ff.

^^^See: Poète, La promenade, pp. 109-135. 69 le-Grand (also known as Place Vendôme and Place des Conquêtes), the second important place royale constructed in Paris during Louis's reign.

Construction of the place had begun in the mid-1680's under the impetus of Louvois, ministre d'Etat and surintendant des bâtiments, and

Hardouin-Mansart, premier architect du Roi. However, heavy costs, in­ volvement in war, and the death of Louvois halted further development of the place until the late 1690's. At that time, an equestrian statue of Louis XIV by Girardon was set in place, and the responsibility for future development of the place was turned over to the municipality of Paris— whereupon Mansart redesigned the place into its familiar octagonal form. Subsequent development of the place and surrounding lots was supported by financiers for whom Place Louis-le-Grand became the most desirable residential area in Paris. As Saugrain noted, with uncommon bluntness, shortly after Louis's reign: "la plus grande partie des Maisons sont occupées par des Financiers, qui ont fait des 112 fortunes étonnantes dans les dernières guerres."

Quartier du Palais-Royal also contained a number of important religious establishments, including: the Parish Church of Saint-Roch; the monasteries of the Capucins, the Feuillants, and the Jacobins; and, the convents and communities of the Filles de l'Assomption, the

Filles de la Conception, the Filles de Sainte-Anne, and the Filles de la Charité.

^^^Saugrain, Curiositez de Paris, I, 81-82; Felibien and Lobineau, Histoire de la Ville, II, 1522, IV, 356, 360-368; Boislisle, "Notices historiques," pp. 94-209; Lavedan, Histoire dé l'urbanisme, III, 295- 299. 70

The Hôpital des Quinze-Vingts, a haven for the blind, was located in the Rue Saint-Honoré. And next to the Palais-Royal was the popular Académie Royale de Musique et de Danse, better known as the Opéra.

Beyond the ramparts were the Faubourgs Saint-Honoré, du Roulle, 113 and de la Conference [also known as Chaillot). Located in these areas were the Cours-la-Reine and Champs Elysées, several large reli­ gious establishments, the popular cabarets of the Roulle (the continua­ tion of the Rue Saint-Honoré), the Manufacture de Tapis (better known as the Savonnerie), the Manufacture de Verrerie, the Manufacture de

Tabac, and the Orangerie et Pépinière Royale (where trees and flowers for royal residences were cultivated).

The Left Bank

Extending southward from the left bank of the Seine, directly opposite the lie du Palais and the lie de Notre-Dame, was the part of

Paris traditionally referred to from the Middle Ages as the Université.

Properly speaking, the Université was the name given to the area that was located within the wall erected by Philippe-Auguste at the beginning

113 According to the division of quarters of 1701-1702, Chaillot was not a part of the Quartier du Palais Royal. However, in 1707, it officially became a faubourg of Paris under the name of Faubourg de la Conference. See: Felibien and Lobineau, Histoire de la Ville, II, 1526-1527, IV, 428-429.

^^^La Caille, Description de la Ville, fol. llr; Lister, Journey to Paris, pp. 219-221, describes the Orangerie and Pépinière; and, Lebeuf and Boumon, Histoire de la Ville, I, 407-419, 437-440, VI, 467-482, 515-520, passim. 71 of the thirteenth century. The name derived from the fact that the

University of Paris had spread out within the confines of the wall and acquired many privileges in the area. The University had been a prestigious center of learning during the late Middle Ages; but during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, it was a large corporation suffering through a period of decline brought on by a disproportionate concern for tradition and privileges. .Nevertheless, at the beginning of the eighteenth century, the University with its four facultés, four nations, and more than forty colleges, was still a powerful corporate institution.As Saugrain duly noted, the Université was still "la seule partie de Paris où l'on enseigne publiquement les Sciences 5 les belles Lettres, où l'on donne les desgrez de Maîtres es Arts, de lift Bachelier § de Docteur en Théologie, en Droit S en Medicine."

During the seventeenth century, with the growth of faubourgs to the south and southwest, the inhabited areas of the Left Bank ex­ panded beyond the limits of the Université; and the destruction of the old city gates during Louis XIV's reign simply confirmed the irrepres­ sible growth of the city beyond its medieval limits. For the most

On the University of Paris, see: Charles Samaran, "Vocation Universitaire de Paris," Paris, fonctions, pp. 81-114; Charles Jourdain, Histoire de l'Université de Paris au XVII^ et XVIII^ siècle (Paris, 1862-1866); and, Mousnier, Paris au XVII® siècle, pp. 287-348. On the topography of the part of Paris known as the Université, see: Adolphe Berty and L.-M. Tisserand, Topographie historique du Vieux Paris, Vol. V: Région Occidentale de l'Uni­ versité (Paris, 1887), and Vol. VI: Région Centrale de 1 'Université Histoire Générale de Paris (Paris, 1897).

^^^Saugrain, Curiositez de Paris, I, 212. 72 part, the growth of the Left Bank took place without the same royal impetus or presence that the Right Rank had enjoyed. However, there were certain points of reference, constructed with royal support, on the periphery of Left Bank growth which indicated the extent to which the city was expanding beyond the limits of the medieval Université.

Among these were the Invalides, the Observatoire Royal, the Gobelins, the Jardin du Roi, and the Hôpital-Général de la Salpêtrière.

With the new division of quarters of 1701-1702, the Left Bank was made up of five quarters. Of the five, only Saint-André, the smallest, had its boundaries clearly defined on all sides. The other four (Place Maubert, Saint-Benoît, Luxembourg, and Saint-Germain-des-

Prés) had most of their boundaries clearly defined; but their outer limits were said to extend to the "extrémitez" of the faubourgs. All of the quarters, except Luxembourg, bordered on the Seine.

Quartier de la Place Maubert

The Quartier de la Place Maubert, which took its name from the site of a major marketplace near the Seine, was the farthest east of all the Left Bank quarters. (In terms of Paris as a whole, it was 117 southeast.) In the north, its two quais. La Toumelle and Saint-

117 ^ ^ "Le Quartier de la Place Maubert sera borné à l ’Orient par les extrémitez des Fauxbourgs inclusivement; au Septentrion, par les Quays de la Tournelle, S de saint Bernard inclusivement; à l ’Occident, par la rue du Pavé de la Place Maubert, le Marché de la Place Maubert, la Montagne de sainte Geneviève, § par les rues Bordet, Mouffetard, é de Lourcine inclusivement; S au Midy, par 1'extrémité du Fauxbourg saint Marcel inclusivement." Déclaration du roi, December 12, 1702, in Delamare, Traité de la Police, I, 110- 112. 73

Bernard, extended along the Seine and served as a docking area for supplies of wine and timber destined for the nearby Halle au Vin and 118 chantiers (timber-yards). In the west, the quarter bordered along the length of the Quartier Saint-Benoît. From the Rue du Pave and the

Place Maubert, near the Seine, the quarter extended southeastward out of the Université into the Faubourgs Saint-Victor and Saint-Marcel.

Among the notable institutions and structures located within the Université section of the quarter were: nine collèges, of which the most important were the Collège de Navarre, the Collège de la

March, the College du Cardinal Le Moine, and the Collège des Bernardins; the Parish Church of Saint-Nicolas-du-Chardonnet; the Community House of the Filles de Sainte-Geneviève (also known as the Miramiones after

Madame de Miramion), the Hotel de Nesmond; the Porte Saint-Bemard, embellished with an arc de triomphe (the only one on the Left Bank) designed by Blondel;^^^ and, the Chateau de la Tournelle where prisoners destined for the galleys were kept before their departure.

Beyond the Université section of the quarter was the Faubourg

Saint-Victor. The faubourg took its name from the Augustinian Abbey of Saint-Victor which was noted, among other things, for a large library 120 which was open to the public. Slightly south of the abbey on the

Rue du Faubourg Saint-Victor, was the Hôpital de la Pitié which served

11 O La Caille, Description de la Ville, fols. 29r-30r. 119 Described in Saugrain, Curiositez de Paris, I, 224-225. 120 Ibid., p. 232; Lister, Journey to Paris, p. 131; see also: Lebeuf and Boumon, Histoire de la Ville, VI, 380-388. 74 as a "refuge" for young girls, and as a meeting place for the admini­ strators of the Hôpital-Général of which it was a member institu-

121 ^ tion. Just beyond the Pitié, on the opposite side of the road, was the Jardin Royal des Plantes, a botannical garden which specialized in medicinal plants and was controlled by the premier medicin du Roi.

The activities of the Jardin Royal included lessons and demonstrations in botany, pharmacy, and anatomy. In the case of the pharmacy demon­ strations, the resulting concoctions were given to the poor (one wonders with what effect). The Jardin Royal was also the location of the Cabinet de Tournefort which contained a large collection of plant, 122 animal, and mineral specimens. Beyond the Jardin was the small

Bievre (or Gobelins) River which emptied into the Seine; and, across the river was the Cemetery of the Hotel-Dieu, the final resting place for the fatalities of its namesake hospital on the lie du Palais.

Close by was the Marche aux Chevaux, a large marketplace for horses, asses, and hogs. Finally, set off by itself, was the huge complex known as the Salpêtrière, the largest institution of the Hôpital-

General (being the largest, it was frequently referred to simply as the HÔpital-Genéral). Constructed on the site of an earlier salt- peter-works, the Salpêtrière was a house of detention and work-house 123 for several thousand mendicants, debauchers, and prostitutes.

121 La Caille, Description de la Ville, fol. 41v; Boislisle, Mémoire, p. 41; Felibien and Lobineau, Histoire de la Ville, II, 1490-1492, V, 201. 122 Lister, Journey to Paris, pp. 62-65, 188-189; Saugrain, Curiositez de Paris, pp. 228-229. 123 La Caille, Description de la Ville, fol. 41v; Saugrain, 75

The Faubourg Saint-Marcel, the third section of the quarter, was located southwest of the Faubourg Saint-Victor. A small area of the faubourg extended over into the Quartier Saint-Benoît. The fau­ bourg, like most other areas of the city, had several churches, chapels, and religious communities; and in fact, it took its name from the 124 Church of Saint-Marcel, one of the oldest churches in Paris. It was also the site of a number of hôpitaux, including: the Miséricorde, or Cent-Filles, an orphanage for 100 native Parisian girls between the ages of six and twenty; Sainte-Basilisse et Saint-Julien (also known as the Miséricorde), a hospice for poor and sick women and young girls; Sainte-Pelagie, or the Refuge, an institution of the

Hôpital-Général used for the detention of women accused of scandalous lives (it was separated into two sections: one for those who re­ treated there voluntarily, and one for those who were ordered to go there by the King or his magistrates); Sainte-Valere, or the Maladrerie, an annex of the Hotel-Dieu; and. Sainte-Marthe, or Scipion, which served as the bakery and butchery for the institutions of the Hôpital- ^ ^ 125 Général. Finally, the southern extremity of the faubourg was the

location of the Manufacture Royale des Meubles et de Tapisseries de la

Curiositez de Paris, I, 225-227; Boislisle, Mémoire, p. 41; Félibien and Lobineau, Histoire de la Ville, II, 1459-1461. The Château de Bicêtre, another major institution of the Hôpital-Général, was lo­ cated further to the southwest near Villejuif.

^^^Lebeuf and Boumon, Histoire de la Ville, I, 121-122; VI, 85. 12'; La Caille, Description de la Ville, fols. 30r, 40v; Lebeuf and Bournon, Histoire de la Ville, VI, 89. 76

Courounne, more commonly known as the Gobelins. This establishment, named after its Flemish founder, was the center of a large community of artists and artisans who provided tapestries (noted for their quality and scarlet colors), paintings, sculptures, and other elaborate 126 furnishings for royal residences.

Quartier Saint-Benoît

Sandwiched between the Quartier de la Place Maubert on the east, and the Quartiers Saint-Andre and Luxembourg on the west, was the Quartier Saint-Benoît, named after the Parish Church of Saint- 127 Benoît on the Rue Saint-Jacques. In the north, the quarter was bordered by the Seine from the vicinity of the Place Maubert to the

Petit Chatelet. From the river, it extended southward through the center of the Université and out to the "extrémité" of the Faubourg

Saint-Jacques. The western border of the quarter, formed by the Rues du Petit Pont, de Saint-Jacques, and du Faubourg Saint-Jacques, was the main north-south artery on the Left Bank. It led to the Petit

Pont, the bridge which gave access to the center of the H e du Palais.

Saugrain, Curiositez de Paris, I, 252-253; Franklin, Dictionnaire historique, 683-684. 127 ^ ^ "Le Quartier de saint Benoist sera borné à l'Orient par la rue du Pavé de la Place Maubert, le Marché de la Place Maubert, la Montagne de sainte Genevieve, les rues Bordet, Mouffetard, 5 de Lourcine exclusivement; au Septentrion, par la riviere, y compris le petit Chatelet; à l'Occident, par les rues de Petit-Pont, S de saint Jacques inclusivement; au Midy, par l'extrémité du Fauxbourg de saint Jacques inclusivement, jusqu'à la rue de Lourcine." Déclaration du roi, December 12, 1702, in Delamare, Traité de la Police, 1, 110-112. 77

The Petit Chatelet, a former fortress turned into a prison annex of the Grand Chatelet, stood at the entrance to the Petit Pont.

The section of the Quartier Saint-Benoît within the Université was characterized by a large number of churches, religious communities, colleges, libraires (book-sellers), and imprimeurs (printers). Among these was the Abbey of Sainte-Geneviève, an important Augustinian monastery situated atop the Montagne Sainte-Geneviève. The Abbey's church contained the tomb of Clovis, the first Christian king of

France, and the revered châsse (reliquary) and tomb of Sainte-

Geneviève, the patron saint of Paris. The Abbey also contained a 128 valuable library. Located next to the Abbey was the large Parish

Church of Saint-Etienne-du-Mont, which was the burial place of Pascal and Racine (following his exhumation from Port-Royal-des-Champs in

1711). Saint-Jean-de-Latran, the smaller of two Parisian commanderies of the Knights of Malta, was also in the area on the Place de Cambrai.

Like the Temple, it was both a "privileged place" with its own bail- laige, and a haven for artisans who worked outside the jurisdiction 129 of the corporations (guilds). This section of the quarter was also the site of the Faculty of Medicine and the Faculty of Law, the former ^ 130 being located in the Ecoles de Medicine on the Rue des Boucheries,

128 Lister, Journey to Paris, pp. 123-128; Boislisle, Mémoire, p. 26; Lebeuf and Bournon, Histoire de la Ville, I, 228-242, VI, 184-191, passim.

1 70 La Caille, Description de la Ville, fol. 40r; Boislisle, Mémoire, p. 113. 130 Saugrain, Curiositez de Paris, I, 256-257; Mousnier, Paris au XVII® siècle, pp. 335-348; Samaran, "Vocation universitaire," pp. 90-92. 78

and the latter, for the most part in the Ecoles de Droit on the Rue 131 < Saint-Jean-de-Beauvois. There were twenty-one colleges in the

area, though not all of them were part of the University of Paris.

The most important of those that were (that is, those "avec exercise")

included: the College de Cambrai; the College du Plessis; the College

de Montaigu, or Capets; the College des Grassins; the College de

Lizieux; and, the College de Beauvais. The most important of those that were not, included: the College Royale (later known as the

College de France) on the Place de Cambrai ; and the College Louis-le-

Grand (also known as College des Jesuits and the College de Clermont) on the Rue Saint-Jacques.

Beyond the Université was the section of the quarter known as the Faubourg Saint-Jacques, among whose notable landmarks was the

Abbey of Val-de-Grace which had been transferred to Paris during the

1620's by Anne d'Autriche. After the birth of the future Louis XIV in 1638, during the twenty-third year of her marriage, Anne commissioned

the construction of a magnificent church at Val-de-Grace as thanks­ giving for the happy event. One of the chapels in the church became

the resting place for the hearts removed from the bodies of princes and princesses of the royal blood beginning with Anne d'Autriche

131 The Faculty of Law offered instruction in canon law, civil law (roman; after 1679), and French law (after 1680). Civil law was also taught at the College de Cambrai. See: La Caille, Description de la Ville, fol. 41r; Saugrain, Curiositez de Paris, I, 264-265; and, Mousnier, Paris au XVII^ siècle, pp. 326-334. 79

132 herself. A short distance south of Val-de-Grace, on the opposite side of the Rue du Faubourg Saint-Jacques, was the Cistercian Abbey 133 of Port-Royal, a dependency of the more famous Port-Royal-des-Champs.

The Observatoire Royal, built by Perrault under Colbert's direction, was located at the southern extremity of the faubourg just beyond the

Fausse Porte de Saint-Jacques.

Finally, the section of the quarter made up by a small area of the Faubourg Saint-Marcel was characterized by several streets that were "privileged places" for artisans. These included: the Cours

Saint-Benoît, the Rue de 1'Arbalestre, the Rue des Charbonniers, the

Rue des Lyonois, and the Rue des Bourguignons. The Rue de Loursine which formed the border, but technically was part of the neighboring 134 quarter, was also "privileged." The Jardin des Apothicaires was also located in this same area.

Quartier Saint-Andre

The Quartier Saint-Andre, named after the Parish Church of

Saint-Andre-des-Arcs (or Arts), was the smallest of the Left Bank 135 quarters, and was located entirely within the Université. On the

132 Saugrain, Curiositez de Paris, I, 282-292, contains a list of the hearts; Lebeuf and Boumon, Histoire de la Ville, VI, 121-123. 1 Lebeuf and Bournon, Histoire de la Ville, VI, 124-126; see also: Chapter V of this study.

^^^La Caille, Description de la Ville, fol. 31v; Fëïibien and Lobineau, Histoire de la Ville, V, 202; Franklin, Dictionnaire historique, pp. 601-602. ' 135 "Le Quartier de saint-André sera borné a l'Orient par les rues 80

north it bordered the Seine between the Petit Pont and the Pont Neuf.

On the east, it bordered the Quartier Saint-Benoît. On the west, it bordered the Quartier Saint-Gerraain-des-Pres. And on the south, it bordered the Quartier Luxembourg along the outer limits of the medieval city.

Like the Quartier Saint-Benoît, Saint-Andre had numerous reli­ gious establishments and colleges. These included, among the former, the Parish Church of Saint-Andre-des-Arcs itself; the Parish Church of

Saint-Severin, recipient of the patronage of Anne Marie d'Orléans

(the Grande Mademoiselle); and, the Parish Church of Saint-C6me. Each of these parishes had schools for the poor operated by the Sisters of

Charity. In addition to the parishes, there were several religious communities in the quarter including those of the Augustins, the

Cordeliers, the Prémontrés, and the Mathurins.

Of the more than a dozen colleges in the quarter, the most im­ portant was the Sorbonne. The name "Sorbonne” actually referred to several things. In addition to being a college for the specialized study of theology, the Sorbonne was also the seat of the Faculty of

Theology, the seat of the Maison et Société de Sorbonne (an association of Sorbonne graduates) and the seat of the very important Compagnie de

Sorbonne (the group of approximately 250 docteurs de Sorbonne in Paris). du Petit-Pont, 8 de saint Jacques exclusivement; au Septentrion, par la riviere depuis le petit Chatelet, jusqu'au coin de la rue Dauphine; à l'Occident par la rue Dauphine inclusivement; S au Midy, par les rues Neuves des Fossez de saint Germain des Prez, des Francs-Bourgeois, é des Fossez de saint Michel ou de saint Hiacynte exclusivement, jusqu'aux coins des rues de saint Jacques, § de saint Thomas." Déclaration du roi, December 12, 1702, in Delamare, Traité de la Police, I, 110-112. 81

This last group when combined with the Faculty of Theology was collec­ tively referred to as "Messieurs de la Sorbonne." It was they who sat in judgment of important religious issues in France.

During the seventeenth century, the Sorbonne had benefited greatly from the patronage of Cardinal Richelieu who oversaw the recon­ struction of its buildings; and, in fact, the cardinal himself was sub­ sequently buried in a magnificent marble tomb constructed by Girardon in the Church of the Sorbonne. The library of the Sorbonne also bene­ fited during the century with the addition of the collections of manu­ scripts and books of Richelieu and his secretary Charles LeMasle.

Elsewhere in the quarter, on the Rue des Cordeliers, stood the

House of Saint-Come, otherwise known as the Amphitheatre de Chirurgie

(or. Anatomique); where the maîtres-chirurgiens of Paris performed 137 surgical operations. The large Hotel de Cluny, a frequent residence of papal nuncios, was located on the Rue des Mathurins. The Hôtel d'Aguesseau, residence of the famous procureur general, was situated on the Rue Pavee (not to be confused with the Rue Pavée on the Right Bank).

Quartier Saint-Germain-des-Prés

The Quartier Saint-Germain-des-Prés, one of the largest quarters in Paris, extended westward from the Rue Dauphine and the

136 On the Sorbonne, see: Saugrain, Curiositez de Paris, II, 308-314; and, Mousnier, Paris au XVII^ siècle, pp. 313-325. 137 Lister, Journey to Paris, pp. 130-131; and, Saugrain, Curiositez de Paris, II, 304-305; René de Lespinasse, Les metiers et corporations de la Ville de Paris, 3 vols.. Histoire Générale de Paris (Paris, 1886-1897), III, 622-626. 82

138 Quartier Saint-Andre. It consisted of a very small section of the old Université and a very large section of the Faubourg Saint-Germain.

The long northern and northwestern border of the quarter was formed by the Seine. However, the lie des Cygnes (or, du Mast) located in the river, was considered a part of the quarter, as was the Pont-Royal which connected Saint-Germain-des-Prés to the Right Bank near the

Palais des Tuileries. In the south, Saint-Germain-des-Prés bordered the Quartier Luxembourg, and in fact lost part of the Faubourg Saint-

Germain to this latter quarter in the division of 1701-1702. In the west, the quarter extended to the end of the Faubourg Saint-Germain, or, in other words, into the sparsely populated Plaine de Grenelle.

By the end of Louis XIV's reign, Saint-Germain-des-Pres, because of its easy access to Versailles and its desirable living conditions, had become a favored residential quarter of aristocrats; and, during the Regency, it became even more popular. The quarter was also 139 favored by well-to-do foreigners. Religious establishments and hotels were numerous. And on the outskirts of the growth, Louis XIV had constructed the Invalides, a large military hospital.

138 > V "Le Quartier de saint Germain des Prez sera borné à l'Orient par les rues Dauphine, de Bussy, du Four, 8 de Seine exclusivement; au Septentrion par la riviere, y compris le Pont Royal, S l'Ile aux Cignes; à l'Occident S au Midy, par les extrémitez du Fauxbourg, depuis la riviere jusqu'à la rue de Seine." Déclaration du roi, December 12, 1702, in Delamare, Traité de la Police, 1, 110-112. On the topography of the Saint-Germain area, see: Adolphe Berty and L.-M. Tisserand, Topographie historique du Vieux Paris, Vol. 111: Région du Bourg Saint-Germain (Paris, 1876), and Vol. IV: Région du Faubourg Saint-Germain, Histoire Générale de Paris (Paris, 1882). 139 Saugrain, Curiositez de Paris, 11, 363. 83

The quarter took its name from the Abbey of Saint-Germain-des-

Prés which was located just beyond the site of the old medieval walls.

The abbey, occupied by Benedictines of the Congregation of Saint-Maur, was richly decorated and housed a large library. Among the clerics who utilized this library for scholarly research at the end of the 140 seventeenth century were Mabillon, author of In Re Diplomatica, and Felibien, author of Histoire de la Ville de Paris. The abbey was also the seat of a bailliage and a prison; and, like so many other similar institutions, it was a "privileged place" for artisans. In addition to the Abbey of Saint-Germain-des-Prés, there were more than a dozen other monasteries, convents and communities located in the quarter.4. 141

The College Mazarin (or, des Quatres Nations), founded with a legacy left by Cardinal Mazarin, was also located in the quarter on the Quai de Conti near the river, opposite the Louvre. Situated close to the college was the Hotel de Conti. Farther west, near the Pont

Royal, was the Hotel des Mousquetaires, the headquarters of the First

Company of Musketeers (or. Gray Musketeers, so-called because of the gray and white horses they rode). Beyond the Pont Royal was the area used for stockpiling wood known as the Grenouillère; and close by was the meadow known as Pre-aux-Clercs.

Finally, on the western edge of Left Bank development was the

^^^Lister visited the Abbey of Saint-Germain-des-Pres in 1698 and spoke with Mabillon; see. Journey to Paris, pp. 119-123. 141 La Caille, Description de la Ville, fol. 37r. 84

Hotel des Invalides.The Invalides, built by Bruand in the 1670's, served as a military hospital for several thousand disabled soldiers.

Its famous domed church, designed by Mansart, was constructed between

1680 and 1706. After the Invalides was completed and lavishly decor­ ated, Louis XIV made a rare visit back to Paris to visit it in August

1708.

Quartier Luxembourg

The Quartier Luxembourg, a large quarter with a lot of open space, was the only Left Bank quarter which did not border on the

Seine.In the west and northwest it bordered Saint-Germain-des-

Pres, and in fact contained a large section of the Faubourg Saint-

Germain. In the northeast it bordered Saint-Andre and the site of the old medieval wall and ditch. In the east it bordered Saint-Benoît along (but not including) the Rue du Faubourg Saint-Jacques. In the south it extended through the Faubourg Saint-Michel to the "extrémitez" of the Faubourg Saint-Jacques.

Saugrain, Curiositez de Paris, II, 387-400; Felibien and Lobineau, Histoire de la Ville, II, 1508-1509, IV, 244-248, 389-391; Lebeuf and Boumon, Histoire de la Ville, VI, 270-271.

^^^"Le Quartier de Luxembourg sera borné à l'Orient par la rue du Fauxbourg saint Jacques exclusivement; au Septentrion, par les rues des Fossez de saint Michel ou de saint Hiacynte, des Francs-Bourgeois, ^ des Fossez de saint Germain des Prez inclusive­ ment, à l'Occident, par les rues de Bussy, du Four, 8 de Seine inclusivement; § au Midy, par les extrémitez du Fauxbourg inclusivement, depuis la rue de Seine, jusqu'au Fauxbourg de saint Jacques." Declaration du roi, December 12, 1702, in Delamare, Traité de la Police, I, 110-112. 85

The quarter took its name from the Palais d'Orleans, more

commonly known as the Palais du Luxembourg since it was built on the

site of a former hôtel.of that name on the Rue de Vaugirard. Marie

de Medici had built the palace following the death of her husband,

Henri IV, and had highlighted the furnishings with twenty large

paintings by Reubens depicting her life history. At the end of Louis

XIV's reign, the Palace was occupied by the Duchesse de Berry, daughter

of the Due d'Orleans (the future Regent) and widow of the Due de Berry

(grandson of Louis XlV). The Palace faced on a large park with tree-

lined alleys which served as a popular promenade for the bourgeoisie 144 of Paris. Next to one of the wings of the palace was another

smaller palace known as the Petit Bourbon (or. Petit Luxembourg)

which was a residence of the widow of the Prince de Conde. The Petit

Bourbon had its own little garden which opened into the much larger

Jardin du Luxembourg.

South of the Jardin du Luxembourg was a large enclosure which

belonged to the Convent of the Chartreux; and, beyond the convent,

except for the monastery of the Pères of the Oratoire, there were only

fields and market-gardens.

The most developed and populated area of the quarter was

located north of the Rue de Vaugirard in an area that was part of the

Faubourg Saint-Germain. The same area was also dotted with religious

144 The palace, the paintings, and the gardens are described in detail in Saugrain, Curiositez de Paris, II, 328-342; and, Gustave Hirschfield, Le Palais du Luxembourg. Le Petit-Luxembourg--Le Jardin (Paris, 1931). 86 establishments, the most important of which were th.e Parish Church and

Seminary of Saint-Sulpice. The Parish of Saint-Sulpice was terri­ torially one of the largest in Paris since it included the entire 145 Faubourg Saint-Germain.

Located close to Saint-Sulpice was the Poire Saint-Germain, the site of a great annual fair and exposition. It was opened each year by the lieutenant general de police and other officials of the Chatelet, and ran until Passion Sunday eve.^^^

Elsewhere in the quarter, on the Rue de Seve, was the Hôpital des Incurables, an institution operated by the Sisters of Charity for the victims of incurable diseases. And, finally, the Rue des Fossez-

Saint-Germain-des-Prez was the location, from 1688, of the Hôtel des

Comédiens du Roy (otherwise known as the Théâtre de la Comédie

Françoise) which was built for the exclusive presentation of French theater pieces.

^"^^Lebeuf and Bournon, Histoire de la Ville, I, 283, VI, 282-283. 146 La Caille, Description de la Ville, fols. 35r, 41r; Saugrain, Curiositez de Paris, II, 356-357. Lister described (Journey to Paris, pp. 180-183) the fair and an incident he observed there involving a pick-pocket who was caught in the act: "... more Swords were drawn in his Defence than against him; but yet he was taken and delivered into the Hands of Justice, which is here sudden and no jest." 147 La Caille, Description de la Ville, fol. 35r; Saugrain, Curiositez de Paris, II, 358. CHAPTER II

THE POLICE OF PARIS

The Early Eighteenth-Century Conception of the Evolution of the Idea of "Police"

In dedicating his monumental Traité de la Police to Louis XIV,

Nicolas Delamare wrote that his work stemmed from a motive which cor­ responded to the king's own constant inclination "pour tout ce qui concerne la Police, c'est-a-dire, pour ce bel ordre duquel depend le bonheur des Etats.He praised Louis XIV for his success in bringing

Delamare, Traité de la Police, 1, ii-iii. During the same period that Delamare was publishing his treatise, the Académie Française offered the following definitions of "police" in the Nouveau diction­ naire de l'académie française (Paris, 1718), 11, 311: POLICE, subst. fem. Ordre, règlement establi dans une ville pour tout ce qui regarde la seureté § la commodité des habi­ tants. Bonne police, mauvaise police, la police est admirable dans Paris, faire bien observer la police, establir la police, faire de nouveaux règlements de police, exercer la police. Juge de police. Les Intendants que le Roy envoyé dans les Provinces prennent le titre d'intendants de Justice, Police & Finances. POLICE. Se dit aussi de la Jurisdiction establie par la police. Chambre de police. Lieutenant de Police, ^c. assigner quelqu'un à la Police. POLICE. Se prend aussi pour l'Ordre é le règlement establi dans quelque assemblée, dans quelque société que ce soit. La police d'un camp, la police d'une armée, la police d'une Communauté, chaque société a sa police particulière. POLICER. verb act Mettre, establir la police dans un pays. Policer une ville, policer un Estât, policer des peuples, c'est le premier qui a police les nations du Nord. POLICE, EE. part. Un Estât bien police.

87 88 about the "good order upon which the well-being of states depends," and ranked him among the wisest legislators in history. He compared

Louis's actions to those of Caesar Augustus who had created for Rome a tribunal and a magistrate "unique pour la Police." Using the same analogy with antiquity, he wrote that the policing of Paris, as well as all of the King's dominions, prior to the personal rule of Louis

XIV was like that of ancient Rome prior to Augustus— in a state of disorder. In France, there was no security either in the city or the countryside against thieves or murderers. Modesty, moral decency, familial honor, good faith in commerce and the arts were all in danger.

Blasphemy was prevalent in discourse. Irréligion reigned in the

Temples (i.e., in French Protestant Churches); slackness and division permeated the Church (i.e., the French Catholic Church). Only through the religion, the equity, the shrewdness, and the sovereign power of the King was the kingdom delivered from these and so many other evils.

The great step that Louis XIV, like Augustus, took to reverse the disorders and evils was to separate the police from the other tri­ bunals. This great accomplishment, in Delamare's view, was worthy of being praised and made known to the public (through the medium of the

Traite), just as Louis's military and diplomatic accomplishments were 2 celebrated by orators and historians.

Delamare may have been prone to overstatement in his praise

2 Delamare, Traité de la Police, I, ii-iv. A similar compari­ son is echoed later in the eighteenth century in Voltaire's Siècle de Louis XIV. 89 of Louis's accomplishments. Preliminary dedications to the King in many works of the period were effusive in their flattery of the monarch. It was a method of gaining or maintaining royal favor and permission to publish. The body of Delamare's Traite de la Police is an erudite work which provides a more realistic assessment of the situation in France. France had not been entirely delivered from the hands of thieves, murderers, blasphemers, and the like; disorders and evils had not disappeared. Yet there was an element of truth in

Delamare's praise. Louis XIV did accomplish something when he took over the reins of government. His personal concern about policing, or ad­ ministrating for good order within the state, and particularly in

Paris, did bring with it an increased measure of security and law enforcement, certainly in relation to what preceded his personal rule. The royal concern with the general concept of police, the at­ tention devoted to increasing the effectiveness of the royally ordained agents of order in matters of law enforcement, and the creation of a separate police entity in the office of the lieutenant general de police, did not work a miracle; but they did strengthen royal control over the capital and brought about certain improvements in physical conditions and public services. Then too, the disorders and evils which Delamare referred to— the lack of security, low moral standards, bad faith in commerce, religious problems— were precisely the diffi­ culties with which the police under Louis XIV became intimately involved. However, despite the government's great attention to police matters, nothing diminishes the fact that Paris continued to be, at 90

times, a very unpleasant and unsafe place to live.

Delamare, curious about the origins of the police, sought to trace the historical development of the concept of "police" in his

Traite. He turned to antiquity to see what the great writers of the period had to say about the idea of police. He noted that for Plato

(in the Republic and De Legibus) and for Aristotle (in Politics) a pleasant and tranquil life was the first object of society; but self- love and other passions caused problems. To remedy these problems, wise men had recourse to the establishment of laws, the name they gave to precepts derived from right reason and natural equity which instructed the spirit, rectified the will, and arranged each thing in its proper order. Some laws had as their object the welfare of society; others concerned only the interests of individuals. In time, the two types of law became known respectively as droit public and droit privé. The Greeks, according to Delamare, used the term "police" to refer to droit public. Their purpose was to make clear, by the conformity of the terms, that the execution of the laws which com­ prised droit public, and the preservation of civil society, which 3 formed each city, were two inseparable things.

This concept of police, according to Delamare, passed from the

Greeks to the Romans and was handed down through time to seventeenth- century France. At times it was used in a very broad sense to reflect the general form of government found in various states. But ordinarily.

3 Delamare, Traite de la Police, I, 1. 91 it "se prend pour l’ordre public de chaque Ville; S san suite, il n'est entendu que dans ce dernier sens." In support of this, Delamare cited the classical writers including: Plato who, in writing of laws, defined "police" as "'la vie, le règlement, § la loy par excellence qui maintient la Cite'"; Aristotle who defined "police" in a similar vein as "'le bon ordre, le gouvernement de la Ville, le soûtien de la vie du Peuple, le premier § le plus grand des biens'"; Socrates who, in eulogizing the former government of Athens in Areopagitica, represented

"police" as being

'I'ame de la Cite; qu'elle y opere les mêmes effets que l'entendement dans l'homme; que c'est elle qui pense à tout, qui regie toutes choses, qui fait, ou qui procure tous les biens nécessaires aux citoyens, S qui éloigne de leur société tous les maux S toutes les calamitez qu'ils auroient à craindre.'

Roman authors, like Cicero and Plutarch, wrote of the police in a similar manner, and acknowledged the Roman debt to Athens.

Cicero referred to Athens as "'la mere des sciences S des lois, la nourrice des Arts, l'Ecole de la sagesse, S la source de toute Police, 4 S de toute discipline.'"

One could not trace the concept of police from antiquity, ac­ cording to Delamare, without mentioning the Hebrews whom he regarded as the intellectual predecessors of the Greeks and Romans in matters of law and police. He noted that the sacred books of the Hebrews furnished one of the first examples of the division of police interests according to the division of the laws. In them, matters of law and

^Ibid., p. 2. 92 police were divided into ten categories: "la Religion, les Moeurs, les Vivres, la Santé, la Sûreté, la Voirie, c'est-à-dire le soin des edifices, § des voyes publiques, le Commerce, les Arts, les Pauvres,

§ 1 'Hospitalité."

The Greeks, according to Delamare, in a similar fashion de­ veloped a highly methodical division of laws and police functions.

However, given their great concern for life itself, they emphasized

"la conservation, la bonté, ^ les agrémens de la vie." These in turn were subdivided into more specific functions.^

The French, according to Delamare, were guided in their con­ ception of police by reasoning similar to that of the ancients, as well as by the excellent models provided by the ancients. Agatias, contemporary of the early kings of France, explained it in this fashion:

'Les François, Peuples de Germanie, qui ont passé le Rhin, 5 par la force de leurs armes se sont rendus les Maîtres des Gaules, n'ont rien conservé des moeurs barbares de leur ancienne Patrie. Ils sont doux S civils dans leurs maniérés § dans leur conservation: mais sur-tout c'est une chose admirable comme ils s'étudient à rendre Justice aux Etrangers, a se la rendre mutuellement les uns aux autres, 5 à maintenir cntr'eux l'union 5 la concorde. Ils se sont approprié les memes loix, la même Police, ê les mêmes usages des Romains. Ils ont, comme eux, étably des Magistrats dans toutes leurs Villes; § par ce bon ordre § cette sage conduite, ils ont affermi leur domination, § mis leurs ennemis hors d'état de leur résister.

Boutillier wrote in La Somme Rural of politique (in the sense

of police) as being the noblest of the practical sciences because of

^Ibid., p. 3.

^Ibid. 93 of what it taught with regard to the administration of towns.

'C'est par elle que l'on apprend à l'homme à gouverner le Peuple en Justice; â maintenir les Habitans d'une Ville en paix, § â contenir chacun dans son devoir; à veiller sur les Ouvrages, afin qu'il n'y soit fait aucune fraude; S à tenir la main à ce que le commerce soit exercé avec fidélité.'?

Le Bret in De la Souverainété du Roy gave an even more precise definition of police:

'J'appelle Police, les Loix § les Ordannances que l'on a de tout temps publiées dans les Etats bien ordonnez; pour regler l'oeconomie des vivres, retrancher les abus, § les monopoles du Commerce, S des Arts, empêcher la corruption des moeurs, retrancher le luxe, ê bannir des Villes les jeux illicites: ce qui a mérité ce nom particulier de Police; d'autant qu'il seroit impossible qu'aucune Cite put long-temps subsister, si ces choses y étoient negligees.'&

Bacquet in his Traité des Droits de Justice defined Police as "'un exercise qui contient en foy tout ce qui est nécessaire pour

la conservation ê l'entretenement des Habitans, 5 du bien public d'une

Ville. "'9

Loiseau, in Delamare's view, offered an even better definition of the police when he wrote:

'C'est un Droit par lequel il est permis de faire d'Office, par le seul intérêt du bien public, S sans postulation de personne, des Règlements qui engagent, § qui lient tous les Citoyens d'une Ville, pour leur bien, ê leur utilité commune.'

And added:

^Ibid., p. 2.

^Ibid.

^Ibid. 94

'Le pouvoir du Magistrat de Police approche, S participe beaucoup plus de la puissance du Prince, que celuy du Juge qui n'a droit que de prononcer entre le Demandeur, S le Défendeur.'10

Police interests in France were divided in a fashion similar to the methodical division of antiquity— with an important exception.

The sanctity of religion in France did not permit (at least in theory) the French police to prefer caring for corporal needs ahead of spiri­ tual needs. The policing of spiritual matters was of primary importance.

This rearrangement of priorities was the work of the Christian emperors and the Christian kings of France after them. As Delamare put it:

les Grecs se proposèrent pour premier objet de leur Police la conservation de la vie naturelle; nous avons postposé ces soins à ceux qui la peuvent rendre bonne, § que nous divisons comme eux en deux points; la Religion, S des Moeurs.H

When the police in Delamare's era turned to the preservation of life, in theory they followed the priorities of antiquity in directing the interests of the police to two important areas: "la santé, é la subsistance des Citoyens." With regard to maintaining the "quality of life," the third object of the police of the ancients, they further followed the ancient example with six more subdivisions of police cares: "la Tranquilite publique; les soins des Batimens, des Rues, des Places publiques, é des Chemins; les Sciences, § les Arts libéraux; le Commerce; les Manufactures; les Arts mécaniques; les Domestiques, G

l°ibid.

^^Ibid., p. 4. 95 les ManouvriersTo these cares handed down from antiquity another was added with the coining of Christianity— the care and discipline of the poor.

According to Delamare, the poor were considered to be in a separate category because the regulations which concerned them touched all of the other categories and could not be properly put into any single one. Thus, for example, the care of the poor could be con­ sidered an exercise of charité, and thus a matter of religion. If attention was paid to the idleness, the libertinage, and the infinity of other vices of which poverty was considered the source, then the policing of the poor could be considered a matter of moral discipline.

If one considered the improvement in the quality of air to be gained by removing from society beggars who were a common source of infection and maladies, then the policing of the poor could be deemed a public health matter. In theory, the policing of the poor, in the form of totally interdicting mendicity, forced the poor to enter into the order of things such as Providence had ordained it. Thus, invalids could be placed in hospitals; and all others could be employed commensurate "à leur naissance, à leur état, S à leur force." Thus security and public tranquillity would be assured, and the poor would create no further 12 disorders or problems. (As the police discovered, the reality of the situation was not quite as simple as the theory.)

The late seventeenth-century and early eighteenth-century

^^Ibid. 96 conception of the historical evolution of the idea of "police” as exemplified in the work of Nicolas Delamare, the foremost authority of the age on police matters, was very neat and logical. It was easy,

Delamare wrote, to discover how much

cette Police que nous suivons a de conformité avec les Loix du Droit naturel, S qui ont commercé d'être suivies dès le premier âge du monde, S avec celles de ces anciennes & célébrés Republiques qui sont venues dans la suite des temps, ê qui nous ont servi de m o d è l e s . 13

As a theoretical and legal concept, the idea of la police in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries had behind it all the prestige and admiration that could be felt for the logic and beauty of expres­ sion of the great Greek and Roman writers, for the sanctity of Hebraic scriptures, and for a thousand years of agreement by French legal writers.

The Historical Development of the Administration of the Police of Paris to 1697

The history of the policing of Paris prior to and during the

Roman occupation of Gaul is rather murky.Before the coming of the

Romans, Paris, or Lutece as it was then known, was a small town con­ fined to an island near a bend in the Seine River. The site was

^^Ibid.

Once again, the great authority on the development of poli.ce administration in France, and more particularly in Paris, is Nicolas Delamare; see the Traité de la Police, I, 42-286. Other works, aside from archival material, concerning the history of the police up to the early eighteenth century include: Eugene Anglade, Coup d'oeil sur la police depuis son origine jusqu'à nos jours (Agens, 1847); Pierre Clement, La Police sous Louis XIV, 2d ed. (Paris, 1866); 97

apparently chosen as a place of habitation by members of a gallic

tribe, the Parisii, because of its defensibility. Very little is known

about the administration of Paris in its infancy. However, several

things are known about how gallic towns were administered in general.

Ordinarily, the Druids, or priests of the tribe, each year appointed a

chief magistrate and a senate from among their own numbers and from

among the noblest members of the tribe, to handle the affairs of gov­

ernment, justice, and police. These officials in turn were assisted by lesser magistrates and functionaries.

G. B. Depping, ed.. Correspondance administrative sous Louis XIV, 4 vols. (Paris, 1850-1855), II, xxxiii-xlix; Charles Desmaze, Le Chatelet de Paris son organisation, ses privileges, 2d ed. (Paris, 1870); Elouvin, A'. Trebuchet, and E. Labat, eds.. Nouveau dictionnaire de police, 2 vols. (Paris, 1835); Des Essarts, Dictionnaire universal de police, 7 vols. (Paris, 1786-1789); M. Frêgier, Histoire de l'administration de la police de Paris, 2 vols. (Paris, 1850); Constantin Gerard, Histoire du Chatelet et du Parlement de Paris (Paris, 1844); Pierre-Jean-Jacques-Guillaume Guyot, Répertoire universel et raisonne de jurisprudence, new éd., 17 vols. (Paris, 1784-1785); Marcel Le Clere, Histoire de la Police, "Que sais-je?", 3rd ed. (Paris, 1964); J. Peuchet, éd.. Collection des lois, ordonnances et règlements de police, 2d ser., 8 vols. (Paris, 1818-1819); idem., Mémoires tires des archives de la police de Paris, 3 vols. (Paris, 1838); and, Horace Raisson, Histoire de la police de Paris, 1667-1844 (Paris, 1844). Very useful for developments during the eighteenth century are Jean-Baptiste-Charles Le Maire, "Mémoire sur l'administra­ tion de la police en France" [La police de Paris en 1770. Mémoire inédit composé par ordre de G. de Sartine sur la demande de Marie- , Thérèse], ed. by A. Gazier, Mémoires de la Société de l'Histoire de Paris et de l'Ile de France, V (1878), 1-131; Maurice Bordes, L 'administration provinciale et municipale en France au XVIII^ siècle (Paris, 1972); Philip John Stead, The Police of Paris (London, 1957); [Guillaute], Mémoire sur la réformation de la Police de France (Paris, 1974 [composed about 1749]); and, Marcel Levilain, Histoire de l'organisa­ tion des services actifs de la police parisienne, 2 vols, mimeographed (the copy consulted for this study exists in the Archives de la Préfecture de Police), (n.p., 1970). 98

Around 52 B.C., Roman legions under the command of Julius

Caesar conquered the Parisian basin; and the town of Lutece was abandoned and burned. However, a new gallo-roman town was constructed and flourished during the first half of the first century A.D. The island in the Seine [the present-day lie de la Cite) was again fortified; and, a second town, laid out according to the principles of Roman urbanism, was created on the left bank of the Seine. Third-century invasions by Franks and Alamans reduced the gallo-roman town once again to the defensible limits of the island in the Seine. The island was enclosed by a stone wall— the first of several that delineated the city's limits until the seventeenth century. The walls, however, never prevented the growth of the city. Inhabited areas beyond the walls existed from the time of the first wall. They sprang up first on the left bank, then on the right bank.^^

During gallo-roman times, judicial and police functions in

Paris were probably carried out under the direction of a praefectus urbis (prefect), who was ultimately responsible to the proconsul of the province in which Paris was located. Martyrologies and accounts of gallo-roman Paris show, for example, that Saint Denis and his com­ panions were condemned at Paris in 275 A.D. by Fescennius Sisinnius, praefectus urbis. Delamare, in the Traite de la Police, declared that the praefectus urbis was, as of the third century, the title of the principal magistrate of Paris. When the Franks conquered the region

^^On the growth of Paris, see Chapter I, footnotes 1, 14, and 16. 99

around Paris they conserved the forms that the Romans had established.

As late as 665 A.D. the term praefectus urbis was still being used in

Paris. By that time, however, it was more than likely being used as

3 mark of distinction for the magistrate of a capital city. From the

time of Constantine, the magistrates in the provinces and cities of

the Roman Empire had been changing their former titles into that of

comes (or comte). Only the chief magistrates of Rome and Constantinople had retained the title praefectus urbis. Clovis, King of the Franks, had chosen Paris to be the capital of his kingdom in 508 A.D., which perhaps partly explains the continued use of the term praefectus urbis by the chief magistrate of Paris. Ercembaldus, the prefect of Paris

in 665, utilized the title praefectus urbis regiae. However, a change

apparently occurred the following year, for in 666 Ercembaldus took

the title comes parisiensis, or comte de Paris. His successors

carried the same title.

The comtes de Paris were both powerful and wealthy. Within

the region around Paris they had primary competency in the administra­

tion of justice, government, assemblies, military affairs, police matters, and royal finances. The office was a stepping-stone for some men. Ercembaldus, for example, after exercising the office, became

the comes Palatii (or, comte du Palais), the principal magistrate of

the entire kingdom. In 884, Hughes-le-Grand obtained the infeudation

of the comte de Paris, thus making himself a great seigneur as well

^^belamare. Traite de la Police, I, 42-44, 113-115. 100

as an important officer of the Crown. At the same time the charge became hereditary. The comte de Paris ceased dealing with the practical aspects of his office, and the functions were taken over by a newly appointed official, the vicomte de Paris. This situation lasted until

1032, when the last comte de Paris died without an heir. The comté then reverted back to the Crown; and the King, Henry I, chose not to alienate it again through infeudation. The office of vicomte was left unfilled as well.^^

A new magisterial office was created; that of praepositus parisiensis (or, prévôt de Paris). This was done in order to demon­ strate that justice and police in Paris would be administered in the name of the King rather than in the name of a feudal seigneur like the comte de Paris. However, the prévôt de Paris retained many of the prerogatives of the comtes and vicomtes. Most importantly, he recog­ nized no superior authorities other than the King, and later, the

Parlement. He was the head of the important Parisian tribunal known 18 as the Châtelet. The Grand Coutumier de France noted that "le

^^Ibid., 45-47, 114-115. 18 /\ The Chatelet of Paris was the imposing edifice which stood on the Right Bank near the Pont-au-Change. It served as a prison and, more importantly, as the jurisdictional seat of the Parisian equivalent of a bailliage (royal court of the first instance), and after 1551 as a présidial (royal court which could judge some civil and criminal cases without appeal). Appeals from the Chatelet went to the Parlement of Paris. On the Chatelet, see: Delamare, Traité de la Police, espe­ cially Vol. I; Desmaze, Châtelet; Yvonne Lanhers, "Chatelet," in Guide des recherches dans les fonds judiciaires de l'ancien régime (Paris, 1958), 161-220, an indispensable introduction to the records of the Châtelet which form the very large série Y, "Châtelet de Paris et Prévôté de l'Ile-de-France," at the Archives Nationales. 101

Prévôt de Paris, comme chef du Châtelet, représente la Personne du

Roy au fait de la Justice." He was the police chief of Paris, the 19 military governor of Paris, and the receiver of the royal domain.

For a period of time during the thirteenth century, the office was sold to the highest bidder; but too many abuses and difficulties caused

Louis IX to reverse the practice and again make the office a royal ap­ pointment. Louis IX also separated the receipt of the royal domain from the duties of the prévôt, thus removing a source of temptation which had a tendency to result in a neglect of justice and police

. 20 affairs.

In the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries the judicial and police powers of the prévôt de Paris were, on occasion, extended by

In theory, the prévôt de Paris had complete competency in police matters. However, his prerogative was disputed— particularly as Paris grew in size and absorbed pre-existing jurisdictions, or when newly created jurisdictions challenged his authority in an effort to assert their independence and importance. Delamare offered examples of five types of jurisdictions which gradually attempted to share in the prerogative of la police of Paris. First, seigneurs of areas which were enclosed within the limits of Paris continued to claim rights of justice and police over their territories; second, certain "grands officiers de la Couronne" claimed authority in matters re­ garding commerce and the arts; third, the grand prévôt de l'hôtel claimed jurisdiction over the merchants and artisans who supplied the royal court; fourth, the bailli du Palais claimed jurisdiction over the Palais and the area around it; and fifth, the prévôt des marchands claimed jurisdiction over the river and ports in Paris. Disputed jurisdictions such as these remained a continuous aspect of police affairs throughout the ancien régime. Delamare recounts the histori­ cal development of these jurisdictional conflicts in the Traité de la Police, I, 153-197. During the reign of Louis XIV, the arbiters in jurisdictional disputes were the secrétaire d 'Etat de la Maison du Roi (who oversaw the administration of Paris) and the Parlement of Paris. 20 Delamare, Traité de la Police, I, 46-47, 115-122, 129-131. 102 special royal commission to include the entire kingdom. However, on the whole, by the end of the fifteenth century, the power of the prévôt de Paris was diminished; and, the office was reduced to a more or less honorific status. In the 1470's the prévôt de Paris was superseded in his functions as the military governor of Paris by the appointment of a lieutenant général. Louis XI, embroiled in his wars against the Due de Bourgogne, had decided that a military expert should be the military governor of Paris. The prévôt de Paris recovered part of this lost function briefly in the sixteenth century, but performed it only in a ceremonial capacity. More important changes, however, occurred in the

1490's. First, in 1493, Charles VIII ordered that the prévôts had to be licensed in the law; and, in 1498, Louis XII extendedthis law, and reduced the role of the prévôt as a judge by turning the judicial and police functions over to the lieutenants of the prévôt. The 1490's thus mark one of the important periods of change in the development of police authority in Paris, just as 1032 had done, and 1667 would do.

With the edicts of the 1490’s, the lieutenant civil du prévôt de Paris and to a lesser extent the lieutenant criminel du prévôt de

Paris emerged as the effective judicial and police administrators within the jurisdictional boundaries of the prévôt et vicomté de Paris. How­ ever, from the 1490's until 1630 there were constant jurisdictional conflicts between these two officers and the result was confusion and complications in matters of justice and police. Their disputes were carried to the Parlement of Paris in 1515, but were never completely resolved. The result, wrote Delamare, was that "les soins de la Police 103 surent abandonnez, ^ les desordres se multiplièrent à Paris." 21

In 1577 an attempt was made to regularize the administration of the police. A règlement was issued which once again established that the tribunal of the prévôt de Paris with its seat at the Chatelet had primary competence in general police matters. It also ordered that an "assemblée général de police" be held each week under the direction of the lieutenant civil; the lieutenant criminel was also to be present in order to assist. The function of the assembly was to receive and consider police reports from police officials in the city as well as appeals against police judgments. When the reports had been given in the assembly and the advice of the officials present was heard, the lieutenant civil was expected to render ordonnances con­ cerning the "police générale" which were to be executed throughout the city. One remarkable aspect of the règlement was that while it was designed to regularize the administration of the police, it perpetuated the separate jurisdiction of the officers of the Hôtel de Ville (i.e., the municipality of Paris) in police matters. At the same time these municipal officials (the prévôt des marchands and the echevins) were expected to attend the police assemblies at the Chatelet "pour assister 22 5 être presens à ce qui concerne le fait de la Police."

^^Ibid., 48-55, 122-124, 132-136.

^^Ibid., 54-55, 134-136. Earlier in 1572 there was a short­ lived attempt to establish a bureau de police composed of a president and councillor of the Parlement of Paris, a maître des requêtes, the lieutenant civil or lieutenant criminel of the Châtelet, the prévôt des marchands or an echevin of the Hôtel de Ville, and four notables bourgeois. 104

The regulation of 1577 certainly seemed to give priority in police matters to the lieutenant civil but the main problem at the

Chatelet was still unresolved. The lieutenant civil still remained en concurrence, in rivalry, with the lieutenant criminel. Finally, in 1630, jurisdictional competency in police matters was resolved in favor of the lieutenant civil. The Parlement, "toutes les Chambres assemblées, sur les plaintes des desordres du Châtelet," ordered, among other things, that "le Lieutenant Civil tiendra la Police deux foix la semaine." Police assemblies could be held by the lieutenant criminel, or by a lieutenant particulier only on occasions when the lieutenant civil could not be present. Then, in January 1635, the lieutenant civil from his position of superiority issued an ordonnance giving the compo­ sition of a general police assembly to be held under his direction every Friday after the ordinary police audience. The officials who were designated to participate included: the commissaires of the

Chatelet from each of the sixteen quarters of Paris (and each commis­ saire was to bring two "notables Bourgeois" from his quarter); the lieutenant criminel and the lieutenant particulier; the doyen and sous-doyens of the conseillers of the Chatelet; the lieutenant criminel de robe-courte; the chevalier du guet; the echevins of the Hôtel de

Ville; the administrators of the Hôtel-Dieu; and the representatives ^ 23 of the corns des metiers in Paris.

Ibid., 136-137. At the time, Michel Moreau held the offices of both lieutenant civil of the Chatelet and prévôt des marchands of the Hôtel de Ville, 105

When the newly formed police assembly met, there was general agreement that the renewal and vigorous enforcement of all previous police regulations was necessary. As a result, the lieutenant civil issued a general ordonnance concerning the police of Paris which offers a comprehensive picture of the area of police interests during the reign of Louis XIV,The preface of the ordonnance acknowledged that previous attempts by the police to prevent disorders of a general nature had not been successful. Vagabonds and criminals, it declared, were more common than ever; and, the price of life's necessities had become so excessive that the populace was greatly concerned. The greater part of the ordonnance was directed towards the elimination of these two sources of difficulty. Vagabonds and debauchers, male and female, were ordered either to find suitable employment within twenty-four hours, or to depart Paris. Landlords and tavern keepers were ordered not to provide accommodations to disorderly persons; and they were required to report information concerning all of their lodgers to the commissaires of their respective quarters.

The bourgeois and other inhabitants of the city were invited to aid in the seizure and imprisonment of those persons who ignored police regu­ lations. Pages, lackeys, valets, and students were forbidden to carry swords, canes, or other weapons. Restrictions were placed on the movement of soldiers and students in the city. Provisions were made limiting the sale of beer and tobacco. A whole series of provisions

^^March 30, 1635. Reprinted in ibid., 137-142. 106 regulated the sale of alimentations, particularly grain and bread, meats, wines, butter, and hay. Workers were ordered not to block streets with their construction materials. Coach drivers and wagoners were ordered to lead their horses on foot while in the city. Printers and peddlers were reminded that prior permission was needed to pub­ lish and sell works. People were forbidden to wear certain types of fancy lace and needlework clothing.

In short, the collection of regulations was designed to assure public order, to maintain an adequate supply of foodstuffs, and to safeguard the morals of the citizens--three of the primary concerns of the police throughout the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.

Lettres patentes in May 1639 reaffirmed the right of the prévôt de

Paris, or his lieutenant civil (to whom, in reality, the lettres patentes applied) to enforce all the police regulations dealing with these matters and to punish offenders. The Chatelet was given the task of judging, as a présidial court of the last resort, thieves, vaga- 25 bonds, and debauchers.

The effectiveness of the police reforms of the 1630's was short-lived. The unstable situation in France during the minority of

Louis XIV, particularly during the Frondes, led to frequent disorders in Paris and throughout France. Police regulations were disregarded and not well enforced. As Delamare wrote: "en ce temps le bruit des armes imposa encore une fois silence aux Loix; [et] les soins de

^^May 24, 1639. Reprinted in ibid., 142-143. 107 la Police furent presque abandonnez, [et] toutes choses retombèrent 26 dans une fort grande confusion,"

With a view to ending the confusion and disorders which plagued Paris during his minority and the early years of his personal rule, Louis XIV and his ministers created a special conseil de police in October 1666. As Louis explained in his Mémoires ;

Pour remédier aux desordres qui arrivaient ordinairement dans Paris, j'en voulus rétablir la police; et après m'être fait représenter les anciennes ordonnances qui ont été faites sur ce sujet, je les trouvai si sagement digérées, que je me contentai d'en rétablir plusieurs articles abolis par la négligence des magistrats; mais j'y ajoutai quelques précautions pour les faire mieux observer à l'avenir, principalement sur le port des armes, sur le nettoiement des rues, et sur quelques autres points particuliers, pour l'exacte observation desquels je formai même un conseil 77 exprès.^ '

This special police council followed by a year the creation of the famous conseil de justice which had been set up primarily through the efforts of Jean Baptiste Colbert and Henri Pussort to bring about the reform and codification of the laws for the entire kingdom. The composition of the two councils was practically the same. The members of the conseil de police included: Chancellor Seguier, Marshal

Villeroy, Colbert, Dalaigre, Lezeau, Machault, Seve, Menardeau,

Morangis, Poncet, Boucherat, De La Marguerie, Pussort, Voisin, Hotman, and Marin. The met each week from October 1666 to February 1667 at the Chancellor's hôtel; and the deliberations of their meetings gave

^^Ibid., 143.

^^Louis XIV, Mémoires, ed. by Jean Longnon (Paris, 1933], p. 220. 108

28 rise to several important acts regarding the police.

An arrêt du conseil of November 5, 1666 maintained the rights of the officers of the Châtelet in general police matters against the pretensions of other royal officials as well as seigneurs. It author­ ized them to "se transporter dans toutes les Maisons, Hotels, Colleges,

Communautez, S autres lieux de ladite Ville, Fauxbourgs, § Banlieue de Paris dont ouverture leur sera faite nonobstant tous prétendus

Privileges. . . ." The officers representing the "Seigneurs Hauts

Justiciers," the "Grand Prévôt de l'Hôtel," and the "Bailly du Palais" 29 were specifically admonished not to interfere.

A more comprehensive edict was issued in December 1666. It re-established older police ordonnances ("si prudemment concertez") with regard to street cleaning, public safety, and the carrying of arms. Careful attention was to be paid to street cleaning regulations because, as the edict said, "nous voulons bien descendre jusqu'aux moindres choses, lorsqu'il s'agit de la commodité publique" (Attention to details and the "least things" of this sort became a distinguishing characteristic of the administrative efforts of Louis XIV and meticu­ lous ministers like Colbert). The manufacture, sale, and carrying of arms was to be strictly regulated with offenders being subject to

28 On the conseil de police, see: "Registre de deliberation du conseil de police en 1666 et 1667," B.N., Mss. Français 8118; and, Delamare, Traité de la Police, I, 143. For the conseil de justice, see: Adhemar Esmein, A History of Continental Criminal Procedure with Special Reference to France, trans. by John Simpson (Boston,'1913), pp. 183-287; and, Pierre Clément, ed., Lettres, instructions et mémoires de Colbert, 7 vols. (Paris, 1861-1882), VI, i-liv, 5-22, 369-391. 29 Reprinted in Delamare, Traite de la Police, I, 143-144. 109

severe penalties. The aim of the edict was to prevent a continuation

of the killings and bloodlettings which had become a daily occurrence.

As soldiers were commonly involved in the general violence, restrictions were placed on the movement and assembly of troops in the city. The police were also given a "pouvoir plus absolu" over vagabonds and men

"sans aveu." The so-called "Bohemeins, ou Egyptians" were to be arrested, chained, and sent to the galleys; their women companions were to be whipped, branded, and banished from the kingdom. Primary competence for the enforcement of the regulations was given to the 30 police of the Châtelet. However, when the edict was registered in the Parlement of Paris on December 11, 1666, the parlementarians placed certain restrictions on the powers granted to the Chatelet. For in­ stance, a search for arms could not be made in the home of any

"Bourgeois non Ouvriers," except "en vertu de la permission du Juge ordinaire"; and, the Bailliage du Palais was exempted from the juris­ diction of the Chatelet.

The resurrection of the old ordinances restated in vigorous

language— though modified by the Parlement--was not, however, the principal accomplishment of the conseil de police. The principal fruit of its labor was the creation, in March 1667, of the office of

lieutenant de police, a post which became one of the most important and powerful administrative positions of the ancien regime. For

30 Ibid., 144-146; and, Isambert, Anciennes lois, XVIII, 93-94. 31 Reprinted in Delamare, Traite de la Police, I, 146-147. 110

centuries many of the difficulties encountered in policing Paris had

arisen because there was no clear distinction between justice and

police. The overseeing of police matters had been in the hands of men

who were judges first, and police officials second. The Chatelet was primarily the seat of ordinary royal justice in Paris. The prévôt de

Paris, and later his lieutenants, were judicial magistrates above all

else. The creation of the new office did not change their judicial

role; but it did change their role in the exercise of general police

powers. In essence, the new lieutenant de police was charged with making the police of Paris a reality distinct from the administration

of justice. As Delamare wrote:

En effet ce qu'on appelle Police n'ayant pour objet que le service du Prince S l'ordre public, elle est incompatible avec les embarras § les subtilitez des matières litigieuses, S tient beaucoup plus des fonctions du Gouvernement que de celles du B a r r e a u . 32

The edict of March 1667 offered an explanation for the creation

of the new office. Its preamble read:

Notre bonne Ville de Paris étant la Capitale de nos Etats, g le lieu de notre séjour ordinaire, qui doit servir d'exemple à toutes les autres Villes de notre Royaume: Nous avons estime que rien n'êtoit plus digne de nos soins, que d'y bien regler la Justice § la Police. . . . Mais il est nécessaire que la reformation que Nous y apportons soit soutenue par des Magistrats. Et comme les fonctions de la Justice 5 de la Police sont souvent incompatibles, S d'une trop grande étendue, pour être bien exercées par un seul Officier dans Paris, Nous aurions résolu de les partager, estimans que l'administration de la Justice contentieuse et distributive, qui requiert une presence actuelle en beaucoup de lieux, ^ une assiduité continuelle, soit pour regler les affaires des Particuliers, soit pour

^^Ibid., p. 143. Ill

l'inspection qu'il faut avoir sur les personnes à qui elles sont commises, demandoit un Magistrat tout entier. Et que d'ailleurs la Police qui consiste à assurer le repos du Public S des Particuliers, à purger la Ville de ce qui peut causer les desordres, à procurer l'abondance, § à faire vivre chacun selon sa condition § son devoir, demandoit aussi un Magistrat particulier qui pût être present à tout.^^

The office of lieutenant civil was suppressed. In its place the edict established

en titres d 'Offices formez, deux Offices de Lieutenans de notre Prévôt de Paris, dont l'un sera nomme § qualifié notre Conseiller 5 Lieutenant Civil dudit Prévôt de Paris; S l'autre notre Conseiller, S Lieutenant du Prévôt de Paris pour la Police, pour être les dites deux charges remplies et exercées par deux différents Officiers.

The attributions of the revamped charge of lieutenant civil included: the reception of all officers of the Chatelet; legal cognizance of all personal lawsuits, contracts, testaments, proraissary notes, ec­ clesiastical matters, inventories, guardianships, and matters requiring seals; and all other matters involving "la Justice contentieuse G distributive, dans l'étendue de la Ville, Prévôté § Vicomté de Paris."

In other words, the new lieutenant civil exercised the same functions as previous lieutenants civils, except in matters concerning the police. He was even designated to precede the lieutenant de police in all assemblies, however, "sans dependence, . . . autorité, ni subordination de l'un à l'autre."

As for the new lieutenant de police, his attributions were

33 Saint-Germain-en-Laye, March, 1667. Reprinted in ibid., 147-148; and, Isambert, Anciennes lois, XVIII, 100-103. 112 enumerated at length. He was expected: to preserve the security of

"la Ville, Prevote 5 Vicomte de Paris"; to prevent the carrying of arms prohibited by ordinances; to assure the cleaning of streets and public squares; to give orders necessary in case of fires or floods; to have cognizance of all the provisions necessary for the subsistence of the city, the "amas" and the storehouses maintained for this purpose, and the rates and prices of these things; to send commissaires and other necessary personnel along the rivers to assure the transport of hay destined for Paris; to regulate the stalls of butchers; to inspect the

Hailes, fairs, marketplaces, hosteleries, auberges, furnished premises, gaming-houses, tobacconists, and "lieux mal famez"; to have cognizance of illicit assemblies, and the uproars, seditions and disorders which they caused; to have cognizance of manufactures, of the elections of the maîtres and gardes of the six corps des marchands (merchant guilds), of indentures, of the reception of maîtres, of the inspections by the gardes of the execution of their statutes and regulations, of the judg­ ments of opinions of the procureur of the king concerning the arts et metiers; to inspect the weights and balances of all the merchant com­ munities, to the exclusion of all other magistrates; to take cognizance of contraventions committed by printers against the laws regarding printing, and by vendors in selling and distributing prohibited material; to receive reports from surgeons concerning the nature of wounds which they had treated; to take cognizance of all offenders found "en flagrant delit, en fait de Police," to judge their case summarily and alone (except in cases in which corporal punishment was involved), and 113 to report the results to the présidial; and, in general, to see to the enforcement of all the ordinances and regulations pertaining to the police. The lieutenant de police was expected to accomplish all of this without innovating or doing things which would prejudice the rights or jurisdictions of the lieutenant criminel, the lieutenant particulier, or the procureur du Roi at the Châtelet, nor of the prévôt des marchands and échevins of the municipality of Paris. The commissaires, huissiers and sergents of the Châtelet, as well as the chevalier du guet, lieutenant criminel de robe-courte, and the prévôt de 1 * Ile were all expected to execute the orders of both the lieutenant civil and the lieutenant de police; and the citizens of the city were requested to lend their assistance whenever it was required. The lieutenant de police was to have his headquarters in the chambre civil of the Châtelet where he would receive the reports of the commissaires and summarily judge all police matters. The lieutenant de police also had at his disposal another small office chamber in the Châtelet. The rights, honors, and prerogatives of both the new lieutenants were to be the same as those formerly attached to the office of the lieutenant civil. They both were to be received into their charges in ceremonies at the Parlement of Paris. Finally, the King reserved the right to make both appointments as he saw fit. The edict, given at Saint-Germain- en-Laye in March 1667, was registered in the Parlement of Paris on the fifteenth of the same month.

The lieutenant de police had inherited a long list of admini­ strative duties defined historically by the experience of the 114 lieutenants civils. But whereas the lieutenants civils had divided their time before 1667 between judicial and administrative respon­ sibilities (and tending to favor the former for the remuneration that could be expected from litigation), the new lieutenant de police was expected to devote most of his energy to administrative responsibilities,

True, he was a judicial magistrate inasmuch as he sat in judgment of certain police matters at the Châtelet and on occasion headed special judicial commissions and even donned the robe and bonnet of a magis­ trate. Most of his time, however, was spent in the role of royal administrator with "la fonction et connoissance de la Police géné'rale."^^ He provided the king and his ministers with information about the capital and then enforced the decisions they made on the basis of that information. He amplified or refined existing regula­ tions governing life in the capital through the issuance of ordonnances and sentences given in his name.

On occasion, the ordonnances of the lieutenant de police were extended to apply to the entire kingdom. Difficulties and disorders encountered in attempting to provision Paris sparked one such extension shortly after the creation of the office. An arrêt in April 1667 ordered that the ordinances of the lieutenant de police regarding the

In an arrêt du conseil of April 14, 1667, the bailli du Palais and "tous autres juges" were warned not to "trouble" the lieutenant de police and the officers of the Châtelet in the exer­ cise of their police function. Reprinted in Delamare, Traite de la Police, I, 149. More on the role of the lieutenant général de police during the ancien regime can be found in Marc Chassaigne, La lieutenance générale de police de Paris (Paris, 1906). 115

35 provisionnent of Paris were to be executed everywhere in the kingdom.

In 1674 the Châtelet was reorganized. In February of that year, the king, after considering "les incommoditez que le grand nombre des

Justices Subalternes, qui font dans notre bonne Ville de Paris, cause

à ses Habitans, par les conflits, que l ’incertitude de leurs limites,

S la prévention des Officiers de notre Châtelet font souvent naître," reunited and incorporated into the Châtelet the jurisdictions of all the seigneurial justices and the bailli du Palais. At the same time he created a new siege présidial de la prévôté et vicomté— that is, a new

Châtelet— with the same power, authority, and prerogatives of the older

Châtelet. The officer corps of the new Châtelet was a duplication of the older corps. The territorial limits of the jurisdictions of the two Châtelets were divided by the Seine. The new Châtelet was re­ sponsible for the bridges, the islands, and the territory south of the river. The division applied initially to police activities as well as to justice.The basics of the new arrangement lasted ten years.

However, the division of jurisdiction in police matters was ended soon after it began by an edict of April 1674. Why? The edict explained:

Comme la Police, qui à pour object principal la sûreté tranquillité, subsistance, § commodité des Habitans,

7C Arrêt du conseil of April 21, 1667. Reprinted in Delamare, Traité de la Police, I, 149.

^^The edit, given at Versailles, is reprinted in ibid., pp. 124-125; also, in Isambert, Anciennes lois, XIX, 129-132. Further regulations concerning the temporary division of the Chatelet are contained in another edict given at Versailles in August 1674. See Delamare, Traité de la Police, I, 126-127; also, Isambert, Anciennes lois, XIX, 140-144. 116

doit être générale S uniforme dans toute l'étendue de notre dite Ville, S qu'elle ne pourroit y être divisée § partagée, sans que le Public en reçût un notable préjudice.37

The two charges of lieutenants de police which had been

created— one for each of the Châtelets— were incorporated into one;

and the officer who exercised the single charge was to have competence

in police matters in both Châtelets. The title of the office was

changed to suit the purpose; and, Nicolas de la Reynie, who had held

the office from its creation in 1667 was subsequently referred to in royal documents as the lieutenant général de police de notre bonne

70 Ville, Prévôté ^ Vicomté de Paris.

In further recognition of the necessity of uniformity in police matters, another edict was issued which reduced the number of newly created commissaires to seven, and then united them with thepreviously

existing forty-eight commissaires, so as to compose "tout ensemble un seul Corps § Communauté [pour exercer] indistinctement leurs fonctions dans toute l'étendue de notre bonne Ville de Paris dans les ressorts de l'un S de l'autre Siege Présidial, S de la Prévôté § Victomtë de 39 ladite Ville." In September, 1684, the entire reorganization was

37 Given at Versailles, April 18, 1674. Reprinted in Delamare, Traité de la Police, I, 150. 38 The King always referred to Paris in official royal documents as "notre bonne Ville." (Privately, of course, he may have referred to the capital in other terms.) Otherwise, the title of the office that Le Reynie and his successors held was that of lieutenant général de police de la Ville, Prévôté et Vicomté de Paris. 39 Given at Auxerre, April 23, 1674. Reprinted in Delamare, Traité de la Police, I, 150-151. 117 reversed when the new Chatelet was suppressed as a separate jurisdic­ tion. Many of the new officers, however, were incorporated into the parent Chatelet. The edict reuniting the jurisdiction which had been split for ten years cited the multitude of inconveniences and the con­ fusion that was caused in the administration of justice as reasons for the reunification.^^ 41 Gabriel Nicolas de La Reynie, the man first chosen to be the police chief of Paris in 1667, held the post for almost thirty years.

He was born in Limoges in 1625 and was a member of an established family of the robe. His grandfather had been First President of the

Parlement of Bourgogne and then a member of the Conseil prive du Roi; his father had been a conseiller du Roi in the présidial court of

Limoges.

As a young man Gabriel Nicolas studied in Bordeaux where he subsequently became a lawyer. Upon his marriage to the daughter of a lawyer in the Parlement of Bordeaux in 1645, he received the fief of

La Reynie (hence the name by which he was commonly known) as a wedding gift from his father.

After being attached to the présidial court at Angouleme for a year, he returned to Bordeaux in 1646 and, at the age of twenty-one.

^^Given at Versailles, September, 1684. Reprinted in ibid., p. 128. 41 On La Reynie, the most useful printed works are: Jacques Saint-Germain, La Reynie et la police au grand siècle (Paris, 1962); Clément, Police sous Louis XIV; and, Julien Vergne, Gabriel-Nicolas de La Reynie premier lieutenant général de police de Paris, 1667-1697 (Paris, 1953). Much of what remains of La Reynie's correspondence and papers are housed in the Bibliothèque Nationale and the Archives Nationales in Paris. 118 debuted in the magistrature in the capacity of President of the sénéchaussée and présidial of Guyenne. During the strife of the civil wars known as the Frondes, La Reynie adamantly supported the cause of the King and led the présidial court in opposition to the

Parlement of Bordeaux and the supporters of the Prince of Condé. For his support of the royal cause, he earned the esteem of the Due d'Epernon, royal governor of Guyenne, and the Comte d'Argenson, royal intendant of the region. When the frondeurs gained the upper hand in the area, La Reynie was forced to seek refuge with Epernon; and, in the face of continued violence, both men were forced to leave

Bordeaux. After calm was restored in Guyenne, La Reynie did not stay in Bordeaux but accompanied Epernon, who had been appointed governor of Bourgogne, to his new post. La Reynie remained close to the duke and became his personal intendant; and, after Epernon's death in 1660, he became the executor of the duke's estate.

From at least 1657, Epernon had recommended La Reynie to

Cardinal Mazarin for service in the royal bureaucracy. With support from Epernon's friends, particularly Chancellor Séguier, La Reynie was able to purchase such a position as a maître des requêtes in 1661.

In this capacity he became one of Colbert's counselors in financial and economic matters. Colbert himself had just become one of Louis

XIV's three chief ministers following Fouquet's disgrace in 1661; and as he rose in prominence. La Reynie assumed important duties as one of his trusted serviteurs. Among other things. La Reynie prepared dossiers for Colbert concerning commercial affairs and the tax farms. 119

In 1665, La Reynie became a member of the conseil de justice, a council set up largely through the efforts of Colbert for the purpose of reforming justice in France. La Reynie's work on the council was 42 related to matters concerning the nobility and justice. At the same time, he was being groomed by Colbert to be a sort of controller- general of port cities and to carry out a reform of the admiralty.

However, shortly before undertaking this latter mission, the disorderly situation in Paris caused a change in plans. It had become necessary to give more attention to police matters in the wake of two events which caused a considerable uproar in the capital. First, the lieutenant criminel and his wife were murdered in their hôtel near the Palais; and, secondly, the lieutenant civil was also murdered, poisoned by his own wife in a foreshadowing of the famous affaire des poisons.

In the wake of these murders and other disorders in Paris, a conseil de police was created to assess the situation. La Reynie assisted at the meetings; and when the council decided to create the separate office of lieutenant de police, Colbert proposed La Reynie for the post. La Reynie was forty-one years old when he became the police chief of Paris in March 1667; and, he was seventy-one when he finally retired in January 1697. During nearly three decades in office, he established himself as one of the most important and powerful ad­ ministrative officials in Paris. The fact that he assumed the far-

On La Reynie's work on the council, see: "Procès-verbal des conferences tenues devant Louis XIV pour la reformation de la justice," Colbert, Lettres, VI, 369-391. 120 ranging police functions which had accrued to the Chatelet over the centuries was enough to insure his importance. But the fact that he had the confidence of the King and ministers and reported to them directly made him the instrument and symbol of their immediate author­ ity in Paris--and this made him powerful.

During the 1670*s there was a general increase in the number of specific affairs (including some very delicate ones) which the King and ministers entrusted to the hands of the lieutenant général de police. La Reynie's most recent biographer has pointed to the police chief's handling of the case of high treason against the Chevalier de

Rohan during the latter part of 1674 as the point at which La Reynie emerged "vraiment apprécié et distingué.Earlier in 1674, when the government was doubling charges and selling the new offices to finance a war with the Dutch, the importance of La Reynie and the of­ fice which he held were made evident; the second office of lieutenant de police was among the first to be suppressed, and La Reynie remained the singular police chief of Paris. It would, however, be a mistake to regard La Reynie as an all-powerful figure in Parisian life— even though his omnipresence made him seem so. Despite the support of the royal court, the lieutenant de police had to share power with other officials--notably, parlementarians, municipal officers, and seigneurs- who participated in the administration of Parisian life, and indeed exercised, or at least fancied themselves as exercising police powers.

^^Saint-Germain, La Reynie, p. 333. See also, Clément, Police sous Louis XIV, pp. 150-166. 121

Then too, the new police chief was never well received by the judges of the Chatelet, who at times could be as much a hindrance as a help in enforcing the laws in Paris. The edict of 1667 had pointed out that justice and police were often incompatible and too complicated to be exercised by one man; yet, the separation of the two powers did not carry with it the formula for compatibility and co-operation between the judges (particularly the lieutenant civil) and the police chief.

Moreover, the lieutenant de police himself exercised judicial functions both at the Chatelet and in extraordinary royal judicial commissions.

During his long tenure in office. La Reynie was personally in­ volved in investigating, correcting, safeguarding, and administering innumerable aspects of the public and private lives of the Parisians.

He was an exceptional administrator, or, as Pierre Clément-put it:

"il était de la race des administrateurs dont le nom mérite de 44 survivre." Not only did the city itself need a chief police ad­ ministrator, but the men who policed the city and its environs needed one as well. The police force of Paris during the reign of Louis

XIV, as throughout the ancien regime, was actually a disparate collec­ tion of long-established companies of men who performed specific police functions in certain areas of the city at certain times of the day and night. La Reynie worked to remold the various groups of police into a more efficient force responsive to his directives and to the needs of effective law enforcement. He worked to regularize the duties and to

44 Ibid., p. 326. 122

increase the financial remuneration of the police. He arbitrated con­

flicts between the various groups within the total police force; and, he appointed inspectors to watch over the police themselves. When there were jurisdictional conflicts with other institutions, most notably the Hotel de Ville, he acted as the spokesman for the police at­ tached to the Chatelet; and he personally presented the arguments of the

Chatelet to the Parlement of Paris (usually to the First President of the court).

La Reynie carried out the government's plan for installing street lighting in the capital (the first anywhere in Europe) and en­ forced the regulations concerning street cleaning. He promoted the service for hauling away mud, rubbish and filth (les boues et les immodices). He acted to calm the public during fires, floods, famines

(distributing bread to the poor as during 1692-1694) , epidemics and other catastrophes; and, he oversaw the enforcement of public health regulations.

The maintenance of order in Paris was always one of La Reynie's primary tasks. The police under his direction were perpetually in pursuit of murderers, thieves, duellers, crooks, and all perpetrators of crime, violence, and other disorders in the capital. In this, they were never lacking for people to chase. Lackeys, soldiers, and vaga­ bonds, in particular, were among those who frequently disturbed the peace in Paris and consequently were subject to constant police

scrutiny.

La Reynie worked to insure the continuous provisionment of 123

Paris with foodstuffs and other necessities. He enforced the regula­ tions regarding the sale of every sort of commodity. Moreover, he con­ tinually: monitored the communities of artisans, manufacturers, and merchants; enforced gambling and sumptuary laws; tried to maintain a modicum of order in the theaters; tried to eliminate prostitution and vice; inspected the prisons and hospitals; suppressed forbidden works and libels; pursued speculators, swindlers, counterfeiters, charlatans, magicians, and sorcerers; and, also acted as the enforcer of government regulations against French Protestants, or Huguenots.

The supervision of this last activity, which was not provided for in the edict of 1667, came about as a result of the revocation of the Edict of Nantes in 1685; and it serves to illustrate how the lieutenant general de police could become an object of ministerial politics. La Reynie was primarily accountable for his activities to the minister who was charged with the administration of Paris (the secretaire d ' Etat de la Maison du Roi— a position filled in succession during La Reynie's tenure by Jean-Baptiste Colbert, Colbert de

Seignelay, and Louis Phêlèpeaux de Pontchantrain). However, he had contact with and took orders from all of the secretaries of state who, as a result of their individual responsibilities, had a vital interest in Parisian affairs; and, at times, he was seemingly the political ally of one and then another. Until the 1680's La Reynie was closely allied with the Colberts; but, during the 1680's, he gravitated more and more towards the Le Tellier clan, and in particular towards the

Marquis de Louvois with whom he collaborated closely in the affaire 124 des poisons. The enforcement of the Edict of 1685 against the Pro­ testants provoked an incident which demonstrated the struggle for

influence in which the lieutenant general de police sometimes found himself entangled. In this case, the struggle was between Colbert de

Seignelay and Louvois, and at another level between the lieutenant civil of the Châtelet, the procureur général of the Parlement, and the

lieutenant général de police. The Marquis de Sourches described it in his Mémoires ;

Comme les affaires qui la [religion prétendue reformée] regardoient étoient presque les seules qui donnassent alors quelques mouvements aux ministres, ceux de chaque faction essayaient de s'en attirer le soin et le détail. M. de Seignelay, qui, par sa charge de secrétaire d'État de l'Ile-de-France, devoit, selon les apparences, se mêler des huguenots de la ville de Paris, et qui n'étoit plus le protecteur de M. de La Reynie, lieutenant général de police de Paris, depuis qu'il s'étoit jeté dans les* intérêts de M. de Louvois, atoit résolu de lui ôter l'inspection des affaires des huguenots de Paris, pour la donner à M. Le Camus, lieutenant civil, ennemi mortel de M. de La Reynie. Pour cet effet, il avoit obligé le Roi à donner une lettre de cachet, par laquelle il attribuoit à M. Le Camus toutes les affaires qui regardoient les huguenots de Paris, et il s'étoit mis effectivement en possession de cette commission considérable. M. de Harlay, procureur général du parlement de Paris, ennemi mortel de M. Le Camus, ne put souffrir cette préférence. Il vint trouver M. de Louvois, avec lequel il avoit de grandes liaisons, lui représenta le tort que l'on faisoit à M. de La Reynie, parce qu'il étoit attaché à ses intérêts, et que M. de Seignelay triomphoit et mettoit M. Le Camus sur le pinacle. M. de Louvois convint avec lui de faire son possible pour détrôner M. Le Camus ; et en même temps M. le procureur général alla trouver le Roi et lui insinua adroitement, entre beaucoup d'autres choses, que c'étoit faire un tort signalé à M. de La Reynie que de lui ôter la commission des huguenots, qui étoit un veritable fait de police, et qu'assurément il s'en acquitteroit pour le moins aussi bien que M. Le Camus. Comme ils en raisonnoient encore, M. de Louvois, qui avoit donne rendez-vous chez le Roi à M. le procureur général, entra dans le cabinet et, se mêlant dans la conversation, appuya le sentiment de M. le procureur général si fortement, que le Roi sur-le-champ lui fit expédier un ordre par lequel il attribuoit la connoissance des affaires des 125

huguenots à M. de La Reynie, avec defense â M, Le Camus de s'en mêler à l ' a v e n i r . 45

La Reynie remained in office until 1697 developing the areas of compe­ tency, the authority, and the prestige of the office which he filled.

At the age of seventy-one he was finally eased out of office, though by no means disgracefully, in favor of a younger man who was closely allied to the Phelypeaux de Ponchartrain family. He then continued to serve the government in the capacity of a conseiller d'Etat until his death in 1709.

Commenting in his Mémoires about La Reynie's retirement, Saint-

Simon wrote of the first lieutenant général de police in eulogizing fashion. He described him as being

si connu pour avoir tiré le premier, la charge le lieutenant de police de Paris de son bas état naturel pour en faire une sorte de ministère, et fort important par la confiance directe du Roi, les relations continuelles avec la cour et le nombre des choses dont il se mêle et où il peut servir ou nuire infiniment aux gens les plus considérables, et en mille manières, obtint enfin . . . la permission de quitter un si pénible emploi, qu'il avoit le premier ennobli par l'équité la modestie et le désinteréssement avec lequel il 1 'avoit rempli, sans se relâcher de la plus grande exactitude, ni faire de mal que le moins et le plus rarement qu'il étoit possible: aussi étoit-ce un homme d'une grande vertu et d'une grande capacité, qui, dans une place qu'il avoit pour ainsi dire créée, devoit s'attirer la haine publique, s'acquit pourtant l'estime universelle.46

The work begun by La Reynie was carried on by his successor.

^^December 13, 1685. Louis Francois du Bouchet, marquis de Sourches, Mémoires, ed. by Gabriel-Jules Cosnac and Arthur Bertrand, 13 vols. (Paris, 1882-1893), I, 343-344.

^^Louis de Rouvroy, due de Saint-Simon, Mémoires, ed.by Arthur de Boislisle, 43 vols. (Paris, 1879-1930), IV, 10-12. 126

Marc-Renê de Voyer de Paulmy d'Argenson, another of the imposing ad­

ministrators which the reign of Louis XIV produced.

Police Personnel

During the reign of Louis XIV, the lieutenants généraux de police were assisted in the task of policing Paris by several groups

of police personnel, most of whom were associated in one way or another with the Châtelet. The most important of these groups was the com­ missaires -enquêteurs et examinateurs (known simply as commissaires)

of the Châtelet. The commissaires were the primary representatives of

that institution in each of the quarters of Paris.There were ordi­ narily about forty-eight commissaires for the entire city during Louis's reign, with anywhere from two to six commissaires in each quarter.

They were required to live in the quarter of the city in which they worked; and their homes served as their everyday offices. This was very important since it provided police patrols and ordinary citizens with a place in each neighborhood where they could quickly go to seek

aid, to report crimes, or to discuss any matter which might require

47 On the commissaires of the Châtelet, a basic source is Nicolas Delamare, himself a commissaire for forty years. Besides the material contained throughout his Traité de la Police (and, especially, in the section on "Des conseillers-commissaires-enqueteurs 5 examina­ teurs," I, 202-240), information on the commissaires can be found among Delaware's collected papers at the Bibliothèque Nationale, especially in the volumes on the "Commissaires au Chatelet," Mss. Français 21580-21584. Also, on the commissaires, see: Desraaze, Châtelet, pp. 130-140, 164-199; M. Salle, Traité des fonctions, droits et privileges des commissaires au Chatelet de Paris, 2 vols. (Paris, 1759); and, Chassaigne, Lieutenance generale, pp. 163-196. 127 police or judicial attention. It also meant that the commissaires

were an invaluable source of information about their respective

neighborhoods.

The commissaires were required to be available anytime, day

or night, to conduct investigations, to take testimony, or to solve

disputes. The senior commissaire in each quarter exercised an "in­

spection générale" over his quarter; and the junior commissaires were

required to keep him constantly informed about any problems in their

neighborhoods. If the problems were serious, then the lieutenant

général de police was informed. Each Monday, at eight o'clock in the morning, the commissaires in each quarter met in the house of the

senior commissaire to confer on the preceding week's problems. Every

two weeks, all of the commissaires in each quarter, assisted by their 48 huissiers (police officers), made a general inspection of their

quarter; and, on the first day of each month, all of the commissaires

in Paris assembled at the Chatelet to confer together on police

matters. The functions of the commissaires were innumerable, particu­

larly as they served as the chief civil, criminal, and police investi­

gators for the lieutenants with those attributions at the Chatelet.

48 The huissiers attached to the Chatelet were only one type of police officer or guard who carried that occupational designation in Paris. Alfred Franklin, Dictionnaire historique, pp. 392-393, lists over twenty other groups which had the title huissier. Most of these groups were attached to various courts in Paris as ushers, beadles, or security officers; others served the Maison du Roi. Since sergents and huissiers were practically synonymous terms in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, the list of these occupational designations could be lengthened even more. 128

Theoretically, their police functions came above all else. In their own regulations, drawn up in 1688, the first article read:

Que chacun d'eux tiendra la main, dans l ’étendue de son quartier ou département, avec exactitude et probité, à 1 'execution des ordonnances, arrests et règlemens de police, préferablement à toutes autres affaires et fonctions.49

In brief, the commissaires, according to Delamare, were from

the time of the earliest French Kings, the oculi Magistratum, the

eyes of the magistrates. Thus, he continued, "tout ce qui tombe sous

la Jurisdiction du Magistrat de Police, tout ce qui est soumis à ses decisions S à son Tribunal, doit être l'objet des soins des Commis­

saires, la matière de leur inspection; ê ce font eux, aux termes des

Règlemens, qui en doivent avoir la premiere connoissance."^^

The police duties of the commissaires had developed over the centuries along with those of the chief magistrates whom they served.

Historically, they made certain that the citizens heard and observed

laws and ordinances. They tried to see to it that nothing was under­ taken, or even spoken, against the King or the public welfare. They worked to maintain good order and discipline in all things: insuring

that dissolute persons were kept under control, that vagabonds were

49 Desmaze, Chatelet, p. 180.

^^Delamare, Traité de la Police, I, 220. The commissaires unfortunately did not always perform their police functions well. At times they seemed more concerned with obtaining the fees received from performing certain duties, such as affixing seals on the be­ longings of dead persons; and, their enthusiasm for police matters derived as much from the percentage of financial remuneration (usu­ ally one-quarter) they received when fines were levied against offenders as from a spirit of public-mindedness. 129

chased, that the needy were protected, and that honest people were assured of peace and security. They investigated all abuses, malversa­

tions, and crimes; and, moreover, they arrested the guilty, and pre­ pared the evidence necessary to have them punished. They interrogated offenders caught in the act of committing crimes. They prevented the

carrying of forbidden arms. They kept a close watch on foreigners.

They visited marketplaces and tried to procure provisions needed by

the citizens and attempted to prevent fraud in the quality and price of goods. They particularly watched over grains, bread, meat, and wine.

They also oversaw the paving and cleaning of streets. And these were only their general duties!

Delamare noted that the commissaires were obliged to undertake

a long list of more specific duties which had been defined in official acts in the course of the centuries.These duties were distributed

among the major areas of police concerns that Delamare had already

defined.

In the realm of religion, the commissaires were expected to make certain that Sundays and feast-days were properly observed, that

there was no commerce or servile work carried out on these days, that

cabarets and tennis courts were closed, and that bateleurs (acrobats,

jugglers, etc.) and all other public spectacles ceased during religious

services. If they learned of irreverencies or other scandalous

troubles at religious services, they were to have the offenders

S^Ibid., pp. 220-228. 130 arrested; and, if the offenses were serious, they were to inform the

"Magistrate" (i.e., the lieutenant general de police). They were to enforce the prohibition against the sale of meat during Lent, and were to visit the hôtelleries, auberges, and cabarets to see that the 52 abstinence was observed there. They had the task of seeing that streets were clean, hung with tapestry, and remained tranquil during general religious processions. Blasphemers, diviners, prognosticators, sorcerers, and magicians were to be arrested and interrogated by them.

All the edicts against heretics were to be enforced by them. They were expected to be on guard against books and libels against the

Catholic religion, as well as against books that were suspect because they were printed without permission. Such books were to be reported to the lieutenant'général de police. If he ordered the works sup­ pressed, then they were to be seized and delivered to a cartonnier

(cardboard manufacturer) who, in the presence of the commissaires, was to dispose of them in a vat of water or crush them to a pulp. In order to discover such books, the commissaires were expected to visit imprimeries (printing establishments) frequently. If they discovered the authors of the illegal works, they were to send them to the lieutenant général de police. The distributors of the works ("comme 53 ce sont ordinairement gens vils S dont 1 'evasion est à craindre")

52 During Lent, meat could only be sold legally in five butcher shops and only to the sick and infirm who had a doctor's certificate and a dispensation from the Church. There was also a ban on the sale of eggs. Various ordinances dealing with these bans are reprinted in ibid., pp. 389-392.

^^I b id., p. 221. 131 were to be arrested, interrogated, and the evidence against them pre­ sented by the commissaires.

The commissaires had the duty of inspecting to see that the edicts concerning the Protestants were being observed. Moreover, in this regard, they were obliged to go to the homes of Protestants who were close to death in order to receive their final declarations as well as to determine if they wished to see a Catholic priest before they died. Two commissaires were charged with seeking and suppressing all books dealing with the Protestant religion. The commissaires were responsible for enforcing the provisions of the edict of October 1685 which revoked the Edict of Nantes and "les autres Edits de tolerance."

In this, they had to prevent Protestant religious assemblies; they had to make certain that children were baptized in the Catholic Church and then raised in the Catholic religion. They had to prevent Pro­ testants from leaving the kingdom without permission; and, they had to see to it that persons returning from foreign countries made a ' 54 declaration of faith.

In the area of morals, the commissaires had the duty of seeing to the enforcement of all the edicts and regulations against

The edit, given at Fontainebleau, is reprinted in ibid., pp. 319-321; also in Isambert, Anciennes lois, XIX, 530-534. The demolition of all Protestant churches (or. Temples, as they were called) was one of the provisions of the edict; and, Delamare himself, under orders from La Reynie, presided (along with commissaires Le Page and L'Abbê) over the destruction of the famous Protestant temple at Charenton. The procès-verbal made by the commissaires following the demolition which lasted from October 22 to 27, 1685, is recorded in Delamare, Traité de la Police, I, 321-322. 132 extravagance, unsanctioned spectacles, dissolute songs, illicit games, and establishments of debauchery and prostitution. In this, they were to "inspect" their respective quarters in order to receive complaints, opinions, and denunciations. If the need arose, they could have of­ fenders imprisoned pending a judgment at a police hearing.

With regard to provisions, the responsibilities of the com­ missaires consisted of two main points: "procurer l'abondance [des vivres] § maintenir la bonne foy dans ceux qui en font le commerce: car de-lâ il s'ensuivra toujours qu'ils feront à juste prix 5 de bonne qualité.This meant guarding against the sale of merchandise before it reached the markets, as well as against the hoarding or holding back of merchandise in the hopes of higher prices. It meant preventing monopolies, illicit societies, and black market dealings in foodstuffs which circumvented the laws concerning the time limits

(in many cases one day) placed on the sale of such items. It meant preventing the sale of spoiled goods and the use of false weights and measures. To accomplish this, the commissaires were expected to make frequent inspections of the establishments of persons who sold food­ stuffs. Very careful inspections were to be made in respect to grains and bread in times of want. The commissaires were even expected to go into the provinces for this purpose when commissioned to do so. In­ formation concerning contraventions of the regulations was to be given promptly to the chief police magistrate. The commissaires were

S^Ibid., p. 222. 133 to see to the execution of the sentences and ordonnances of the magis­ trate. They were also required to distribute confiscated grain to the poor and to assure the transport of as much grain as possible to Paris.

In the field of public health, the commissaires served in both a precautionary and remedial capacity. As Delamare noted: "la salubrité de l'air, la pureté de l'eau, la bonté des alimens S des remedes, sont les objects immédiats de tous ces soins.In this, the commissaires were expected to enforce the regulations concerning street- cleaning, waste disposal, water pollution, the quality of foodstuffs and medical remedies, and to aid in the prevention of epidemics.

The commissaires were expected to play a major role in the maintenance of public order. Most importantly, this meant preventing crimes and other types of anti-social behavior, or investigating them once they had occurred. To accomplish this, the commissaires were expected: to enforce the laws against the carrying of weapons; to oblige aubergists to register guests and to inform police authorities of their presence; to seek out vagabonds and lock them up or chase them out of the city; and, to keep a close watch on soldiers. It also meant enforcing regulations designed to prevent personal injury acci­ dents. In this regard: animals were to be prevented from running

loose in the streets; holes and ditches in the streets were to be

covered; firearms were to be forbidden; and precautionary measures were to be taken to insure safety at construction sites.

S^ibid. 134

The public was expected to aid the commissaires in these

duties. The proprietors (such as cabaretiers, limonadiers, and paumiers) of public establishments were supposed to inform the com­ missaires of quarrels or violence in their respective establishments.

Doctors were supposed to assist by informing the commissaires of the wounds which they had treated. The municipal officials (quarteniers, 57 cinquanteniers, and dizainiers) and bourgeois of each quarter were expected to aid the commissaires by informing them immediately of crimes which came to their attention. Naturally, the police officers in each quarter were also obliged to report all crimes to the commissaires.

Once they had knowledge of a specific crime, or one which was planned, the commissaires were empowered to arrest the suspects, to interrogate them, and to conduct an investigation to establish the facts of the matter. The duties of the commissaires in the area of public security were endless. Delamare put it succinctly when he wrote:

rien ne se passe qui puisse troubler la tranquilitê public, qui ne soit de leur competence. Si un accident arrive, si une injure est proférée, une violence, un vol, un larcin, un homicide, un meurtre, un sacrilege; enfin que quelques fautes ou quelques crimes soient commis; la premiere pensée qui tombe dans l'esprit, § le premier remede qu'on met en usuage, c'est d'avoir recours à un Commissaire. 58

The duties of the commissaires with regard to the voirie

(building and street maintenance) were related to their security and

c? On the role of these municipal officials of the Hotel de Ville, see: Georges Picot, "Recherches sur les quartiniers, cinquanteniers, et dixainiers de la ville de Paris," Mémoires de la Société de l'Histoire de Paris et de l'Ile-de-France, I (1875), 132-166.

C O Delamare, Traité de la Police, I, 225. 135 public health duties. In the case of buildings, they tried to correct or prevent the dangers, particularly fire-related ones, arising from poor construction or deterioration. In the case of streets, they tried to insure cleanliness, security, and easy circulation.

The duties of the commissaires with regard to the arts and sciences consisted mainly in preventing the publication of works that did not have prior permission or privilege.

With regard to both commerce and the arts mécaniques, the commissaires were concerned, as in the case of provisions, with as­ suring adequate supplies, honesty in transactions, and order and discipline in the various professions.

As another area of their duties, the commissaires were expected to keep a watchful eye on the conduct and the affairs of servants and domestics in order to maintain "la sûreté publique," le repos des familles, S la protection qui est dûe aux gens de biens réduits dans la servitude, ou par leur naissance, ou par l'état de 59 leur fortune."

With regard to the poor, the duties of the commissaires were reducible to several points. They were expected; to take a hand in facilitating the capture of mendicants by the police officers of the

Hôpital Général; to investigate able-bodied persons who were mendicants only by reason of libertinage; to prevent persons who provided lodgings from taking in vagabonds or laborers who could not produce a cer-

^^Ibid., p. 227. 136 tificate of employment from their master or shop foremen; to send sickly paupers to the Hotel Dieu, and abandoned children to La Couche

(also known as the Enfants Trouvés); and, to use their influence with the chief of police to obtain relief for the "honest" poor who sought their help.

The commissaires of the Chatelet were assisted in their daily tasks by groups of uniformed officers who were attached to the Chatelet as huissiers or sergents (the terms were practically synonymous at the end of the seventeenth century).The huissiers ordinarily fulfilled a variety of functions for the Chatelet by carrying out the orders of the chief magistrates and functionaries of the institution. They per­ formed the actual tasks of delivering writs, making arrests, guarding prisoners, seizing goods, conducting searches, and affixing the seal of the Chatelet. They were divided into several communities of which two, the sergents a verge (or, à pied) and the huissiers à cheval, provided members specifically designated to assist the commissaires in le service de la police. They manned twelve police barrières (police guard posts) in various parts of the city and also assisted the jurés

(administrators) of the arts et métiers in their inspections.^^ Each year the sergents à verge provided 180 members from among their total

^^On the huissiers and sergents, see: Desmaze, Chatelet, pp. 200-235.

^^The twelve police barrières served as stationery posts at which police officers could be located in time of need. According to La Caille's Description de Paris, passim, they were situated at the following locations: in the Place du Marche-Neuf on the lie du Palais, the present-day lie de la Cité (Quartier de la Cité); on the 137 company of 236 members for this police duty; the huissiers à cheval provided 80 members of their total company of 130 members for the same service. Ultimately, they too, like the commissaires, were respon­ sible for executing the directives of the lieutenant general de police.

In 1708, during a period in which many offices were being created and sold to raise revenue, the commissaires were provided with more police assistance when the King created offices for forty new inspecteurs de police. The edict setting up the offices noted that the surest means of maintaining public security and tranquility was to have more officers to enforce police regulations. For this purpose, the forty new officers were designated to work for the commissaires in each quarter of Paris, and to have "inspection sur le nettoyement des rues, les lanternes et lumières publiques et sur tout ce qui concerne les reglemens de police.

While the commissaires were required to make themselves avail­ able at night if serious problems arose, the duty of policing Paris

Pont Marie (Quartier de la Cite); next to the Grand Chatelet (Quartier de Saint-Jacques de la Boucherie); on the Quay de la Megisserie, by the steps leading from the Pont Neuf (Quartier de Sainte-Opportune); on the Rue Saint Honoré, near the Rue des Petits Champs (Quartier du Louvre ou de Saint-Germain-1'Auxerrois); at the Pointe de Saint- Eustache (Quartier des Halles); on the Rue Greneta (Quartier de Saint- Denis); in the Place du Cimetière de Saint Jean (Quartier de la Grève); on the Rue de Saint Antoine, near Les Jésuites (Quartier de Saint- Antoine); in the Place Maubert, near the fountain (Quartier de la Place Maubert); next to the Petit Chatelet, on the Rue de Petit Pont (Quartier de Saint-Benoît); and, at the end of the Rues des Boucheries, de Buffy, and du Four, near the Marche de Sainte Marguerite (Quartier du Luxembourg).

^^Franklin, Dictionnaire historique, p. 400; Chassaigne, Lieutenance générale, pp. 197-234. 138

after dark was mainly the province of the guet (night-patrol or night- watch) This company of uniformed police, under the command of the

chevalier du guet, was composed primarily of a captain, four

lieutenants, a standard-bearer, eight exempts (adjutants), fifty archers £ cheval (mounted police), eight sergents de commandement

(sergeants), and a hundred hommes de pied (or, archers a pied, that

is, foot patrolmen whose number was increased to two hundred men each year between October 20 and April). At the beginning of each evening,

the members of the guet assembled at the Chatelet and were divided up

into four or five squads to patrol the streets in each quarter of the city until the early morning hours. Armed with pistols and carrying

lanterns, the guet marched in search of all manner of criminals and disturbers of the peace. Those whom they arrested were led, either

immediately or by the next day, to the Chatelet where the chevalier du guet had the right to sit as a magistrate in their cases.

Until 1701 the guet only patrolled until two o'clock in the morning, after which the city was left to fend for itself. During

1701 the company was reorganized so that part of the force patrolled

from midnight until daybreak, thus providing all night protection.

Earlier, in 1698, the company established a permanent police post at

the Left Bank entrance to the Pont Neuf where citizens could be sure of

On the guet, see: Delamare, Traité de la Police, I, 254-266; Boislisle, Mémoire, p. 202; Chassaigne, Lieutenance générale, pp. 256-259. Part of the correspondence between the chevalier du guet and the secretaire d * Etat du Maison du roi can be found in the Archives Nationales, série 0 ^ , and in the Bibliothèque Nationale, Mss. Français 8119-8125. 139 finding immediate police aid (as opposed to trying to locate the roving patrols), and where patrols could send for reinforcements if they dis­ covered danger they could not handle themselves.

The guet, though a distinct company of police, worked closely with the commissaires of the Chatelet and the lieutenant général de police whose directives they were expected to enforce. In fact, both

La Reynie and D'Argenson had at least one of the exempts du guet permanently assigned to them as an aide and liaison.

Yet another group of police attached to the Châtelet was the 64 company of the lieutenant criminel de robe-courte. This company was created in 1526 to assist in the pursuit of vagabonds, ruffians, and criminals. Besides the lieutenant himself, the force was comprised in 1700 of four lieutenants, seven exempts, and a hundred archers (who were also huissiers at the Chatelet). The lieutenant criminel de robe- courte, like the chevalier du guet and the lieutenant général de police, was a magistrate as well as a police commander. The criminal ordinance of 1670 gave him cognizance of crimes committed by vagabonds, soldiers, army deserters, and rioters.As his jurisdiction was concurrent with that of the lieutenant criminel (the chief criminal magistrate at the

The role of the lieutenant criminel de robe-courte and his company are described in: Delamare, Traite de la Police, I, 249-254; and, Boislisle, Mémoire, p. 202. Part of the lieutenant’s corres­ pondence may be found in the sources cited in fn. 63.

^^Title I, article 12 of the Ordonnance criminelle, given at Saint-Germain-en-Laye, August, 1670; see, Isambert, Anciennes lois, XVIII, 374. 140

Châtelet), and as his functions overlapped those of the commissaires, he had numerous conflicts and contestations with these other officers of the Châtelet. An edict in 1691 attempted to regulate the respon­ sibilities of the lieutenant criminel and the lieutenant criminel de robe-courte by giving the former a certain preference in contested cases; but, as in so many other instances of jurisdictional dispute, the distinctions were not clear enough to end the difficulties. In fact, the last article of the edict, perhaps in anticipation of con­ tinued problems, delegated the Parlement of Paris to be the arbiter of disputes.

La Reynie tried to eliminate the conflicts which resulted from the overlapping police functions of the company of the lieutenant criminel de robe-courte and the commissaires of the Châtelet by ar­ ranging to have most of the force of the former assigned to police duty in the faubourgs of Paris rather than in the quartiers of the city proper. The lieutenant criminel de robe-courte and his company, like the other police groups, were also responsible for executing the directives of the lieutenant general de police; and at least one exempt of the company was assigned as a permanent aide to the police chief.

The task of policing the environs of Paris was the duty of the maréchaussée (constabulary) known as the company of the prévôt

Edit, given at Versailles, January 1691. Reprinted in Delamare, Traité de la Police, I, 252-253.

^^Saint-Germain, La Reynie, pp. 58-59. 141 general de l'Ile-de-France.^^ Technically, this company was attached to the jurisdiction of the connetablie et maréchaussée dé France which was charged with ordinary military justice as well as with the control of vagabonds and brigands in the countryside throughout France. The company of the Ile-de-France consisted in 1700 of the prévôt, four lieutenants, eight exempts, and a hundred archers (of which thirty-five were mounted on horses) divided into seven brigades. The members of this company ordinarily resided in the villages around Paris and constantly made patrols on the highways in the area around the capital.

The prévôt général de 1 'Ile-de-France, like the chevalier du guet, the lieutenant criminel de robe-courte, and the lieutenant général de police, was a magistrate as well as a police commander (and in this case a military commander); and he thus had a deliberative voice at the Châtelet in matters in which his company was involved. He and his company, like the other groups which performed police functions in

Paris and vicinity, were expected to carry out the orders of the lieutenant général de police; and, one or two of the exempts of the company were usually assigned as permanent aides to the lieutenant général.

In all, approximately 750 men (850 in winter) drawn from six groups--the commissaires, inspecteurs de police, and sergents and huissiers of the Châtelet; the guet; the company of the lieutenant

On the prévôt de 1 'Ile (as he was commonly referred to) and his company, see: Delamare, Traité de la Police, I, 266-274; and, Boislisle, Mémoire, p. 198. 142 criminel de robe-courte; and the company of the prévôt général de 1 * Ile de France— whose activities were co-ordinated (though not always suc­ cessfully) by the lieutenant général de police, and all of whom were in some way affiliated with the Chatelet, constituted the basic police force of Paris during the reign of Louis XIV. They were by no means, however, the only persons who performed police-type functions in

Paris; a number of other groups did so as well. Among these were: the archers des pauvres who were attached to the Hôpital Général and charged with the task of rounding up vagabonds and beggars and leading them to the Hôpital; the 300 archers de la ville who were attached to the Hôtel de Ville to do the bidding of the municipality of Paris; and, the 120 huissiers, priseurs, vendeurs de biens meubles who carried out court-ordered seizures and sales of goods. There were also many contrôleurs and inspecteurs who oversaw commerce and manufacturing, and many huissiers who carried out the orders of all the various courts located in Paris. There were also several thousand soldiers attached to the military branch of the Maison du Roi stationed in and around

Paris who could be called on to act as police auxiliaries— that is, when they were not causing a ruckus themselves. These troops were regularly used by the lieutenant général de police to maintain order at large annual fairs such as those of Saint Germain and Saint Laurent.

More importantly, they were used to protect food supplies and maintain order in the marketplaces of Paris during periods of scarcity. Then too, the list of police auxiliaries would not be complete without mentioning that there existed an acknowledged but indeterminable number 143 of police spys, known as mouches, who provided the police with informa- 69 tion (or, misinformation) for a price.

The term mouches was even recognized and utilized in police reports, as for instance in lieutenant general de police d'Argenson's letter to Secretary of State Pontchartrain in January 1701 requesting reimbursement for one of his officers for his expenditures for "ses mouches (pour parler selon les termes de l'art)." Bibliothèque Nationale, Ms. Français 8120, fol. 5r. CHAPTER III

FROM SWORD TO ROBE: THE CASE OF THE VOYER DE PAULMY

D'ARGENSON FAMILY

Family Origins

One of the hallmarks of the French nobility in the ancien regime was the unceasing concern of its members for the privileges and honors of their families. These privileges could include, among other things: honneurs of the court, admission to the Ordres du Roi and royal schools, exemption from certain taxes (most notably the taille), and permission to display armoiries. The degree or generation to which a family was noble was a prime consideration in determining the extent of its privileges.^ The most privileged and prestigious noble

As the noted historian-genealogist, Francois Bluche, has pointed out concerning the verifications of the proofs of nobility: "Les preuves françaises étaient généralement faites par justification de degrés ou generations, et non de quartiers, de noblesse. . . . [Et] si, en France, . . . l'on compte par degrés et non par quartiers, ce n'est point là une distinction subtile à l'usage des généalogistes, mais une characteristique de 1 'histoire des classes supérieures françaises: la preuve par degrés correspond à un pays ou s'est toujours pratiquée la mesalliance." L'Origine des magistrats du Parlement de Paris au XVlll^ siècle (Paris, 1956), pp. 22-23. In recent years the whole question of orders, privileges, honors, etc., in the context of the social structure of the ancien régime, has been taken up by Roland Mousnier in many of his works, including: Problems de stratification sociale: actes du colloques international (1966) (Paris, 1968); Les hierarchies sociales de 1450 a nos jours

144 145

families generally had long and distinguished histories and genealogies.

By the end of the seventeenth century, however, social privilege and honor were practically all that remained to most families of the landed nobility of the sword (1^ noblesse d'epee). The political powers which

they had exercised in former times were gone; the last violent gasp had

come at mid-century during the Frondes. Effective political power in the state, though far from absolute, rested in the hands of the central power: the King and his conseils.

The social composition of the Conseil du Roi (a term used to denote all of the primary councils of the King) had already been pro­ foundly modified during the course of the wars of religion as the hommes d'epee gradually stopped attending council meetings and left their places on the various conseils to the robins (who themselves were generally ennobled by holding royal offices or positions in the sovereign courts of law). Thus, the men who participated in the exercise of power during the reign of Louis XIV were almost always magisterial servants of the royal bureaucracy whose families originally derived their nobility from the charges of office that they had 2 acquired. One of the few old noble families which successfully made

(Paris, 1969); "Les concepts d'ordres, d'états, de fidélité, et de ^ monarchie absolue en France de la fin du XV® siècle a la fin du XVIII ," Revue historique (April-June 1972), 289-312; Les institutions de la France sous la monarchie absolue 1598-1789 (Paris, 1974); and. Recherches sur la stratification sociale à Paris aux XVII® et XVIII^ siècles: L'échantillon de 1654, 1655, 1636 (Paris, 1976). 2 The results of the recent research on the social composition of the Conseil du Roi which led to these conclusions were published by Roland Mousnier and his students in Le Conseil du Roi de Louis XII à la 146 the transition from sword to robe and placed several members in the

Revolution (Paris, 1970), an indispensable work based on extensive use of genealogical sources. Other works, equally important for an under­ standing of the conseils, include: Michel Antoine, Le Conseil du Roi sous le règne de Louis XV (Geneva, 1970); Arthur de Boislisle, "Les Conseils sous Louis XIV," in the appendices of his edition of the Mémoires de Saint-Simon, 43 vols. (Paris, 1879-1930), IV, 377-439; V, 437-482; VI, 477-512; VII, 405-444; Roland Mousnier, "Le Conseil du Roi de la mort de Henri IV au gouvernement personnel de Louis XIV," [1947], republished in Mousnier, La plume, la faucille et le marteau (Paris, 1970), pp. 141-178; and, the Almanach Royal [from 1700]. In principle, the Conseil du Roi was one council, with members being chosen at the King's pleasure. In practice, the wide diversity of state affairs caused the conseil to be divided into several parts, also referred to as conseils. The names and competencies of these conseils changed several times before systematization was imposed by Louis XIV during the 1660's and 1670's, after which the system remained basically unchanged until the Revolution of 1789. During the reign of Louis XIV the councils of primary importance were: the Conseil d ’en Haut, the Conseil royal des Finances, the Conseil des Dépêches, and the Conseil d'Etat privé. Finances et Direction (ou. Conseil des Parties). The Conseil d'en Haut, consisting of the King and his chief ministers (en titre), rarely numbering more than four or five, was the pre-eminent council which considered matters of the greatest importance and urgency. The Conseil des Dépêches con­ sidered matters dealing with the internal administration of France, usually on the basis of information received from the intendants. Its members included the King, the Chancellor, the chief ministers, the Control1er-General of Finances, the head of the Council of Finances, and on occasion, conseillers d'Etat. The Conseil royal des Finances considered revenue and budgetary matters : it was a conseil technique which dealt, in great part, with the administration of taxation. Its members included the King, the Controller-General of Finances, the head of the Council of Finances (a council which coexisted with the more important Conseil royal), and two conseillers d'Etat. The Conseil d'Etat privé. Finance et Direction (ou. Conseil des Parties) handled a wide variety of judicial and administrative matters which included acting as a high court of appeals, as well as drafting the édits, ordonnances, arrets, and lettres decided upon in all the various councils. The king was only symbolically present in this council: his empty armchair held the position of importance at the head of the council table. Members who attended the council meetings included: the Chancellor, the dues et pairs, the ministers, the Controller- General of Finances, and magistrates, such as the conseillers d'Etat, the maîtres des requêtes, and the intendants des finances. The work of the councils was prepared by permanent bureaux where conseillers d'Etat (usually about thirty in number). 147 grands emplois, as ambassadors, conseillers d'Etat, gardes des sceaux, and ministres d'Etat in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries was the Voyer de Paulmy d'Argenson family.

The Voyer de Paulmy family (d'Argenson being added to the family name in the sixteenth century) was descended from a very old line of the noblesse d'epee which traced its historical and geographical origins to the province of Touraine, where it possessed from "time 3 immemorial" the property of Paulmy. Tradition carried the family origins back in time beyond the point where the parchment and wax seals had disappeared. According to provincial and familial tradition, the family was founded by a wise and brave Greek chevalier who arrived in

France about 877, during the reign of Charles the Bald, and aided the

French monarch in repulsing the Norman incursions in Touraine. As recounted by François de Belleforest, in the famous sixteenth-century

commissioned each year by the Chancellor, examined reports. For each matter to be discussed, a maître des requêtes (of which there were usually about eighty) was designated as rapporteur. The bureaux then presented the reports for the councils to decide upon (Mousnier, Conseil, p. 9). 3 Paulmy is presently a commune in the canton of Le Grand- Pressigny, arrondissement of Loches, and département of Indre-et- Loire. The property and its history are described in: J.-X. Carré de Busserolle, Dictionnaire géographique, historique et biographique d'Indre-et-Loire et de l'ancienne province de Touraine, Mémoires de la Société Archéologique de Tourain, 7 vols. (Tours, 1878-1888), XXXI, 25-35 (Busserolle also provides a bibliography of manuscript and printed sources); François de Belleforest, La cosmographie universelle de tout le monde. . . (Paris, 1575), Livre II, 34-42 (includes a double-folio engraving of the Château de Paulmy in the sixteenth century); and, André Duchesne, Les Antiquitez et recherches des villes, chasteaux et places plus remarquables de toute la France (Paris, 1647 [1609]), pp. 527-528. 148 work La cosmographie universelle, the Voyer family

suyvant l'ancienne mémoire des Chartres de Paulmy, est sortie d'vn Chevalier fort sage, S vaillant, § Grec de nation nommé Basile, les aieux duquel estoyent iadis passez en Grece de la France vers laquelle il retourna repeupler sa race. . . . Ce Basile estoit fort vaillant G redoubté aux armes, lequel eut credit soubs le Roy Charles le Chauve.4

At least one eighteenth-century author, Duprat, relying heavily on the accounts of prior historians, occasionally on documents from monasteries and abbeys in Touraine, and on "les archives de la Maison de Paulmy," drew up a lengthy genealogy of the family delineating a practically unbroken succession of generations from Basile de Voyer to Marc-René de Voyer de Paulmy, marquis d'Argenson (in fact, he claimed there were "dix-huit generations successives de masle en masle" 5 from the mid-twelfth to the early eighteenth century). Of course.

4 Belleforest, La cosmographie universelle. Livre II, 36. Belleforest gives a somewhat similar account in: Les Grandes Annales et histoire générale de France, des la venue dès Francs en Gaule, jusques au règne du Roy très-chrétien Henry III (Paris, 1579), II, 290a-290b.

^Bibliothèque de l'Arsenal, Ms. 4161, fol. 15v. Duprat's work consists of two parts: a 114-page genealogical history of the Voyer d'Argenson family, and a slightly longer section entitled "Parallèle de la noblesse romaine et de la noblesse françoise, par lequel on prouve que la noblesse est inherente aux offices de la magistrature souveraine des son institution, suivant la loy de l'Etat et les moeurs du royaume. ..." The entire work was aimed at grand siècle writers who criticized those members of the nobility who assumed positions in the magistrature. In Duprat's own words: "Les critiques prétendent que la Magistrature est d'autant moins compatible avec la Noblesse, qu'elle luy est absolument étrangère, c'est le précis de leur Système; l'Objet de ce Parallèle est d'en faire voir le faux dans toutes ses parties" (fol. 4). Naturally, Duprat found the Voyer d'Argenson family to be a superb example of the excellent results that could occur when the old nobility became magistrates. 149

Duprat may be suspected of having reviewed the medieval evidence in a more credulous than critical fashion, particularly inasmuch as his adulatory genealogy was addressed to Marc-Rene de Voyer de Paulmy, marquis d ’Argenson.

Although medieval documents make mention of several Voyers, at least one of whom had the titles chevalier and seigneur,^ the direct line of descendance cannot be traced with certainty until the end of the fourteenth century. From 1374 there exists a continuous line

of seigneurs with the name Voyer de Paulmy. The first among these is Phelippon de Voyer, ecuyer, sire de Paulmy, who left docu- 7 mentary traces in 1374, 1382, 1398, and 1399. In the course of the next century and a half, five generations of the Voyer de Paulmy family tended to the seigneurie and Chateau de Paulmy (which was twice sacked-- once by the English and once by the Calvinists) while faithfully g serving the crown of France in war and peace.

On the first Friday after Quasimodo in April 1244, Etienne de Voyer (following the Latin; Stephani Vigerii, militis domini de Paulmiz) used his seal (which was two lions, one over the other— thus, similar to the later family arms) on a donation made by his wife to the Abbaye de Notre-Dame-de-Beaugerais. Cited in the Bibliothèque Nationale, Cabinet des Titres, Ms. Chërin 210, Voyer (4210), fol. 2; also, in ibid., Ms. Carres d ’Hozier 643, fol. 152r-v (this latter source contains a copy in Latin from the original on parchment). Michel de Marolles stated in his mémoires that he discovered this document in his abbey at Beaugeraisl Mémoires de Michel de Marolles, Abbe de Villeoin (Amsterdam, 1755 [1656-1657]), I, 161-162.

^Bibliothèque Nationale, Cabinet des Titres, Ms. Carrés d ’Hozier 643, fols. 157-162. g Including Phelippon, they were headed in succession by: Jean Voyer, Pierre Voyer, Pierre II Voyer, and Jean II Voyer. The most useful records, genealogies, and other historical notices concerning 150

Jean de Voyer (the third to carry this name), ecuyer, seigneur de Paulmy, d'Argenson, et de la Roche de Cannes, chevalier de l'ordre du Roi, gentilhomme ordinaire de sa chambre, who died in 1571, had acquired the title vicomte for his heirs in recognition of the finan­ cial aid he had given to the Due d'Anjou, brother of the king, during the civil wars in France. Earlier in his life he had served the crown at the battle of Pavie in 1525 and the battle of Cerisoles in 1536.^

Through his marriage in 1538 to Jeanne Gueffault, heiress of the seigneurie of Argenson, he had added to the family domain the land

these generations, as well as the successive generations of the Voyer du Paulmy d'Argenson family (until the 1720's) can be found in: the Bibliothèque Nationale, Cabinet des Titres, Ms. Chérin 210, Voyer (4210), fols. 2-19v; ibid., Ms. Carres d'Hozier 643, fols. 152-380; ibid., Ms. Carres d'Hozier 644, fols. 1-92; ibid., Ms. Dossier Bleu 678, Voyer, fols. 11-98; ibid., Ms. Nouveau d'Hozier 12, D'Argenson (230); ibid., Ms. Nouveau d'Hozier 336, Voyer (5829); ibid., Ms. Pieces Originales 89, Argenson (1863); ibid., Ms. Pieces Originales 3041, Voyer (67,429); and ibid., Ms. Nouvelles Acquisitions Françaises 9722, fols. 152-155. Among the most useful printed sources are: Père Anselme, P. Ange, and M. du Fourny, Histoire généalogique et chronologique de la Maison Royale de France . . ., 3d éd., 9 vols. (Paris, 1725-1733), VI, 592-604; Louis-Pierre d'Hozier and Antoine Marie d'Hozier de Serigny, Armorial général de la France, 10 vols. (Paris, 1738-1768), I, 643-645; Grand Armorial de France, edited, in part, by Henri Jougla de Morenas, 7 vols. (Paris, 1934-1952), VI, 498; Louis Morêri, Le grand dictionnaire historique . . ., new éd., 10 vols. (Paris, 1759), X, 706-713; Michaud, Biographie universelle, ancienne et moderne, 2d éd., 45 vols. (Paris, 1843-1865), XLIV, 141-158; Ferdinand Hoefer, Nouvelle biographie universelle, 46 vols. (Paris, 1852-1866), III, 120-125; J. Balteau, M. Barroux, M. Prévost, and J. C. Roman d'Amat, Diction­ naire de biographie française, 12 vols, to date (Paris, 1932- ), III, 527-559; and, "Notice historique et généalogique sur la maison Voyer de Paulmy, marquis d'Argenson," Annuaire de la pairie et de la noblesse de France et des maisons souveraines de l'Europe, 6 vols. (Paris, 1843-1848), VI.

^Père Anselme, Histoire généalogique, VI, 596-597. 151

from which the famous cadet branch of the family took its title.It was the younger of his two sons, Pierre, who first took the separate

title--seigneur d'Argenson.

Pierre de Voyer, ecuyer, seigneur de la Bailloliere et d'Argenson, following the death of his elder brother in 1586, was

appointed bailli du pays et duché de Touraine. In serving the crown he commanded the nobility of Touraine at the siege of Amiens in 1598;

later, in 1614, he assembled the Estates of the province of Touraine at Tours. Among the honors he held were those of chevalier de l'ordre du Roi, gentilhomme ordinaire de sa chambre, and conseiller de Sa

Majesté. During the instability of the Regency of Marie de Medici,

Pierre de Voyer found it necessary to seek an arrêt du conseil d'Etat

in order to obtain his wages as bailli of Touraine (which were at the 11 12 rate of 272 livres per year); however, he died in 1616, before the issue was settled, and it was not until 1626, following patient legal work by his son René, an avocat, that the family was finally reimbursed.

Argenson was located in the commune of Maillé, canton of Sainte-Maure-de-Touraine, arrondissement of Chinon, and département of Indre-et-Loire. A brief history (and bibliography) may be found in: Carré de Busserolle, Dictionnaire géographique, . . . de Touraine, XXVII, 56. î 1 Bibliothèque Nationale, Cabinet des Titres, Ms. Cherin 210, Voyer (4210), fol. 6v.

12 s The."Epitaphe de Pierre de Voyer d'Argenson à Saint-Nicolas- du-Chardonnet à Paris," and his blason colorée, are contained in the Bibliothèque Nationale, Ms. Français 32,351, pp. 61-65. 152

René de Voyer d'Argenson

^13 V René de Voyer, seigneur d'Argenson, de la Baillolière et de Chastres en Touraine, et de Veuil-le-Mesnil en Berry, maître des requêtes, conseiller d'Etat, and ambassador of the King to Venice, b o m in 1596, was the eldest son of Pierre de Voyer and Elisabeth

Hurault, niece of Chancellor Hurault de Cheverny. He was the first of this nobility of the sword family to don the magisterial robes. How­ ever, his career was such that Fontenelle later said: "il fut le premier Magistrat de son nom, mais presque sans quitter l'Epée."^^

After being received as avocat in the Parlement of Paris in

1615, he succeeded to the position of conseiller du Roi in the same court in 1619 following the resignation of Jean de Berulle, an uncle

13 In addition to the principal genealogical material already cited (see footnote 8), further information on René de Voyer d'Argenson can be found in: Marolles, Mémoires, Vol. Ill; Michel de Certeau, "D'Argenson et la religion," in Roland Mousnier (ed.). Lettres et mémoires adressés au chancelier Séguier (1655-1649), 2 vols. (Paris, 1964), I, 85-111; and, also, in Certeau, "Politique et mystique: René d'Argenson (1596-1651)," Revue d'ascétique et de mystique, Toulouse, no. 155 (Jan.-Mar., 1965), 45-82. (Both of these articles have excellent bibliographies); Pierre Duparc, ed.. Recueil des instructions données aux ambassadeurs et ministres de France depuis les traités de Westphalie jusqu'à la Révolution française. Vol. XXVI, Venise (Paris, 1958); Alfred Barbier, Notice biographie sur René de Voyer d'Argenson, intendant d'armée du Poitou, ambassadeur a Venise (1596-1651) (Poitiers, 1885); and. Bibliothèque de l'Arsenal, Ms. 8591, "Recueil des negotiations de messieurs d'Argenson, père et fils, ministres de Sa Majesté très chrétienne en Italie et ambassadeurs auprès de la republique de Venise, tiré des Histoires d'Italie de Jérôme Brusoni et traduit de l'italien par l'abbé Duhamel avec des remarques," fols. 55-79v.

[Fontenelle], "Eloge de M. D'Argenson," Histoire de l'Académie royale des sciences, année MDCCXXI (Paris, 1723), pp. 99-108. 153

to whom he was related by marriage. In this capacity he held a seat

as a commissaire in the second chambre de requêtes. In July 1622

the young parlementarian married damoiselle Hélène de la Font,

daughter of a secretary of the King.^^ During the next six years,

René became a conseiller d'Etat (1625), and mâitre des requêtes

ordinaire (1628), thus acquiring two charges all but indispensable

for advancement in the royal bureaucracy. From that time until his

death he carried out one royal commission after another in the service

of the King, during the ministerial ascendencies of Richelieu and

Mazarin.

After assisting at the siege of La Rochelle, he was successively:

supervisor of the demolition of the citadel and fortifications of the

town of Bergerac (1629); intendant of Dauphine and adjacent areas

(1630), administering them and supplying the army of Marshal Schomberg

for the war in Italy and Savoy; intendant de justice, police et

finances for the provinces of Berry, Touraine, Angoumois, Limosin,

Haute et Basse Marche, and Haute et Basse Auvergne (1632), performing

his functions under the governorship of the Prince de Condé; intendant

of Saintonge and Poitou (1633), overseeing the razing of the Chateau

d'Aubusson in la Marche; supervisor for the demolition of several

more chateaux and fortifications in Auvergne and Bourbonnois. In

1635 Louis XIII made him intendant of one of the armies that he

personally commanded. However, an illness made the King's command of

^^Archives Nationales, Ms. Y 167, fol. 146v-147v, contrat de mariage, July 17, 1622. 154

the army rather short-lived. In 1636, D'Argenson was made intendant of

the army commanded by Marshal de la Force; and, in 1637, he was made

intendant of the army of Italy. He was named conseiller d'Etat

semestre in 1638 in consideration of the services and diverse charges

he had successively undertaken. In the same year he sold the charge

of maître des requêtes for 150,000 livres; but, he retained the honors of the position through lettres d'honneur dated 26 January

1639.

D'Argenson returned to Italy in 1640 as intendant de l'armée.

Misfortune befell him, however, when he was captured by Spanish troops and imprisoned in the Chateau de Milan until a large ransom was paid.

A deeply religious person, he occupied his time in captivity by trans­

lating the Imitation de Jesus-Christ, and by writing a work of his ^ 17 own, the Traite de la sagesse chrétienne.

Following his release from prison, he held a series of com­ missions during the 1640's. In 1641 he was sent by Richelieu to

Catalonia to negotiate with the Catalans who were in revolt against

the Spanish. After the cardinal-minister's death, D'Argenson re­ turned to France and was again named conseiller d'Etat (1643) in

recognition of his services. At the same time he obtained the charge of grand bailli de Touraine, an office previously held by his father.

^Bibliothèque Nationale, Cabinet des Titres, Ms. Cherin 210, Voyer (4210), fol. 7. 17 The full title is Traicte de la sagesse chrestienne ou de la riche science de l'uniformité aux volontez de Dieu (Paris, 1651). 155 and which had become vacant upon the death of the marquis de Cinq-Mars 18 d'Effiat. In 1644 he returned to the area between the Loire and

Garonne Rivers as intendant of the provinces of Poitou, Saintonge and

Angoumois, as well as the coastal area of Aunis, the elections of

Saintes and Cognac, and part of the généralité of Bordeaux. In 1646 he was sent as plenipotentiary to act conjointly with Prince Thomas of Savoy and the Marquis de Brezé in negotiating treaties with the pope, the grand duke of Tuscany, and other Italian princes. At the same time, he was made surintendant of the army under Prince Thomas.

Following these duties, D'Argenson was assigned, in 1647, to assist as a commissaire of the King at the assembly of the Estates of the province of Languedoc. In 1649, during the early stages of the Frondes, he attempted to mediate the conflict between the Due d'Epernon, governor of Guyenne, and the Parlement of Bordeaux.

The high point of René D'Argenson's exeraplative administrative career came in 1650 when he was chosen to be the French ambassador to

Venice during the troubled period in which the Venetian Republic was embroiled in a war with the Turks, He was accompanied to Venice by his oldest son, also named René, who was designated to be his suc­ cessor. Ironically, D'Argenson never had the opportunity to formally present his credentials as ambassador, for he fell ill shortly after his arrival in Venice and died less than a month later on July 14,

1651.

18 D'Argenson passed the charge on to his third son, Pierre de Voyer, vicomte d'Argenson, who later became governeur-general of Nouve11e-France. 156

Besides being a dedicated royal bureaucrat, Rene D'Argenson was a devoted Christian, and was closely associated with the twilight flowering of French spiritualism in the seventeenth century. He was a dévot (as the deeply pious persons of the era were known), an author and translator of religious works, and one of the very active members 19 of the Compagnie du Saint-Sacrement. Between the time of his ap­ pointment as ambassador to Venice, in June 1650, and his arrival there, in June 1651, D'Argenson took the final step in dedicating himself to his religion by embracing the ecclesiastical state as a priest. This was possible because his wife had died several years earlier.

Faithful servant of his country and his church, D'Argenson was no less zealous in advancing his family's fortunes and providing for his posterity. Perhaps he himself made the quintessential state­ ment of his life's purpose in his testament in which he expressed the hope of giving his eldest son the

moyen de soutenir le nom et la maison par un dessein juste de bon père de famille qui désire de les conserver affin que Dieu soit servi par ceux qui le suivront comme il l'a esté par ceux qui l'ont précédé et qui ont aymé Dieu et leurs Roys sans se detacher jamais de la bonne Religion et de l'obéissance qui leur est due par tous les vrays chrétiens.20

The means of carrying on the family tradition consisted in leaving the

19 His activities in this clandestine organization were re­ corded by his son, René II, de Voyer D'Argenson, in: Annales de la Compagnie du Saint-Sacrement, edited by H. Beauchet-Filleau (Marseille, 1900). 20 Archives Nationales, Minutier Central, Ms. étude LXIV, liasse 92, testament (original), September 6, 1651. 157

eldest son the largest proportion of the family wealth which totaled over 600,000 livres (gross, not minus debts). This wealth derived

from a variety of possessions. The familial lands of Argenson,

Baillolière, Chastres, Veuil-le-Mesnil, la Loyre and Moulay were valued at nearly 300,000 livres. In Paris, the family owned two hotels, one on Vieille Rue du Temple (parish of Saint-Gervais) which contained a

large quantity of silverplate, and the other on Rue du Pouliers (parish

of Saint-Germain-1’Auxerrois). A further 150,000 livres came from in­ heritances left by D'Argenson’s wife and her parents. Even before he had made out his testament D ’Argenson had assured his eldest son the lion’s

share of the family wealth. In a donation (deed of gift) dated

January 2, 1649 he gave his eldest heir the family seigneuries of

Argenson, Baillolière, Chastres, and Veuil-le-Mesnil, as well as the hôtel on Vieille Rue du Temple in Paris and some 36,000 livres in 21 rentes. René II was also the beneficiary of a donation made by his

22 uncle, Claude de Voyer, who promised him 90,970 livres.

René II de Voyer D ’Argenson

At the time of his father’s death, René II de Voyer D'Argenson had already been provided with the stepping-stones to a position of

greatness. Unfortunately, he failed to take advantage of his

^^Archives Nationales, Ms. V 186, fol. 395; cf. Bibliothèque Nationale, Cabinet des Titres, Ms. Chérin 210, Voyer (4210), fol. 7.

^^Archives Nationales, Ms. Y 186, fol. 229, donation, April 15, 1648. 158 opportunities and lived out the last four decades of his life in almost total obscurity. 23 Rene II de Voyer, comte d'Argenson et de Rouffiac, baron de

Veuil-le-Mesnil, Chastelain de Plassac, seigneur de la Baillolière et de Selligny, maître des requêtes, conseiller d'Etat, and ambassador to

Venice, was born at Blois on December 13, 1623. He was the first-born of René de Voyer d'Argenson and Hélène de la Font. Like his father, he began at an early age in the magistrature. At eighteen he was 24 conseiller to the Parlement of Rouen (worth 1,000 livres per year).

Two years later he was commissioned as intendant subdélégué under his father in Saintes and Cognac, and became full intendant there fol­ lowing his father's departure in 1646. In 1649 he acquired the charge 25 of maître des requêtes ordinaire for 157,564 livres. In the same year he received lettres patentes making him a conseiller d'Etat; and, in 1651 he became a conseiller d'Etat ordinaire, in short, he followed the pattern of offices previously held by his father— a situation not uncommon in the great administrative families of the seventeenth and

23 Besides the genealogical material already listed (in footnotes 8 and 12), specific information on René II de Voyer D'Argenson is located in: Bibliothèque de l'Arsenal, Ms. 4275, "Registre des principaux points de cérémonie arrivez dans l'ambassade de Monseigneur le comte d'Argenson fait par son secrétaire"; Archives Nationales, Minutier Central, Ms. étude LXXV, liasse 441, donation, September 26, 1699; Archives Nationales, Ms. Y 206, fol. 200v, donation, October 18, 1664; Bibliothèque de la Chambre des Députés, Ms. 345, fol. 311, and Ms. 347, fols. 186-187V.

^^Bibliothèque Nationale, Cabinet des Titres, Ms. Chérin 210, Voyer (4210), fol. 7.

^^Ibid. 159 eighteenth centuries.

René II was married in May 1650 to damoiselle Mauguerite

Houllier de la Poyade, daughter of the lieutenant général of Angouleme.

The following year he and his bride departed France for Venice. Before going, however, D ’Argenson sold his charge as maître des requêtes for 26 193,500 livres (thus realizing a handsome profit). Upon his father's death in July 1651, René II, only twenty-seven years of age, became

France's ambassador to Venice. He remained in this position until

1655, impressing the Venetians in a favorable way by freely spending the family fortune. The Doge and the Senate of the Serene Republic paid their respects to the ambassador by giving him the right to add the winged-lion of Saint Mark (heraldic emblem of Venice) to the arms 27 of the Voyer d'Argenson family.

As pleasing as D'Argenson may have been to the Venetians, he did not equally well satisfy the court of France. The increasing disfavor with which he was viewed by Mazarin and Colbert was apparently

^^Ibid. 27 V Bibliothèque de l'Arsenal, Ms. 4275; Archives Nationales, Ms. M 616, no. 20, "Extrait des titres produits par haut et puissant Sgr Mre Antoine-René de Voyer, marquis d'Argenson . . . [1757]." With the new edition, the D'Argenson family arms were: "Ecartelé au prêmier § quatrième d'Azur, à deux Lions léopardés d'Or, passans l'un au-dessus de l'autre, langues, ongles 6 couronnés de Gueules, qui est de VOYER. Au deux S troisième, d'Argent, a une fasce de sable, qui est de GUEFFAULT, S sur le tout d'Azur, à un Lion ailé d'Or, assis, S tenant sous sa patte un Livre d'Argent ouvert, qui sont les Armes de la Republique de Venise." D'Hozier, Armorial général de la France, I, 645. 160 due in great part to a sanctimonious preoccupation with religious piety which led his offended spirit to an unceasing criticism of the vices and foibles of some of les grands of France. In 1655, at the age of thirty-two, with much of the family fortune depleted, D ’Argenson re­ tired from public service and returned to France to live the last forty-five years of his life as a dévot. In his withdrawal from public life he found time for the religious and literary activities to which he was naturally inclined. Before his death in 1700 he wrote numerous religious works in prose and verse. The most famous of these works, the Annales de la Compagnie du Saint-Sacrement, provides the only known contemporary history of the secret organization of the dévots. This work, which D'Argenson prepared in 1694 and 1695, was presented in 1696 to Antoine de Noailles, Archbishop of Paris, in the hope that the aid of this powerful prelate of the church might be enlisted in a campaign to revive the Compagnie which had been banned 7Q by the King in the 1660's.

Apart from his religious activities, D'Argenson spent the re­ mainder of his life paying off creditors and trying to maintain at

28 Unfortunately, the Annales are practically all that remain of the writings of René II de Voyer D'Argenson. In fact, the greater part of the D'Argenson family papers, fifty-six volumes in all, covering the period 1630 to 1757, were lost as a result of the fife which destroyed the Bibliothèque du Louvre in 1871. For an account and a brief summary of the destroyed volumes, see: Louis Paris, Les manuscrits de la bibliothèque du Louvre: Brûlés dans la nuit du 23 au 24 mai 1871 sous le règne de la Commune (Paris, 1872), pp. 40-44. Curiously, the papers of Marc-René de Voyer d'Argenson were not among the family papers. It seems probable that they were destroyed by D'Argenson shortly before his death, or by his sons following his death. 161

29 least a semblance of the family prestige. He had attained the rank of comte in 1654 when the King had elevated some of the D'Argenson family lands to this dignity in recognition of the family's long history of loyal service to the crown. Following his retirement,

D'Argenson was also able to acquire lettres d'honneur as a former maître des requêtes.

In the three testaments which he drew up in 1668, 1679, and

1682, he attempted to render a justifying account of his life, and in doing so left a record of his thoughts about his misfortunes. In the first of these testaments he spoke of his ambassadorship:

j'ai fait l'entière dépense sans avoir été payé le mes appointements, [et cela] m'a poussé dans cet embarras, ainsi c'est à la dureté du siècle de qui je n'ai pas reçu justice,, et non pas à mes dissipations qu'il s'en faut prendre.30

In the second, a more embittered D'Argenson stated bluntly that the treatment he had received from the court had left him so few posses­ sions that what remained to the family belonged almost entirely to his 31 /V wife. In his third testament he revealed that he had sold the Hotel

29 It appears that his attempt to recoup some of his lost fortune led him to participate in at least one commercial venture, though his conscience was undoubtedly salved by the missionary motives involved. In September 1660, D'Argenson put up 1,000 livres in capital, and was named one of the directors of the Compagnie pour le voyage de la Chine, du Tonkin, et de la Cochinchine. The "Articles de la Compagnie" are found in the Archives Nationales, Colonies, Ms. C^ 8, fols. 7-23.

^^Bibliothèque Nationale, Cabinet des Titres, Ms. Carrés d'Hozier 644, fols. 4-8v, May 10,1668 [copied from the original testament].

^^Ibid., fols. 26-29V, February 18, 1679. 162 d'Argenson on the Rue des Pouliers in Paris for 196,000 livres which sufficed to pay his old debts; but, he was disappointed that the hotel had fetched only about half of its estimated value of around 400,000 32 livres.

A brief but pointed character portrait of Rene II d'Argenson was penned by his grandson, Rene-Louis de Voyer, marquis d'Argenson, a minister of state in the eighteenth century, who wrote in his Journal et Mémoires:

Mon aieul s'était ruiné dans l'ambassade de Venise, non pas précisément par la faute de l'emploi, mais par la sienne propre, et non pas encore par fautes qui le rendissent méprisable aucunement, mais il n'avait pas les vertus propres à la cour; il avait des parties pour l'ambassade, une très-belle figure, de l'esprit, du savoir et infiniment de vertu, et surtout du courage, mais il allait trop haut, il était fier, et avec cela grand dévot; il déplaisait aux gens du monde et surtout aux ministres avec qui il faut, même aux honnêtes gens, quelque sorte de souplesse; et, de plus, il n'eut aucun succès dans les négociations, d'abord par le hasard du temps, et puis parce qu'il était ce qu'on appelle un gros fin. Il m'a paru ainsi dans ses papiers d'ambassade que j'ai bien lus en les rangeant en ordre. . . . C'est qu'il sortit d'ambassade ruiné de fortune et de biens; il n'eut pas l'adresse de tires ses appointements de la cour; il paraissait se complaire à être maltraité; on ne gagne rien à la cour à ce personnage d'homme plaintif et malheureux. Il se fit détester par le cardinal Mazarin; ce fut bien pis sous Colbert: la devotion se mêlait de tout et lui servait a déclamer contre les vices des grands; sa hauteur fit que le roi meme le trouva insupportable.

The transition of the Voyer d'Argenson family from their tra­ ditional role as landed nobility of the sword into magisterial servants

^^Ibid., fols. 36r-v, 18 February 1682. 33 ^ ^ René-Louîs de Voyer, marquis d'Argenson, Journal et Mémoires, edited by E. J. B. Rathery, 9 vols. (Paris, 1859-1867), I, 1-2. . 163 of the growing royal bureaucracy, a change begun in the reign of Louis

XIII and continued during the Regency of the 1640's and 1650*s, did not fade away with the religious retreat of Rene II de Voyer d'Argenson, but was realized again in his descendants who provided France with several famous ministers of state. The resumption of the family's rise to power through the bureaucracy was carried on by René II's eldest son, Marc-Rene de Voyer de Paulmy d'Argenson.

Marc-Rene de Voyer de Paulmy d'Argenson

Marc-Rene de Voyer de Paulmy, marquis d'Argenson, vicomte de

Mouze, baron de Veuil-le-Mesnil, seigneur de la Bailloliere et de

Drache, maître des requêtes, conseiller d'Etat, lieutenant général de police ^ ^ ville, prévote, et vicomte ^ Paris, garde des sceaux de

France, and ministre d'Etat was b o m in Venice on November 4, 1652 , 34 during the ambassadorship of his father. He immediately received the best wishes of the Venetian Republic when the city of Venice itself

took the role of being his godmother, made him a chevalier of Saint

In addition to the material already cited (in footnote 8), specific genealogical sources dealing with Marc-Rene de Voyer de Paulmy d'Argenson can be found in: Bibliothèque Nationale, Ms. Clairambault 1174, fols. 135, 140-149; Bibliothèque Nationale, Ms. Français 32,139, fols. 833-836; Archives Nationales, Ms. M 616, no. 20, Among the printed works dealing with all, or part, of D'Argenson's life are: Pierre Clément, "D'Argenson," Portraits his­ toriques (Paris, 1855), pp. 175-232; Pierre Clément, La police sous Louis XIV, 2d ed. (Paris, 1866), pp. 330-397, 444-467; Jacques Saint- Germain, La vie quotidienne en France à la fin du grand siècle: d'après les archives, en partie inédits du lieutenant general de police Marc-Rene d'Argenson (Paris, 1965); and, Jacques Saint- Germain, "D'Argenson, lieutenant général de police sous Louis XIV," Revue des Deux Mondes, no. 15 (August 1, 1966), pp. 387-403. 164

Mark, and gave him in baptism the name of the city's evangelist 35 patron. This augury of good fortune which heralded a bright future was, however, not realized without a great deal of effort.

Since his father was in disgrace for a significant portion of his life and the family fortune was greatly diminished, Marc-Rene's entrance into public life in France was less than flamboyant. In keeping with the precedent established by his grandfather and father, he turned to the magistrature, and for a number of years occupied a post as avocat in the Parlement of Paris, serving as a substitut

(deputy) to the procureur general of the Parlement. Failing to make headway in the post, he left Paris and went to Touraine in order to, in the words of his son, "battre la campagne," for "il voulait servir.

However, he was unable to acquire any major office. Undoubtedly, the poor state of the family finances, coupled with his father's disgrace, lessened his chances. Then, in the 1670's, opportunity presented itself through the maternal side of the family. D'Argenson's mother.

Marguerite Houlier de la Poyade, comtesse d'Argenson, was the heiress of an old noblesse de cloche family. Her father, Helie Houlier de la

Poyade, was lieutenant général de sénéchaussée et siège présidial d'Angouleme; and, being rather advanced in years, he offered to pass on the office to his grandson. In 1679, D'Argenson, far from even the

35 V Described in the Bibliothèque de l'Arsenal, Ms. 4275; and, Archives Nationales, Ms. M 616, no. 20. The Prince de Soubise took the role of godfather to D'Argenson. 36 René-Louis d'Argenson, Journal et Mémoires, I, 5. 165 stepping-stones to greatness, assumed the position offered to him en survivance by his grandfather, who died shortly thereafter. For more than a decade he performed very credibly in the capacity of lieutenant general, but suffered from the obscurity that accompanied provincial 37 posts.

In the seventeenth century, almost any individual with the capacity and talent for administrative work could, with the right af­ filiations and sponsorship, rise very rapidly in the royal bureau­ cracy, particularly if his own family background was worthy of respect.

D'Argenson had administrative talent and a highly commendable family genealogy [despite his father's misfortunes); he lacked only the sponsorship of one of the great ministerial families, such as the

Colberts, Le Telliers, or Phelypeaux. His chance to acquire this third necessity came in 1688 when the Grands Jours were being held in his province. The exceptional quality of his reports was noticed by the itinerant investigators; and they were particularly well thought of by Lefevre de Caumartin, one of the members of the judicial commission. Caumartin, an amateur genealogist, was further impressed by D'Argenson's family lineage. More importantly for D'Argenson,

Caumartin was related to Louis Phelypeaux, comte de Pontchartrain, soon to be Controller-General of Finances, Secretary of State for the

37 D'Argenson did receive one honor during this period; he was named a chevalier des Ordres Notre-Dame du Mont-Carmel et de Saint- Lazare-de-Jerusalem in March, 1676. Bibliothèque Nationale, Ms. Français 31,796, fol. 62, Armorial general des ordres. . . . 166

38 Maison du Roi and the Marine, and eventually Chancellor of France.

A friendship sprang up between D'Argenson and Caumartin, and it proved to be most beneficial to the lieutenant general of Angoulême whose talent was choked by the narrow confines of jurisdiction in provincial officialdom. Caumartin persuaded D'Argenson to come to Paris to seek 39 the path to fame and fortune.

Once in the capital, Caumartin presented D'Argenson to Louis de Pontchartrain who was by this time the apparent balance to Colbert de Croissy in the King's Conseil d'en Haut, following the deaths of

Louvois (Le Tellier), Seignelay (Colbert), the demise of Claude Le Pele- tier (a cousin of the Le Telliers), and the failure of Barbezieux (Le

Tellier) to equal the standards of his father or grandfather.

Through Pontchartrain's influence, D'Argenson was appointed, in 1692, procureur général du Roi on the commission established to judge prizes taken at sea by French ships.The following year the D'Argenson and

Caumartin families were united by marriage when Marc-Rene espoused

Marguerite Lefevre de Caumartin, daughter of his benefactor/*^ In

38 - The relation between the Caumartin and the Phelypeaux families can be seen in the "Généalogie de la famille de messieurs Garault alliés aux Caumartin, [et] aux Phêlypeaux" in the Bibliothèque Nationale, Ms. Français 32,377. Saint-Simon refers to Lefèvre de Caumartin as "proche parent et ami particulier de Pontchartrain." Mémoires, IV, 5.

^^René-Louis d'Argenson, Journal et Mémoires, I, 9-11.

^^By arrêt du conseil, February 25, 1692.

*^See: Archives Nationales, Ms. Y 261, fol. 182; Archives Nationales, Ms. M 616, no. 20; and. Bibliothèque Nationale, Cabinet des Titres, Ms. Carrés d'Hozier 644, fol. 48r-v. 167

March 1694, D'Argenson was able to purchase an office as maître des requêtes, a position held before him by his father and grandfather, and a necessary step on the road to the grands emplois. According to his son, D'Argenson was so impressive in carrying out his tasks that

"M. de Pontchartrain le borgne [i.e., Jérôme Phelypeaux] étant reçu en survivance de son père pour la place de secretaire d'Etat de la marine, on lui donna mon père pour l'instruire."^^ This was the beginning of the long professional relationship between D'Argenson and the much younger Jérôme de Pontchartrain. (Later, Pontchartrain, in his capacity as Secretary of State for the Maison du Roi, was the man primarily responsible for the administration of Paris, and thus the man from whom D'Argenson, as head of the police of Paris, received most of his orders concerning the capital.) Although most of the records of their relationship before 1697 have been lost, it is possible to follow part of their contact in the registres of marine corres­ pondence which have survived.Almost all of the letters which remain for the period 1694 to 1697 were written by Jérôme Phêlypeaux; never­ theless, they are revealing because in the bulk of them Phêlypeaux was

^^Bibliothèque Nationale, Cabinet des Titres, Ms. Chérin 210, fol. 8v.

^^René-Louis d'Argenson, Journal et Mémoires, I, 10. 44 These registers of letters are located in the Archives de la Marine (Dépôt du Service historique de la Marine), stored in the Archives Nationales, Ms. b 2 95, 103, 104, 109, 112, 116. See also: Louis Delavaud, "Jérôme Phêlypeaux de Pontchartrain son education et ses premiers emplois, sa visite des ports de France en 1694, 1695 et 1696," Bulletin de la Société de Géographie de Rochefort, XXXIII (1911)1 14-32, 5V-/9, ll3-iZ3. 168 replying, sometimes point by point, to the advice and information that

D'Argenson had sent him. In them, one sees that Jérôme Phelypeaux, even this early in his career, had an insatiable desire to receive nouvelles and information. (In the years ahead, D'Argenson, as lieutenant général de police, would receive numerous urgent letters from Jérôme demanding more and more news.) He often chided D'Argenson with stinging little barbs: "je suis surpris de recevoir si peu souvent 45 de vos nouvelles"; or, "Je croyois trouver des nouvelles en arrivant icy mais je vois bien que vous n'estes guerre moins paresseux cette année que la précédente.Perhaps his remarks were meant to spur his adviser on to greater efforts; nevertheless, it seems that the complaints were of faults that never existed. Phêlypeaux himself wrote in late April 1695:

Je suis obligé de vous rende la Justice qui vous est due et de vous faire réparation d'honneur des reproches injustes que je vous ay fait car il faut avouer que vous estes l'homme de France le plus exact et le moins paresseux.47

Having demonstrated his administrative talent and zeal for work, D'Argenson was apparently being considered, during the second half of 1696, for a more important administrative post as an intendant when Gabriel Nicolas de La Reynie retired as lieutenant général de police of Paris after thirty years in that office. La Reynie was

45 2 Archives Nationales, Marine, Ms. B 95, fol. 40v, June 28, 1694.

^^Ibid., Ms. 103, fol. 38v, April 11, 1695.

^^Ibid., Ms. B^ 103, fol. 58v, April 29, 1695. 169 originally appointed to the post as head of the police of Paris in

1667, the year the office was created, by Jean-Baptiste Colbert, the grand Colbert. He had survived three decades of ministerial disputes because the King esteemed his ability, particularly in delicate matters such as the affaire des poisons, but by 1696 he was growing old for the rigors of a demanding office. The two Phêlypeaux de

Pontchartrain, well aware of the importance of the office, and not being entirely well-disposed toward the aging police chief, were suc- 48 cessful in arranging to have him eased out of office in January 1697.

Whereupon, D ’Argenson, with their firm backing, was installed as chief of the Paris police on January 29, 1697, a position he held for 49 nearly twenty-one years. The purchase price of the office was con- siderable--150,000 livres. However, the King accorded him a brevet d ’assurance for 100,000 livres against the cost of the charge.The other 50,000 livres necessary to pay for the acquisition of the office was apparently loaned to D ’Argenson by a Monsieur Fermé who was the collector of tailles in Angoulême.Eight years later, in 1705, the

48 On La Reynie, see: Jacques Saint-Germain, La Reynie; Pierre Clement, La police sous Louis XIV; Julien Vergne, Gabriel- Nicolas de la Reynie. 49 1 Archives Nationales, Ms. 0 41, fols. 16v-17v, Provisions de Lieutenant General de Police pour le Sr D ’Argenson, Versailles, January 29, 1697.

^^Ibid., fol. 18, Brevet d ’assurance, Versailles, January 29, 1697. 51 Rene-Louis d ’Argenson, Journal et Mémoires, I, 11. 170

King granted D'Argenson a brevet d'augmentation d'assurance for 50,000 livres, thus covering the entire original sum. The purpose, as ex­ pressed in the brevet, was that the King wished to give his lieutenant general de police

des marques de la satisfaction que Sa Majesté a des services qu'il [D'Argenson] rend depuis l'année 1697 en la charge de Lieutenant général de police avec toute la capacité, la fidélité et l'assiduitte que Sa Majesté peut desire. . . .

Ability, loyalty, and diligence characterized D'Argenson's career in the royal bureaucracy; and, in the course of the years, until his death in 1721, he periodically received indications of the satisfac­ tion with which he was regarded by the monarchs he served. In January

1700, by virtue of the "grands et recommandables services" he had rendered to the crown, D'Argenson saw the family properties in Touraine elevated to the status of a marquisat; henceforth, he himself carried S3 the title marquis d'Argenson. He received lettres d'honneur de maître des requêtes on 20 July 1703.^^ By arrêt du conseil dated

November 18, 1704, he was named as one of the commissioners of the fledgling conseil de commerce.He was made a conseiller d'Etat by

52 1 Archives Nationales, Ms. 0 49, fols. 8v-9, Brevet d'aug­ mentation d'assurance, Versailles, January 20, 1705. 53 Bibliothèque Nationale, Cabinet des Titres, Ms, Nouveau d'Hozier 12, Argenson (230], fols. 2-8v, Versailles, January 1700. See also: Archives Nationales, Ms. 616, no. 20, Lettres patentes du Roy, January 1700. 54 4 Archives Nationales, Ms. V 1502, fols. 17%v-173r.

^^The conseil de commerce was established by the King following the arrêt du conseil of June 29, 1700. D'Argenson made his first ap­ pearance at a council meeting on January 14, 1705 (Archives Nationales, 171 lettres dated 10 June 1709, and took his oath before Chancellor Louis de Pontchartrain on the 21st of the same month.

For his greatest honors, D'Argenson had to wait until the

Regency following the death of Louis XIV in 1715. His success during this period was undoubtedly due, in part, to his close alliance with 57 the Regent, Philippe, due d'Orleans. While continuing to hold the charge of lieutenant general de police, D'Argenson was privy to the inner councils of the Regency right from the beginning of the poly- synodic experiment. As Dangeau remarked at the time: "M. d'Argenson travaille souvent avec M. le duc d'Orléans, qui lui marque beaucoup 58 d'estime. . . ." In January 1718 D'Argenson gave up his post as

12 Ms. F 51, fol. 298v), and appeared occasionally thereafter even during the Regency. The procès-verbaux of the deliberations of the Conseil de commerce which are located in the Archives Nationales, série F 12, have been inventoried by Pierre Bonnasieux and Eugene Lelong, Conseil de Commerce et bureaux du commerce, 1700-1791: inventaire analytique des procès-verbaux, 5 vols. (Paris, 1900).

^^Archives Nationales, Ms. M 616, no. 20.

^^It has been suggested that the close relationship between D'Argenson and the Due d'Orleans resulted from the former's seeming protection of the latter when the latter was strongly suspected of interference in the internal politics of the Spanish monarchy. See, for example: Alfred Baudrillart, Phillipe V et la Cour de France, 5 vols. (Paris, 1890-1901), II, 104-145; Jean Buvat, Journal de la Regénce (1715-1723), 2 vols. (Paris, 1865), I, 177; Saint-Simon, Mémoires, I, 37-38; Philippe de Courcillon, Marquis de Dangeau, Journal, 19 vols. (Paris, 1854-1860), XIV, 135-140, passim; Bibliothèque de l'Arsenal, Archives de la Bastille, Ms. 10601; and. Chapter VIII of this study in the section on "The Prisoner Without Name." 58 Dangeau, Journal, XVI, 194, Thursday, September 19, 1715, at Vincennes. 172 lieutenant général de police to replace D'Auguesseau in the very prestigious office of garde des sceaux de France,

tant à cause de son mérite particulier et de la grande experience qu'il s'est aquise dans tous les emplois considérables qu'il a exercés, que pour les grands et recommendables services qu'il a rendus au feu Roy . . . et à Sa Majesté depuis son avennement a la Couronne et qu'il continue journellement de luy rendre. . . .^9

The édit appointing him to this office was registered in the Parlement of Paris by order of the King during the famous lit de justice held in the Palais de Tuileries on 26 August 1718.^^

59 Archives Nationales, Ms. M 616, no. 20. See also: Bibliothèque Nationale, Ms. Clairambault 745, fols. 202-207; Archives Nationales, Ms. 0^ 274, fols. 107v-108r, Lettre du Roy au Parlement pour luy donner avis de la promotion de M. D'Argenson a la charge de Garde des Sceaux de France, Paris, January 28, 1718; and. Archives Nationales, Ms. Ql 275, fol. 4, Provisions de Garde de Sceaux de France pour M. D'Argenson, January 1718.

^^As a result of the appointment, D'Argenson, rather than the Chancellor, was able to preside at the lit de justice which temporarily humbled the Parlement and the illegitimate princes of the blood following their opposition to the governing policies of the Regent, the Due d'Orleans. The experience was no doubt edifying to D'Argenson who, as lieutenant général de police, had had more than his share of unpleasant encounters with the Parlement over the years. His son, who at the time was a conseiller of the Parlement, recounted that when he remonstrated with his father concerning the rights of the Parlement, the elder D'Argenson simply replied: "Mon fils, votre parlement a-t-il des troupes? Pour nous, nous avons cent cinquante mille hommes ; voilà à quoi cela se réduit." D'Argenson, Journal et Mémoires, I, 23. The lit de justice was also a high point in the career of the Due de Saint-Simon, who helped to engineer the mechanics of the cere­ mony. He reserved many vividly descriptive pages in his Mémoires for the retelling of the story (throughout Vol. XXXV). See also: J. Flammermont (ed.). Remonstrances du Parlement de Paris au XVIII^ siecle, 2 vols. (Paris, 1888-1895), I, 109-112, passim; Dom H. Leclercq, Histoire de la Régence pendant la minorité de Louis XV, 3 vols. (Paris, 1921-1922), II, 138-185; James D. J. Hardy, Judicial Politics in the Old Regime: The Parlement of Paris during the Regency (Baton Rouge, 1967), 125-141. D'Argenson did not long outlast this triumph in the precarious 173

At the same time that he was named Keeper of the Seals,

D'Argenson also became president of the Conseil des Finances, in place of the Due de Noailles. In April 1718 he was elected as a member of the Academic française; ironically, he filled the position left open since the death of François de Fénelon, archbishop-duke of Cambrai, the famous prelate whose condemned works it had been his task, as head of the police, to suppress.D'Argenson had already, in January

1716, become an honorary member of the Académie des sciences. He was further honored in April 1719 with the charge of Grand-Croix, chancelier et garde des sceaux de 1 'ordre royal et militaire de Saint-

Louis; besides the rights and honors that went with the position, he enjoyed a pension of 4,000 livres per year. He received a further significant monetary remuneration in March of the following year when the King accorded him a pension of 20,000 livres and, in a spate of royal generosity, granted a life pension of 3,000 livres to each of his three children. In the lettres accompanying this gift D'Argenson was referred to, for the first time, as a ministre d'Etat. He retired from public life several months later; and, in appreciation for his

politics of the Regency. He fell from favor in 1720 as a result of his opposition to the System of Jean Law. On this, see: Saint- Simon, Mémoires, XXXVII, 127-129, passim; Leclercq, Histoire de la Régence, II, 385-449, passim, and III, 1-63, passim; and. Clément, Portraits historiques, 214-229.

^^Institut de France, Archives de l'Académie française, dossier D'Argenson.

Archives Nationales, Ms. M 616, no. 20.

^^Ibid. Also; Bibliothèque Nationale, Cabinet des Titres, Ms. Chérin 210, fol. 8v. 174 services, the King gave him the right to continue to receive the wages and honors of garde des sceaux de France.However, his enjoyment of these benefits was short-lived as he died less than a year later on

May 8, 1721 and was buried two days afterwards in a family chapel in

Saint-Nicolas-du-Chardonnet in Paris.

^^Ibid.

^^D'Argenson's testament, dated November 15, 1720 and verified on May 8, 1721, and an inventory of his belongings, dated May 14, 1721, are located in the Archives Nationales, Minutier Central, etude CXV, liasse 399. In the former he expressed the wish to be buried in Saint- Nicolas-du-Chardonnet, though his heart was to be placed in his chapel in the monastery of the Benedictines de la Magdelaine de Tresnel in the Faubourg Saint-Antoine. PART II:

THE ADMINISTRATION, THE ACTIVITIES, AND THE

ATTITUDES OF THE POLICE OF PARIS, 1697-1715

175 CHAPTER IV

THE MAINTENANCE OF PUBLIC ORDER: PREVENTION AND SUPPRESSION

No matter how one chooses to view, define, or categorize the functions of public police forces in history, almost without fail one function stands out above all others in importance, namely, the mainten­ ance of public order.

In their efforts to maintain good public order, governments and their police forces have generally tried to anticipate and prevent disruptions to that order by the issuance of laws and regulations, and by the public display of authority in the form of police patrols. These failing, they have resorted to the pursuit and suppression of those re­ sponsible for the disruptions— subject to the vicissitudes of the criminal justice system. Of course, the very notion of what constitutes a disruption or offense against the public order has not always been the same throughout history; and even when the notion has been formal­ ized in laws and regulations, it has frequently been subject to an uneven pattern of enforcement resulting from the tendency of constituted authority to show a deference to the social and/or economic status of contraveners. Then too, at times, governments have tended to interpret the maintenance of public order as justification enough for their active involvement in the private religious and moral lives of subjects or citizens, and in the economic life of a country.^

^For more on the role of the police in these areas, see 176 177

Ultimately, all police functions, notwithstanding the polite noises of

apologists and the accusations of critics, are reducible to this one,

the maintenance of public order. In seventeenth- and eighteenth-

century France, it may have been referred to as "ce bel ordre duquel

depend le bonheur des Etats," or "la tranquillité publique," or "la

sûreté publique"; but, they all meant that the government and the police would do whatever was necessary to maintain order within the

state and its component parts.

Prevention and suppression worked in tandem. Those who con­

travened preventive measures and were caught, were then suppressed

in a manner designed to serve as a deterrent example to others.

The line of bureaucratic communication guiding the main thrust

of the French government's attempt to maintain order in Paris was

short and direct. The prime movers were the King who took a personal

interest in events in Paris, the secretary of State of the Maison

du Roi who controlled the main flow of information going to the

King, the lieutenant général de police who supplied the bulk of

information going to the Secretary of State and who acted as chief

state interrogator and investigator in all types of cases, and

the commissaires of the Châtelet who supplied the lieutenant

général with much of his information. On a day-to-day basis the

key links in the upward flow of information and the downward

flow of orders were the Secretary of State and the lieutenant

Chapters V, VI, and VII of this study. 178

2 general. During the tenures in office of Jérôme de Pontchartrain and

D'Argenson, these two officers of the Crown were in almost daily contact with each other--through letters and reports, by messenger, and in 3 person. The amount of detailed information about persons, places, and

things in Paris that flowed to Versailles during the last two decades

of Louis XIVs reign is astonishing. And incredibly, Louis himself

apparently heard much of it in the weekly report that the Secretary of 4 State made to him! Still, Secretary of State Pontchartrain was ever

2 Any of the Secretaries of State could send instructions and ordres to the lieutenant général de police, and receive information in return; and, though the main reporting link remained the Maison du Roi, the War of the Spanish Succession necessitated the development of strong secondary reporting relationships with the Secretaries of State for War and Foreign Affairs and the Controller General of Finances. 3 In the registers of correspondence of the Maison du Roi (Archives Nationales, 0^ series), the lieutenant général de police is the most frequent correspondent of the Secretary of State of the Maison du Roi. On the average he received about ninety letters per year from the Secretary; and, each letter usually contained anywhere from six to twelve requests for information, or instructions as to the action to be taken in particular cases, or explanations of "King's wishes" in r.espect to general problems. The correspondence from the lieutenant général to the Secretary of State was even more prolific (though much of it has been lost, many letters remain in the Biblio­ thèque Nationale, Mss. Français 8119-8125). One can estimate that the lieutenant général probably wrote about three hundred letters or reports per year to the Secretary of State of the Maison du Roi; and many of these were usually very detailed. Typically, one finds the Secretary prefacing his letters to D'Argenson with remarks like: "J'ay rendu compte au Roy de vos lettres des 4, 5, 6, et 7 de ce mois" (q 1 42, fol. 26r, February 10, 1698). In addition to this voluminous correspondence (the early modern version of the interoffice memo), Pontchartrain and D'Argenson met in person, both at Versailles and in Paris, every few weeks.

^The Secretary of State frequently made a point of mentioning in his correspondence to D'Argenson that he needed this or that piece 179 demanding of more and more attention to detail in police reports; undoubtedly he had grasped (as Jean-Baptiste Colbert before him had)

that two of the key elements in the successful development and control

of a bureaucratic structure were an attention to detail and an abso­

lutely reliable source of information. And when it came to having both in the attempt to control Paris, Pontchartrain was unswerving.

Indeed, his demands and his manner were no doubt galling to D'Argenson;

and, in fact, there seemed to be a growing coolness between the two during the second decade of D'Argenson's tenure in office.^ By

of information for his weekly report to the King. At times, the name of the King is invoked so often that one wonders whether or not it was being used with a certain amount of unwarranted liberty on the part of Jérôme de Pontchartrain. On the other hand, Louis prided himself on knowing about things down to the "least detail." Saint-Simon contended that the reports fulfilled the King's desire to know about the odious aspects of Parisian life (see, for example. Mémoires, XXI, 319-320). More likely, it was a case of the King, in good bureaucratic fashion, not wishing to be surprised with the news of events in Paris, no matter how odious, from sources outside of his own information network. Since much of the information received from the police was used to take action to protect family reputations and honor, it is difficult to attribute serious prurient motives to the King's interest in Parisian affairs. The essence of the King and Secretary of State's "need to know everything," and the willingness of the lieutenant général de police to fill the need is perhaps best captured in a letter that JerBrne de Pont­ chartrain wrote to D'Argenson, from Fontainebleau, on October 19, 1701. In it he said: "Vous me mandez par vostre lettre du 12 de ce mois que vous m'escrivez de plusieurs choses non pour vous attirer des ordres dans les affaires qui me sont pas de vostre ministère, mais seulement afin que le Roy soit informé de tout. Sa Majesté 1 'intend bien ainy elle est persuadé de vostre droitture et de vostre desintéressement, et Elle desire que vous continuez à m'escrire tout ce qui viendra à vostre connoissance. ..." ^ Archives Nationales, Ms. G 362, fol. 341r-v.

^The coolness is partly reflected in the correspondence mentioned 180 that time, the lieutenant general had developed (perhaps by a combina­ tion of design, necessity, and accident) good working relationships with other government ministers (particularly those of war, finance, and foreign affairs) that made him useful to them. They too had the ear of

Louis XIV; and even D'Argenson himself is known to have had occasional tête-â-têtes with the King.^

There were auxilliary lines of communication between the Court and the capital city that served as both a check and a stimulant to the main line (these included other bureaucratic officials, court officials, privileged persons with an entree at Versailles, and anonymous tipsters and dénonciateurs); but the lieutenant général was the spout of the

above in footnote 3. Unfortunately, the Secretary of State's registers of correspondence for the years 1707-1717 have disappeared without a trace (which is very curious since the series is otherwise complete for the years 1669-1789). They undoubtedly would be extremely valuable in developing a complete picture of the Pontchartrain-D'Argenson rela­ tionship. Saint-Simon suggests that Pontchartrain tried to keep D'Argenson subservient to him by treating him like a "petit garçon" (Boislisle, the editor of the Mémoires, notes that this expression was unusual for the eighteenth century but was defined in the Dictionnaire de Littré as: "'Traiter quelqu'un en petit garçon, c'est le traiter comme si on avait une grande supériorité sur lui.'" Saint-Simon, Mémoires, XXI, 379). D'Argenson, however, "s'étoit habilement saisi de la confiance du Roi, et, par elle, du secret de la Bastille, et des choses importantes de Paris; ..." Ibid.

^Dangeau, for instance, recorded such a meeting in his Journal (XI, 447) entry for Thursday, August 25, 1707, at Marly: "Le roi se promena le matin dans le jardin et prit plaisir de faire voir les nouveaux embellissements de Marly a M. d'Argenson, lieutenant de police, qui lui étoit venu rendre compte de beaucoup de choses dont il l'avoit charge." And another (XV, 144) for Friday, May 11, 1714, at Marly: "Le roi, après son lever donna audience dans son cabinet à M. le Cardinal de Rohan, et après la messe donna audience à M. d'Argenson, qui est venue de Paris." 181 funnel of information coming from Paris for he was always there and was always available.

Laws, Regulations, and 'Lettres de Cachet*

Under Louis XIV, as under most of his predecessors, the first defense against threats to good public order was the issuance of laws and regulations (in the form of ordonnances, edits, arrets, statuts, lettres-patentes, règlements, sentences de police, etc.) designed to prevent the threats from becoming the realities of crime, violence, and accidental or negligence-related injuries. When prompter action was dictated by the circumstances of a particular case, the preventive (and simultaneously suppressive) measure frequently took the form of an ordre du roi (order of the King) or a lettre de cachet (sealed order of the

King). Naturally, the police had a frontline role in the promotion of laws, regulations, and orders of the King; and with the edict of March

1667 which created the office of lieutenant ^ police, the head of the police in Paris played the major role in the public promotion of the g measures designed to maintain order in the French capital.

7 All lettres de cachet were ordres du roi, but not all ordres du roi were lettres de cachet. During Louis XIV s reign the two terms were, for the most part, used interchangeably in administrative corres­ pondence. On the distinctions between the two and the history of their use during the ancien regime, see Frantz Funck-Brentano, Les lettres de cachet à Paris. Etude suivie d'une liste des prisonniers de la Bastille (1659-1789), Histoire Generale de Paris (Paris, 1903), pp. x-xi, passim. 8 During the same period that the office of lieutenant de police was created, Louis X I V s government made a grand attempt to reform the judicial system. Among the major accomplishments were the important Ordonnance civile or Code Louis of 1667 and the Ordonnance criminelle 182

As for the proper manner by which to make laws known to the public, Delamare noted in his treatise that three things were customary: 9 "l'enregistrement, les publications, 8 les affliches," that is, the

"registration" or transcription of the laws by judicial institutions, particularly the Parlement of Paris, the publication of the laws, and the posting and crying of the laws in designated public places. This last step was the most important means of informing the great mass of

Parisians of changes in or additions to public law; and, the task was performed under the direction of the administrators of the Châtelet by the officials known as the jures crieurs (town criers) and jurës tromp­ ettes (trumpeters).Thus, one finds adjoined to various laws of the period a formula similar to the one adjoined to an ordonnance of 1701 concerning the use of theater receipts to care for the poor, that is:

II est enjoint à Marc-Antoine Pasquier, Jure Crieur ordinaire du Roy, de publier 8 afficher à son de Trompe 8 Cry public, aux portes de 1 'Opera 8 de la Comedie, même dans les autres places 8 lieux publics 8 accoutumez de cette Ville de Paris, l'Ordonnance ci-dessus, à ce que nul n'en pretende cause dignorance. Ce fut fait 8 donne par Messire MARC-RENE DE VOYER DE PAULMY, Chevalier, Marquis D'ARGENSON, Conseiller du Roy en ses Conseils,

of 1670. See: Isambert, Anciennes lois, XVIII, 103-180, 371-423; and Adhémar Esmein, A History of Continental Criminal Procedure with Special Reference to France, trans. by John Simpson (Boston, 1913 [1882]). During the same period, Louis XIV took away the Parlement's right of remonstrance (objection) prior to the registration of laws; however, in practice the Parlement continued to be consulted about the drafting of laws.

^Delamare, Traité de la Police, I, 279-280.

^^The locations of the major public places where postings of laws and peace treaties occurred are listed in La Caille's Description de la Ville, under each quarter. 183

Maître des Requêtes ordinaire de son Hôtel, Lieutenant General de Police de la Ville, Prévôté § Vicomte de Paris, le premier jour de Septembre mil sept cens un. ,, Signé, DE VOYER D'ARGENSON

During Louis XIV's reign, the strict control of public announce­ ments, especially laws, was in the hands of the lieutenant de police.

This was formalized in an arrêt of May 4, 1669 which forbade "tous

Libraires, Imprimeurs, Colporteurs, d'imprimer à l'avenir, vendre, colporter ou afficher aucunes feuilles 8 Placards sans la permission 12 dudit Lieutenant de Police . . .," and in an ordonnance de police of

May 17, 1680 in which "defenses sont faites . . . à tous Colporteurs ^

à tous autres d'afficher aucuns Placards, Feuilles volantes, ni Billets, de quelque qualité que ce soit, sans notre permission [i.e., permission 13 of the lieutenant général de police]." Contraventions to the regula­ tions were not viewed favorably by the police as was discovered, for instance, by a Parisian colporteur caught distributing an arrêt con­ cerning the billets de monnaie (treasury notes) which had been held up by the official printer of the Cour des Monnaies, and subsequently clandestinely printed at Senlis. In this instance,the colporteur re- ceived a month in prison and the printer received a stern reprimand.

^^Delamare, Traité de la Police, I, 477.

^^Reprinted in ibid., p. 283.

^^Reprinted in ibid., p. 284.

^^D'Argenson to Michel de Chamillart (Controller General of Finances and Secretary of State for War), Paris, January 27, 1707, Archives Nationales, Ms. G^ 1725. 184

When there was a problem or a mix-up in the publication of offi­ cial announcements, the lieutenant general de police ordinarily heard about it very quickly from his superiors. Thus, for instance, in

December 1711 an angry Chancellor Pontchartrain, upon learning of the publication throughout the kingdom of an arrêt intended only for Paris, wrote to D ’Argenson demanding an explanation:

Vous seul l'avês eu en original [i.e., the arret] avec la commission a vous adressée. Il ne regardoit que Paris-- le voilà imprimé cependant le voila répandu dans tout le royaume, et avec les suites scandaleuses dont j'ay des nouvelles de toutes parts Esclaircissés moy cet énigme s ’il vous plaist: mandes moy si c ’est vous qui avés pris le soin de la faire imprimer et de l’envoyer ainsy partout. . . . J ’attens vostre response avec quelque impatience. . . .15

Aside from the premature or unauthorized issuance of announce­ ments by printers and hawkers, the problems attendant to the promulga­ tion of laws and regulations were not great— particularly since Louis

XIV had taken away the Parlement’s right of remonstrance. Enforcement of the laws, however, was a different matter. It was one thing to prohibit something; it was quite another to enforce the prohibition.

One has only to look at some of the collections and lists of laws which cover the period, such as Delamare’s Traité de la Police, the Prefecture of Police's Collection Lamoignon, Peuchet's Collection des lois,

Isambert's Anciennes lois, the Catalogues des actes des Rois, and the

Actes Royaux, to sense the enormity of the task facing the police.

Louis de Pontchartrain to D ’Argenson, Versailles, December 8, 1711, Bibliothèque Nationale, Ms. Français 21134, fol. 983r-v. Unfortunately, D ’Argenson’s reply to the Chancellor is lost. 185

Just knowing the laws and regulations was undoubtedly a great accomp­ lishment in itself. And in this. La Reynie and D'Argenson were quite fortunate to have as a subaltern Nicolas Delamare, friend of First

President of the Parlement Lamoignon, an astute collector of examples and opinions of laws and regulations concerning police matters. The

Delamare collection of manuscripts conserved in the Manuscript Depart­ ment of the Bibliothèque Nationale attests to the continual recourse that the lieutenants généraux de police had to the information resources and opinions of commissaire Delamare, for it includes literally hundreds of requests for information from them.^^ The fact that

Delamare was under their immediate control gave La Reynie and D'Argenson the direct line of reliable information that powerful administrators need to perform their functions well.

The difficulty from the police point of view was that there were so many laws and regulations to enforce that they frequently found themselves responding to problems by launching sporadic campaigns against different groups of law-breakers. Flurries of police activity were frequently the result of direct inquiries from the Chancellor and the King's ministers as to why certain ordonnances were not being enforced. In good bureaucratic fashion the police would respond to their superiors' inquiries by an immediate, if not sustained, pur­ suit of the subjects of the inquiries. Thus, for example, D'Argenson

This large collection which comprises the Bibliothèque Nationale, Mss. Français 21545-21808, contains numerous letters and notes from lieutenant général de police d'Argenson. 186 would receive periodic admonitions from his superiors such as the one sent by Chancellor Pontchartrain in July 1705:

L 'avidité des imprimeurs et souvent 1 ’infidélité des commis fait qu'on imprime et qu'on distribue des pieces et des actes importans avant qu'ils soient revetus des formes qui les doivent rendre publics, et authentiques. C'est ce qui m'oblige a vous exciter de redoubler votre atention pour empecher que cela n'arrive dans la nouvelle constitution que nous demandons depuis longtemps et qui vient enfin de nous arriver de Rome contre les jansénistes. L'intention du Roy, l'ordre public et la droite raison sont d'assez puissans motifs, chez vous pour vous exciter a faire observer les regies dans un acte qui doit etre receu par l'assemblé generale du clergé et revetus des lettres patentes pour avoir tout le caractère qu'il mérité en luy meme par la pieté par la prudence et par le zele qui la dicté.

Or, the one sent by Secretary of State Jérôme de Pontchartrain in 1700 on beggars:

Le Roy est surpris qu'après toutes les precautions qu'on a prises pour chasser les mandians de Paris, il s'en trouve encore une si grande quantité, et sa Majesté m'ordonne de vous dire que vous devez reveiller votre atten­ tion à cet égard et poursuivre avec toute la vigeur et la sévérité possible ceux qui ont fait du desordre dans l'Eglise St. Laurent. . . .18

Or, again from the younger Pontchartrain in 1701 on the observation of holidays: "S.M. [i.e.. Sa Majesté; the King] m'a ordonne de vous recom­ mander de nouveau l'exacte exécution de ce règlement et de vousdire de ne point vous relascher sur cela sous quelque prétexte que se soit."^^

17 Louis de Pontchartrain to D'Argenson, Versailles, July 30, 1705, Bibliothèque Nationale, Ms. Français 21124, fol. 437r-v. 18 ^ Jérôme de Pontchartrain to D'Argenson, Versailles, December 15, 1700, Archives Nationales, Ms. 0^ 44, fols. 608v-609r.

^^Jérôme de Pontchartrain to D'Argenson, Versailles, November 25, 1701, Archives Nationales, Ms. Ql 362, fol. 368r. 187

The lieutenant général de police generally responded to such missives

in a short period of time with a follow-up report. For example, in

the above-mentioned problem with beggars one finds D'Argenson reporting

to Jérôme de Pontchartrain in January 1701 that a roundup has netted nineteen men and eleven women "tous sans profession, sans biens, sans

domicile et sans aveu, les uns bannis ou de retour des gai1ères, les

autres chassez de Paris ou convaincus de mandicité. ..." However, as he went on to explain (and indeed complain), according to the regulations in effect and according to the wishes of the First Presi­ dent of the Parlement, he could send some of the mendicants to the

Hôpital Général but the rest could only be escorted out of town "bien assure qu'ils se moqueront de cette injonction et qu'ils continueront 20 leurs brigandages comme auparavant." Thus, from the point of view of the police, even when they were able to apprehend contraveners of the laws and regulations, the procedures dictated by the letter of the

law and the accommodations made for the benefit of various social and corporate groups more often than not prevented the elimination of prob­

lems— such as mendicancy. In fact, there seems to be a subtle pattern during the latter part of Louis XIV’s reign wherein a problem arises,

the ministers complain, the police respond, a pressure group reacts,

the government becomes sensitive or accommodating for reasons of its

2 0 D'Argenson to Jérôme > /N de Pontchartrain, Paris, January 30, 1701, Bibliothèque Nationale, Ms. Français 8120, fols. llv-12r. The administration of vagrants, mendicants and the like was one area of police activities in which the Parlement exercised its influence. 188 own, the police back off, the problem reoccurs, the police complain that their hands are tied. . . .

A primary means of getting around many of the problems involved with the enforcement of the laws and regulations— a means highly favored by lieutenant general de police d'Argenson— was the use of the admini­ strative instrument (with the onerous reputation) known as the lettre de cachet. Simply put, lettres de cachet were direct orders of the

King, usually folded or sealed closed, that generally, but not always, concerned the affairs of particular individuals. The letters, which were signed by the King or his secretaries and countersigned by a Secre­ tary of State, were used to call assemblies together, to order days of official rejoicing, to put officials in office, to register laws, but most of all to imprison, set free, or banish individuals. These last 21 uses of the lettres de cachet were by far the most common.

The government's ministers and the lieutenant général de police viewed the lettres de cachet as a rapid and unassailable remedy for problems which were best not left to await the formalities of "ordi­ nary" police and judicial procedures--especially in cases in which family honor was involved. It was the habit of lieutenant général de police d'Argenson to act while others pondered legalities. To this end, he had continual recourse to "l'autorité immediate au Roy" (the contemporary euphenism for a lettre de cachet) as the most effective

21 See: Funck-Brentano, Les lettres de cachet; and, Mousnier, Paris au XVII siècle, pp. 62-67. Numerous examples of the lettres de cachet are located in the Bibliothèque de l'Arsenal, Archives de la Bastille, and in the Archi'is Nationales, série Ol (in register form). 189 means of resolving problems. For the most part, his methods and argu­ ments for the use of lettres de cachet were accepted, though not without concern and occasional reproaches from his superiors.

D'Argenson had learned very early during his tenure as head of the police that there were limits to his power. Primary among these was the fact that whether or not it was utilized or held in check was very much dependent upon the inclinations of the King and his ministers (and during twenty-one years in office D'Argenson learned that these incli­ nations were not altogether consistent). The lieutenant general de police was the primary instrument of the King's "immediate authority" in

Paris, and as such he sought to use the most effective and immediate tools at his disposal to insure good public order, namely lettres de cachet and extraordinary commissions. The King and ministers, however, did not intend to entirely subvert the traditional and ordinary means of justice. Thus, the lieutenant général de police was not turned loose on

Paris to wield power indiscriminately; rather, he was subject to the ebb and flow of the "extraordinary" use of the King's authority.

During the summer of 1697, for instance, shortly after he had taken office, D'Argenson requested a commission to judge extraordinaire­ ment some troublesome libraires (bookdealers) and relieurs (bookbinders).

This request was turned down by the Secretary of State with a reply to the effect that the King was not in favor of it, and that it was neces- 22 sary "juger à l'ordinaire." Apparently Louis XIV had not entirely

22Louis/Jerome de Pontchartrain to D'Argenson, Versailles, August 7, 1697, Archives Nationales, Ms. 0^ 41, fol. 119r. Between 1697 and 1699 it is difficult to determine which Pontchartrain is writing which letter. They both seem to have authored some of the letters, or parts of letters, and the only indicators are internal references such as "mon fils." 190 forgotten that one reason for creation of the office of lieutenant general de police was to separate police from Jla justice. A few years later, in another case involving the book-trade. Chancellor Louis de Pontchartrain summed up his position on D'Argenson's activities. As might be expected, given the fact that the Chancellor was the admini­ strative head of the judicial system in France, he recommended that

D'Argenson follow his own inclinations but that he let Parlement be the arbiter of his judgments (of course, this applied to cases in which 23 D'Argenson rendered a police sentence). As he put it:

Dans toutes les autres affaires vous ne devés point vous faire de peine de toute ce qui pourra estre ordonne sur l'appel de vos jugements. Allés toujours votre chemin. Il faudra bien à la fin que le Parlement se remettre en regie.24

For the most part, D'Argenson did follow his own inclinations— one of which was to promote the use of the lettres de cachet--since he himself was underwhelmed with the effectiveness of "ordinary justice." As he noted in a letter to Secretary of State Pontchartrain in the case of a man who had committed "les infamies de plus obscènes" in a church and

23 Most of the remaining police sentences for D'Argenson's period in office are located in the Archives Nationales, Mss. Y 9407-9419, and Y 9498.

^^Louis de Pontchartrain to D'Argenson, Versailles, April 27, 1701, Bibliothèque Nationale, Ms. Français 21120, fols 474v-475r. In this same letter Chancellor Pontchartrain offered his views on cor­ poral punishment: "A l'égard des peines corporelles qui sont prononcées par les ordonnances dont vous m'envoyés les extraits je suis persuadé comme vous que c'est le moyen le plus seur pour empescher les abus, mais comme le remede est extreme on ne peut trop le ménager, et on ne doit en user que très rarement." 191

had received only a temporary banishment from Paris as the result of a

judgment of Parlement:

C'est ainsy que la justice ordinaire autorise souvent les plus grands crimes par une jurisprudence relaschée, et c'est ce qui m'oblige, aussi, dans ces occasions, de recourir a l'autorité immediate du Roy qui, seulle, fait trembler nos scélérats et sur qui les détours ingénieux ny le sçavoir faire de la chicanne ne peuvent r i e n . 25

For the most part, Jérôme de Pontchartrain, who countersigned

the majority of lettres de cachet for Paris, was quite willing to

employ the lettres in order to take immediate action in particular

cases or types of cases in which the King expressed an interest during

the Secretary of State's weekly briefings. However, on occasion, he

cautioned the lieutenant général de police about the police practices

associated with.the use and overuse of the lettres. One problem that

occurred periodically, for instance, was the practice by police func­

tionaries of detaining in their homes (for a fee) persons they expected

to send to prison by order of the King. Sometimes the detention period

lasted days and even weeks. The police rationale, of course, was that

they did not wish the objects of their attention to disappear prior to being served with a warrant ordering them to a par­

ticular prison. In April 1704, after learning of one of these inci­

dents, Pontchartrain wrote to D'Argenson that his functionaries must no

longer take persons to their homes for detention except for very short periods of time (though he did not indicate exactly what this meant);

25 D'Argenson to Jerome de Pontchartrain, Paris, July 25, 1701, Bibliothèque Nationale, Ms. Français 8123, fols. 139-146v. 192 and, if in fact it became necessary to do so, it was to be so noted in the order of the King. Even then, Pontchartrain was not happy with the arrangement since, as he noted, "nous avons la Bastille et Vin­ cennes ou nous pouvons tenir un prisonnier avec autant de secret qu'on l'epourra souhaitter." In the same letter, Pontchartrain complained that police functionaries frequently did not show the order of the

King to the person being arrested; and, he ordered D'Argenson to cor­ rect the situation in order to eliminate inconveniences (presumably complaints about the abuses of procedure and the possibility of caprice on the part of police officers who might simply arrest whomever they wished without a warrant).

In the matter of the overuse of lettres de cachet, Pontchartrain wrote to D'Argenson in January 1705 that he should resort to requests for lettres only when all other means, that is, those for which the judiciary existed, were exhausted. He added that making the King's orders too common would cause judges to regard them "comme un moyen dont vous serez bien aise de vous servir pour les leurs dans une espece de dépendance par la facilite avec laquelle ils vous verroient les 27 faire donner." Two months later, Pontchartrain commented again

26 /s Jerome de Pontchartrain to D'Argenson, n.p., April 28, 1704, Archives Nationales, Ms. Ol 365, fols. 98v-100r. Two years later Pont­ chartrain was still critical of what he termed the "irregularitez" in police procedures. See Jerome de Pontchartrain to D'Argenson, Versailles, March 11, 1706, Archives Nationales, Ms. Ol 367, fols. 74v-75r. Junca's registre. Bibliothèque de l'Arsenal, Mss. 5133-5134, confirms that persons occasionally arrived at the Bastille under police escort but in advance of an ordre du roi. 27 A Jerome de Pontchartrain to D'Argenson, Marly, January 9, 1705, Archives Nationales, Ms. 0^ 366, fol. 5v. 193 about the overuse of the King's orders;

je vous ay desja dit plusieurs fois que le Roy ne s'éloigne pas et d'employer son autorité soit pour relequer, soit pour arrester des gens, quand le cas le requiert, mais ce remede ne doit pas s'apliquer tous les jours n'y entoutes occasions, et il ne doit venir qu'au défaut et au secours des procedures ordinaires quand elles ne se trouvent pas suffisantes pour reprimer les abus.^S

At about the same time, he complained to D'Argenson that "vous me V 29 faites employer à trop d'usages [l'autorité immediate du Roy]."

28 Jérôme de Pontchartrain to D'Argenson, Versailles, March 15, 1705, Archives Nationales, Ms. 0^ 366, fols. 67v-68r. 29 Jérôme de Pontchartrain to D'Argenson, Versailles, March 11, 1705, Archives Nationales, Ms.Ol 366, fols. 63v-64r. The registers of the correspondence of the Secretary of State for the Maison du Roi, which comprise %he 0^ series, are sprinkled with similar comments by the Secretary. • Of course, they are also filled with numerous orders for the use of the King's immediate authority! Most of the studies done so far on Jérôme de Pontchartrain have tended to treat him in his role as Secretary of State of the Marine. See, for instance, Francis H. Hammang, The Marquis de Vaudreuil: New France at the Beginning of the Eighteenth Century (Bruges, 1938); Marcel Giraud, "Crise de conscience et d'autorité à la fin du règne de Louis XIV," Annales: économies, sociétés, civilisations. VII (1952), 172-190, 293-302; and, idem., "Tendances humanitaires a la fin du règne de Louis XIV," Revue historique, CCIX (1953), 217-237. This last author has tended to rehabilitate Pontchartrain's negative reputation in history--a reputation etched in vivid detail by Saint Simon, who in one passage wrote: Pontchartrain, secretaire d'Etat de la Marine, en étoit le fléau, comme de tous ceux qui étoient sous sa cruelle dé­ pendance. C'étoit un homme qui avoit de l'esprit, du travail, de l'adresse, mais gauche à tout, désagréable et pédant à 1 'excess, volontiers le précepteur grossier de tout le monde; suprêmement noir, et aimant le mal précisément pour le mal; jaloux de son père, qui s'en plaignoit amèrement à ses plus intimes amis; tyran cruel jusque de sa femme, . . . barbare jusqu'avec sa mère: un monstre en un mot, qui ne tenoit au Roi que par l'horreur de ses délations, de son detail de Paris, et une malignité telle, qu'elle avoit presque rendu D'Argenson bon. . . . Mémoires, XII, 323-324. It certainly does not say much for D'Argenson 194

Despite the justifications and reproaches on the use and non­ use of the "immediate authority of the King," the lieutenant général de police continued throughout his career to push for its use in the form of lettres or ordres of the King. From his point of view he was responsible for providing information down to "the least detail" on the activities of innumerable individuals and for maintaining good public order; and the most effective way of doing this was to bypass what he saw as the impossible slowness and impotence of the judicial system. In the face of mounting urban problems during the War of the

Spanish Succession, he seems to have been even less inclined to back off on the use of the King's immediate authority. Given the choice of either keeping good public order or keeping good procedural order,

D'Argenson chose the former. And in this regard he perhaps set himself up for the donnybrook with the Parlement which took place following

Louis XIV's death.

Crime and Violence

In almost every society crime and violence are the major threats to public order. In part they are stimulated, or at least

either who elsewhere is described as having "une figure effrayante, qui retraçoit celle des trois juges des enfers ..." (Mémoires, XXXIIl, 34). However, whereas D'Argenson eventually emerges from Saint-Simon's work with a fairly decent reputation, Pontchartrain comes off almost always as the "monstre." See, for example. Mémoires, XVII, 84ff., and XXI, 370-380, passim.

See Chapter III, footnote 60. 195

abetted, by cultural attitudes, social and economic conditions, and 31 demographic factors. Seventtenth- and early eighteenth-century 32 France was no exception. A century of war, popular uprisings, tran­

sient masses, economic depression, uncertain food supplies, infla­

tionary prices, abject poverty, and the institutionalization of social

and legal inequality spun the web of resentment, material need, and

cultural assimilation that caught many predators and victims alike in

criminal and violent action. The absence of an organized police force

and the failure by constituted authority to adequately comprehend and

31 The other major factors would be individual, biological, genetic, and psychological peculiarities.

32 The nature and scope of crime and violence during Louis XIV's reign has not been studied; and up to now only limited studies have been attempted. Part of the problem involves the quality of the available sources. In the absence of a full-scale quantitative investigation of police and judicial records, most general conclusions about crime and violence during this era will continue to be qualitative in nature. For Paris, there is virtually nothing, though some work has started. Two of Robert Mandrou's students have recently published brief studies on Paris and more will undoubtedly be forthcoming. The two are: Nicole Jouveau, Un aspect de la criminalité au XVIII^ siècle: les vols de bestiaux d'après les procès juges en appel par le Parlement de Paris de 1700 a 1725, microfiche (Paris, 1976); and, Anne-Marie Pugibet, Contribution à l'étude de la criminalité à Paris au XVllie siècle: etude du vol de linge 1710-1725, microfiche (Paris, 1976). Also useful are: Yves-Marie Bercé, "Aspects de la criminalité au XVlie siècle," Revue historique, CCXXXIX (1968), 33-42; Bronislaw Geremek, "Criminalité, vagabond­ age, paupérisme: la marginalité à l'aube des temps modernes," Revue d'histoire moderne et contemporaine, XXI (July-September 1974), 337-375; and, though it deals mostly with the second half of the eighteenth century, André Abbiateci, et al., Crimes et criminalité en France sous l'Ancien Régime: 17^ - 18e siècles. Cahiers des Annales no. 33 (Paris, 1971). 196

control the stimulants to crime and violence further increased the

likelihood of their occurrence. The first deficiency was partly remedied by the creation of the office of lieutenant general de police;

the second was never remedied. In fact, there is an air of futility

about the government's attempts to solve problems by making them il­

legal, and to extract exceedingly painful retribution from some poor wretch in order to create a deterrent example. Yet these actions are not surprising given the practical and retributive mindedness of Louis

XIV's government and police. Indeed, few governments have ever ap­ proached the problems of crime and violence with an ameliorative social philosophy. Given the problems and the historical convergence of difficult political, diplomatic, social and economic circumstances,

Louis XIVs government and police chose to treat symptoms rather than

causes, and thus sought what they considered to be practical solu­

tions.

No matter what the ultimate causes of crime and violence were

at the end of Louis XIVs reign, the police were forced to deal with

the participants; and in doing so, they encountered persons from every

age group and level of society. The lieutenant général de police spent

a great deal of his time gathering information and reporting about crime

and violence in Paris, primarily to the Secretary of State of the

Maison du Roi, but also to the other ministers when the problems

touched upon areas that were within their competences. In return he

received advice and orders about what to do in given cases.

Certain groups, like vagabonds and beggars, lackeys, soldiers. 197 and unskilled workers tended to emerge more frequently than others as the objects of police investigations and popular fears--to the point of being stereotypes that were expected to engage in crime and violence.

But they held no monopoly on these activities.

The full gamut of crimes and violent actions, from murder and robbery down to petty theft and hooliganism, fills the pages of police reports with a parade of personal tragedies. Trying to prevent and suppress these cruder aspects of Parisian life was not an easy task.

The motives of perpetrators varied widely. At times their actions were premeditated; at other times they were not. The perpetrators them­ selves were frequently amateurs or one-time-only offenders. Yet they sometimes were hardened professionals. And, at times, they even turned out to be the guardians of the peace themselves. In essence, the police records suggest that anyone was at any time capable of doing just about anything.

Murder and physical assault were the most serious of the violent crimes occupying the attention of the police. Unfortunately, the wide range of motives and spontaneous emotions that sparked these heinous

social offenses made their prevention difficult, if not impossible. A perusal of the police .ecords from the period indicates the great variety of motivational and emotional circumstances involved. Thus,

for example, when demoiselle de Salonne murdered her brother-in-law

on the day following his wedding because he had preferred her younger

sister to herself, there was little the police could do except take 198

33 her to prison. Intrafamilial jealousy and tensions were causative factors of violence that the police could do little to control. Nor could they anticipate particular incidents of violence resulting from the bravado and hooliganism of armed soldiers and retainers (though in general they could expect trouble from these groups) such as disrupted the wedding of an archer of the company of the lieutenant criminel de robe courte, because they wished to enter the establishment where the wedding-feast was taking place. They wounded the bridegroom and killed one of his fellow officers who tried to arrest them as they made their escape. This episode finally ended when a crowd of bystanders turned on 34 the killers and seized them. Similarly, a meal involving an officer

33 * A As D'Argenson to Jerome de Pontchartrain, Paris, November 20, 1701, Bibliothèque Nationale, Ms. Français 8123, fols. 207-210v; Jérôme de Pontchartrain to D'Argenson, Versailles, March 29, 1702, Archives Nationales, Ms. 363, 65r-67v; D'Argenson to Jerome de Pontchartrain, Paris, July 21, 1709, Bibliothèque Nationale, Ms. Français 8125, fols. 52-54; Jérôme de Pontchartrain to D'Argenson, Versailles, November 10, 1710, Bibliothèque de l'Arsenal, Archives de la Bastille, Ms. 10593, dossier Salonne. Mlle. Salonne's family appealed to D'Argenson and Pontchartrain to have her transferred from prison to a convent after her life sentence was rendered. In as much as the family paid the ex­ pense and the murderess led a respectable life prior to her violent act, arrangements were made to effect the transfer. Revenge frequently served as a motive in familial violence as also occurred in the case of the Marquis de Vervins and his coachman who were attacked and killed by the marquis' cousins who had been dis­ possessed of some property. The case caused quite a scandal in Paris. See: D'Argenson to Jérôme de Pontchartrain, Paris, September 1, 1704, Bibliothèque Nationale, Ms. Français 8124, fols. 83-85v; D'Argenson to Jérôme de Pontchartrain, Paris, September 2, 1707, ibid., fols. 248- 249v; and Saint-Simon, Mémoires, IV, 166-167.

^^D'Argenson to Jérôme de Pontchartrain, Paris, February 25, 1700, Bibliothèque Nationale, Ms. Français 8119, fols. 305-306r. An interesting sidelight to this case was the crowd reaction--in this case assistance. The Parisian crowd could easily bend either way in these 199 of the Gardes Françaises and several musketeers resulted in a quarrel over "quelques paroles inconsidérées." At first the parties seemed reconciled ("le même vin qui les avoient brouillée [sic] les reconcilia" according to D'Argenson); but after an evening of carousing, the argu­ ment was renewed and resulted in a duel with swords which left one dead 35 and one seriously wounded. In another case, a minor functionary of the bailliage of Amiens who was refused a meal at an auberge where he had been staying but not paying, murdered the inn-keeper. The lieutenant général de police promised to "donner lieu à la vengence publique et au chastiment exemplaire que demande un tel crime." Sometimes matters of honor resulted in duels which occurred despite strong sanctions against them. In one semi-farcical attempt to inflict violence on each other, two farmers-general who had a quarrel over finances wounded themselves with their own swords even though they had not seriously engaged each other in combat; whereupon, one was beaten by the "créatures

situations. However, in cases of murder or physical violence, though this conclusion is impressionistic, it seemed that the bystanders generally assisted more than hindered the police. In cases in which some poor mendicant or seemingly helpless individual was about to be removed by the police, the opposite reaction seemed true. 35 ^ D'Argenson to Jérôme de Pontchartrain, Paris, November 24, 1700, ibid., fols. 325-328V. An interesting sidelight to this case is the imposition of fines on the two physicians who treated the wounded men, and on the innkeeper who harbored one of them,for their failure to report the wounds to the commissaires of the quarter "ainsy qu'ils y sont obligés par les règlements de police."

D'Argenson to Jérôme de Pontchartrain, Paris, February 22, 1705, Bibliothèque Nationale, Ms. Français 8124, fols. 105-107v. 200

-• 37 et débiteurs" of the other, then fell down and broke his nose. One reads that young ruffians beat up a coach driver because they failed to 38 have a good time at the Comédie Française; that a dismembered body 39 has been found in a ditch near the Poire Saint-Germain; that the body of an infant, apparently killed by its mother ("un grand crime" remarked

D'Argenson) has been found in the latrine of a house in the Quartier des

Halles;^^ that four libertines have killed a young waiter who barred

37 ^ /N D'Argenson to Jérôme de Pontchartrain, Paris, August 2, 1702, Bibliothèque Nationale, Ms. Français 8123, fols. 253v-254r; D'Argenson to Jérôme de Pontchartrain, Paris, August 15, 1702, ibid., fols. 257v-259r.

38 > /s D'Argenson to Jérôme de Pontchartrain, Paris, November 16, 1701, Bibliothèque Nationale, Ms. Français 8121, fols. 175-177v.

^^D'Argenson to Jérôme de Pontchartrain, Paris, February 11, 1702, Bibliothèque Nationale, Ms. Français 8122, fols. 509v-510. There must have been a considerable number of bodies turning up in strange places because in 1712 the government was compelled to issue a Déclaration du Roi [concernant la reconnaissance des cadavres], in which citizens were urged to report to the commis­ saires of the various quarters any cadavers they might find of "personnes qui ne sont pas mortes de mort naturelle." The reason given for this issuance was that "les crimes qui causent ces morts demeurent très souvent impunis, ..." Peuchet, Collection des lois, II, 317-319.

"^^D'Argenson to Jérôme de Pontchartrain, Paris, April 30, 1702, Bibliothèque Nationale, Ms. Français 8123, fols. 230-234v. Though there are no statistics on the incidence of infanticide during this period, there is evidence that there were many "enfants trouves" (foundlings). See, for instance, Bibliothèque Nationale, Ms. Nouvelles Acquisitions Françaises 3240, fol. 144ff.; Claude Delasselle, "Les enfants abandonnes à Paris au XVIIie siècle," Annales: économies, sociétés, civilisations, XXX (1975), 187-218; and. Chariot and Dupâquier, "Movement Annuel," p. 512. 201 them from entering a cafe after hoursthat the son of a bourgeois who had gradually lost his possessions and property committed suicide

(the young man, D'Argenson conjectured, "se voyant sans biens et sans espérance a pris la triste résolution d'attenter à son propre vie") that several police functionaries of the Cour des Monnaies beat to death an individual they were supposed to be imprisoning (they were separately dealt stiff sentences including execution, the galleys, and heavy fines;

D'Argenson remarked "II est certain que ce jugement étoit nécessaire pour corriger la barbarie des archers, et l'on doit espérer que cet exemple les remettra dans les règles de l'humanité qu'ils sembloient avoir oubliées")The record of physical violence goes on and on.

The enforcement of regulations against the carrying of weapons and the circulation of police patrols probably helped to a certain ex­ tent to depress the level of violence from what it might otherwise have been. As it was, the regulations did not apply to everyone. Many individuals, including most "gens de qualité" and soldiers, carried at the very least swords and knives almost everywhere they went; and lackeys 44 were notorious for wielding clubs, truncheons, and sword-canes. In

^^D'Argenson to Jerome de Pontchartrain, Paris, April 9, 1703, Bibliothèque Nationale, Ms. Français 8124, fols. 61-66,

"^^D'Argenson to Jérôme de Pontchartrain, Paris, May 28, 1704, Bibliothèque Nationale, Ms. Français 8121, fols. 217-219v.

^^D'Argenson to Jérôme de Pontchartrain, Paris, October 20, 1702, Bibliothèque Nationale, Ms. Français 8120, fols. 78-79v; and, D'Argenson to Jérôme de Pontchartrain, Paris, December 19, 1702, ibid., fol. 82.

^^The police were particularly attentive to the problems created by lackeys because of their traditional reputation for hooliganism and 202 an age that was familiar with war, weapons, and violence, it is not surprising that many persons were more inclined to rely upon themselves and their retainers for protection than upon the police and the legal disarmament of their fellow citizens. Shortly after entering office in 1697, D ’Argenson requested a new government ordonnance against the carrying of arms, especially by lackeys. In response, the Secretary of State of the Maison du Roi replied that

Le Roy trouve qu'il est inutile de faire une nouvelle ordonnance pour defendre les hastens et autres armes aux laquais. Il n'y a qu'à tenir la main à 1 'execution de celles qui ont esté rendues sur ce sujet et dans les occasions faire des Exemples sur ceux qui y contre­ viendront.45

Three years later the King apparently changed his mind, perhaps as a result of hearing O'Argenson's reports on the continuous use of weapons in physical violence, and the government issued an ordonnance renewing the provisions of the 1660 and 1679 laws against the carrying of fire­ arms and other weapons in Paris by anyone other than gentilhommes, law

bravado and because of their tendency to resolve their differences with weapons. Police officers were also no doubt spurred by the mone­ tary rewards they could sometimes reap by arresting troublesome and armed lackeys. See, for instance, D'Argenson's request for several hundred livres for this purpose: D'Argenson to Jérôme de Pontchartrain, Paris, January 13, 1701, Bibliothèque Nationale, Ms. Français 8122, fol. 134. As a result of the numerous disturbances that they caused, lackeys and "gens de livrées" were barred, from 1703, from congregating at some of their favorite haunts, namely the entrance ways to the Cours la Reine, the Parc de Vincennes, the Tuileries, and all theaters. Cited in Isambert, Anciennes lois, XX, 434.

^^Pontchartrain (probably Louis de) to D'Argenson, [Versailles ?], March 27, 1697, Archives Nationales, Ms. 0^ 41, fol. 50v. 203 enforcement officials, and under certain circumstances, soldiers

The success that the police had in enforcing the laws was underwhelming. 47 There continued to be a profusion of violent acts involving weapons.

However, when compared to the earlier part of Louis's reign, the situa­ tion actually seems to have improved; and, the Parisian experience even served ai a source of information for the attempts by other cities to 48 control the proliferation of weapons.

Whereas weapons often served as the tools of violence in Paris,

The texts of the 1660 and 1679 declarations are contained in Isambert, Anciennes lois, XVII, 387-392, and, XIX, 222-223; the 1700 ordonnance is cited in XX, 369. See also: Jérôme de Pontchartrain to D'Argenson, Versailles, June 23, 1700, Archives Nationales, Ms. 0^ 44, fols. 269v-270r. 47 Occasionally, weapons were inadvertently the instruments of fatal accidents as, for instance, in the case of a sixteen year old boy who was fatally shot by his fifteen year old brother as the two were handling pistols that they thought were unloaded. The two had taken two pistols from their home and gone to a small jardin in the faubourg Saint-Martin, from which they were chased by the owner when he saw that they wanted to fire blanks. After leaving the jardin, they encountered a compagnon armurier (arms manufacturer worker) who offered to show them other pistols. One of them was loaded and the accident occurred. As a result of this incident the police issued a general order, in the form of a judgment against the armurier,to the effect that no loaded firearms were to be sold, displayed, or otherwise handled in public in Paris under penalty of 500 livres fine; the armurier involved in the incident was fined 100 livres. The order was also sent to the communautés dealing in firearms to be entered in their registers of regulations. See, Sentence de Police, May 22, 1699, in Peuchet, Collection des lois, II, 72-75. 48 In March 1714, for instance. Chancellor Pontchartrain, who had received a request from the lieutenant de police of Bourges for advice concerning firearm regulation, wrote to D'Argenson and asked him for all the information he could provide on the subject. Bibliothèque Nationale, Ms. Français 21139, fol. 267. 204

certain locations often served as the scene. Among those places which

turn up with regularity in police records as the scene of public dis­

orders were the city's theaters and cabarets. Among the theaters, the

Comédie Française and the Opéra seemed to attract many persons who were

as interested in putting on a show as they were in seeing one. At

times there seemed to be more action outside these theaters than there

was inside. The police under D'Argenson, with the approval of the

Secretary of State of the Maison du Roi, insisted on having observers 49 inside these theaters to report on the activities of troublemakers.

However, nothing short of closing the theaters altogether probably would

have eliminated the uproars that frequently occurred in them. One reads

in the police reports of individuals like the drunk who "scandalisé"

the spectators at the Comédie (which is hard to imagine!) with his

rendition of certain psalms and his profane language;^^ or, of the

musketeers who gatecrashed with drawn swords (though "il est vray que

le vin eut beaucoup plus de part à cette insulte que la réflexion")

49 See the letter from D'Argenson to Jérôme de Pontchartrain, Paris, March 15, 1700, Bibliothèque Nationale, Ms. Français 8119, fol. 309. On the composition and activities of theater audiences during this period, see: John Lough, Paris Theatre Audiences in the Seven­ teenth and Eighteenth Centuries (London, 1957), and Pierre Mélèse, Le théâtre et le public à Paris sous Louis XIV, 1659-1715 (Paris, 1934); and, idem., Répertoire analytique des documents contemporains d'informa­ tion et de critique concernant le théâtre à Paris sous Louis XIV, 1659-1715 (Paris, 1934). Inside the theaters, the parterre (pit), where the mixture of social groups holding the cheapest tickets stood, was the most raucous area,

^^D’Argenson to Jérôme de Pontchartrain, Paris, August 20, 1700, Bibliothèque Nationale, Ms. Français 8123, fol. 165. The offensive spectator was taken to the Fort-1'Evêque prison in order to reflect upon his behavior for a month.

^^D'Argenson to Jérôme de Pontchartrain, Paris, November 16, 205

Sometimes the disturbances were much more serious, as for instance when two musketeers who were trying to enter a cabaret near the Comédie exchanged words and blows with the lackeys of the Due de la Ferté whose carriage blocked their pathway. The encounter had the potential of developing into a serious street brawl as the word spread among the lackeys at the Comédie that their cohorts had been abused. However, fast action by an officer of the security contingent at the Comédie kept the soldiers and lackeys separated until the musketeer's superior officer and the Due were summoned. Order, in this instance, was happily maintained. D'Argenson, in his summary of the incident for Jérôme de

Pontchartrain, commented that:

II seroit à souhaiter que les messieurs employassent ainsy leur autorité pour reprimer l'insolence de leur lacquais, au lieu qu'ils se font un honneur de la soutenir, mais je crois que pour leur faire entendre raison sur ce sujet, il sera nécessaire, dans la suite, de les obliger eux- mêmes à faire conduire leurs lacquais en prison lorsqu'ils l'auront mérité.52

Occasionally, the results of altercations at the Comédie were fatal, as

1701, Bibliothèque Nationale, Ms. Français 8121, fols. 176-177.

52 D'Argenson to Jerome de Pontchartrain, Paris, January 16, 1701, Bibliothèque Nationale, Ms. Français 8120, fols. 5-7r. In another case, a lackey of the Marquis de Pompadour got drunk and caused a scene and several injuries at the Comédie whereupon he was taken to prison. His master, the marquis, decided to leave him there rather than insist upon his release and D'Argenson wrote to Secretary of State Pontchartrain that "II seroit à souhaitter que tous les maîtres voulussent bien suivre son exemple et qu'ilz fussent moins empressez à defendre les fauttes de leurs domestiques." Paris, November 16, 1701, Bibliothèque Nationale, Ms. Français 8121, fol. 177v. 206 in the case of Sieur de Breviande who was mortally wounded in the street outside the theater after he had traded insults with a man who 53 wished to occupy a seat that he was saving for a friend.

The situation at the Opera was similar. One reads, for in­ stance, of an altercation between different groups of soldiers, of thieves in the parterre (pit) of the theater,and so on.

In addition to the Comédie and the Opéra, cabarets were equally troublesome to the police as the site and cause (indirectly by way of drinking) of violent acts. In one instance, three men, individually claiming to be the valet de garde-robe of the Due de Chartres, a valet de chambre of Monsieur (the King's brother), and a draughtsman of

Mansard, after spending most of the night in a cabaret, menaced pas- sersby with drawn swords, insults, and profanities. They were eventually arrested by the guet and taken to the commissaire of the quarter who, "par mi respect pour la maison de Monsieur, crut devoir au Palais-Royal pour les remettre entre les mains de quelque officier supérieur, et leur épargner la honte de la prison." As it turned out.

D'Argenson to Jerome de Pontchartrain, Paris, February 2, 1708, Bibliothèque Nationale, Ms. Français 8125, fols. 14-17. The individual who killed Breviande had been involved in another fatal assault the previous summer, and in all likelihood had just exhausted the special considerations to which he might have been entitled.

^^D'Argenson to Jérôme de Pontchartrain, Paris, December 1, 1702, Bibliothèque Nationale, Ms. Français 8123, fols. 328-329v.

^^D'Argenson to Jerome de Pontchartrain, Paris, March 22, 1706, Bibliothèque Nationale, Ms. Français 8124, fols. 159-164. 207 the three were imposters, and they were quickly removed to the

Chatelet.^^ In a similar case, six hours in a cabaret inspired several musketeers and their friends to accost with swords everyone they met, and this eventually resulted in an attack which left a valet d'écurie with several wounds.

Finally, with regard to murder and physical assault, the gov­ ernment generally considered them to be serious enough to waive the special status of "privileged places" in order to facilitate the capture 58 of guilty parties.

Beyond murder, physical assault, and other crimes against per­ sons, the police also had to cope with a continual assortment of crimes against property in which economic conditions and poverty probably were critical factors. The recounting of robberies, thefts and petty larcenies fills many pages in the police records at the end of Louis's reign. The problem was of obvious concern to both police and citizens alike. One reads, for instance, of a group of twenty to

D'Argenson to Jerome de Pontchartrain, Paris, October 27, 1700, Bibliothèque Nationale, Ms. Français 8123, fols. 89-90r. In reality the imposters were "des libertins de profession et des vagabonds." This case also typifies the special care and considerations taken in matters that concerned members of the privileged orders of society. In general, it can be said that the police were always attentive to the social and legal status of the people they encountered in the course of their duties.

'Argenson to Jérôme de Pontchartrain, Paris, March 4, 1706, Bibliothèque Nationale, Ms. Français 8124, fols. 147-149. 58 In February 1705, for instance, Jérôme de Pontchartrain gave D'Argenson the order he had requested to enter the Temple or St. Jean de Latran to arrest the soldiers and other persons responsible for the death of a jardinier of La Coutrille. Archives Nationales, Ms. 0 366, fol. 38v. 208 thirty merchants sending a placet (petition) to Secretary of State

Pontchartrain through D ’Argenson (who apparently had dissuaded them from trooping en masse to see the Secretary— probably because any type of crowd action was not viewed very favorably by Versailles) to request that he take a personal interest in assuring the punishment of a thief who had victimized his merchant-employer. The merchants felt it was in their common interest to do so "pour contenir leurs garçons,et leurs 59 facteurs dans la crainte et dans le respect." Being robbed by one’s own employees and domestics appears to have been very common, or at least common enough that the police had the attitude that the first place to look for culprits was on the household staff or the business staff of the victim.For example, in 1705, after a sizable theft at the residence of the Due de Rohan, D ’Argenson wrote to Jerome de

Pontchartrain that the theft appeared to be the work of a valet who was familiar with the residence and the Due’s whereabouts as a result of his frequent services for other members of the Due’s staff. He char­ acterized the theft as the work of a

nouveau genre de domestics que le luxe, la débauché et la vanité des gens de livrée (qui dédaignent de se servir eux-mêmes) a malheureusement introduit dans ces

^^D’Argenson to Jerome de Pontchartrain, Paris, September 29, 1698, Bibliothèque Nationale, Ms. Français 8122, fol. 417.

^^Thus, for instance, in a case in which a home was burglarized when its occupants went out for a walk, D ’Argenson wrote to Jérôme de Pontchartrain; "je ne doutte pas que ce ne soit ou des voisins, ou quelques anciens domestiques." In other words, the police tended to look for logical suspects first. Paris, August 7, 1704, Bibliothèque Nationale, Ms. Français 8120, fol. 177-180v. 209

derniers temps; ce que je remarque de plus en plus estre la source ordinaire des vols qui se commettent dans l ’intérieur des maisons. Ainsy j ’ose dire que les maîtres, qui ayment leur propre seûreté, ne devroient pas souffrir chez eux des vagabonds de cette espèce, qui n ’ont proprement aucun domicilie certain; mais qui protégés par les autres lacquais, dont ils favorisent le libertinage et la fainéantise, ne subsistent que du pillage q u ’ils peuvent faire, â la faveur de cette protection.

For a brief spell in the winter of 1700-01 burglars had the police of Paris in an embarrassing position. In a short span of time there were a striking number of robberies by voleurs de nuit (the pro­ verbial thieves in the night] at the residences of very prominent people, including Michel Chamillart (the Controller-General of Finances and Secretary of State for War), Chrétien-François de Lamoignon (a

President of the Parlement), Achille de Harlay (First President of the

Parlement), and the Marquis de Dreux, as well as at the Petite Écurie.

A concerted effort by practically every police agent in and around Paris finally led to the apprehension of the thieves by the lieutenant criminel de robe courte, and their subsequent conviction and execution.

^^D’Argenson to Jerome de Pontchartrain, Paris, November 10, 1705, ibid., fols. 254-257.

These robberies sparked quite a correspondence. See, for in­ stance: D ’Argenson to Chamillart, Paris, January 6 and January 11, 1701; Claude Robert (procureur du roi au Châtelet) to Chamillart, Paris, January 11, 1701; Henri Bachelier de Montcel (lieutenant criminel de robe courte) to Chamillart, Paris, January 11 and January 18, 1701; D ’Argenson to Chamillart, Paris, January 19, 1701; and Robert to Chamillart, Paris, March 9, 1701; all in the Archives Nationales, Ms. 0^431. See also: Jérôme de Pontchartrain to D ’Argenson, Versailles, December 18, 1700, Archives Nationales, Ms. 0^44, fols. 619-620r; and Jérôme de Pontchartrain to Montcel, Versailles, December 18, 1700, ibid., fol. 621. Needless to say, Pontchartrain reported that the King was not amused by the robberies. A few years later, D ’Argenson set up a special patrol of the 210

It must have been an embarrassed and angry D'Argenson who wrote to Controller General Chamillart three years later, in January 1704, to express his deep regret that housebreakers had again visited the minister's home in Paris on the Rue de Normandie. As a small consolation he noted that he had severely reprimanded the officers of the guet who were on duty the night the incident had occurred.Chamillart himself had some unkind words for the guet as he noted in his reply to D'Argenson.

It seemed extraordinary, he wrote, that his home was regularly be- seiged by burglars three or four times a year. He had personally written, he said, to the chevalier du guet to express his resentment about the latest episode, and to inform him, with the King's approval, that if there was a reoccurrence, the guet would go without pay until the culprits were apprehended. For D'Argenson's benefit, he added:

"Je ne doute point que vous qui êtes chargé de la police de Paris ne voyiez avec peine de pareils désordres

members of the compagnie du lieutenant criminel de robe courte to police the streets of Paris on holidays and Sundays to reduce the number of thefts and robberies which occurred on those days which ap­ parently were major working days for those with evil intentions. Secretary of State Pontchartrain thought this was a good idea. How­ ever, he reminded the lieutenant général de police that the company already had the task of preventing crimes not only on Sundays and holidays but also on "tous les autres jours de l'année." Apparently he wished to go on record as disclaiming the need for extra expense money for the patrol prior to any claim being made for it from D'Argenson. See: Jérôme de Pontchartrain to D'Argenson, Fontainebleau, September 24, 1704, Archives Nationales, Ms. 0^ 365, fol. 218v.

^ • 7 D'Argenson to Chamillart, Paris, January 11, 1704, Archives Nationales, Ms. 432.

^^Chamillart's reply to D'Argenson is drafted on the back of ibid. A few months earlier, D'Argenson had written to Chamillart that the guet had actually interrupted and prevented an attempted burglary at his house. Paris, October 12, 1703, ibid. 211

Residences, of course, were not the only target for thieves.

Coaches, clothes, animals, food, purses— in fact just about anything that had a resale value was of interest to the voleurs and scélérats of Paris, Indeed, they would even relieve you of your suitcase while you waited for public transportation!^^

While most thieves and robbers were probably quite content not to meet anyone while they were conducting their nefarious activities, if they were cornered or surprised in the act they could be quite dangerous, and were known even to battle it out with the police.But as in so

See, for instance, D ’Argenson's account of the capture of one of the "coupeurs de valises" in his report to Jérôme de Pontchartrain, Paris, January 1, 1705, Bibliothèque Nationale, Ms. Français 8124, fols. 92-94. Unfortunately, many persons were finally driven to stealing because of their desperate condition; and one reads of cases like that of a former army captain who was caught stealing an altar cloth (pre­ sumably for resale) and fainted from hunger shortly after being ar­ rested. D'Argenson reported the sad details to Pontchartrain: "... souvent il manque du pain. On a mesme reconnu que la misère, le desespoir 1 'avoient parte a voler cette nappe; a peine a-t-il esté tombé dans un évanouissement qui a duré près d'une heure. On luy a fait prendre ensuite quelque nourriture, dont il avoit le dernier besoing, et l'on n'a peu se dispenser de l'envoyer en prison, suivant les règles de la procédure." And he recommended that the man be transferred from prison to the Hôpital Général because "il seroit de la justice et de la charité du Roy d'en donner l'ordre." Paris, February 5, 1705, Bibliothèque Nationale, Ms. Français 8120, fols.204-205.

^^In December 1701, for example, a member of the guet spotted two, men running with packages (stolen goods, as it turned out) and gave chase. The thieves stopped, and the archer was wounded in the ensuing fight. D'Argenson recommended in this case that the archer be rewarded for his effort because "il s'en fait peu dans ce genre de milice, dont le succez soit plus malheureusement ny 1'enterprise plus vigoureuse: il semble, aussy, que la blessure de ce pauvre archer doit estre pensée aux dépens de la compagnie. ..." In response, Pontchartrain apparently set aside 100 livres as recompense. See: D'Argenson to Jérôme de 212 many other facets of life during the ancien regime, no matter what one did, short of attacking the King himself, family influence, wealth and profession were generally taken into account when suitable retribution for criminal or violent acts was being considered. No matter how incor­ rigible one was, there was always hope for a favorable resolution to one's difficulties depending on the inclinations of one's own family.

A case in point is that of Pampron de Lespinay described by D'Argenson as "un veritable scélérat qui n'a ny honneur, ny conscience, ny reli­ gion, et qui fait gloire de son impiété." He was a thief who would have come to a "fin funestre" a long time ago, the police chief wrote, if his relatives had not bought off his accusers. He had been put in the Hôpital Général several times but had escaped. In 1714, he was back in prison for different thefts, but his family had again suppressed the case "à force d'argent." He would have been released had his mili­ tary commander not requested that he be kept at the Chatelet. But again 67 his family interceded, and he was transferred to Bicetre.

Poverty, Vagrancy and Beggary

In addition to the problems of crime and violence themselves, there was another compound problem that was closely related, both in fact and in the popular mentality, namely that of vagrancy and beggary. In the case of vagabonds, gens sans aveu, and mendiants valides, the government and police faced a serious and growing problem

Pontchartrain, and the latter's note, Paris, December 17, 1701, Bibliothèque Nationale, Ms. Français 8121, fols. 179-182.

D'Argenson to Jérôme de Pontchartrain, and accompanying placet, Paris, October 5, 1714, ibid., fols. 325-326. 213

as Louis X I V s reign wore on. It was only a short step from vagrancy

and beggary into conditions of crime and violence, and given the un­

favorable economic circumstances of Louis's reign many people took

the step for want of an alternative. The government did not offer

any grand alternatives and charities could not handle the enormous problem.The government's general solution, taken first in Paris

in 1656 then elsewhere in the kingdom was to gather the wretches to­

gether in Hôpitaux Generals in a move referred to since as the "grand renfermement" ("great confinement"), or to send them to the galleys 69 or colonies, or at the very least to banish them from the city. In

Among the works which serve as good introductions to the problems of poverty, vagrancy, and beggary in early modern France, though many of them deal with areas outside of Paris, are: Christian Paultre, De la repression de la mendicité et du vaga­ bondage en France sous l'ancien regime (Paris, 1906); Jean-Pierre Gutton, L'Etat et la mendicite dans la premiere moitié du XVIII^ siècle (Lyon, 1973); idem., La société et les pauvres en Europe (XVie - xVIIie siècles) (Paris, 1974), idem., La société et les pauvres. L'exemple de la généralité de Lyon (1534-1789) (Paris, 1971); Olwen Hufton, The Poor of Eighteenth-Century France, 1750- 1789 (Oxford, 1974); idem., "Towards an Understanding of the Poor of Eighteenth-Century France," French Government and Society 1500-1800: Essays in Memory of Alfred Cobban (London, 1973), pp. 145-165; Jacques Depauw, "Pauvres, pauvres mendiants, mendiants valides ou vagabonds? Les hésitations de la legis­ lation royale," Revue d'histoire moderne et contemporaine, XXI (July-September, 1974), 401-418; Jeffry Kaplow, The Names of Kings: The Parisian Laboring Poor in the Eighteenth Century (New York, 1972); Cissie Fairchilds, Poverty and Charity in Aix-en-Provence, 1640-1789, Johns Hopkins University Studies in Historical and Political Science, series 94, number 1 (Baltimore, 1976); and, Geremek, "Criminalité."

^^On the great confinement, see: Michel Foucault, Histoire de la folie à l'age classique (Paris, 1972 [1961]); and Gutton, La société et les pauvres en Europe. On the galleys, see: Paul Bamford, Fighting Ships and Prisons: The Mediterranean Galleys of France in the Age of Louis XIV (Minneapolis, 1973). 214 short, the government tried to deal with the problems without eradi­ cating their causes; and the police of course wound up in the forefront of the great chase.

While no firm statistics exist on the number of vagabonds and beggars in Paris at the end of Louis's reign, one can easily say that they numbered in the tens of thousands. At any given time, several thousand were locked up in the Hôpital-Général and other prisons of 70 Paris. The rest existed in whatever hovels or vacant doorways they could find. They feigned various types of employment or illness to avoid arrest by the police and to elicit sympathy from potential alms-givers.

Frequently they worked in groups in order to harass and frighten their victims into giving donations, or in order to distract them so as to relieve them of their valuables. Trying to enforce the laws against this great army of street-wise vagrants was not a simple matter, though the Secretary of State of the Maison du Roi sometimes seemed to think it was. As he wrote to the lieutenant général de police in the spring of 1700, it was simply a matter of enforcing the existing laws:

II a été fait une infinité de bons règlements sur les mendiants à Paris. S'ils êtoient exécutés on ne seroit point dans l'embarras dans lequel on se trouve à présent à cet égard.71

See, for example, Depauw, "Pauvres, Pauvres Mendiants," p. 403; Paultre, De la répression, pp. 316-317; Boislisle, Mémoire, I, 418-420; Bibliothèque Nationale, Ms. Français 16750.

^^Jérôme de Pontchartrain to D'Argenson, Versailles, April 21, 1700, Archives Nationales, Ms. q 1 44, fols. 180-lBlv. 215

Shortly thereafter, however, another "bons règlement" was issued con­ cerning mendiants valides which served to illustrate the government's attitude towards beggars (and perhaps towards the poor in general).

Issued in July 1700, the preamble of the law recounted the difficulties of the 1690's that had led many people to see beggary as an escape 72 from a life of hard work in the countryside. It read, in part:

La stérilité et les maladies arrivées durant une partie des années 1693 et 1694, ayant donné lieu à plusieurs de nos sujets qui demeuraient à la campagne, de chercher dans les villes, et particulièrement dans celle de Paris, les secours dont ils avaient besoin; la plupart ont trouvé tant de douceur à gagner par la mendicité, dans une vie libertine et fainéante, beaucoup plus qu'ils ne pouvaient recevoir par le travail le plus rude et le plus continu qu'ils pouvoient faire; que l'heureuse moisson qu'il plut a Dieu de donner à toutes les provinces de notre royaume en ladite année 1694, et les soins que l'on a pris ...dans la suite n'ont pu les retirer de ce genre de vie, dans laquelle même ils élèvent leurs enfants.

In order to bring these people back to their senses the government proposed first of all that

toutes sortes de personnes, tant hommes que femmes âgés de quinze ans et au-dessus, valides et capables de gagner leur vie par leur travail; soit qu'ils aient un metier, soit qu'ils n'en aient pas, de travailler aux ouvrages dont ils peuvent être capables, dans les lieux de leur

72 Déclaration du roi [pour obliger les pauvres mendiants valides d'aller travailler a la campagne], July 25, 1700, printed in Peuchet, Collection des lois, II, 143-149. On the problems of the 1690's in the French countryside, see: Histoire de la France rurale. Vol. II: L'âge classique des paysans, 1340-1789, ed. by Emmanuel Le Roy Ladurie ([Paris], 1975), pp. 359-363; and, Trenard, Mémoires des intendants, 11-14, passim.

^^Peuchet, Collection des lois, II, 143. 216

naissance, ou dans ceux ou ils sont demeurants depuis ' plusieurs années, à peine d'être traités et punis comme des vagavons.74

Second, every person, no matter what their own "qualité et condition," was forbidden, under threat of a fine of fifty livres, from giving any sort of handout to mendicants. Third, the mendicants were to be given

"certificats" of passage so that they would not stray from their proper destination. Fourth, the intendants in the provinces were instructed to provide assistance for arriving mendicants until they could be put to work on the next harvest. Fifth, those mendicants who because of infirmity or incapacity were unable to return to their birthplace were to present themselves to the nearest Hôpital Général. Sixth, admini­ strators of the Hôpitaux Généraux were instructed not to let mendicants leave their institutions even if their funds ran low; the government would provide the money necessary to continue operations. Seventh, women nursing small infants were expected to submit themselves to the regime of the Hôpitaux Générais until their children were weaned; then they were expected to go to work though their children could stay at the Hôpitaux for an upbringing and an education. Eight, poor orphans without relatives and without possessions were also expected to go to the Hôpitaux Généraux until they were able to earn their own way in the world. Ninth, as an incentive, those who returned to the countryside to work the land diligently were to be exempted from the taille on thirty livres worth of their revenue during the first five years.

^^Ibid., p. 144. 217

Tenth, the lieutenants généraux de police throughout the kingdom were enjoined to enforce the law and to act as judges in cases involving

"mendiants" and "vagabonds valides." Eleventh, the lieutenants criminels were given the same task in towns where lieutenants-généraux de police had not yet been established. Twelfth, lieutenants criminels de robe courte, chevaliers du guet, and their officers and archers were enjoined to assist the lieutenants généraux de police in the campaign against mendicants. Thirteenth, the "prévôts de nos cousins les maréchaux de France, vice-sénéchaux" and their officers were charged with enforcement of the law in the countryside and on the highways and to participate in the judgment of cases. The penalties proposed in the law against recalcitrant mendicants were harsh: for men the penalty was whipping for the first offense and five years in the galleys for a second offense (although if the offender was twenty years old or younger the second offense was punishable by whipping and the pillory); for women the penalty was one month in the Hôpital Général for the 75 first offense and a lashing and the pillory for a second offense.

This law of 1700 is very interesting because in it the govern­ ment acknowledges that the harsh conditions of 1693-1694 were partly to blame for the increase in the incidence of mendicity and, by infer­ ence, part of the reason for the depopulation of the countryside.

Unfortunately, the plan to correct the situation by sending all of the beggars back into the countryside was impractical given the size of

^^Ibid., pp. 145-149. 218

Louis's police forces, the popular sympathy that beggars could arouse

(a curious ambiguity in the attitude of the general populace towards 76 them), and the need for manpower for the military.

Vagabondage and beggary continued to be a problem and a source

of irritation to the Secretary of State of the Maison du Roi, and pre­

sumably the King as well. • Several months after the July déclaration

Pontchartrain wrote to D'Argenson that during a trip from Fontainebleau

to Versailles

j'eus avis qu'il y avoit grand nombre de mandians à Essonne et aux autres lieux du passage, et mesme le Roy s'en aperceut a son retour nonobstant les ordres precis et reiterées que j'avois donné aux commandants des brigades du Prévost de l'Isle d'en purger la route cela me fait juger que la declaration contre les mandians ne s'exécute pas à Paris avec toute la régularité que la chose requiert, . . . Vous scavez ce que je vous ay dit dans le temps de cette declaration par ordre du Roy qui veut que je m'informe souvent de vous de ce qui se fait a cet égard. Ainsy je vous prie de ne vous relâcher, et de me faire scavoir de temps en temps le progrez que vous ferez. . . .77

A short time later, he wrote again, that

Le Roy est surpris qu'après toutes les precautions qu'on a prises pour chasser les mandians de Paris, il s'en trouve encore une si grande quantité, et Sa Majesté m'ordonne de vous dire que vous devez reveiller votre attention à cet égard et poursuivre avec toute la vigeur et la sévérité possible ceux qui ont fait du desordre dans l'Eglise St. Laurent, et battu le Bedeau, et sur

D'Argenson would just as soon have preferred to send the mendi­ ants to prison as to the Hôpital Général where they no sooner entered than they were let out. See: Jérôme de Pontchartrain to Achille de Harlay, Versailles, September 8, 1700, Bibliothèque Nationale, Ms. Français 16750, fols. 50-52. 77 ^ /y Jérôme de Pontchartrain to D'Argenson, Versailles, November 22, 1700, Archives Nationales, Ms.O^ 44, fols. 472v-573v. 219

ce que vous m'écrivez que ces mandians paroissent en trouppe dans les villages voisins et vont loger 1 'authority dans des fermes ecartées des grands chemins. Je donne ordre aux officiers des brigades de les ecarter.^

D'Argenson found the hideaway of some of the vagabonds all right. Un­ fortunately, it was located in the residence of some of the archers of the guet! Pontchartrain naturally was incredulous and could only write that "on ne doit plus s'etonner des desordres qui arrivent tous les jours puisque les voleurs trouvent un azile asseuré dans les maisons mesme de ceux qui sont préposez pour leur faire la guerre.

. .

The government's concern about mendicants in Paris continued to be expressed by the Secretary of State of the Maison du Roi who alternately exhorted, criticized, and praised the lieutenant général de police for his campaign against them. An increase of over 2,200 new inmates in the institutions of the Hôpital General in Paris during the six months following the July declaration would suggest that the 80 police were enforcing the new law vigorously.

78 ^ ^ Jerome de Pontchartrain to D'Argenson, Versailles, December 15, 1700, ibid., fols. 608v-609r.

Jerome de Pontchartrain to D'Argenson, Versailles, January 12, 1701, Archives Nationales, Ms. 0 1 362, fol. Hr. on Bibliothèque Nationale, Ms. Français 16750, fols. 60-61, passim. As of March 1714, the total number of persons at the Hôpital General was 9,915, or about 3,500 more than the total in 1700. D'Argenson to Jerome de Pontchartrain, Paris, March 21, 1714, Biblio­ thèque Nationale, Ms. Français 8125, fols. 343-347. For the time being, the King and Secretary of State Pontchartrain were pleased with the results of the campaign against the mendicants and vagabonds and exhorted the lieutenant general de police "continuer avec vivacité." Jerome de Pontchartrain to D'Argenson, Versailles, March 12, 1701, Archives Nationales, Ms. 0^ 362, fol. lOlr. 220

The following year, in August 1701, the government issued a

declaration on vagabonds which stood as its official statement on that

group for the next two decades. In it, vagabonds and gens sans aveu were formally defined as:

ceux qui n'ont ni profession, ni métier, ni domicile certain, ni bien pour subsister, et qui ne sont avoues, et ne peuvent certifier de leurs bonnes vies et moeurs par personnes dignes de foi.81

The déclaration ordered them "de prendre des emplois, de se mettre en

condition pour y servir, ou d'aller travailler à la culture des terres,

ou aux ouvrages et métiers auxquels ils peuvent être propre," otherwise

they would be subject to banishment and the galleys. The lieutenant

général de police and the lieutenant criminel de robe courte were given 82 the task of enforcing the law.

Both the 1700 and the 1701 laws kept the police busy, and at

the same time provided them with supplemental income. An expense re­ port among the papers of the Control1er-General of Finances shows, for

instance, that between July 1, 1701 and April 1, 1702, police officers

involved in the arrest of vagabonds and mendicants received a total of

591 livres and 17 sols for their troubles. A sergent of the guet re­

ceived 30 livres for having arrested fifty "mandians, vagabonds, et

gueuses"; an exempt of the company of the lieutenant criminel de robe

courte received twenty-five livres for having arrested two "faux

hermittes"; the concierge of the prison of the Grand Chatelet was paid

81 Printed in Peuchet, Collection des lois, 11, 160-163. 82, ^Ibid. 221

4 livres 2 sols for having purchased some clothing for a mendicant who had none; a comissaire was paid 43 livres 15 sols as reimbursement for the sum he paid the archers [des pauvres] of the Hôpital Général to rent the coaches they used to transport the mendicants and vagabonds they captured; and so on.^^

The campaign against vagabonds and mendicants was not without its problems. One reads, for example, of members of the Gardes Suisses and lackeys of the ambassador of Malta rescuing a mendicant from the 84 archers des pauvres ; and, of a dangerous mounted band of mendicants 85 demanding handouts. In addition. Secretary of State Pontchartrain was not easily pleased unless he neither saw nor heard about incidents in

Paris involving mendicants (or for that matter almost any other sort of crime). Worse yet, if he heard of problems from sources other than his police chief, he could be quite caustic. More than a few times D'Argenson received letters that read something like this 1705 letter:

La mandicite et le luxe augmentent de jour en jour et il paroist que vous ny avez pas autant d'attention qu'il seroit à desirer. Il y a eu plusieurs desordres dans les

83 The document, initialed by D'Argenson on April 30, 1702, is entitled "Etat de ce qui a été payé suivant les ordres de Monsieur Le Lieutenant gnal. de Police, Par Le Sr. de Lautel, Receveur des amendes, aux officiers et archers qui ont arrêtés des Mandiants, Vagabonds et Faineaux depuis le p.er Juillet 1701 jusqu'au d.er avril 1702," in the Archives Nationales, Ms. G^ 431. 84 D'Argenson to Jérôme de Pontchartrain, Paris, April 30, 1702, Bibliothèque Nationale, Ms. Français SI23, fol. 232v. 85 * D'Argenson to Jérôme de Pontchartrain, Paris, July 8, 1703, Bibliothèque Nationale, Ms. Français 8120, fol. 157. 222

spectacles dont vous ne m'avez rien mandé. Enfin il a couru un livre intitulé La correction fraternelle qui a fait grand bruit tant à Paris qu'a à la cour qui a donné lieu à un arrest du parlement et dont cependant vous ne m'avez pas dit un seul mat. Vous jugez bien que je ne puis m'empescher de vous faire sur cela des reproches et qu'il faudra que vous me disiez des raisons bien forte pour que je vous pardonne cette negligence. 86

Mendicants and vagabonds, armed of course with tales of woe, were quite a match for most people. One reads of everything from a fourteen year old posing as a mute war hero (replete with a Croix de l'ordre de Saint- 87 Louis) to a phoney count who bilked innkeepers and others with tales 88 of anticipated wealth.

In addition to sending mendicants and vagabonds to the Hôpital

Général, or the galleys, or banishing them, the government, in very hard years like 1693-1694, 1699, and 1709 attempted to set up special work

Jérôme de Pontchartrain to D'Argenson, Versailles, December 2, 1705, Archives Nationales, Ms. 0^ 366, fols. 310v-311r. Unfortunately, D'Argenson's response to this letter, if there was one, is lost. In 1708 the situation must have been similar, for there is a reply by D'Argenson to Pontchartrain (in this case the latter's letter is lost) that could equally have been used in 1705. In it, the lieutenant général de police said: "A I'egard des spectacles, je puis vous asseurer qu'il ne m'en est rien revenu quimêritte devous estreescrit, et qu'on ne s'est point encore relasché sur le soingd'arrester les mandians." In the same letter he noted that the number of "pauvres de touttes espèces" in the Hôpital Général approached 10,000. Paris, November 5, 1708, Bibliothèque Nationale, Ms. Français 8120, fols. 338-343. 87 ^ D'Argenson to Jérôme de Pontchartrain, Paris, May 6 and June 16, 1707, Bibliothèque Nationale, Ms. Français 8120, fols. 284- ]87, and 288-291v.

88 ^ ^ D'Argenson to Jérôme de Pontchartrain, Paris, June 12, and July 19, 1713, Bibliothèque Nationale, Ms. Français 8125, fols. 320- 321v, and 313-314v. 223 projects known as ateliers publics whereby the poor could receive food 89 in return for work on construction and landscaping projects. Unfor­ tunately, these generally had disastrous and short-lived results. In the case of the 1709 atelier, the mismanagement of the project and the underestimation of the number of applicants resulted in serious rioting and looting which included an attack on D ’Argenson's home (even though the lieutenant gënêral de police was not the director of the project, he was recognized and resented as the symbol of royal authority, and in this case royal failure, in Paris). Troops had to be summoned to quell the disturbances and several persons were left dead in the wake of the 90 violence. The lesson that the authorities learned, though D'Argenson had already argued its truth in an unsuccessful attempt to prevent the atelier public from being created at all, was that it was just as dangerous--if not more so— to voluntarily assemble the poor as it was 91 to leave them alone.

89 On the ateliers publics of the period, see: Arthur de Boislisle, Le grand hiver et la disette de 1709 (Paris, 1903), pp. 59-62; and Commandant Herlaut, "La disette de pain à Paris en 1709," Mémoires de la Société de l'Histoire de Paris et 1 * Ile-de-France, XLV (1918), 29-30, 62-81, 90 The incident is described in detail in: Claude Robert to Nicolas Desmaretz (Control1er-General of Finances), Paris, August 20, 1709, Archives Nationales, Ms.G^ 436, and, D'Argenson to Desmaretz with copy of letter from D'Argenson to Jerome de Pontchartrain attached (D'Argenson frequently sent to the Controller-General copies of the letters he had written to the Secretary of State. In part, he appears to have been seeking support for his activities from sources other than Jerome de Pontchartrain), Paris, August 20, 1709, Archives Nationales, G? 1654. In his letters D'Argenson noted that he had made arrangements with the Gardes Françaises, Gardes Suisses and Musketeers to quell any further tumults, and that he had specifically arranged for special pre­ cautions to be taken at the Hotel des Monnies, the Domaine, and the mar­ ketplaces of the city to assure "la tranquillité publique."

^^D'Argenson to Desmaretz, Paris, May 1, 1709, Archives Nationales, 224

Just as riots, or émeutes, were the ultimate expression of discontent on the part of the people, so the use of troops was the ultimate expression of authority on the part of the government. Under

Louis XIV, the government and the police were not afraid to meet force with superior force in order to maintain public order.

Ms. G 1654. See also: Herlaut, "La disette," pp. 29-31; and Bernard, Emerging City, p. 141. CHAPTER V

THE POLICING OF ECONOMIC AFFAIRS

The maintenance of public order, the primary function of the police of Paris, by itself, in broad context, would have assured the frequent intervention of the police in the economic affairs of the capital. The interaction of Parisians with each other, with the rest of the French populace, and with government institutions frequently depended upon economic and quasi-economic relationships--including those of producer-consumer, buyer-reller, employer-worker, master- servant, landlord-tenant, tax assessor-taxpayer, investor-client, and even almsgiver-beggar. The inhabitants of this largest of French cities were not self-sufficient. They were all bound together by economic relationships, even if not by the same legal and social re­ lationships created by the corporate bodies (corps, communautés, or compagnies) that characterized early modern urban society.^

While the Annales school has provided major socio-economic studies of various cities and areas in France, most notably in the case of Amiens, Beauvais, and Languedoc, no major studies yet exist on the social and economic life of early modern Paris. As Emmanuel Le Roy Ladurie and Pierre Couperie remarked several years ago, "la vie économique de Paris sous l'Ancien Régime demeure un mystère et sa population une énigme" ["Le mouvement des loyers parisiens de la fin du Moyen Age au XVllI® siècle," Annales: économies, sociétés, civilisations, special issue, XXV (1970), p. 1004]. Nevertheless,

225 226

Most of these economic relationships, whether they involved

individuals, groups, or institutions, remained commonplace and without

incident. In part, this was due to the fact that the police monitored,

or "took cognizance," of the normal economic pulse of the city in order

to maintain an economic order that would be without serious incident.

one can refer to numerous articles in the Annales and in the "Cahiers des Annales" for various aspects of Parisian economic history [for instance: Jean Meuvret, Etudes d'histoire économique: recueil d'articles, "Cahiers des Annales," no. 32 (Paris, 1971)]. The standard general text, which only touches upon Paris, now seems to be Histoire économique et sociale de la France, vol. Il, cover­ ing the period 1660-1789, by Labrousse,Goubert, et al. Other important recent works which deal with the economy of the period in the light of recent research include Pierre Goubert, Louis XIV et vingt millions de Français (Paris, 1966), and Robert Mandrou, Louis XIV en son temps, 1661-1715, "Peuples et Civilisations" (Paris, 1973). However, one might wish to read the critique of both works in William F. Church, Louis XIV in Historical Thought: From Voltaire to the Annales School (New York, 1976), pp. 99-110. Two of the best brief writings which give an overall perspective on the early modern French economy are: François Crouzet, "England and France in the Eighteenth Century: A Comparative Analysis of Two Economic Growths," in Social His­ torians in Contemporary France: Essays from 'Annales', ed. and trans. by the staff of Annales (New York, 1972), pp. 59-86 [article first published in 1966]; and, Denis Richet, "Economic Growth and Its Setbacks in France from the Fifteenth to the Eighteenth Century," ibid., pp. 180-211 [article first published in 1968]. Many of the older histories still provide some of the best reading about the early modern economy. The chapters in Ernest Lavisse's classic Histoire de France, vol. VIII (part 1) (Paris, 1908), though criticized in recent decades, are still perhaps the best brief synthesis. On the concept of corps, one should see: Emile Coornaert, Les corporations en France avant 1789 (Paris, 1941); Rene de Lespinasse, Les metiers et corporations de la ville de Paris, 3 vols. (Paris, 1886-1897); Roland Mousnier, Les institutions de la France sous la monarchie absolue, 1589-1789 (Paris, 1974); Franklin, Dictionnaire historique; and, Bernard, The Emerging City, pp. 108-131. 227

On occasion, however, because of a variety of both controllable and

uncontrollable circumstances such as the weather, crop failures, live­

stock epidemics, war, government policy, fraud, and the changing pattern

of supply and demand, individual and collective economic relationships

were strained or torn asunder with a resultant threat (or anticipated

threat) to public order. In such circumstances, the police acted to

preserve or, if needed, to restore order.

The Role of the Lieutenant Général de Police in the Economic Affairs of Paris

The government of Louis XIV, as well as the municipality of

Paris itself, had innumerable officials, magistrates, and institutions prepared to participate in, if not supervise, the economic relationships

of Parisian society. However, it was the lieutenant general de police

of the Chatelet who emerged, during the tenures in office of both La

Reynie and D'Argenson, and particularly the latter, as the chief-on-the-

spot monitor and enforcer of much of the government's economic policy

V 2 vis-à-vis Paris.

At least half of the duties attributed to the office of the

police chief by the edict of March 1667 which created it were related

2 ^ Naturally, the lieutenant général de police had the able as­ sistance of the commissaires of the Chatelet and his exempts. The police records from the period, particularly those in the G ^ series (Contrôle général des finances) of the Archives Nationales and those in the Delamare Collection in the Manuscrits Français at the Biblio­ thèque Nationale, bear witness to the continual involvement of the police in the economic affairs of Paris, as do the massive volumes II and III of Delamare's Traité de la Police. 228 to economic affairs, and more specifically to the production and distri­ bution of foodstuffs and other necessary provisions, to the operations of the marketplaces of Paris, and to the activities of the corps of 3 merchants and manufacturers. From time to time, as the need arose, these were supplemented with additional duties that necessitated even greater involvement in the economic affairs of the capital.

This involvement, by necessity, brought the lieutenant general de police into a close working relationship with the Control1er-General of Finances and his commis who were responsible for economic, financial and commercial matters throughout France.^ During D'Argenson's tenure in office he served three successive Controllers-General, including:

Louis de Pontchartrain until 1699,^ Michel Chamillart, until 1708,^ 7 and Nicolas Desmaretz until 1715. His contact with the last two gave

^Edit, in Delamare, Traité de la Police, I, 148-148. The com­ missaires, of course, were involved in these activities too.

^For the history and administrative correspondence of the Con­ trollers-General during the latter part of Louis XIV’s reign, see: Boislisle, Correspondance des Contrôleurs Généraux, especially Volumes II and III. For a concise description of the functions of the Con­ troller-General, especially vis-à-vis the Secretary of State for the Marine, see: Ibid., II, Appendice I, pp. 463-470.

^Louis de Pontchartrain was also Secretary of State of the Maison du Roi and Secretary of State for the Marine during this same period, with his son Jérôme en survivance; he subsequently was Chancellor of France from 1699 to 1714.

^Chamillart was also Secretary of State for War from 1701 to 1709. He had previously been the Controller of Madame de Maintenon's school at Saint-Cyr. 7 Desmaretz was a directeur des finances under Chamillart from 1703 until 1708 when he took over as Controller-General of Finances. He was a cousin of Colbert de Torcy, the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs. 229 him the opportunity to develop important reporting relationships which permitted him more flexibility in his activities than he would have en­ joyed in reporting to the Secretary of State of the Maison du Roi alone; and, it also provided a measure of counterbalance to the dominance ^ 8 of the Phelypeaux family in Parisian affairs. In Chamillart, before his dismissal from office, D'Argenson found a friend and a foil whom he could use to temper the domineering control that Jérôme de Pontchartrain had in the administration of Paris; and, the same was true in the case of Desmaretz who served as an invaluable alternative source of assistance in the troubled years of 1709-1710 when the maintenance of the public order became inseparably bound to the state of the Parisian economy. D'Argenson, of course, served the Controllers-General as a primary source of information about the Parisian economy, and as a chief enforcer of government policy. He also acted as the chief investigator in cases which threatened the honor and integrity of the Controller-

General or his office. In addition to his involvement in economic

O In addition to Louis and Jérôme, other members of the family directly involved in Parisian administrative affairs included: Jean Phelypeaux, brother of Louis, and intendant for the généralité of Paris from 1690 to 1709; Armand-Roland Bignon de Blanzy, nephew of Louis, and intendant for the généralité of Paris from 1709 to 1724; and Jérôme Bignon, nephew of Louis and prévôt des marchands from 1708-1716.

^In 1703, for instance, Chamillart asked D'Argenson to investi­ gate irregularities in his household and official charges which posed a threat to "1'honneur du ministère et à mon charactère." The case in question involved a scheme by a négociant from Liège to obtain a position as a fermier général. Chamillart to D'Argenson, Versailles, September 17, 1703, Archives de la Guerre, Ms. A^ 1614, fol. 340. Since Chamillart was the head of Finances and the War Ministry, it is not altogether unusual to find financial correspondence mixed in with military correspondence. 230 affairs through his relationship with the Controllers-General, D'Argenson also sat on the conseil de commerce, the council set up in 1700 to deal with commerce and manufacturing.^^

The importance of the role of the lieutenant général de police in the economic affairs of the capital was confirmed by an edict in

June 1700 which, in great part, resolved the jurisdictional disputes between the lieutenant général de police and the prévôt des marchands et échevins of the Hotel de Ville in favor of the former. The lieutenant général had in fact lobbeyed for the edict with a strong campaign of letter-writing, mémoires, and meetings with the First

President of the Parlement (since the Parlement oversaw jurisdictional disputes and exercised a quasi-official supervision of police affairs 11 in Paris). He undoubtedly benefited from the support of Louis and

Jérôme de Pontchartrain, and Michel Chamillart; he also benefited from the research and legal abilities of commissaire Delamare who supplied much of the ammunition for D'Argenson's mémoires from his vast personal 12 collection of historical documents.

^^See: Bonnasieux, Conseil du commerce. D ’Argenson became a member in 1705.

^^Achille de Harlay, procureur-général^then First President of the Parlement, 1665-1707. The correspondence of D'Argenson with Harlay is scattered amidst the Harlay Papers in the N nuscrits Français at the Bibliothèque Nationale; but, in this case, the relevant letters are in Ms. Français 17438.

12See, for example, the letters from Louis de Pontchartrain to Harlay, Versailles, April 4, 1700, Bibliothèque Nationale, Ms. Français 19582, fol. 61; n.p.. May 2, 1700, ibid., fol. 65; Marly, [1700], ibid., fol. 75; and, Versailles, February 15 [1700], ibid., fol. 83. See 231

Throughout 1699, D'Argenson had drawn First President Harlay's attention to the problems caused by the unresolved dispute with the of­ ficials of the municipality, and had, naturally, presented himself in as favorable a light as possible by suggesting that he had gone to great 13 lengths "pour ne pas aigrir le conflit de jurisdiction." Finally, upon the First President's suggestion he drew up a mémoire, in October 1699, listing the specific jurisdictional issues between the prévôt des marchands and himself. These included: (1) "police des bleds"; (2)

"police des vins"; (3) "police du bois merrain et des autres marchandises qui viennent par eau et ce par rapport au lotissement ordonné par les statuts des arts et métiers"; (4) "police des fontaines et des porteurs d'eau"; (5) "police des ponts, quays, et ramparts"; (6)"publication de la paix"; (7) "huitres a 1 'écaille"; "police de la place de grève";

(9) "police des eschaffause les jours des ceremonie publiques"; and

(10) "la police des teinturiers, des frippiers et des autres artisans qui sont obligez de laver leur ouvrages à la rivière.The situation, however, remained unresolved for a number of months.

Then, in February 1700, the lieutenant général de police and

also: Delamare, Traité de la Police, I, 187-197; and the materials collected by the commissaire on the relationship between the Chatelet and the Hôtel de Ville in the Bibliothèque Nationale, Mss. Français 21571 and 21599. 13 ^ D'Argenson to Harlay, Paris, September 25, 1699, Bibliothèque Nationale, Ms. Français 17438, fol. 69. Many similar letters exist in this same volume.

^^D'Argenson to Harlay, Paris, October 6, 1699, ibid., fol. 80, with attached articles, fol. 82. 232

the prévôt des marchands met face-to-face in the presence of First

President Harlay and avocat général D'Aguesseau to discuss their dif­

ferences. In a letter following the encounter U'Argenson related to

Jérôme de Pontchartrain what had transpired. All of the contested points, he wrote, had been discussed. But, although the First Presi­ dent was apparently persuaded of the justice of D'Argenson's case, he

seemed inclined to resolve the dispute by "une loi obscure qui nous mettroit l'un et l'autre dans une situation beaucoup plus fâcheuse

que celle où nous sommes" (an observation which in many ways epitomizes

a major pitfall of the ancien regime). The First President asked for proof of each side's contentions in the conflict; and, according to

D'Argenson, the prévôt des marchands was forced to admit the shallow­

ness of his complaints against the lieutenant général.

Whatever the merits of the respective arguments, the attempt to

definitively resolve the conflict was made several months later with an

édit du R o i In essence, the edict limited the officials of the Hôtel

de Ville to their traditional role as a river patrol, and gave the

lieutenant, général de police complete jurisdiction over essential com­

modities such as grain, wine, fish, and wood once they had arrived in

^^D'Argenson to Jérôme de Pontchartrain, Paris, February 24, 1700, Bibliothèque Nationale, Ms. Français 8122, fols. 495-498v.

^^Edit [de règlement pour la jurisdiction du Lieutenant Général de Police § celle des Prévôt des Marchands § Echevins de la Ville de Paris], Versailles, June 1700, printed in Delamare, Traité de la Police, I, 195-197, and in Peuchet, Collection des lois, II, 135-143; original printing in Archives Nationales, Ms. Y 17189. 233

17 Paris and had been discharged by their carriers. The prévôt was entrusted with the maintenance of the water supply and public fountains; and the lieutenant général was given authority over the porteurs d* eau.

Split or conjoint jurisdiction was given in the case of quais, scaf­ folding for ceremonies, flood relief, the publication of peace treaties, and dye-workers who used the waterways in their work. While it was hoped that there would be no further disputes. Parlement was designated as an arbiter in case there were.

While the edict of 1700 did not resolve all of the difficulties between the lieutenant général de police and the prévôt des marchands, or in effect between the Châtelet and Hôtel de Ville, at least the degree of conflict appears to have diminished during D'Argenson*s re- 18 maining years in office, and there is even evidence of co-operation.

Nevertheless, the importance of the edict was that it confirmed the leading role of the lieutenant général de police in the control of commodities arriving in Paris.

The lieutenant général de police also played a leading role in protecting the financiers of the grand siècle--particularly the men who

17 In the case of grain, the most important of the commodities, the lieutenant général was also given jurisdiction in the "huit lieues aux environs de la ville." 18 /s ^ ^ In 1709, for instance, the prévôt and lieutenant général co­ operated on a mémoire to Controller-General Desmaretz about one of his fiscal projects which they feared would reduce the funds available to purchase foreign grain "dont nous avons si grand besoin." D'Argenson to Desmaretz, Paris, October 27, 1709, Archives Nationales, Ms. G? 1726. 234 arranged the credit to finance Louis XIV's costly wars— from the scandal of frauds, swindles, and blackmail. Naturally, any such affair which threatened the reputation of Samuel Bernard, the most influential of 19 these financiers at the end of Louis's reign, was handled with great care and circumspection. As D'Argenson wrote, in 1703, to Chamillart,

Bernard was no ordinary citizen:

Les affaires importantes que vous confiez au Sieur Bernard ne permettent pas de le regarder comme un single particulier. 11 semble même que la seuretê de sa personne, sa reputation et son crédit sont égallement nécessaires au service du Roy.20

At the time, one Nicolas Buisson was attempting to extort money from Bernard. Buisson "persecute le sieur chevalier Bernard," D'Argenson wrote,

tantost par dés mémoires sans preuve qu'il luy donne contre le nommé Tronchin son commis, tantost par des injures et par des menaces, mais toujours pour en tirer de l'argent et pour s'en faire une ressource génêralle dans tous ses besoings. Enfin, j'apprends qu'il a remis depuis quelques jours entre les moins de M. Blondel, l'un des premiers commis de M. de Torcy, et l'amy intime du sieur Bernard, un mémoire fort étendu qui en accusant Tronchin d'infidélité envers son maistre, leur impute à l'un et l'autre des correspondances secrettes avec les ennemis de l'Etat. 11 affecte même de s'impliquer dans ces intrigues criminelles pour donner plus de raisemblance à son accusation. Mais il offre de la supprimer moyennant trente pistoles. Le sieur Bernard n'a pas juger à propos d'accepter cette condition, et il m'a prié d'eclaircir avec le meme soing l'accusation et

19 On Bernard, see: Jacques Saint-Germain, Samuel Bernard: Le banquier des rois ([Paris], 1960).

^^D'Argenson to Chamillart, Paris, December 1, 1703, Bibliothèque de l'Arsenal, Archives de la Bastille, Ms. 10548, dossier Buisson des Trésoriers. 235

l'imposture, affin que l'une ou l'autre puisse être punie avec la dernière vigueur.21

D'Argenson arrested Buisson on his own authority and had him held under guard by one of his exempts until Chamillart decided upon a "prison plus fixe," which in this case turned out to be the Bastille.

Bernard's continued importance to the state, despite his own ill fortunes in 1709, assured Buisson's continued imprisonment. D'Argenson's report in 1714 on the prisoners at the Bastille made it abundantly clear.

Of Buisson, he wrote:

Les lettres insolentes qu'il a écrites au sieur chevalier Bernard et les mouvements qu'il s'est donne soit par un esprit de vengeance, soit par une malignité affectée pour le decré- diter dans le publiq ne permettent pas de penser à sa liberté, tandis que le crédit de ce négociant sera nécessaire au service du Roi. Ainsi mon avis a toujours été qu'il devait demeurer à la Bastille jusqu'a la paix. . . . Je pense qu'avant de le rendre libre à condition de se retirer dans son paid où il n'a aucun bien, M. le chancelier jugera à propos qu'on s'informe du sieur Bernard, s'il n'y auroit aucun inconvénient par rapport à ses affaires et à son crédit dont 1'Estât a souvan besoin.22

Policing the activities of the corps and communautés of arts et metiers and providing information about them to the Controller-

General were two more of the important duties of the lieutenant général de police that related directly to the economic affairs of the capital.

^^Ibid. 22 "Etat des prisonniers de la Bastille," Bibliothèque de l'Arsenal, Archives de la Bastille, Ms. 12718, copy prepared for the Chancellor and annotated by D'Argenson. Buisson was subsequently exiled to Tours and then to Saumur where he was apparently imprisoned at the expense of Bernard (see D'Argenson's notes for December 1717 in Bibliothèque de l'Arsenal, Archives de la Bastille, Ms. 10548, dossier Buissons des Trésoriers). 236

In this regard D'Argenson did everything from reviewing and approving 23 the statutes of the various guilds, to arranging for the enrollment of military recruits furnished by them during the War of the Spanish

Succession.

In addition, he continually offered his opinions and advice to the Controller General in all matters involving the guilds. In

November 1701, for instance, when the government was considering the possibility of producing more revenue by reducing the number of limonadiers (retail wine and lemonade sellers), or even suppressing their corporation altogether, in favor of reselling the maîtrises as royal sinecures, D'Argenson offered his opinions in the matter to

Hilaire Rouillé de Coudray, one of the directeurs des finances at the time.

First, he noted that he was not sure that the limonadiers who would remain after the reduction in their ranks could finance the indemnities that would have to be paid to those who lost their positions. Secondly, he knew from experience that "tous ceux qui exercent une profession en

23 See, for instance, D'Argenson to [Louis de Pontchartrain?], Paris, August 8, 1699, Archives Nationales, 430, in which the lieutenant général approved the revised statutes of the maîtres chirurgiens of Paris.

^^See, for example, in the Bibliothèque Nationale, Réserve Ms. Châtre de Cange 35: "L'ordre qui doivent tenir et garder les corps des marchands et les communautez des artisans de la Ville § Faubourgs de Paris pour le choix 8 1'enrollement des soldats qu'ils doivent fournir a Sa Majesté," December 24, 1701, fol. 129; a model enrollment form with D'Argenson cited as the enroller, fol. 129v; a De par le Roy signed by D'Argenson, fol. 130; and the copy of a letter sent by Chamillart to D'Argenson, and others, on the 1,000 men furnished by the communities of arts et métiers of Paris and other towns between January 10 and April 3, 1702, fol. 138, 237 vertu d'un privilège sont plus indisciplinables que ceux qui la font â

titre de matrise" (i.e., those who held the maîtrise as a result of membership in a corporation). As proof, he cited the problems which

had befallen the community of perruquiers (wig-makers and barbers) when positions in their community were sold to persons who knew nothing about

the profession; besides not knowing their job, they were difficult to police. If this occurred in a group like the perruquiers, who were not

in a position to affect the general level of morals and manners in Paris,

D'Argenson wondered what the effect of a similar situation would be among

the limonadiers "chez qui les scélérats, les libertins et les fainéants

sont en usage de s'assembler [et] dont le métier consiste à troubler la raison ou à deranger la santé et dont enfin le magistrat ne sauroit trop 25 scrupuleusement examiner la conduite."

In similar fashion, in 1702, in a case involving a conflict of

jurisdiction and privilege in the field of education, D'Argenson sent

a lengthy mémoire to the Controller-General which offered his views on

the inconveniences that might occur if he approved a proposal for privi­

leged status for the maîtres d'écoles et de pension (schoolmasters) in

return for a cash payment of 150,000 livres. In order for the propo­

sition to succeed, he wrote, it would be necessary to reconcile the

25 D'Argenson to Rouillé de Coudray, Paris, November 2, 1701, Archives Nationales, Ms, 431. Rouillé was directeur des finances from 1701 to 1703. On the limonadiers, see Franklin, Dictionnaire histor­ ique , pp. 434-435; and, on the perruquiers, ibid., pp. 564-566, and, idem., "Barbiers, baigneurs, perruquiers, coiffeurs," in Les corpora­ tions ouvrières de Paris dü XII^ au XVIII^ siècle: Histoire, statuts, armoiries, reprint (New York, 1971 [originally published 1884]), pp. 1-16. 238 differing interests, claims, and views of the three major agencies of education in Paris, namely, the University of Paris, the Grand Chantre, and the parish cures. The University, for its part, claimed that only

its affiliates, the maîtres es arts, had a right to teach humane studies.

The Grand Chantre claimed the same for his maîtres d'écoles on the basis of several centuries of tradition and privilege, and, the curés claimed

that, by virtue of their obligation to teach religious doctrine, they were also forced to deal with the humanistic studies in the course of

teaching their parishioners to read and write. The Grand Chantre op­ posed the écoles de charité of the curés because of the threat that

their free education posed to his privileged jurisdiction; and,

D'Argenson remarked that his fears were probably justified because of

the determination of the Archbishop of Paris to use all of his power to protect the écoles de charité. D'Argenson felt that for the sake of public order, for the instruction of new converts, and for a good edu­

cation for children, it would be a good idea to place all of the various schoolmasters under the direction of a single superior. How­

ever, given the probable resistance of the various parties involved,

and the hardships that would occur if the only livelihood of many of

those employed in the education process were eliminated, he felt unsure

that the goal was worth the trouble it would cause. The situation

remained unresolved; and a year later, as he was still trying to

D'Argenson to Chamillart, Paris, September 21, 1702, Archives Nationales, Ms. G7 431. See also: Bernard, The Emerging City, pp. 260-282. 239 mediate a settlement among the various parties in the affair des maîtres d'écoles, D'Argenson wrote with unintended irony:

. . . j'y trouve tant de difficulties de la part des uns et des autres que ce seroit un grand malheur pourgy l'Europe si la paix genêralle estoit aussi difficile.

In the years that followed, he unfortunately discovered how close to reality his offhand observation in 1703 really was.

In another case involving the arts et metiers, in 1714,

D'Argenson served as the guardian of French manufacturing techniques when he acted to prevent the departure of skilled glassworkers from

France. In July 1714, Matheu Laurent, sieur de Vauchoux, gentilhomme 28 verrier, working in concert with the La Pommerayes, a family of verriers, attempted to persuade workers at the Manufacture des Glaces

et des Verreries de Saint-Gobain to go to Spain to work in a similar

glass works set up by the La Pommeraye family near Girone. D'Argenson was able to arrest Vauchoux and Madame La Pommeraye, who were subse­ quently held at the Bastille while the police chief attempted to dis­

cover the plans which would, as Desmaretzput it, "faire tomber cette 29 manufacture [des glaces]."

27 ^ D'Argenson to Rouillé de Coudray, Paris, September 8, 1703, Archives Nationales, Ms. G^ 432. 28 La verrerie (glassmaking) was the only manual art which a nobleman could engage in without losing his nobility (sans déroger). See: Franklin, Dictionnaire historique, pp. 726-727. 29 Most of the documents on this affair are in the Bibliothèque de l'Arsenal, Archives de la Bastille, Ms. 10618, dossiers Vauchoux and La Pommeraye. See, for instance, the letters of Desmaretz to D'Argenson, Marly, July 24, 1714, and Fontainebleau, October 10, 1714. See also: the letters from D'Argenson to Desmaretz, Paris, July 16, 1714, 240

Among the more unusual tasks D'Argenson performed for the

Controller-General was the supervision of special experiments to determine the merits of new manufacturing techniques. In July 1697, for instance, Controller-General Louis de Pontchartrain ordered him to compare the dyes developed by a resident of Languedoc against the 30 dyes of Holland then in use in the dyeing industry of Paris.

D'Argenson arranged for the comparison to be carried out at the

Gobelins works on the outskirts of Paris; and, a little over a month later, he reported back that the experiments, which were conducted 31 by a teinturier named Glue, seemed to demonstrate the efficacy of 32 the new dyeing technique.

"Reasonable prices" and the smooth functioning of the market mechanisms of Paris were also primary goals of the lieutenant général de police; and it was in relation to these areas of economic affairs

Archives Nationales, Ms. G^ 1728; Paris, October 17, 1714, ibid.; Paris, October 25, 1714, ibid.; Paris, February 1, 1715, ibid. 30 Louis de Pontchartrain to D'Argenson, n.p., July 8, 1697, Archives Nationales, Ms. G^ 8. 31 This was probably Jean Gluck, known for developing the bril­ liant scarlet dyes used at the Gobelins during the second half of the seventeenth century. On teinturiers and Gluck, see: Franklin, Dictionnaire historique, pp. 682-685. 32 D'Argenson to [D'Aguesseau - ?], Paris, August 18, 1697, Archives Nationales, Ms. G' 429; and, D'Aguesseau to Pontchartrain, Paris, September 15, 1697, with D'Argenson's letter, ibid. Henri D'Aguesseau, at this time conseiller d'Etat and conseiller au conseil royal des finances, was apparently involved in the matter because of the desire on the part of the dye process developer to have a special privilege. He assisted Pontchartrain in the supervision of commercial affairs prior to the creation of the conseil de commerce. 241 that he was perhaps most vocal and insistent in pursuing his own ideas of how to achieve these goals. In 1701, for instance, when the King renewed the regulations concerning the observance of Sundays and holy days, the fishmongers of Paris, anticipating prohibitions against the sale of their merchandise on these days, complained to the Controller-

General that the results would be disastrous for them; and they re­ quested a special exemption. D'Argenson, to whom the Controller-General passed the request for comment, replied that he could not understand their concern because they had never previously been stopped from selling their merchandise on Sundays and holy days (the implication being that he was not about to start enforcing the prohibitions against them). And he added— in a statement which absolutely epitomizes his consistently-held attitude and policy on foodstuffs in the market place

— "il est de la dernière importance que les denrées s'apportent à toute 33 heure et se vandent sans aucune discontinuation ny exception de jours."

No single sentence better serves to express the most indispensable service that D'Argenson attempted to perform for the inhabitants of

Paris. Nothing, he felt, should hinder the flow of food to the people.

The goals of "reasonable prices" and the smooth functioning of market mechanisms held true no matter what the commodity or practice in question. D'Argenson was highly critical of attempts by merchants and financiers to engage in monopolistic manipulation of what he termed

33 D'Argenson to Chamillart, Paris, June 17, 1701, Archives Nationales, Ms. g 7 431. In this case he concluded that the proposal of the vendeurs de marée for an arrêt was "absolument inutile." 242

"marchandise nécessaire." In May 1701, for example, he denounced to the

Controller-General an attempt by a group of merchants from Le Mans and

Paris to enter into a wax monopoly. As he put it:

Je scay qu'il est libre â des négociants d'employer toute leur industrie pour faire réussir leur négoce, mais j'ay peine à croire qu'il leur soit permis de s'assurer ainsy d'une marchandise nécessaire, de la mettre dans des magasins particuliers et d'en suspendre le transport pour la vendre ensuite tout ce qu'il leur plaît. . . .34

And several days later he wrote again to exhort Chamillart:

J'ose meme vous supplier humblement d'en vouloir bien prendre le lecture et d'accorder à nos marchands épiciers et au public même la continuation de l'honneur de votre ' protection pour abolir ce monopole dont l'impunité pourroit donner lieu à d'autres sociétés ou à de sembables complots par raport à des marchandises encore plus importantes.35

In June 1699 he opposed the attempt by the Comte de Gramont and his associates, the new proprietors of the lie Louviers, to establish a droit de chantier or péage (toll fee) on the commodities stored on the island because he felt it would be prejudicial to commerce.

In April 1698 he complained to the Controller General that the butter market in Paris was plagued not only by fraud on the part of butter merchants, but also by the unwarranted exactions of the commis of the Farmers-General who were in collusion with the butter merchants.

He noted that the problem was so bad, that in the period of four or five

^^D'Argenson to Chamillart, Paris, May 28, 1701, ibid. 35 D'Argenson to Chamillart, Paris, June 4, 1701, ibid. 36 D'Argenson to Louis de Pontchartrain, Paris, June 4, 1699, Archives Nationales, Ms. G^ 429. 243

37 years the price of butter had tripled.

In September 1705 he argued against a proposal for the construc­

tion of a new halle aux draps on the outskirts of Paris as being too

expensive, unnecessary, and of no new benefit to the King or the 38 public. The following year he wrote to the Controller-General, via

Desmaretz, to argue against a proposal for several new, covered halles des veaux. In this case he noted that the proposal would in­ variably force up the price of "la principale nourriture des pauvres malades" not only because there would be a special surcharge on all 39 calves and lambs (to finance the project), but also because a

covered halle would make the sellers less anxious to sell their

livestock quickly. He argued, moreover, that the creation of new marketplaces such as the one in question would diminish the supply

(presumably by dividing up the supply normally found in one place),

and consequently force prices upward. Thus he found the proposal con- 40 trary to "l'ordre public."

In February 1707 he argued against a proposal to extract a

37 D'Argenson to Louis de Pontchartrain, Paris, April 1, 1698, Archives Nationales, Ms. 429. 38 D'Argenson to [Desmaretz], Paris, September 24, 1705, Archives Nationales, Ms. G^ 433. 39 The surcharge was intended to offset the expense of construction and maintenance of the new halle and to provide the King with an annual fee of 20,000 livres. Undoubtedly, the developers also anticipated a profit for themselves as well.

^^D'Argenson to Desmaretz, Paris, December 25, 1706, Archives Nationales, Ms. G 1725. Penciled in the margin of D'Argenson's letter was Chamillart's apparent reply to the proposal: "refuse." 244 further duty on paille (straw) which he felt would add to the burden on farmers, laborers, landlords, householders, and especially loueurs de carrosses et voitures publiques whose businesses were hard hit by the war 41 in which France was engaged.

At one point, in 1701, when the Controller General was on the verge of creating and selling new offices in the poultry and dairy markets for revenue purposes, D'Argenson, who feared that the new of­ fices would force poultry and dairy prices to rise, felt obliged to question the consequences of such an action and to ask if it was pos­ sible "concilier les interests de la finance avec ceux de notre police[?]" He argued at length that the creation of the new function­ aries was contrary to several arrets of the Conseil and the Parlement, that it would favor merchants at the expense of the public, and that it 42 would undoubtedly increase the price of the affected foodstuffs. Ap­ parently, however, the demands of the royal treasury were more pressing than the consideration of rising prices, for the following year the government created offices for fifty controlleurs et courtiers des marchandises de volaille, gibier, cochons de lait, agneaux, chevreaux, oeufs, beurre et frommage.^^

^^D'Argenson to Chamillart, Paris, February 14, 1707, ibid.

"^^Letters of D'Argenson to Chamillart, Paris, October 17, 1701, Archives Nationales, Ms. 431; Paris, October 28, 1701, with at­ tached mémoires, ibid.

^^Edit, Marly, August 1702, printed in Delamare, Traité de la Police, II, 834-835. 245

The steady increase in the number of cattle butchered annually

— 20,000 per year by 1703--for sale in Parisian boucheries gave

D'Argenson cause for alarm when he discovered that many pregnant cows were being slaughtered prior to giving birth to their calves. He felt that this practice, if it were not ended, would have dire consequences on the price of meat in the future, perhaps even causing it to double.

Thus, during 1702 and 1703 he urged the Controller-General to end the practice by limiting the sale of cows under a certain age, or at least 44 prohibiting the sale and slaughter of pregnant cows.

Throughout his tenure in office, D'Argenson had to deal with the longstanding enmity between the bouchers (butchers) of Paris and the marchands forains (livestock herders), a conflict which continually threatened to disrupt the marketing procedures for livestock. The marchands forains were the middlemen who bought livestock from farms in the provinces, grazed it, then resold it in the cities and towns.

Their occupation was a vital link in the flow of provisions to Paris and the reverse flow of money to the provinces. As Delamare remarked in his treatise: "s'ils [i.e., the marchands forains de bestiaux] nous amènent des vivres, ils emportent notre argent; c'est la subsistance des Villes, mais c'est la richesse des Provinces, l'utilité est réciproque; cela doit faire notre assurance.He added that in "les

D'Argenson to [Chamillart], Paris, November 14, 1703, Archives Nationales, Ms. G? 431. See also: D'Argenson to Chamillart, Paris, January 30, 1702, ibid.

^^Delamare, Traité de la Police, II, 524. 246

Etats bien disciplines" this vital commerce and interaction between city and countryside was not negligently left to the devices of those who would abuse it for profit. Thus the duties of the police with re­ gard to this commerce were twofold: on the one hand, they had to offer all the protection they could to the marchands forains to insure that they reached market safely with their livestock, that they received fair treatment in their transactions, and that they returned home safely with their money; yet, on the other hand, they also had to guard against the practice of holding livestock off the market to force prices higher, against the diverting elsewhere of livestock meant for Paris, against the formation of illegal monopolies designed to dominate the commerce, against the failure to sell livestock when a "prix raisonnable . . .

[et] un gain legitime ^ suffisant" was offered, against withdrawing animals for sale in the livestock market before the required three-day 46 selling period expired, and against the sale of diseased livestock.

46 Ibid., pp. 524-525. The sale of diseased livestock became a critical problem in 1714-1715 when an epizootic disease infected and killed large numbers of cattle in France. This "maladie des bestiaux" gave rise to a special task force of which the lieutenant general de police, the intendant of the area around Paris, and the procureur general of the Parlement were members. They met over thirty times to assess the situation and formu­ late a response to the disease which they concluded was related to the poor quality of the fodder that was supplied to the cattle following the poor harvests of 1712 and 1713. Among other things, they set up inspec­ tion teams to oversee the separation of diseased animals from healthy ones and to tend to the burial of dead animals. They also amassed statistics which indicated that, by February 1715, the disease had killed 1,371 of the 6,788 head of cattle in the area around Paris. The disease finally disappeared in the spring of 1715. The reports and correspondence of the task force, intendants, and even of foreign envoys (such as Iberville in England where the disease had also occurred) are located in the Archives Nationales, Ms. 1667 (Maladies des Bestiaux, 1714-1715). 247

A long series of laws and regulations did nothing to diminish the testiness between the marchands forains and their buyers, the butchers of Paris. The marchands forains claimed that the bouchers did not provide adequate or clean facilities for the livestock when it arrived outside of Paris, that they did not bargain in good faith, and that they tried to force the price so low that the livestock had to be sold at a loss. For their part, the bouchers claimed that the marchands forains employed local agents to handle their transactions, thus elimi­ nating the pressure of time which they felt made for equitable deals, that they abused credit and payment procedures, and that they fre­ quently failed to honor the long-established guarantee that an animal should be capable of living for at least nine days after its sale. All of these claims arid counter-claims gave rise to numerous lawsuits which poisoned the commercial relations of the livestock trade, and ultimately 47 placed an unneeded burden on the public.

D'Argenson personally intervened in the conflict whenever it threatened to adversely affect his interpretation of order in the marketplace. For example, in July 1698, when he discovered that in order to finance their campaigns against each other the marchands forains and bouchers were each trying to exact an extraordinary levy on all the cattle and sheep brought to the wholesale market at Sceaux, he requested the King to impose his authority on the contestants in order to end the conflict. What particularly worried D'Argenson was that the

47 Many of the laws and regulations dealing with the livestock commerce have been printed by Delamare in Traité de la Police, II, 524-536. 248 marchands forains had elected two syndics (official representatives) to defend their rights, and that they were planning to establish a permanent bureau in Paris. This, he wrote to the Controller-General, would un­ doubtedly result in a decrease in the supply of meat and an increase in its price because the directors of such a bureau could readily pass along daily information on the state of Parisian markets in order to manipulate the supply situation for profit. He added that the policy of the police, as evidenced in their règlements, was

à prévenir ces sociétés de commerce en matière de denrées nécessaires à la subsistance des citoyens rien ne con­ tribuant davantage à les maintenir dans un prix raisonnable que d ’empescher la réunion et le concert de ceux qui les fournissent.48

The King and Controller-General Pontchartrain apparently agreed, for five days later an arrêt was drawn up which ordered the lieutenant général de police to examine all the disputes between the marchands forains and the bouchers and to draw up recommendations. D'Argenson’s investigation and proposals then served as the basis for the arrêt issued on July 13, 1699 which--though it did not suddenly cause the herders and butchers to trust each other— at least established the law with regard 49 to commerce in livestock. The point of all these examples has been to suggest that the lieutenant général de police invariably tried to

48 D'Argenson to Louis de Pontchartrain, Paris, July 24, 1698, Archives Nationales, Ms. G^ 429.

^^See the arrêt du conseil, Versailles, July 29, 1698, in Delamare, Traité de la Police, II, 535; and, the arrêt du Parlement, Paris, July 13, 1699, ibid., p. 536. 249 follow a course of action that would assure Paris of an abundant supply of commodities at a reasonable price.

Beyond this, part of the effort that the lieutenant général de police expended in maintaining the integrity of the market place was directed towards the prevention of smuggling. In this he was confronted with one of those seemingly irrepressible human activities that are born of antithetical resistance to legal prohibitions and fees.

While it is virtually impossible to measure D'Argenson's success in preventing contraband from circulating in the capital, it is safe to say that he certainly made an effort to stop it. The value of the contraband that the police captured was sometimes considerable; and the destruction or resale of such goods was intended to frighten Parisian merchants into compliance with the regulations.^^ However, the profit to be gained apparently made the risk worthwhile.

D'Argenson recognized the impossibility of completely stifling illicit commerce, but he hoped to at least slow it down. As he re­ marked to Controller-General Chamillart in regard to a seizure and sale of goods in July 1706: "j'espere que cet exemple rendra du moins pour quelques temps ceux de nos negotians qui font ce commerce un peu moins

The proceeds from the resale by the authorities of the goods from one large seizure of merchandise in July 1706 totaled 1,302 livres. Of this, 60 livres were deducted for expenses involved in the sale; increments of 300 livres and 321 livres were given to the religious institutions of the Capuchines and the Filles de 1'Ave Maria, and 621 livres were given to the officer who carried out the seizure. D'Argenson to Chamillart, July 20, 1706, Archives Nationales, Ms. 1725. 250 hardis dans leurs entreprises.”^^

Another means of discouraging the sale of contraband was, of course, to fine and imprison those caught smuggling the goods. Usually stiff fines were assessed, as in the case of Claude Mornot (alias Pierre

Marnon) who was caught trying to smuggle illegal fabrics in 1706; but upon appeal of a fined person, the size of a fine, as in this case, was 52 frequently reduced.

"Privileged enclosures" posed another problem for the lieutenant général de police in the area of economic affairs. They served as havens for those who engaged in prohibited activities and commerce such as unauthorized lotteries and the production and distribution of banned goods; but, because of their privileges and the status of the personages in charge of them; police activity in their domain was circumspect.

First, warnings were issued to violators. If they went unheeded, then legal action was initiated. Under no circumstances, however, did the police move against such places without the consent of the King and ministers. For instance, shortly after D'Argenson entered office in

1697, he received instructions from the Secretary of State of the Maison du Roi that he should warn those responsible for the illegal sale of meat in the Hotel de Nevers to cease their activity or face legal proceedings. In the same letter, the Secretary wrote that his son (then

^^Ibid.

^^Letters of D'Argenson to [Chamillart], Paris, July 27, 1706, ibid.; and, Paris, August 30, 1706, ibid. 251

en survivance as Secretary of State) had personally spoken to the Grand

Prieur of the Temple about suppressing the illegal lotteries that were

taking place in the Temple; and, he requested that D'Argenson monitor 53 the situation to see that the warning was heeded. Rarely, however,

except in cases of very serious offenses, did the police ever raid privileged enclosures, and such places remained a problem throughout

Louis XIV's reign.

Lotteries, such as the one Pontchartrain referred to in the case just cited, were a popular source of entertainment and revenue throughout Louis's reign, and also a source of constant police investi­ gation. In the case of authorized lotteries, which were used to finance special projects and charitable assistance, the police sometimes acted as royal auditors. In the case of the lotterie de Rouen of 1705, for instance, D'Argenson, upon orders of the Controller General, examined the financial records of the receveurs of the lottery, and found them in partial disarray. He also discovered that part of the backing for the lottery was in billets de monnaie (treasury notes which served as a form of paper money) which he forced the receveurs to convert into

"argent comptant" (ready money).In the case of unauthorized

53 Louis de Pontchartrain to D'Argenson, [Versailles], March 23, 1697, Archives Nationales, Ms. 0 41, fol. 48. Jérôme de Pontchartrain gradually took over the functions of Secretary of State of the Maison du Roi from his father during 1697 and 1698.

^^D'Argenson to Chamillart, Paris, December 11, 1705, Archives Nationales, Ms. C7 433. This particular lottery, which was authorized for Rouen and Paris, had already collected over 132,000 livres of its 150,000 livre goal. Many other lotteries, particularly those for the benefit of the hôpitaux and for poor relief, had even larger goals. Since such large sums of ready money were easily subject to misappro- 252 lotteries, the police simply tried to suppress them. In some cases, at least under Controller General Chamillart who was very receptive to the suggestions of the lieutenant général de police, D'Argenson even engi­ neered his own mises en scène for action against offenders. In

September 1704, for example, he informed Chamillart of the existence of new and unauthorized lotteries, headquartered in the Temple, which were adversely affecting lotteries that had royal approval. He wrote that his own remonstrances to the officials of this "petite jurisdiction republiquaine" were being ignored, and he asked for

Chamillart's assistance. He already had devised a plan. First, he asked Chamillart to send him a letter that he could show to the offi­ cials of the Temple to persuade them to desist from their protection of illegal lotteries. He even enclosed a draft copy of the letter he wished to receive! In this draft, he had Chamillart expressing his surprise and indignation that the Temple tolerated lotteries that were prejudicial to those approved by the King and himself, and then ordering the lieutenant general de police to put an immediate halt to them.

Secondly, he suggested that Chamillart send an indignant letter to the

Temple, expressing his surprise that the lieutenant general had not already quashed the lotteries; after which, D'Argenson himself would conveniently arrive at the Temple to administer the coup de grâce. The final results of this little adventure are unknown; but.

priations, frauds, and swindles the police of Paris were continually involved in investigating them. The records in the série of the Archives Nationales are peppered with police reports about lotteries. 253 since complaints about lotteries in the Temple seem to taper off during this period, perhaps it had some effect.

The problem of the billets de monnaie which arose in the case of the Rouen lottery raised another thorny issue for the police at the end of Louis XIV’s reign, namely the government's short-lived attempt to introduce paper money into circulation. In this, the police, as well as the government, fought a losing battle.

The attempt to introduce the paper money occurred shortly before the onset of the War of the Spanish Succession. The process began when the royal mint began to exchange billets in return for specie during a recoining of French money in 1701. The exchange seemed to work at first, but then, under the pressure of wartime expenses, the government attempted to force the use of billets as a percentage of all monetary transactions--except those with the royal treasury itself!

Very quickly the number of billets increased, without benefit of any program of reimbursement or other show of confidence on the part of the government. They rapidly fell in value (60 to 80 percent), and became subject to wild speculation and discounting (since by 1704 they also happened to carry interest rates of almost 8 percent). Finally, the government was forced to abandon their printing in 1709 and offer a partial conversion into other financial instruments such as rentes.

D'Argenson to Chamillart, Paris, September 10, 1704, Archives Nationales, Ms. 432. The copy of D'Argenson's proposed letter to himself from Chamillart is also found in ibid. From the notes written on the letters by the Control1er-General, it appears that he carried out the plan as suggested.

^^On the problem of the billets de monnaie and on the more general 254

Since the billets became the object of widespread abuses among counterfeiters and those who engaged in what was referred to as the

"commerce usuaire," the police were very active in trying to stem the disorders, particularly during the period 1706 - 1713 when the situation was especially bad. At least several times a month during that period,

D'Argenson reported to the Controller-General and a directeur des finances on the mounting abuses which he saw interfering with 57 the operation of the Parisian economy.

In 1706, he even drew up a special mémoire on the orders of

Desmaretz, then directeur des finances, explaining his assessment of the situation. After decrying the situation as it stood, he wrote that if the billets de monnaies were going to succeed, then it was necessary to break the "supériorité . . . tyrannique" that ready money had over them. This he proposed to do by several "moyens légers et variables," which included: a strong recommendation that an arrêt be issued to the effect that the King had resolved to reimburse one-fifth

problems of the monetary system of the ancien regime, see: Paul Harsin, "La finance et I'etat jusqu'au système de Law," in Histoire économique et sociale. Vol. Il (1660-1789), pp. 267-276; idem., Crédit public et banque d'état en France du XVie au XVIIie siècle (Paris, 1933); Jean Meuvret, "Circulation monétaire et utilisation économique de la monnaie dans la France du XVI® et du XVII® siècle," reprinted in Meuvret, Etudes d'histoire économique [article which first appeared in 1947], pp. 127-137; and Saint-Germain, Samuel Bernard, especially pp. 163-180.

^^D'Argenson's reports to Chamillart and Desmaretz on the abuses are scattered throughout Archives Nationales, Mss.G? 1725-1728, which contain about 500 D'Argenson letters for the period 1706-1715, and also in G^ 1615 (Billets de monnaie). 255 of the billets per year; "il faut," he wrote, "donner au public des espérances de remboursement," even if it meant borrowing the funds from some other source to do it; a recommendation to permit a "profit modique" without penalty on the private exchange of the billets de monnaie in order to make them a more attractive holding; and a recom­ mendation to engage some of the most reliable of the state's financiers to convert billets de monnaie into 1'argent comptant at a 20 percent discount in order to defuse the rampaging rates that usurous merchants 58 and financiers were forcing upward daily. Unfortunately, the govern­ ment was never able to make a reimbursement, or any other significant gesture to instill public confidence in the billets. And D'Argenson could only write despairingly to Desmaretz, in late 1706:

Je prandray cependant la liberté de vous dire avec autant de franchise que de respect que le grand nombre qu'il y a de billets de monnoye ne permet guere d'esperer qu'on les puisse détruire assez promptement pour leur substituer le commerce des pures especes qui donneroit aux affaires du négoce et de la finance une face toutte nouvelle. Il n'est pas possible que les marchans fassent leurs affaires en argent tandis que le Trésorier ne les payera qu'en billets de monnoye.59

58 Mémoire and letter of D'Argenson to Desmaretz, Paris, January 30, 1706, Archives Nationales, Ms. 1615. This mémoire along with several others by Samuel Bernard and Desmaretz, have been published in Boislisle, Correspondance des contrôleurs généraux, II, appendice IX, pp. 510-519. In April 1707 the government attempted to extend the use of the billets de monnaie throughout the kingdom, according to the terms by which they were used in Paris, with a view to gradually reimbursing their holders. However, this cours forcé only aggravated the situation throughout the kingdom. See: Déclaration [partant que les billets de monnoie auront cours dans l'étendue du royaume], Versailles, April 12, 1707, in Isambert, Anciennes lois, XX, 519-521. 59 D'Argenson to Desmaretz, Paris, November 23, 1706, Archives Nationales, Ms. 1615. 256

Therein lay the crux of the problem. How could the government expect anyone to deal in the billets de monnaie if its own Treasury refused to honor them?

Protecting the Sustenance of the People: The Case of Grain and Bread

Few tasks, if any, were more important for the police than the protection of the basic life-sustaining commodities that came to the marketplaces of Paris. Nothing was more certain to cause discontent and threaten public order than disruptions either in the flow of vital food­ stuffs into Paris, or in the distribution of these foodstuffs through the

Parisian market mechanisms. Nothing so clearly made Paris dependent upon the provinces as the appetite of the capital for the agricultural products of the 85 percent of France that was rural. Nothing was more frightening to the government and to the people than the vicissitudes of French agricultural production when it fell short of expectations and gave -rise to those three scourges of the ancien regime--disette, cherté, and famine.

In many cases the causative factors of crisis of subsistance—

In addition to the works already cited in this chapter, several others give excellent treatment to aspects of the economy which affect foodstuffs. Among these are: Histoire de la France rurale, vol. II; Abbott Payton Usher, The History of the Grain Trade in France 1400-1710 (Cambridge, Mass., 1913) which still provides a classic account of this trade; Fernand Braudel, Capitalism and Material Life 1400-1800, trans. by Miriam Kochan (New York, 1973 [1967]), pp. 66-191; and, Charles Tilly, "Food Supply and Public Order in Modern Europe," in The Formation of National States in Western Europe, ed. by Charles Tilly (Princeton, 1975), pp. 380-455. 257 such as occurred in 1693-1694, and in 1709-1710— were beyond the con­ trol of the government. Crop failures, bad weather, and disease had no social conscience. Sometimes, however, the government itself aggra­ vated the situation by diverting food from its normal distribution patterns to supply the troops that fought the wars of Louis's reign; and, sometimes the situation was aggravated by the foibles of hoarders and profiteers. Whatever the causes, natural or man-made, the govern­ ment of Louis XIV tried to react to the conditions confronting it with strong regulatory measures and determined police action. If there was one thing that the government and all of the institutions in Paris with police and quasi-police powers— be it the Chatelet, the Hôtel de Ville, or the Parlement— could agree on, it was the necessity of maintaining an

"abondance" of commodities (especially grain and bread) at an affordable price in the marketplaces of Paris.(Agreement on procedure, of course, was another matter.) As Delamare succinctly put it in the

Traite de la Police: Tous les soins, § tous les travaux de l'Agriculture; toutes les fatigues S tous les risques du Commerce; toutes les sages précautions établies par les Loix; tout ce qui fait la matière [i.e., the great mass of regulations and

The principal wholesale markets in Paris which received grain from the three principal sources of supply for the city were: the Port au Bled, on the Quay de Grève near the Hôtel de Ville, which received grain arriving by boat from the east along the Seine and Marne; the Port au Bled, near the Louvre along the Quay Bourbon and the Quay de l'Ecole, which received grain arriving by boat along the lower Seine from the north around Soissons and Noyon; and the Halle au Bled, within the Hailes near the Church of Saint-Eustache, which received all of the grain arriving by land transport. Grain which had already been ground into flour arrived in the same fashion. On the location of the markets see: La Caille, Description de la Ville; Usher, History of the Grain Trade, pp. 72, 118. 258

actions of the government published and described by Dela­ mare in his treatise] sur le fait des grains, se termine â cet unique objet d'avoir du pain, S d'en avoir suffisamment § à bon marché.62

It all reduced itself to having enough bread at an affordable price; and no one was more aware of this than the lieutenant général de police and the commissaires of the Chatelet who were ordained by law with the task of maintaining the lifeline of foodstuffs that sustained the capi­ tal. At times the situation was so serious, the commissaires themselves had to go outside of Paris, away from other pressing duties, in order to monitor the situation in the countryside and to prevent the diversion or illegal hoarding of grain intended for the capital.

By fortunate circumstance, many of the reports of the lieutenant général de police to Controller-General of Finances, the government offi­ cial responsible for the grain trade throughout France, are still in existence,and they, along with the great quantity of material amassed by commissaire Delamare who took a strong personal, as well as profes­ sional, interest in the grain trade,provide a unique look at the

^^Delamare, Traité de la Police, II, 166.

For D'Argenson, these reports— many of them autograph during periods of dire emergency--are located in the Archives Nationales, Mss. 429-433, and G^ 1654-1655. Many of the reports between the Controller- General of Finances and the intendants and other officials involved in administering grain trade are published or cited in the three volumes of Correspondance des contrôleurs généraux edited by Boislisle.

^^In addition to devoting over half of the second volume of the Traité de la Police to the history and regulations relative to the policing of grain and bread, Delamare also left a sizable collection of materials on the subject amongst his personal papers. See, for example: Bibliothèque Nationale, Mss. Français 21634-21648. 259 problems encountered on a daily basis by the police in their attempt to secure food for the inhabitants of Paris and to maintain order in the marketplaces.

D'Argenson, when he entered office in 1697, inherited a strong tradition of active involvement in the affairs of the grain trade from his predecessor. La Reynie;^^ and since Louis de Pontchartrain, his bene­ factor, was still Control1er-General of Finances and Secretary of State of the Maison du Roi, it is perhaps not surprising that this active in­ volvement continued.

If there was any one subj ect that lieutenant general de police

D'Argenson wrote about with more passion and anger than any other during his tenure in office, it was the supply and price of foodstuffs, espe­ cially grain and bread, for there was nothing, including all the crime and vice of the raucous capital, that affected so many Parisians so profoundly.

His anger was not spawned by the periodic natural disasters that played havoc with supplies and prices, but rather by the "malice and foibles" of greedy individuals. His own initiation to the problem came during his first year in office. As he wrote to Controller General Pontchartrain in December, 1697; "il y a dans le commerce des bleds qui se voiturent dans cette ville, un fonds de malice inexcusable, . . ." resulting, he surmised, from "des intelligences criminelles d'entre les fermiers, les boulangers et les marchands." More precisely, grain was being held off the market until prices went higher. His suspicions arose, he wrote.

^^On La Reynie's role in policing the grain trade, see: Saint- Germain, La Reynie, pp. 261-281. 260 from a comparison he had made between the price of bles (grains) in

Paris and in other French cities which showed Parisian prices to be sig­ nificantly higher.

Three weeks later he wrote again to decry the collusion between

Parisian grain merchants and various grain speculators in the area around Paris (in this case municipal officials at Meaux and a community of artisans at Soissons) to maintain prices in "une cherté injuste et criminelle." However, he added that while he agreed with Pontchartrain

(who apparently had replied to his initial letter) that it was not a good time to try to correct the abuses by general ordinances ("dout il faut toujours reserver la publication pour le temps de la plus grande abondance"), at least the provincial intendants could be instructed to initiate a deterrent surveillance. For his own part, he had fined a boulanger who had unjustly raised his prices; and this action, he said, had at least made some of the other Parisian bakers more circumspect about their own prices. In the same letter D'Argenson referred to the longstanding jurisdictional conflict between the Chatelet and the Hotel de Ville as a problem that made a specific course of action diffi­ cult. Although he was newly involved in the institutional feud, he probably could not have summed it up better when he wrote:

il est honteux pour nous que ces conflits continuels nous détournent des soins que nous devons au public et qu'en divisant le peuple et les officiers en deux partis

D'Argenson to Louis de Pontchartrain, Paris, December 11, 1697, Archives Nationales, Ms. 429. The figures were probably gathered together by Delamare, who took a strong interest in these matters. 261

contraires ils rendent l'autorité des magistrats incertaine et les contraventions plus fréquentes. . .

Fear of disette and cherté, particularly with regard to grain, was prevalent during the autumn of the following year, not only in Paris, but throughout much of France; and the Parisian grain markets were again a source of great concern for the lieutenant général de police. His long letters on the subject to the Controller-General reflect his commit­ ment to trying to maintain stable supplies and prices, as well as the problems he encountered in this pursuit. On November 20, for instance, he noted, in a litany of problems, that: an officer of the Swiss Guards was suspected of engaging in monopolistic intrigues; that laboureurs

(farmers) were becoming grain merchants in order to reap quick profits; that while the supply of grain in the market was stable, the heavy buying of religious communities ("tousjours impatients et craintieux") was forcing the price upward; that the merchants who had contracted to supply the ports of Paris with grain seemed to operate only on instruction from usurers and monopolists; and, that special grain warehouses near some of the principal markets in the countryside, such as those at Gonesse and

Montlhery, allowed dealers to keep their grains stored there when current market values did not suit them. With regard to this last problem,

D'Argenson suggested that the utilization of the authority of Jean

Phelypeaux (intendant of the généralité of Paris, and brother of the

D'Argenson to [Louis de Pontchartrain], Paris, December 27, 1697, ibid. The enmity between the Chatelet and the Hôtel de Ville resulted, as has been seen (footnote 16 of this chapter), in the edict of 1700 which gave the former institution the superior authority in the grain trade. 262

Controller-General) would be the most convenient way to end such diffi­

culties. In this same letter, D'Argenson argued against trying to dis­

possess several women at the Halle aux Blés from the places they

occupied that were part of the domaine; such an action, he felt, would

create resentments that would only serve to force prices higher.

Three days later, ble was again the subject of a very long

letter from the lieutenant général to the Controller General. He re­ ported, first of all, on the response of Achille de Harlay, First

President of the Parlement of Paris, to a placet sent to the King by the

boulangers of Paris. Pontchartrain had instructed D'Argenson to send

the placet to the First President for his opinion. (In matters concerning

the provisionment of Paris the Parlement regarded itself as exercising

a grande police— a claim which Pontchartrain honored as long as it did

not interfere with his own primary control over the police.) Harlay

had replied that he did not think the bakers should be granted their re­

quest to buy grain from nearby markets and farms because it might induce monopolistic tendencies which would be detrimental to market mechanisms 69 in the long run.

D'Argenson went on in the same letter to elaborate more for

Pontchartrain on the problems that he felt were creating a panicky

^^D'Argenson to Louis de Pontchartrain, Paris, November 20, 1698, ibid. 69 For a discussion of the government's continual attempts to re­ strain this direct contact with the sources of grain in the area around Paris, and of the equally continual tendency of grain merchants and bakers to do so, see: Usher, History of the Grain Trade, pp. 20ff. Usher referred to the phenomena as 'country buying.' 263 atmosphere in the grain market. He cited the continuing "fureur et l'inquiétude" of the religious communities. Their purveyors, he com­ plained, dominated the markets. The previous day they had bought more than half of the grain available for sale. In particular, he cited as culprits "les jésuites, les carmes, les minimes, les augustins, les religieuses pénitentes de la rue Saint-Denis, [et] celles de Sainte-

Marie et du Calvaire." However, he felt that, for the time being, it was better to accept the situation as it was, than to create a worse furor by openly opposing the religious communities. Instead, he re­ quested that Pontchartrain arrange some type of relief assistance for the "pauvre peuple" who were becoming alarmed by the rising prices— a relief, he added, that would be "très secret." He recommended that the

King order a two to three month lock-up of the large number of

"mendians dont l'insolence s'augmente et s'autorise par la cherté du pain." He suggested that the flow of grain carts from La Beauce (a major grain-producing area southwest of Paris near Orleans) be observed more carefully since there were indications that the military commissariats for Flanders were diverting grain intended for Paris. Moreover, with regard to the grain trade in the banlieue around Paris, D'Argenson recom­ mended that suspected abuses, such as the stockpiling of grain in hopes of higher prices, be handled firmly but cautiously lest a harsh govern­ ment crackdown cause alarm among grain suppliers and lead to a suspension of grain sales. He was, also, again critical of the Hôtel de Ville.

He noted that the Seine had fewer grain boats than usual on it; and he suggested that this resulted from the fact that some of the grain 264 merchants of Paris, despite recent arrets, tended to recognize only the orders of the Hotel de Ville. Consequently, they had not taken proper precautions to prevent a disette; but again, he recommended temporary caution in handling a situation that could be corrected more easily after the crisis had passed than in the midst of it.^^

In this letter one again sees the lieutenant general mustering evidence against his institutional rival, the Hôtel de Ville, against religious communities, against beggars, against military procurement personnel, and against hoarders— many of the same groups that appear over and over again in his reports on problems in the provisionment of

Paris.

By December 1698, when the price of grain had still not stabil­ ized, D'Argenson sent a "personne de confiance" to Brie-Comte-Robert

[in the grain-growing area to the southeast of Paris) to try and dis­ cover the reasons for the fluctuation of grain prices from one market day to the next. On the basis of the information received from his agent,

D'Argenson reported to Controller General Pontchartrain that the problems were due, in part, to special arrangements of convenience made between the farmers of the droit de minage (i.e., the collectors of special fees on grain and other commodities) and the cultivators of grain, and, in part, to speculation and hoarding by municipal officials and the bour- 71 geoisie in places like Montereau, Etampes, and Châteaudun.

^*^D'Argenson to Louis de Pontchartrain, Paris, November 23, 1698, Archives Nationales, Ms. 429.

^^D'Argenson to Louis de Pontchartrain, Paris, December 24, 1698, ibid. 265

Several days later he added in another letter that the aid of

the intendants in the provinces was a necessity if there was to be a

smooth flow of grain to Paris. As he observed:

il est vray que la liberté du commerce est un bien public et général dont la privation alarme toujours et ne produit ordinairement que de méchans effets. Personne n'a plus d'interest a soutenir la justice et la vérité de cette maxime que celuy à qui la police de Paris est confiée [i.e., D'Argenson himself], puisque si messieurs les in­ tendants s'arrogeoient ainsy l'autorité d 'arrester le cours des denrées cette multitude infinie d'habitans qui ne peuvent subsister que par le concours de toutes les provinces du royaume manqueroient bientost des choses les plus nécessaires.

He went on to complain about the problems caused by officials in the provinces who issued regulations which hindered the transport of grain;

he specifically cited a general ordinance by an official in Vitry (grain

center on the Marne in Champagne) which prevented a large quantity of

grain that was being stored there from being sent to Paris, or even to 72 other towns in Champagne. Again one sees here the strong interest of

the head of the police in Paris that Paris be served without fail and

without delay by the provinces.

Early in January, D'Argenson was able to report to the Controller-

General that the grain situation in Paris was improving, particularly in

the light of the declaration of the King forbidding the sending of grain

outside of the kingdom under penalty of death. This apparently had per­

suaded many grain merchants, particularly those along the Loire, that they

72 D'Argenson to Louis de Pontchartrain, Paris, December 27, 1698, ibid. 266

73 should reroute their grain to Paris rather than exporting it. Soon afterwards D'Argenson noted that the ports of Paris were filled with grain boats from Brittany, Auvergne Bourbonnais, and Brie; only Normandy seemed to be lagging behind.

The sending of grain out of the kingdom was an activity the government tried to prevent in difficult times by guarding the routes out of France with agents of the Farmers-General. However, evasion of the authorities was relatively easy in frontier areas and the government could only try to plug leaks when they were discovered. Ironically, some of the transport routes of grain smugglers were uncovered as a side effect of Louis XIVs policy against religious dissenters. Hugue­ nots apparently fled the kingdom along some of the same routes that were used to smuggle grain and other merchandise. Thus, for instance, in the course of an investigation against Huguenot sympathizers in 1699,

D'Argenson uncovered information concerning a route that grain smugglers used at night in the woods near Valenciennes. He passed along the in­ formation to Secretary of State Jérôme de Pontchartrain, who in turn passed it on to the new Controller General of Finances, Michel Chamillart, with a message from the King that precautions should be taken against

73 D'Argenson to Louis de Pontchartrain, Paris, January 4, 1699, Archives Nationales, Ms. C7 430.

D'Argenson to Louis de Pontchartrain, Paris, January 19, 1699, ibid. During this entire period D'Argenson was also busy condemning individuals caught in contravention of the laws. Several of his sentences in these cases have been reprinted in Delamare, Traité de la Police, II, 409-420. 267 the smugglers

In the fall of 1699 D'Argenson was again worried about the

Parisian grain supply. From the reports of grain haulers arriving at the Hailes, he learned that quantities of grain destined for Paris were being diverted and amassed by grain merchants in Soissons, He wrote to

Michel Chamillart, newly installed as Controller-General, to inform him of the situation and to seek his aid in ending the activity. It was praiseworthy, he wrote, when grain merchants, such as those in Soissons, bought grain in distant areas and sent it promptly to Paris, but when they bought it in order to amass it, it contributed to a return of "la disette et la cherté." D'Argenson undoubtedly was aiming to maintain

Chamillart's support in the most potentially explosive area of police concerns when he concluded:

Je scay que votre attention continuelle et cette grand capacité que vous vous estes acquise sur la matière des blés pourvoiront à tout et ce m'est une grande consola­ tion d'avoir à travailler sous de si bons ordres dans

75 ^ ^ D'Argenson's information is included in Jérôme de Pont­ chartrain to Chamillart, Versailles, October 28, 1699, Archives Nationales, Ms. G7 533, dossier 1. In future years, D'Argenson informed Chamillart directly of such matters. Jérôme de Pontchartrain, however, continued to use the issue of Huguenot refugees as a topic in his reports to the King, partly, it would seem, at the expense of Chamillart who, as overseer of the Farmers-General, had as a duty the prevention of escapes. (See, for example: Pontchartrain to Chamillart, Fontainebleau, September 29, 1700, ibid., dossier 2.) The refugee issue was just the sort of thing that Jérôme de Pontchar­ train used to maintain his hand in affairs that were primarily the prerogative of other ministers. See, for instance, his interest in foreign affairs described in Chapter VIII of this study. 268

cette partie de nostre police, la plus pretieuse et la plus importante pour l'ordre public.76

During the next nine years, though the police continued to exer­ cise a vigorous control over the grain trade, the supply and price situa­ tion was eased by relatively good weather and good harvests (though for those who had grain to sell it meant tumbling revenues). As D'Argenson remarked in a letter in 1701 to the Control1er-General : "un peu de 77 pluie et de chaud feront des marveilles." However, the lull was broken in 1709-1710 when extremely bad weather and bad harvests combined to produce disette, cherté, and famine in combination in the worst crisis of subsistance of Louis XIV's reign and, indeed, one of the worst in 78 early modern French history.

The situation was so desperate that people of Paris publicly called upon Sainte Genevieve, the patron saint of Paris, to help them in their hour of need, and the authorities even approved a rare unveiling

^^D'Argenson to Chamillart, Paris, November 8, 1699, Archives Nationales, Ms. G^ 430. 77 D'Argenson to Chamillart, Paris, April 20, 1701, Archives Na­ tionales q 7 431. On the prices of bread in relation to climate during this period, one can refer to the diagrams by LeRoy Ladurie, reproduced in Histoire économique et sociale, II, 392. See also: Micheline Baulant, "Grain Prices in Paris, 1431-17&8," in Social Historians, pp. 22-41 [article first published in 1968]. 78 On the crisis of 1709-1710, see especially: the "Supplement" to the second edition of Delamare, Traité de la Police, II, l-[72j; Arthur de Boislisle, Le grand hiver et la disette de 1709 (Paris, 1903); Commandant Herlaut, "La disette de pain a Paris en 1709," Mémoires de la société de l'histoire de Paris et de l'Ile de France, XLV (1918), 5-100; and also, in broader context, Jean Meuvret, "Les crises de subsistance et la démographie de la France d'ancien régime," in idem., Etudes d'histoire économique, pp. 271-278. 269 and procession through the city of the reliquary of the saint. An anonymous relation, recounting the event, succinctly described the troubled period thus:

L'hyver dernier fut si violent, qu'ayant rendu les rivieres S les chemins impratiquables, les Provinces ne purent plus se communiquer les unes aux autres, les vivres & les autres secours nécessaires à la vie: cette cessation du commerce causa dans Paris, comme par tout ailleurs, une assez grande disette; dont on se consoloit, par l'esperance que le retour du beau temps y rétabliront l'abondance: mais on fut bien afflige d'apprendre, que la gelée avoit telle­ ment endommagé la plupart des meilleurs terres du Royaume, qu'il n'y restoit presque plus aucune apparence de récolté. Le bled S le pain montèrent tout d'un coup à un prix excessif; S le peuple, déjà épuise par la longueur de la guerre, que la France soutient depuis plusieurs années contre toutes les forces de l'Europe, se trouva sans aucune ressource, § réduit à un état le plus déplorable du monde.

In these critical circumstances the police were extremely active.

D'Argenson had already established a good working relationship with

Nicolas Desmaretz, the new Controller-General. In early 1708 he set up a permanent reporting relationship with him, similar to one he had with

Chamillart, concerning the prices of grain arriving in Paris each month.

How prophetic it seems, in hindsight, when he wrote: "il est bon de

trouver [the monthly report] tout etably si la disette suceedoit à

l'abondance et mesme la suivoit de près; comme il arrive assez souvent

79 ^ Relation de ce qui s'est passe en la Découverte, Descente, et Procession de la Chasse de sainte Genevieve, faite le siezieme May 1709, Archives Nationales, Ms. K 122, no. 41. This very rare work, written in late May 1709 and printed chez Urbain Coustelier, is interesting because it had official approbation as well as D'Argenson's apparent approval despite its very blunt description of the situation in France. 270

en cette v i l l e . During the year that followed, with a crisis mounting,

a monthly report was hardly enough, and D'Argenson found himself writing 81 twice a week. Even reporting on Paris itself was not enough, and com­ missaires and secret agents were sent to scour the countryside for in­

formation, and even to intervene where necessary to assure a supply of 82 grain for Paris.

Following the great freeze of early January 1709, the Controller-

General and the police at first tried to conceal the depth of the problem

by disguising the source of grain shipments that they were diverting to ’83 ^ Paris. However, the "emotions populaires" in the marketplaces as people vied for what little bread there really was, soon led to frequent

lock-ups and a greater police presence in the grain and bread markets as

"l'augmentation du prix du pain excitte de nouveaux murmurs parmy le 84 peuple." While the situation was bad, D'Argenson could not help

80 D'Argenson to Desmaretz, Paris, March 7, 1708, Archives Nationales, Ms. 1654. Desmaretz gave his approval to the reporting process in a note dated March 11, 1708, on the same letter. 81 _ Many of these letters still exist in the Archives Nationales, Mss. G 1654-1655. 82 See, for example, the "Instruction pour celuy qui doit visiter ces marchers [i.e., thirty-seven different markets named in an attached list] en consequence d'un ordre secret de M.^ Desmaretz controlleur general des finances," undated. Archives Nationales, Ms. G^ 1654. 83 D'Argenson to Desmaretz, Paris, January 20, 1709, ibid., in which the lieutenant general paid homage to the Controller General for his help; "Je ne scais pas ce que nous ferions sans vos soings attentifs et continuels qui pourvoyent à tout."

^^D'Argenson to Desmaretz, Paris, February 21, 1709, ibid. 271 complaining to Desmaretz about the difficulties he was having with Jérôme de Pontchartrain, whose attitude towards events in Paris had, according to the police chief, became almost insufferable. On March 4, for in­ stance, he wrote:

quelque chose que le Roy ayt peu dire à M. de Pontchartrain; il n ’y a point de jour qu'il ne parle à Sa maiesté du pain et des Blez, ny qu'il ne m'en escrire deux ou trois lettres: Il semble à les lire que tout Paris soit en mouvement, que le peuple crie à la faim, et que nous soyons à la veille de revoir les Barricades: Je scais meme qu'il parle comme il escrit et ces discours font de trez mechans effets.85

D'Argenson was undoubtedly hoping that Desmaretz would serve as a counter­ balance to the Secretary of State since problems with the grain supply were a partial reflection on him as well. Apparently he did. In his letters to D'Argenson, Desmaretz recounted that he had read the police chief's reports to the King; and, he and the King frequently agreed to the police chief's requests, as on April 5 when they approved his proposal that troops from the regiments of the Gardes-Françaises be kept in the marketplaces of Paris to assist in the maintenance of order.

85 D'Argenson to Desmaretz, Paris, March 4, 1709, ibid. D'Argenson, of course, had to report to both men on the situation in Paris. Unfor­ tunately, his letters to Jerome de Pontchartrain on the problems of 1709- 1710 have been lost, although there are isolated copies of some of them scattered amid the Controller-General's papers. In one of them, after an incident in which some vitriolic placards containing threats against D'Argenson had appeared in Paris, the lieutenant général wrote to the Secretary of State: ". . . je n'en paroitray pas moins demains dans les marches, ma porte n'en sera pas moins ouverte à toutes les plaintes, et je n'en seray pas moins zellê pour le soulagement des pauvres ny pour le service du Roy." Copy of letter, D'Argenson to Jérôme de Pontchartrain, [Paris], April 5, 1709, ibid.

^^[Desmaretz] to D'Argenson, n.p., April 5, 1709, Archives Nationales, Ms. G7 15. 272

The timing was correct because serious riots occurred the next day. Unfortunately, there was another problem involved. The wives of the troops were frequently in the forefront of the "tumultes"; and

D'Argenson had to take care in determining which troops and which police 87 squads were sent to different areas of the city. Throughout the period the police had to brace themselves each Wednesday and Saturday market day for tumultuous scenes in the markets as they confronted the hunger of the populace and the "malice" of the bakers ("jamais les boulangers n'avoint si bien fait connoistre leur malice que dans la 88 marché d'aujourd'huy [May 18]"). D'Argenson even wrote to the Con­ troller-General that he had exhausted his funds and his credit in trying 89 to subsidize bread purchases for the poor — whereupon he received more

87 On the April 6 riot which resulted in the pillaging of a bakery, see: D'Argenson to Desmaretz, Paris, April 6, 1709, Archives Nationales, Ms. 1654. During this same tense period of high emotion, Dangeau and the marquise d'Huxelles wrote of another incident in which D'Argenson personally led fifty troops with muskets and bayonets into a riotous situation to quell the crowd. As Dangeau described it: "Lundi 29 avril 1709, à Versailles — Il arrive hier a Paris un assez grand désordre dans l'église de Saint-Roch. Un pauvre qu'on voulut faire sortir de l'église fut blessé légèrement à la main. La populace et surtout les femmes s'assemblèrent en grand nombre. Il vint quelques soldats de la compagnie générale des Suisses pour empêcher le désordre. M. d'Argenson fut oblige d'y venir lui-même; ou lui jeta quelques pierres. Le peuple avoit déjà mis au bois devant la maison du commissaire du quartier pour la brûler. M. d'Argenson, par sa patience et par le secours des Suisses, apaisa le désordre." Dangeau, Journal, XII, 398-399; Huxelles' letter printed in footnote, ibid. go D'Argenson to Desmaretz, Paris, May 18, 1709, ibid. The "malice" is a recurring theme in this correspondence. 89 D'Argenson to Desmaretz, Paris, May 22, 1709, ibid. In a letter of June 2, 1709, ibid., D'Argenson rendered an accounting of the expendi­ ture of previous sums that Desmaretz had sent to him, and which he had distributed through the commissaires. 273

90 funds for the purpose from Desmaretz.

The situation improved slightly in July only to deteriorate again in August and September (on the 7th D'Argenson wrote that the high prices had caused "une tristeste veritable, plus accompagnée de larmes que de 91 cris"); and the police drew up plans for the sale of bread designated 92 specifically for the poor. D'Argenson had already won a victory over the Parlement in having the types of bread reduced to two ("en vérité les incertitudes et les contradictions de M. le Pr. President sont de grands 93 obstacles à l'ordre publique dans une conjuncture comme celle-cy").

Throughout the fall and winter of 1709-1710, D'Argenson enlisted

Desmaretz's continued support to supply Paris with grain. He complained

90 D'Argenson to Desmaretz, Paris, June 19, 1709, ibid., in which he expressed his gratitude for an additional 2,000 livres. The money was used not only for charitable subsidies but also as "petittes grati­ fications" for the troops who guarded the marketplaces. This sort of thing, he wrote, was ". . .l e seul expedient que j'ay pu trouver pour les mettre dans nos interests et pour empescher qu'ils ne continuent de donner aux femmes de leurs comrades et à leurs comrades mesme une preference injuste qui excitoit la fureur du peuple et ne nous laissoit aucun repos." 91 D'Argenson to Desmaretz, Paris, September 7, 1709, ibid. 92 -* The mémoires listing the guards, commissaires and bakers to be used are located in ibid. with a note that they were "envoie par M. d'Argenson le 19 sept 1709." 93 D'Argenson to Desmaretz, Paris, June 6, 1709, ibid. In this letter he referred to the subsequently approved plan to reduce the types of bread to Le pain au bis et 1^ pain au bis blanc. The purpose of the arrêt which effected this change was to make available more of the type of rye bread that "le Peuple recherche avec le plus empressement"; it is printed in Delamare, Traité de la Police, II, "Supplement," pp. 5-6. Prior to the final meetings with the parlementarians on the matter, D'Argenson knew he could count on the support of the King and Desmaretz, for he had already been informed by the latter that: "S.M. y est disposée." Des­ maretz to D'Argenson, n.p.. May 22, 1709, Archives Nationales, Ms. 15. 274 quickly when the lieutenant general de 1'amirauté and the municipal offi­ cials at Rouen tried to divert shipments intended for Paris:

j'espere de la protection déclarée que vous avez la bonté de donner à la provision de Paris, que vous voudrez bien empescher la suitte de ce desordre et procurer le rétablis­ sement du commerce des bleds.94

He complained again when the lieutenant général of Caen wished to hold back grain destined for Paris:

j'oze esperer que vous voudrez bien rendre à ce commerce une liberté si nécessaire et ne pas autoriser les magistrats des provinces à refuser au transport des grains destinez pour la provision de Paris, la protection qu'ils luy doivent.95

Desmaretz was generally receptive to these entreaties of the police chief of Paris, but the greatest boost he gave to the restoration of order in the Parisian markets was the arrangements he made for the importation of bread from abroad, in particular, from the Levant.When the first

94 D'Argenson to Desmaretz, Paris, December 3, 1709, Archives Nationales, Ms, 1654. 95 D'Argenson to Desmaretz, Paris, January 3, 1710, ibid. In this case Desmaretz noted on the letter, "il seroit à propos d'escrire à M. de la Brisse [the intendant at Caen] en conformité de ce que propose M. d'Argenson."

^^On the Levant grain, see: Archives Nationales, Ms. 1647; Usher, History of the Grain Trade, pp. 196, 339; Herlaut, "La disette de pain," pp. 97-99; and Delamare, Traité de la Police, II, "Supplement," pp. 23- 24, which contains the déclaration du roi [du 29 Octobre 1709 portant qu'il sera levé un dixième d'augmentation sur les droits qui se perçoivent à Paris, pour en employer les deniers en achat de Bleds pour la subsist­ ance de la dite Ville], of which article III indicated that the surcharge was to be used "à procurer l'abondance des grains par le moyen des achats qui seront faits dans les Pais Etrangères, . . ." Obviously, the grain had to be. paid for. 275 large shipments began to arrive in mid-January 1710, D'Argenson wrote that he hoped "1'heureuse nouvelle" would "randra le comerce des blez plus libre et obilgera ceux qui en ont à le vandre sur un pied plus 97 avantageux au publiq." But despite the new supplies, and better weather than the previous winter, the lieutenant general still railed against the bakers and grain merchants. In February he wrote that "le ble et l'orge ont enchéri moins par le deffault d'abondence que par le complot de 98 boulangers et des marchans de blé nos plus dangereux ennemis."

Clôse watch was kept on the price of bread during 1710 in each of the marketplaces where the people bought their bread. With financial assistance from Desmaretz, troops were kept on alert in the marketplaces.

By late June the situation had improved to the point where the Control­ ler-General felt the number of troops could be reduced to have only

"quelques sergents des gardes françois et suisses pour écarter les vagabonds.The lieutenant général, however, held out for more troops a while longer.From August onward the price of bread re­ mained very low, and by early 1711 the need for troops and weekly reports

97 D'Argenson to Desmaretz, Paris, January 16, 1710, Archives Nationales, Ms. 1654. 98 D'Argenson to Desmaretz, Paris, February 16, 1710, ibid. 99 Many of the reports of the weekly fluctuation of bread prices still exist in:Archives Nationales, Ms. G^ 1655.

^^%raft of letter, Desmaretz to D'Argenson, n.p., June 28, 1710, ibid.

^^^D'Argenson to Desmaretz, Paris, July 5, 1710, ibid. 276

102 on the status of the grain and bread markets had disappeared.

Protecting French Industry: The Pursuit of the 'Toiles Peintes'

One of the special projects that the police of Paris undertook

in defense of a French industry against both an outside invader and an

enemy within was the attempt to suppress the seemingly irrepressible 103 toiles peintes. Ever since the late 1660*s when the Compagnie des

Indes Orientales had imported brightly colored lightweight cotton prints,

silks, satins and other fabrics from the East, the French textile in­

dustry, so carefully nurtured by Jean-Baptiste Colbert, had lost ground

to the popular new imports. Even in France itself, illegal textile

operations which attempted to imitate the style of the imports had

sprung up. The effect was disastrous for established French cloth

manufacturers and the workers they employed. Numerous bankruptcies

occurred; and thousands of workers were quickly unemployed.

In the face of this severe economic threat, the government and police reacted, in the mid-1680's, to reduce the impact of the new

fabrics and fashions in France by prohibiting their manufacture, sale.

102 The weekly reports reveal the lowered prices. By February, D'Argenson was back to sending a monthly report. 103 On these lightweight colored textiles, see Franklin, Diction­ naire historique, pp. 396-397.

^^^Lavisse, Histoire de France, VIII (1), 229-240; Saint-Germain, La Reynie, pp. 231-236; Mandrou, Louis XIV, pp. 137-145. Cf. Pierre Deyon, "Manufacturing Industries in Seventeenth-Century France," in Louis XIV and Absolutism, ed. by Ragnhild Hatton (Columbus, 1976 [art. first published 1966]), pp. 226-242. 277 wearing, or other use.^^^ Only the fear of bankrupting the Compagnie des Indes Orientales apparently prevented complete interdiction against their importation. However, fashion proved a formidable foe; and throughout the reign of Louis XIV the police fought a losing battle against public demand and the willingness of entrepreneurs to risk confiscations and heavy fines to meet it.

In March 1697, while familiarizing himself with various aspects of manufacturing and commerce in Paris, newly-appointed lieutenant general de police d'Argenson discovered that even the Farmers-General of

France were contravening the laws regarding toiles peintes by storing a large quantity of confiscated toiles in their warehouse in Paris, appar­ ently in the hope of selling them abroad. D'Argenson wrote to Control­ ler-General Louis de Pontchartrain and urged him not to permit the Farmers-

General to sell the merchandise abroad because such an action (as Pont­ chartrain himself had generally held) would be prejudicial to French cloth manufacturers and would be construed as a tacit authorization for the continued manufacture of the prohibited fabrics. D'Argenson suggested that the only means of preventing such an impression was to burn all of the confiscated toiles peintes "sans distinction" as to who possessed them. If the Farmers-General were permitted to send them abroad, he continued, "ces envoyés sont si susceptibles de retour et si sujet aux facilitez collusoires qu'on ne peut presque compter sur leur fidélité.

Saint-Germain remarked (La Reynie, p. 231), "la contribution la plus importante de La Reynie à notre histoire économique demeure sans conteste son rôle primordial dans la réglementation des toiles peintes." 278

Joint que la mode des toilles peintes paroissent revenir il est néces­ saire de s'y opposer par quelque exemple d'éclat qui des decreditte."^^^

D'Argenson followed up his initial report to Pontchartrain with additional letters and mémoires over the next several months which further detailed how the Farmers-General were subverting the arrets con­ cerning the toiles peintes and other confiscated goods as well. In gen­ eral, they had nearly all of the goods seized by their agents transported directly to the Bureau of the Farmers-General in Paris where they could be stored with relative ease from the prying eyes of the police and other royally commissioned inspectors. This procedure by-passed the inspection and accounting of seized goods which was one of the ordinary functions 107 of Jacques Savary des Bruslons, inspecteur des manufactures à la douane de Paris. D'Argenson concluded that their main purpose in having goods that were seized in the provinces transported to Paris was to avoid giving up exclusive control of merchandise that could be disposed of at a profit. Ordinarily, goods seized in the provinces were held in spe­ cial warehouses that were not under the exclusive control of the Farmers-

General. In Paris, however, their control of seized goods was much more complete; and it was the intention of the lieutenant général de 108 police to diminish it, and to end the abuses to which it had led.

^^^D'Argenson to Louis de Pontchartrain, Paris, March 24, 1697, Archives Nationales, Ms. G^ 429. 107 Author of the famous Dictionnaire du commerce. 108 On the Farmers-General and seized goods, see: Ordonnance [sur le fait des cinq grosses fermes], Versailles, February 1687, especially titre IX ("Des magasins et entrepots"), titre X ("Du bureau de Paris"), and titre XI ("Des saises"), in Isambert, Anciennes lois, XX, 24-47. 279

The Controller-General supported D'Argenson's plans to make an

"exemple d'éclat" which would serve notice to the Farmers-General, as well as to the merchants of Paris, that it was not profitable to deal

in toiles peintes. Consequently, the commissaires of the Châtelet were ordered to search and seize any toiles peintes in the possession of merchants in their respective quarters. The toiles peintes confiscated

in this operation, along with those of the Farmers-General, were then publicly put to the torch in the Rue de la Feronerie on July 7 and in 109 the Place Dauphine on July 8.

While such bonfires may have been impressive sights, they did

little to consume the ardor of those engaged in the commerce in toiles peintes. In fact, later in 1697, the King himself sent a letter to

D'Argenson ordering him to conduct an investigation of persons pro­ ducing toiles peintes in the Temple. This was followed by a warning

to the Grand Prior about the prohibited activity being carried on within 110 his enclosure.

In 1701, D'Argenson wrote to Controller General Michel Cham­

illart, on the progress of his campaign to end the trafficking in

109 For the correspondence on this campaign see letters of: Louis de Pontchartrain to D'Argenson, n.p.. May 14 and July 8, 1697, Archives Nationales, Ms. G^ 8; and letters of D'Argenson to Louis de Pontchartrain, Paris, June 9, June 23, July 7, and August 4, 1697, Archives Nationales, Ms. g 7 429.

^^*^Lettre du Roy à M. d'Argenson pour faire perquisition de ceux qui travaillent aux toiles peintes dans le Temple, Versailles, December 15, 1697, Archives Nationales, Ms. 0^ 41, fol. 188; notice of letter to M. le Grand Prieur, December 16, ibid. 280 toiles peintes by means of arrests, fines, special investigations, and public burnings of the illegal fabrics. He advised Chamillart that in order to completely abolish the illicit commerce in Paris it would be necessary to levy stiff fines of at least 500 livres upon the retail peddlers of toiles peintes, and accompany it with the threat of a stay in the Hôpital General. He noted that he had proposed to the merciers

(retail merchants), who had an economic interest in seeing the toiles peintes suppressed, that they finance a special commis to investigate 112 contraventions of the law regarding toiles peintes. He also noted that he had had three hundred pieces of toiles peintes taken from the warehouse of the Farmers General and publicly burned in the middle of the

Pont Neuf; and he could not resist adding that the enforcement of the regulations would be much easier if the agents of Farmers General were more thorough in their own observation of the laws. He concluded by explaining to Chamillart that there were also two privileged enclosures in Paris, the Temple and the Courtyard of Saint-Benoît, in which toiles peintes were produced; and, while he had the authority from various arrets du conseil to proceed against them, he deferred as a matter of courtesy until such time as Chamillart himself had an opportunity to write special letters concerning the matter to the Grand Prior of the

Temple and to President Lamoignon who administered the Abbey of Val-de-

Franklin, Dictionnaire historique, pp. 478-480. The 'merciers marchands de tout, faiseurs de rien' were reputed to have the wealthiest and noblest of the guilds. 112 He added that he had not had much success in convincing them to put up the funds despite the fact that they could only benefit from in­ creased sales of their own legitimate étoffes légères. 281

Grâce of which Saint-Benoît was a dependency. His own courtesy calls with respect to those privileged places had simply resulted in a tempor- 113 ary suspension of activity during his inspection.

During the summer of 1704, Chamillart approved a proposal by

D ’Argenson that a special officer be commissioned to carry on a campaign against toiles peintes. He also accepted D'Argenson’s recommendation that Jean Tisserand, capitaine des archers de la gabelle de Paris, be chosen for the task and that he be paid a percentage of the proceeds from fines and the resale of seized goods (when such was feasible). Tisserand had come to D ’Argenson’s attention when several of his investigations into illicit activities in the salt trade coincidentally uncovered toiles peintes and other smuggled contraband which he turned over to the lieutenant general de police. I n August D ’Argenson wrote optimisti­ cally to the Controller General that he hoped Tisserand’s appointment would put an end to the illicit commerce in toiles peintes as well as other contraband goods.

Shortly thereafter, D’Argenson reported that Tisserand had already begun to make important seizures; however, he quickly added, the revenue from fines and the resale of confiscated goods would not cover the of­ ficer’s expenses because of the amount of work involved in tracking down

113 _ D ’Argenson to Chamillart, Paris, October 1, Archives Nationales, Ms. G 431. 114 D ’Argenson to Chamillart, Paris, July 17, 1704, Archives Nationales, Ms.. G 432. Following Chamillart’s initial interestin the proposal, D ’Argenson sent him testimony about Tisserand's zeal and probity, and cited Savary as a character reference (in D ’Argenson to Chamillart, Paris, August 2, 1704, ibid.). 282 • the persons who actually financed the contraband operations.D'Argenson was clearly laying the groundwork to make a later claim for expense money from the Controller-General and to provide a justification for stiffer fines. In fact, within two weeks he was called upon by the Controller

General to explain a 500 livre fine he had levied against one individual whom Tisserand had caught. The guilty party had sent a placet to the

Controller General in which he protested the police action and the stiff

fine. D'Argenson replied that he had levied the fine in order to pay

the expenses of Tisserand and the dénonciateur in the case. . He added

that the fine could be reduced to 300 livres provided it was paid by the end of the month. These measures were necessary, he wrote, "pour soutenir

le zelle du sieur Tisserand et nous attirer plusieurs denontiateurs qui n'attendent que le succès de celle cy."^^^

Tisserand's zeal hardly flagged; and he was clearly kept busy by

those who wished to participate in the illicit commerce. For example,

in November 1705 he discovered a large cache of toiles peintes behind a double wall in the establishment of a marchand mercier named Le Bon who was reputed to be doing a thriving business in the forbidden fabrics at 117 Versailles and Fontainebleau. During the same month, when he at­

tempted to seize a cache of toiles peintes from a merchant in the

^^^D'Argenson to Chamillart, Paris, September 11, 1704, ibid.

^^^D'Argenson to Chamillart, Paris, September 23, 1704, ibid. Reductions of fines of this sort were fairly common. 117 D'Argenson to Chamillart, Paris, November 8, 1705, Archives Nationales, g 7 433. 283 privileged enclosure of Saint-Jean-de-Latran, a priest rallied the people of the enclosure in defense of the merchant and forced Tisserand to re­ treat unceremoniously without the seized goods. IVhereupon, D'Argenson obtained an order from Chamillart to arrest and exile from Paris the priest and the merchant and his wife who resisted the initial confisca- 118 tion. As in so many matters, privileged enclosures were an obstacle to the police in the enforcement of legal prohibitions.

Again in 1707, D'Argenson specifically singled out the Abbey of

Saint-Germain-des-Pres, the Temple, and Saint-Jean-de-Latran as places where the "ordres du Roy ne sont guerres plus respectes que l'autorité des juges ordinaires par la deference qu'on a pour les seigneurs de ces 119 territoires." To combat their disregard for the prohibitions,

D'Argenson recommended, as he did in many similar situations, that he be armed with a sternly worded letter that could be presented to the offi­ cials of the enclosures in order to pressure them into compliance. The effect of this action, as in the case of many others like it, was only temporary success; six months later D'Argenson again had to obtain a 120 commission for Tisserand to seize toiles peintes within the Temple.

In 1709 the government renewed the legal prohibitions against toiles peintes and other fabrics with an arrêt du conseil which forbade :

118 D'Argenson to Chamillart, Paris, November 30, 1705, ibid.

^^^D'Argenson to Chamillart, Paris, July 17, 1707, Archives Nationales, Ms. G? 1725. 120 ^^^LettersLetters of DD'A ’Argenson to Chamillart, Paris, January 7 and January 27, 1708, ibid 284

tous negocians, marchands, et autres personnes, . . . de faire commerce, exposer en vente, vendre, colporter, débiter ni acheter en gros ou en détail, . . . aucunes étoffes des Indes, de la Chine ou du Levant, . . . à peine de confiscation, et de trois mille livres d'amende payable par corps, . . . [et] demeurent interdits du commerce pour toujours; forbade the same commerce in "mousselines" and "toiles de coton," except those taken as war booty on the high seas; forbade the Compagnie des Indes

Orientales, and all other companies to bring into France any of the pro­ hibited fabrics, even under the pretext of reexporting them: forbade all "fermiers, directeurs, receveurs, commis, contrôleurs, visiteurs, brigadiers, gardes" and others from letting any of the "toiles et

étoffes" past their bureaux d'entrées; forbade all persons "de porter, s'habiller, ou de faire aucuns habits ou vêtemens ni meubles desdites

étoffes et toiles,'" and made husbands and fathers responsible for the fines incurred by their wives and daughters; forbade all "fripiers, tailleurs, couturiers, tapissiers, brodeurs," and their workers from having the fabrics in their shops and boutiques; forbade anyone "de peindre, imprimer ou faire peindre et imprimer" impressions on any fabrics foreign or domestic; forbade any of the "lieux privilégies"

(specifically citing the Temple, Saint-Jean-de-Latran, and the Abbey of Saint-Germain-des-Pres) from contravening any of the provisions of the arrêt, and empowered the lieutenant général de police to inspect, or have someone of his choice inspect, the privileged places, and to act as a judge in cases of contraventions; forbade anyone from sending any of the forbidden fabrics to the French colonies; proposed that two- thirds of any fines levied be distributed to the dénonciateurs in the 285

case, that half of the seized fabrics be burned and that the other half be sold abroad under conditions arranged by the lieutenant général de police or the provincial intendants; provided safeguards to assure the

fabrics would not return to France; provided that the lieutenant général de police and provincial intendants act with full authority as magistrates

in cases involving contravention of the arret; ordered the lieutenant

général de police and the provincial intendants to keep His Majesty

informed; and, ordered that the arrêt be published and posted twice a year by ordonnance of the lieutenant général de police, and that the police chief and the intendants make "fréquentes visites" to boutiques, 121 shops, warehouses and privileged places to insure its enforcement.

Despite the regulations, and despite numerous seizures made by

Tisserand, the commerce in toiles peintes was only slightly impaired.

Fashion simply made enforcement too difficult, because the "qualité"

of the contraveners involved posed too many delicate exceptions. In

March 1710, for instance, D'Argenson wrote to Desmaretz that he had

learned that he was about to receive a complaint from the First President

of the Parlement concerning a seizure of toiles peintes made at the

home of the parents of a conseiller of the Parlement. D'Argenson had

tried to smooth over the situation by writing to the parents that

he was sure that only the domestics of the household had been

121 Arrêt du conseil d'Etat du Roi [faisant défenses de porter aucunes robes et vetemens de toile peinte, furies et étoffes des Indes, et d'en faire aucun commerce, sur les peines y contenues], August 27, 1709, Peuchet, Collection des lois, II, 285-293. 286 involved with the contraband goods. He had learned, however, that the parlementarians "a dessein de faire une cause majeur au prez de vous et en suitte au prez du Roy." With this sort of situation existing, he added :

Il sera facille aux marchans de perpétuer ce commerce si pernicieux au Royaume si chaque maison peut servir d'azille^22 aux marchandises de cette qualité qu'ils y voudront mettre.

In September he wrote again that:

II est certain que la pluspart des femmes qui ont des maisons de campagne aux environs de Paris portent publiquement des robbes de toiles peintes et qu'il paroist dans leur procédé beaucoup d'insolence et d'affectation.123

Against such problems it was difficult to act because, though the govern­ ment wished to protect the French textile industry, considerations of social status counterbalanced the efforts of the police to enforce the regulations.

122 D'Argenson to Desmaretz, Paris, March 15, 1710, Archives Nationales, Ms. OJ 1726. 123 D'Argenson to Desmaretz, Paris, September 26, 1710, ibid. At the end of the reign Tisserand was still actively pursuing the toiles peintes. See, for example, D'Argenson to Desmaretz, Paris, March 19, 1715, Archives Nationales, Ms. G' 1728. CHAPTER VI

THE POLICING OF RELIGIOUS AFFAIRS

Of all the concerns of the police, wrote Delaware in his

Traite de la Police, "la religion est sans doute la première S la principale, l'on pourroit même ajoûter l'unique," (but here was the catch), "si nous étions assez sages pour remplir parfaitement tous les devoirs qu'elle nous prescrit."^ "If only we were wise enough to per­ fectly fulfill the duties prescribed to us by religion," then, according to the commissaire, there would no longer be any corruption of morality; temperance would alleviate illness; hard work, frugality, and foresight would lead to the procurement of all of life's necessities; charity would drive out vices; public tranquility would be assured; humility and simplicity would overcome all that was vain and dangerous in the "sci­ ences humaines"; "bonne foy" would prevail in commerce and the arts; patience and tolerance on the part of maîtres would make servitude more agreeable, and the fidelity of domestics would be assured; the poor would 2 be assisted voluntarily, and beggary would be ended. Unfortunately, not everyone in early eighteenth-century France was wise enough to follow all of the prescriptions of religion. In fact, many persons were

^Delamare, Traité de la Police, 1, 287.

^Ibid., pp. 287-288.

287 288

inclined to do quite the opposite; and Delaware's utopian ideal never threatened to become a reality. Only in an ideal sense was religion the principal concern of the police. In a practical sense, it was not. Yet, it was an important concern, especially after the crise de conscience of the mid-1680's when the Most

Christian King's heightened religious sensibility intertwined with political considerations to shape the government's (and by conse­ quence, the police's) attitude toward religious affairs and to bring them into conformity with the old maxim, "une foi, une loi, un roi."^ Morality, as well, became an abiding concern of the King during this period— a development for which Madame de Maintenon, Louis 4 XIV's morganatic wife, was undoubtedly in great part responsible.

3 For the history of religion, religious controversies, and politics and religion during Louis XIVs reign, the best introductions are: Edmond Préclin and Eugene Jarry, Les luttes politiques et doctrinales aux XVIIS et XVIIie siècles (1648-1789), Vol. XIX of Histoire de l'eglise depuis les origines jusqu'à nos jours [two parts] (Paris, 1956); A. Latreille, E. Delaruelle, and J. - R. Planque, Histoire du catholicisme en France, 3 vols. (Paris, 1957-1964), vol. II; Henri Bremond, Histoire littéraire du sentiment religieux en France depuis la fin des guerres de religion jusqu'a nos jours, 12 vols. (Paris, 1924-1936); Paul Hazard, La crise de la conscience européenne, 3 vols. (Paris, 1935). In reference to religion and the police, one must see Delaware, Traité de la Police, I, 287-410.

^On Madame de Maintenon and her influence, see: Marcel Langlois, Madame de Maintenon (Paris, 1932); Jean Cordelier, Madame de Maintenon: une femme au grand siècle (Paris, 1955); Louis Hastier, Louis XIV et Madame de Maintenon (Paris, 1957); Alfred Baudrillart, "Madame de Maintenon, son rôle politique pendant les dernières années du règne de Louis XIV," Revue des questions historiques, XXV (1890), 101-161. 289

The net result for the police of the King's newfound enthusiasm for religion and morality was their involvement in some of the most contro­ versial, distasteful, and bizarre episodes of Louis X I V s long reign.

Protestants

Following the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes in 1685, there was a concerted effort by the government of Louis XIV to convert all

French Protestants (i.e., French Calvinists or Huguenots), members of the "Religion prétendue reformée," to Roman Catholicism; the methods of conversion were usually harsh, and the persecution and harassment were constant. The net result of the government's effort was the crea­ tion of bitter resentment among a significant minority of the population and the emigration of about 200,000 citizens, including many merchants and artisans.^ Much of the burden of ferreting out unconverted Pro­ testants who had escaped the first wave of mass conversions, or who had reverted back to their former religion, fell upon the police. The orders concerning Protestants and nouveaux catholiques in Paris came from the King through the Secretary of State of the Maison du Roi.^

The problem of determining the number of Protestant refugees and the effect of their flight is a difficult one. The best works on Louis XIV and the Protestants are: Jean Orcibal, Louis XIV et les protestants (Paris, 1951); idem, "Louis XIV and the Edict of Nantes," in Louis XIV and Absolutism, ed. by Ragnhild Hatton (London and [Columbus, Ohio], 1976), pp. 154-176; Warren C. Scoville, The Persecu­ tion of Huguenots and French Economic Development 1680-1720 (Berkeley and Los Angeles, 1960); E. G. Léonard, Histoire générale du protestantisme, 3 vols. (Paris, 1961-1964), II; Daniel Ligou, Le protestantisme en France de 1598 à 1715 (Paris, 1968); and, Delamare, Traité de la Police, I, 306-332.

^As in so many other instances at the end of the reign, Jérôme 290

Over and over again in the letters which the lieutenant general de police received from the Secretary of State one reads of the King's personal interest in these matters: "le roy m'a ordonné de vous écrire de la faire arrester et de l'interroger [a converted Protestant mini­ ster]";^ "le roy veut que vous suiviez avec soin l'affaire du nommé

Hecq pour découvrir entièrement son commerce sur l'évasion des religion- g naires afin que, s'il y a lieu, on en puisse faire un example"; "Sa

Majesté souhaitte que vous teniez la main à ce que ce mariage s'ac­ complisse au plustost, que la nouvelle mariée ne puisse sortir de Paris sans permission, qu'elle se fasse instruire sur la religion dans l'espace de trois mois, et que vous fassiez vieller soigneusement à sa g conduite, afin d'en pouvoir rendre compte." Moreover, the reports of the lieutenant général de police were a primary source of information for the King on religious affairs in Paris. One reads, for instance, in the letters of the Secretary of State to D'Argenson: "j'ay rendu compte au Roi de ce que vous m'avez escrit au sujet du nommé Pigeon, guide des religionnaires. . "j'ay rendu au Roy du mémoire que vous

de Pontchartrain kept a close watch on matters which attracted the King's special attention.

^Louis/Jérôme de Pontchartrain to D'Argenson, [Versailles - ?], April 16, 1697, Archives Nationales, Ms. q I 41, fol. 63v. g Jérôme de Pontchartrain to D'Argenson, Versailles, May 24, 1699, Archives Nationales, Ms. Ql 43, fol. 154r-v.

^Copy of a letter, Jérôme de Pontchartrain to D'Argenson, n.p.. May 23, 1714, Bibliothèque de l'Arsenal, Archives de la Bastille, Ms. 10615, dossier Gastebois.

^^Jérôme de Pontchartrain to D'Argenson, Versailles, June 18, 1702, Archives Nationales, Ms. 0^ 363, fol. 125r-v. 291 m'avez adressé . . . concernant quelques particuliers detenus à la

Bastille pour fait de religion.

Despite D'Argenson's relatively moderate personal predilections towards the Protestants, he was foremost a dedicated servant of the crown; and, while he offered his opinions in his reports to the Secre­ tary of State, he rigorously carried out his duty when the royal orders were issued. As he professed in a letter to Jerome de Pontchartrain:

"je me conformeray scrupuleusement aux ordres que vous voudrez bien me 12 prescrire." The case in question involved the arrest of a wealthy 13 Protestant merchant named Foissin. Pontchartrain had ordered

D'Argenson to arrest him and send him to the Bastille because of his

"mauvaise disposition sur la religion.D'Argenson had written back to the Secretary of State:

J 'exercutteray l'ordre que vous m'avez fait l'honneur de m'envoyer touchant le Sieur Foixin. Je ne puis néantmoins me dispenser de vous représenter à cette occasion que les protestants mal convertis seront bien allarmés si cet emprisonnement paroissoit avoir pour motif son opiniastreté en matière de religion, mais si le Roi l'agrée il sera bon de l'attribuer à l'évasion de sa fille dont on le peut

^^Jérome de Pontchartrain to D'Argenson, Versailles, November 11, 1702, ibid., fol. 260-261r. 12 D'Argenson to Jérôme de Pontchartrain, Paris, June 23, 1699, Bibliothèque Nationale, Ms. Français 8123, fol. 42. 13 In order to be released from prison, Foissin had to provide securities worth 200,000 livres, an enormous sum for anyone. See: D'Argenson to Jérôme de Pontchartrain, Paris, July 18, 1699, Bibliothèque Nationale, Ms. Français 8122, fols. 530-533.

^^Jérome de Pontchartrain to D'Argenson, Versailles, June 21, 1699, Archives Nationales, Ms. 43, fol. 189v. 292

présumer complice. Il pourroit même n'estre pas inutile que les protestants, appréhendant de se voir impliquez et punis pour la fuitte de leurs proches, se crussent obigez de les en détourner et devinssent ainsy les inspecteurs les uns des autres. . . .1^

The lieutenant général de police was, in fact, offering some very clever advice. To arrest Foissin for his "opiniâtreté" would be, at best, a tenuous application of laws which dealt more specifically with the external exercise of religion. It could only serve to further alarm an already discontented segment of the population; and the police of

Paris could do without more "alarmed" malcontents. However, the laws dealing with Protestant fugitives and their accomplices were specific.

Foissin’s daughter, Madame de La Trêmoillière, had fled with four of her children shortly after visiting her father’s country house.

D ’Argenson had already reasoned that Foissin knew of his daughter's 17 plans before she fled. Therefore, he suggested that Foissin’s arrest be attributed to her escape which could be pointed to as a specific

^^D’Argenson to Jerome de Pontchartrain, Paris, June 23, 1699, Bibliothèque Nationale, Ms. Français 8123, fol. 41r-v.

^^A declaration dealing with the problem of Protestant fugitives had been issued just four months earlier on February 11, 1699. It read, in part; "Sa Majesté y réitéré à ses Sujets nouveaux Catholiques, les defenses portées par ses Déclarations precedentes, sous les peines qu’elles contiennent des Galeres perpétuelles pour les hommes; § à l ’égard des femmes d ’être rasées, avec con­ fiscation des biens des uns S des autres. Que ceux qui contribueront directement ou indirectement à leur sortie, soient condamnez aux mêmes peines." Printed in Delamare, Traité de la Police, I, 328. 17 He expressed his belief in a letter to Jérôme de Pontchartrain, Paris, June 7, 1699, Bibliothèque Nationale, Ms. Français 8123, fols. 35-38. 293 violation of the law. In this way the arrest would appear more legal, and thus cause less alarm among the "protestants mal convertis."

D'Argenson further reasoned that the procedure would demonstrate to the

Protestants that they could expect to be implicated and punished for the escape of their kin; and perhaps they would even start to police them­ selves. D'Argenson's reasoning was undoubtedly a bit wishful. But his advice in this instance, and his subsequent effort to prevent the confiscation of the family's property, serve to demonstrate his general tendency (not confined solely to religious matters) to strike a balance between utility and justice within the bounds that his orders would

_ 18 permit.

Utility and justice served as the twin guides of D'Argenson's attitude in regard to the Protestants and new converts. The combination of the two concepts is often expressed or implied in his correspondence.

For instance, while investigating reports that a woman had declared herself to be a Protestant and had distributed heretical books, D'Argenson ordered that her house be searched. It resulted in the discovery of some "mauvais livres." In his report to Pontchartrain he wrote that he did not doubt that the woman, "qui fait gloire de son opiniastreté," might be a bad subject; but, he continued:

tous les faits qui luy sont imputez ne sont guère susceptibles d'une instruction judiciaire, [et] il me paroistroit plus juste et plus convenable de la renfermer pour quelque temps à

18 ^ Despite the use of La Tréraoiliière's flight as a legal justi­ fication for Foissin's arrest, it was not used as an excuse for the confiscation of property. D'Argenson wrote on behalf of Trêmoillière's eldest son in order to preserve the inheritance that could have been confiscated under the law. He told Pontchartrain in his letter: ". . . j'oze repondre pour luy qu'il ne suivra pas le mauvais exemple que sa mère vient de luy donner." Ibid. 294

l'Hôpital général. . .

At the conclusion of another investigation undertaken to determine whether the government should confiscate the property of a convert who died without receiving the final rites of the Catholic Church, he wrote to Pontchartrain: "II semble donc que la confiscation demandée . . . n'est ny juste ny favorable, puisqu'il n'y a contre le défunt aucun 20 jugement qui luy puisse servir de titre." D'Argenson was particu- 21 larly scrupulous in cases involving the confiscation of property.

Indeed, it can even be said that he tempered the effect of the gov­ ernment's policy in the matter of confiscations, at least in Paris, by frustrating the attempts of individuals and ecclesiastical communi­ ties to base hasty seizures on circumstantial evidence. His investiga­ tions in such matters were highly detailed. In one case, for example.

Secretary of State Pontchartrain received an anonymous mémoire which informed him that a former Protestant had died without receiving

^^D'Argenson to Jérôme de Pontchartrain, Paris, June 20, 1699, Bibliothèque Nationale, Ms. Français 8122, fols. 439-440.

20 ^ D'Argenson to Jérôme de Pontchartrain, Paris, March 4, 1705, Bibliothèque Nationale, Ms. Français 8124, fols. 141-144. 21 The confiscation of property and loss of family wealth were undoubtedly two of the worst tragedies that could befall a family during the ancien regime; and perhaps D'Argenson occasionally recalled his own family's temporary loss of great wealth when he was faced with circumstances that would mean a similar loss for others. This is not to suggest that D'Argenson was soft-hearted. He was not, as certain Jansenist families discovered during his tenure in office. See Chapter VI, section on "Jansenists," of this study. 295 the final rites of the Catholic Church, and had been judged unworthy of 22 burial in a blessed tomb. Pontchartrain ordered D'Argenson to investi­ gate and determine the possible grounds for a confiscation. The lieutenant general reported back that the mémoire had been correct; the in­ dividual had been interred during the night "sans éclat et sans scandale, comme il se pratique en pareil cas." However,

Messieurs les ecclésiastiques de Saint-Nicolas-du-Chardonnet, sa paroisse, ont eu la liberté entière de le voir pendant toutte sa maladie et, n'ayant pas reçeu de luy une déclara­ tion judiciaire, on ne peut jamais le regarder comme relaps ny, par consequent, ordonner la confiscation de ses biens. . . .23

Pontchartrain persisted in the matter, and D'Argenson wrote back rather bluntly:

Nous n'avons aucune preuve que Paul Girardot, marchand de bois, soit mort dans l'erreur de la religion protestante, et vous sçavez que, pour pouvoir disposer de ses biens à titre de confiscation, il faudroit qu'on eust fait le procès à sa mémoire, et qu'il fut condamné aux peines portées par les ordonnances du Roy.24

The effects of government policy with regard to Protestants and new converts were a constant concern to D'Argenson. He supported a

"grâce" for several new converts because "on regarde les bons effets

22 Anonymous mémoires addressed to high government officials, especially the Chancellor and Secretaries of State, frequently sparked investigations by the police. Jérôme de Pontchartrain, as Secretary of State of the Maison du Roi, handled most of the mémoires addressed to the King, as well as himself, that dealt with Paris. 23 D'Argenson to Jérôme de Pontchartrain, Paris, April 25, 1714, Bibliothèque Nationale, Ms. Français 8125, fols. 357v-359v.

^^D'Argenson to Jérôme de Pontchartrain, Paris, January 8, 1715, ibid., fols. 396-397V. 296

25 qu'elle pourra produire parmy les protestants fugitifs." He recom­ mended financial aid for the converted family of a "pauvre boulanger" 26 in order to prevent "la dissipation." He was pleased to learn that the burial of a "nouveau converti" in a church cemetery "fait un bon effet parmy les Nouveaux reunis." It was, as he put it, an "adoucisse- 27 ment"; and, for D'Argenson, an ameliorative gesture represented a sensible approach to a difficult problem. It is striking how often

D'Argenson urged an amelioration of government policy vis-â-vis converted

Protestants; he seemed to simply doubt the wisdom and efficacy of a severe religious policy in Paris. One of the most precise examples of his attitude is contained in a letter he wrote to Pontchartrain in

August 1700 concerning the government's attempt to make a case against a deceased Protestant suspect:

Comme nous n'avons point encore fait le procêz à la mémoire des protestants mal convertis qui ne sont pas jugez dignes de la sépulture eclésiastique, j'ai cru qu'il pourroit y avoir de 1'inconvenient à tanter cette procedure par raport à la femme du Sieur Amiot. Je feray néantmoins ce que vous ordonnez, mais permettez-moy, s'il vous plaist, d'avoir l'honneur de vous représenter à ce sujet que cette femme alloit à l'eglise, qu'elle écoutoit les instructions, qu'ainsy elle satisfaisoit à une partie du culte extérieur. Il est vrai qu'elle n'a jamais communié, mais quelle preuve en pourra-t-on avoir, et comment pourra-t-on prouver qu'à l'extrémité de sa vie, elle se soit déclarée protestante, puisque la garde ny les domestiques ne le déposeront pas.

25 D'Argenson to Jérôme de Pontchartrain, Paris, June 6, 1702, Bibliothèque Nationale, Ms. Français 8123, fols. 251v-252. 26 D'Argenson to Jérôme de Pontchartrain, Paris, November 20, 1701, ibid■, fols. 210r-v. 27 D'Argenson to Jérôme de Pontchartrain, Paris, September 23, 1699, Bibliothèque Nationale, Ms. Français 8119, fols. 268r-v. 297

et qu'on ne peut le scavoir que par eux[?] J'ajouteray que le Sieur Amiot paroist dans des dispositions très louables sur le fait de la religion, attentif à tous ses devoirs, assidu au divin service et dans la participation des sacrements de l'eglise. Ainsy l'on peut seulement douter du sentiment intérieur, que la crainte des loys ny l'autorité des hommes ne peuvent changer. A l'égard de sa fille, elle est mariée à Londres avec un des principaux médecins du Roi d'Angleterre. Ainsy je ne pense pas qu'il puisse rien pour son retour, et je craindrois que cet exemple de sévérité mal placée ne fût d'aucun usage pour la conversion de cette famille et qu'il ne fit un éclat fascheux dans le public. Vous sçavez combien les procès de cette qualité révoltent les nouveaux convertis encore chancelans, et, si ils font ce mauvais effet dans les provinces, ils porteront un bien plus grand coup dans la capitalle du Royaume, où l'on a sujet de croire que rien ne se fait en matière de cette importance si le Roy ne l'ordonne à ses Magistrats par un ordre exprès et p r é c i s . 28

D'Argenson arrested as many Protestants and conducted as many investiga­ tions as the government ordered. But he had no illusions: interior religious sentiment was something that neither "fear of the laws nor the authority of men can change."

Jansenists

The police of Paris were involved, in one fashion or another, in all of the major religious controversies of the reign of Louis XIV. 29 The quarrel over Jansenism was no exception. During the last two

28 ^ /\ D'Argenson to Jerome de Pontchartrain, Paris, August 1, 1700, Bibliothèque Nationale, Ms-. Français 8123, fols. 147-148v. 29 On the history of Jansenism, see: Louis Cognet, Le jansénisme (Paris, 1961); Charles Augustin Sainte-Beuve, Port-Royal, 4th ed., 7 vols. (Paris, 1878 [1840-1859]); Augustin Gazier, Histoire générale du mouvement janséniste, 2 vols. (Paris, 1922); Ronald A. Knox, Enthusiasm: A Chapter in the History of Religion with Special Reference to the XVII and XVIII Centuries (New York and Oxford, 1950), pp. 176-230; and, Delamare, Traité de la Police, I, 333-351. In brief, Jansenism was a seventeenth- and eighteenth-century 298 decades of Louis's reign, the lieutenant general de police frequently found himself in the forefront of the campaign against Jansenism which finally resulted in the tumbling of the walls of Port-Royal-des-Champs and the issuing of the papal bull Unigenitus in 1713. The King took great per­ sonal interest in the activities of the Jansenists and relied upon the police to keep him informed, Pontchartrain often wrote to D'Argenson for information, as he did in January 1703;

Le roy veut estre informé à fond du nom des autheurs des libelles qui se débittent depuis quelque temps, pour et contre le jansénisme, et de toutes les intrigues qui ont rapport à cela. S[a] M[ajesté] m'ordonne de vous escrire d'y travailler avec toute l'application possible, et de n'espargner ny soin ny despense pour en venir â bout. Ainsy je ne puis trop, en cette rencontre, reveiller vostre attention, et vous prier de ne négliger aucun des moyens qui vous viendront en pensée pour satisfaire au désir du roy M cet esgard.30

Further inspiration for the pursuit of Jansenists came from the Jesuits, and in particular from Pères La Chaize and Le Tellier, Louis XIVs Jesuit confessors. Their names appear often in the correspondence between the

religious movement prominent in France and the Low Countries which sought to reinvigorate the Augustinian theological tradition on the subjects of the efficacy of grace, the minimization of the role of the human will in salvation, and the pessimistic view of human nature. Coincidentally, its adherents emphasized a strong, almost puritannical personal piety; and many of them in France withdrew from the immoral environment they saw surrounding them to the shelter of the Abbeys of Port-Royal and Port-Royal-des-Champs from whence came the religious works of Antoine Arnauld and Blaise Pascal. Unfortunately for the Jansenists, some of their adherents and their attitudes were also asso­ ciated with the esprit frondeur of the 1640's and 1650's which made Louis XIV their implacable enemy. 30 Jérôme de Pontchartrain to D'Argenson, Versailles, January 22, 1703, Archives Nationales, Ms. Ql 364, fols. 18v-19r. In the same letter, Pontchartrain indicated that the government was interested in more than just the names of the authors. He wrote: ". . . il ne faut pas re­ chercher avec moins de soins et de sévérité les autheurs, les imprimeurs et les distributeurs. ..." 299

Secretary of State and the lieutenant general de police. In one letter, for instance, the Secretary ordered the arrest of a Jansenist and the seizure of his papers, and then added:

Le Père de la Chaize doit vous escrire pour vous en indiquer les lieux où il y a encore d'autres papiers â saisir appartenant à cet homme. S[a] M[ajesté] veut que vous les fassiez de même saisir, et que vous me mandiez ce que vous aurez fait à cet égard.

The suspect in question, Germain Willaert, described in Junca's register as "Parisien, bon historiographe, grand écrivain contre le Roy, 32 V l'Etat, la religion et les Jesuittes," was a correspondent of Père

Quesnel, and was entrusted by the famous Jansenist writer with over- 33 seeing the publication of Le Bonheur de la mort chrétienne. Willaert's efforts and unceasing belief in the Jansenist cause cost him a stay of almost twelve years in the Bastille. During that time, D'Argenson was obliged to make periodic reports on his conduct; and, in reading them, it is evident that the lieutenant général de police viewed Willaert as a good person led astray by his stubborn attachment to the Jansenist

31 ^ /s Jérôme de Pontchartrain to D'Argenson, Fontainebleau, October 20, 1703, Archives Nationales, Ms. 0^ 364, fol. 283v. On Père La Chaize, see the biography by Georges Guitton, La Père La Chaize: confesseur de Louis XIV, 2 vols. (Paris, 1959). 32 Etienne du Junca was the lieutenant du roi at the Bastille from 1690 to 1705. As such, he kept a journal of the "entrées et sorties" of prisoners at the Bastille which is an invaluable source of information. His journal or registre forms two manuscript volumes preserved in the Bibliothèque de l'Arsenal as Mss. 5133-5134. The notice on Willaert, who entered the Bastille on Tuesday, October 23, 1703, at midnight, is contained in Ms. 5133, fol. 92v.

Bibliothèque de l'Arsenal, Archives de la Bastille, Ms. 10543, dossier Vuillart [Willaert], no. 204. 300

"caballe." In 1715, for instance, D'Argenson wrote in the "Etat Général des Prisonniers qui sont detenues au Château de la Bastille par ordre du

Roy";

11 [Willaert] mène une vie tranquille et n'est à charge à personne; mais son entestement pour la caballe et son indocilité aux decisions de l'Eglise se soutiennent toujours. C'est le compte que j'en rendis après mes dernières visites. 11 me parut, en 1712, qu'il continuoit de se bien porter. Mais qu'il croyoit plus que jamais que les cinq propositions n'étoient pas dans Jansenius, et qu'on ne pouvoit s'imaginer qu'elles y fussent sans commettre un crime. Je le trouvay, en 1713, dans les mêmes sentimens, ce qui me fit dire qu'il étoir bien triste que cet entestement fit tort à tant de bonnes qualités qui sont en luy. 11 se portoit assez bien l'année dernière [1714], et il étoit toujours dans les mêmes dispositions; mais les conjectures ne lui étoient pas devenues plus favorables. Sa santé s'affoiblit de jour en jour, et son grand age, joint a ses infirmités, font craindre pour sa vie.34

The fears for Willaert's life were well-founded, for he died not long after his release from the Bastille in 1715.

D'Argenson apparently believed that Jansenism represented a cabal against the authority of the King. It is certainly evident in a letter he wrote in 1707 to Controller-General Chamillart in which he supported the seizure of the property of Fere Quesnel "qui est connu pour chef du parti [janséniste]." To return the seized property, as

Quesnel's relatives desired, would not only be contrary to the King's ordonnances, he wrote,

mais comme propre à procurer de nouveaux secours et de nouvelles esperances aux jansénistes déclarés que toute

^^Bibliothèque de l'Arsenal, Archives de la Bastille, Ms. 12718. This "état" was prepared by D'Argenson for Jérôme de Pontchartrain. 301

l'autorité du.Roi n'a pu contenir. . . . Il augmenteroit encore l'audace de ces esprits séditieux, dont l'affaire du Port-Royal-des-Champs semble avoir raminé la bile et leur avoir inspiré le dessein de faire les derniers efforts pour signaler leur désobéissance et leur révolté.35

While the Jansenist victims of Louis XIV's attempt to create religious uniformity in the kingdom were not nearly so numerous as the

Protestants, the rationale for the pursuit of both groups was similar.

Deviation from the orthodox religious norms accepted by the King was

interpreted as opposition to the Crown. The existence of a "cabale" was

as readily suspected among religious splinter groups as among political intriguers. There is no better example of the bankruptcy of this aspect of Louis's religious policy than in the destruction of the Abbey of Port-Royal-des Champs.

35 D'Argenson to Chamillart, Paris, November 15, 1707, Archives Nationales, Ms. 1725. D'Argenson was probably referring to an edit and a déclaration which apparently were aimed at the Jansenists without actually mentioning them by name. See: Edit [en execution des edit et déclaration d'août 1669 et 14 juillet 1682 portant défenses a ceux qui sont réleguês dans un lieu par ordre du Roi d'en sortir à peine de confiscation de corps et de biens], Versailles, July 1705, in Isambert, Anciennes lois, XX, 467; and, the Déclaration du roi [en execution de l'edit du mois de juillet 1705, qui établit des peines contre ceux qui étant relégués s'absenteront du royaume sans la permission de Sa Majesté], Versailles, December 26, 1705, registered in Parlement, January 22, 1706, in Peuchet, Collec­ tion des lois, II, 231-233. D'Argenson's attitude with regard to the confiscation in question is in contrast to his general stance vis-à-vis the Pro­ testants. Perhaps he felt, as the tone of his letter would seem to indicate, that the Jansenists were simply troublemakers.

^^See, especially: Olivar Pinault, Histoire abrégée de la derniere persecution de Port Royal, 3 vols, (n.p., 1750); and, Sainte-Beuve, Port-Royal, VI. 302

Previously content with seeing that the nuns who remained at

Port-Royal-des-Champs were banned from receiving further novices, Louis 37 XIV, urged on by a diverse group of anti-Jansenists, made the decision in 1709 to disperse the nuns and destroy once and for all the historical center of Jansenism. He was apparently convinced that there would be no peace in the Church as long as the rebellious abbey still stood.

The task of carrying out the orders was given to the lieutenant général de police. What followed was vividly, if not quite accurately, described by the Due de Saint-Simon in his Mémoires :

. . . la nuit du 28 au 29 octobre, l'abbaye de Port-Royal-des- Champs se trouva secrètement investie par des dêtachments des régiments des gardes françoises et suisses, et, vers le milieu de la matinée du 29, d'Argenson arriva dans l'abbaye avec des escouades du guet et d'archers: il se fit ouvrir les portes, fit assembler toute la communauté au Chapitre, montra une lettre de cachet, et, sans leur donner plus d'un quart d'heure, l'enleva toute entière. Il avoit amené force carrosses attelés, avec une femme d'âge dans chacun: il y distribua les religieuses suivant les lieux de leur destination, qui étoient différents monastères à dix, à vingt, à trente, â quarante, et jusqu'à cinquante lieues du leur, et les fit partir de la sorte, chaque carrosse accompagné de quelques archers à cheval, comme on enleve des créatures publiques d'un mauvais lieu.38

D'Argenson received a more favorable judgment in contemporary relations and in histories of Port-Royal by authors sympathetic to

Jansenism such as Sainte-Beuve and Gazier. In fact, the contemporary relations reproduced in Sainte-Beuve's Port-Royal offer a version of the affair which differs in tone and detail from that of the Due de

37 In addition to the works already cited, see: Henk Hillenaar, Fenelon et les jésuites (The Hague, 1967).

Saint-Simon, Mémoires, XVIII, 282-283. 303

Saint-Simon; they also provide a rare contemporary account of D ’Argenson in action.

According to the most detailed relation, the King, agreeing to 39 the "desseins" of Père Le Tellier, had Pontchartrain send orders to

D'Argenson to close Port-Royal-des-Champs; the lieutenant general de police was requested to be as gentle and charitable as possible. After several long conferences with Cardinal Noailles, the Archbishop of

Paris, D ’Argenson assembled a force of officers and archers and went out to Port-Royal-des-Champs on October 28. Rain caused the postponement of the expedition until the following day. At seven-thirty on the morning of October 29, D ’Argenson entered Port-Royal-des-Champs with several officers and informed the Prioress that he had an order from the King to search the archives and papers of the abbey.Following the search, the entire community of nuns, twenty-two in all, was assembled, and

D ’Argenson addressed them:

’Mesdames, je suis venu ici pour vous annoncer un sacrifice que vous avez à faire aujourd’hui: quoique je sois affligé d ’être chargé des ordres du roi qui vous regardent, il faut cependant qu’ils soient fidèlement exécutés, et que vous ne sortiez de cette assemblée que pour ne vous plus revoir. C ’est votre dispersion générale prescrite par les ordres de Sa Majesté que je vous annonce, et qu’il veut vous être signifiée. Vous n ’avez que trois heures pour vous préparer.’41

39 Le Tellier had succeeded La Chaize as the King’s confessor in May 1709.

^^Sainte-Beuve, Port-Royal, VI; and, Pinault, Histoire abrégée. II, 236-249.

^^Sainte-Beuve, Port-Royal, VI, 220. 304

The Prioress replied that the community was ready to obey and needed only a half-hour to prepare for the departure. D'Argenson addressed them again:

'Mesdames, comme les ordres que j'ai reçus de vous disperser en différentes maisons ne me désignent point en particulier chaque maison pour chacune de vous, et que je puis remplir les places comme je le jugerai à propos, m'étant laissé la liberté du choix là-dessus, vous pouvez voir entre vous les maisons qui vous conviennent, de celles qu'on m'a marquées. Vous, Madame la prieure, où souhaitez- vous aller?'42

The Prioress replied that it did not matter where she was sent; but, she recommended that the nuns who were ill be sent to the nearest com­ munities. Each of the nuns was then assigned to go to a separate com­ munity outside of the diocese of Paris. Before departing, they were permitted to eat a final meal together and to gather a few belongings.

It was two o'clock in the afternoon before they began to leave for their destinations in separate carriages. All the nuns had departed by five o'clock in the afternoon except for one paralytic who left early the next morning. On October 30 the buildings were thoroughly searched and the domestics were dismissed.

The church and buildings of Port-Royal-des-Champs were left empty until the summer of 1710 when they were demolished. All the furnishings and building materials were sold.^^ The bodies of

42 Ibid., p. 221. 43 Ordonnance de M. d'Argenson du 8 février 1710, in Pinault, Histoire abrégée, II, 387-389; additional information on D'Argenson's involvement in the sale of material exists in Archives de la Guerre, Ms. A^ 2413, fols. 263-272. 305

Jansenists buried in the church and cemetery were exhumed. Some, like the Arnaulds and Racine, were reburied elsewhere; most were heaped in 44 a common grave.

The dispersal of the aged nuns of Port-Royal-des-Champs and the subsequent physical destruction of the abbey itself was obviously not one of the more glorious exploits of the reign of Louis XIV.

Louis’s war on the Jansenists did not abate with the closing of Port-Royal; nor did it subside with the papal bull Unigenitus which the French King persuaded the Pope to issue against Jansenism. The uniformity of faith desired for so long by Louis XIV was further away than ever. In fact, the Archbishop of Paris, Cardinal de Noailles, emerged as the new Jansenist champion against the King, the Papacy, 45 and the Jesuits. Louis XIV was outraged, as one might expect, at

44 These latter horrors were not supervised by D'Argenson. Sainte-Beuve commented on the destruction and profaning of the tombs : ". . . il y a sous Louis XIV, à deux pas de Versailles, des actes qui rappellent ceux de 1793. On le lui rendit trop bien à ce superbe monarque, et à toute sa race, le jour de la violation des tombes royales à Saint-Denis!" Port-Royal, VI, 239. 45 Noailles was apparently very deeply moved by the incidents at Port-Royal-des-Champs (see, for instance, Saint-Simon, Mémoires, XVIII, 286). Colbert de Torcy, who saw the Cardinal-Archbishop of Paris shortly after the dispersement of the nuns, wrote in his Journal: "Le cardinal de Noailles que je vis à Paris le 13® [Décembre] me confia les plaintes qu’il avait faites au Roi sur la conduite militaire dont on avait usé dans la transla­ tion des Filles de Port-Royal des Champs, enlevées sans la participation et sans la connaissance de leur archêveque par la seule direction, de M. d ’Argenson et d ’un abbé Madot, . . ." Colbert de Torcy, Journal inédit de Jean-Baptiste Colbert marquis de Torcy, ministre et secretaire d ’etat des affaires étrangères pendant les années 1709, 1710, et 1711, ed. by Frédéric Masson (Paris, 1884), p. 65. Since Noailles according to most accounts had had long meetings with D ’Argenson prior to the closing of Port-Royal, it is unclear in 306 having the most important prelate in the kingdom lead the Jansenist defense. As a result, the suppression of Jansenist preachers and

literature was carried on very vigorously during the last years of

Louis's reign. The lieutenant general de police was expected to play the major investigative role in Paris and to personally see to the

execution of the King's orders. When the King learned of Jansenist activities in Paris from sources other than the Secretary of State of the Maison du Roi and the lieutenant général de police, he expressed his "astonishment" to the Secretary (who was never pleased when he found himself being informed by the King, instead of vice-versa), who in turn reproached the lieutenant général.

One such incident occurred in April 1715; and Jérôme de

Pontchartrain wrote to D'Argenson:

Le Roy m'a dit, ce matin, qu'il y avoit trois prédicateurs à Paris qui affectoient dans la pluspart de leurs sermons d'y parler toujours de la grâce, pour établir le système Janséniste dans toutte son étendue . . . et y tenoient des discours séditieux et fanatiques. Sa Majesté m'a remis des extraits de leurs sermons . . ., et m'a en mesme temps ordonné de vous dire qu'elle estoit étonnée d'aprendre par d'autres que par vous une chose aussy importante. . . . Sa Majesté m'a ordonné de vous envoyer les ordres . . . pour exil1er les deux premiers [Dom Turquois and Dom Hierosme] à l'abbaye de Feuillants et faire mettre le troisième [Père Albizzy] à la Bastille. Elle souhaitte que vous fassiez executer ces ordres, avec ponctualité, aussitost que vous les aurez reçeus. Vous aurez agréable de me mettre en état de rendre compte à Sa Majesté de l'exécution des ordres.46

what sense and to what degree he lacked "la connaissance" of the events that transpired. On Noailles' subsequent involvement in the Jansenist cause, see: Jacques-Francois Thomas, La querelle de 1 'Unigenitus (Paris, 1951).

^^Copy of letter from Jérôme de Pontchartrain to D'Argenson, 307

In this same case one glimpses again the advisory role of Père Le

Tellier in religious matters. He wrote a disclaimer to D'Argenson on

April 8 in which he said that, although he had been privately informed about the three Jansenist preachers and believed that they should be punished, he was not the one who had denounced them or given their sermons to the King. He tried to soften the effect of Pontchartrain's earlier letter [which he had apparently read) by explaining to

D'Argenson:

Ce ministre [Pontchartrain] m'a prié de vous dire que vous ne devez pas prendre pour un reproche sérieux ce qu'il y a dans sa lettre, que le Roy a esté surpris, que cela n'est mis qu'afin qu'on voye combien le Roy est offensé de la liberté scandaleuse de tels prédicateurs, et que cela vous autorise davantage à luy en porter vos plaintes quand vous le croirez nécessaire. 47

As if to reassure the lieutenant général de police, he added: "Je racontay, vendredy, au Roy de quelle manière vous vous estiez conduit dans l'affaire du feuillant venu de Lyon, et S[a] M[ajesté] en fut très 48 contente." Le Tellier, who had access to the King and ministers at

Versailles, certainly seemed to be ingratiating himself to D'Argenson in order to garner cooperation for Jesuit causes in Paris.

Following the execution of the King's orders, D'Argenson re­ ceived a conciliatory letter from Pontchartrain, who wrote that:

n.p., April 6, 1715, Bibliothèque de l'Arsenal, Archives de la Bastille, Ms. 10619, dossier Albizzy.

^^[Le Tellier to D'Argenson], n.p., April 8, 1715, ibid. 48 Ibid. Le Tellier's letter is accompanied by a note from two Jesuits who explain that they have been sent by Le Tellier to deliver the letter to D'Argenson in person. 308

Sa Majesté a esté satisfaite de voir l'attention que vous marquez avoir eu au sujet des prédicateurs, . . . Elle souhaitte que vous continuez et que vous avertissiez non seulement des discours séditieux qu'ils pourroient tenir mais même de ceux qui peuvent avoir raport au Jansénisme.49

The entire affair serves to illustrate the sustained belief of the King that there was a close affinity between sedition and Jansenism.

Quietists

Voltaire wrote in the Siecle de .Louis XIV that:

La dispute du quiétisme est une de ces intemperances d'esprit et de ces subtilités théologiques qui n'auraient laisse aucune trace dans la mémoire des hommes, sans les noms des deux illustres rivaux qui combattirent.^®

The two rivals he referred to were François de Salignac de la Mothe

Fenelon, Archbishop of Cambrai, and Jacques Bénigne Bossuet, Bishop of

Meaux, two of the most important prelates in France during the latter years of Louis XIVs reign. The issue that had come between them was a specific form of mysticism which emphasized a quiet state of prayer, and freedom of the spirit--a freedom which led the mystics to abandon their souls (sometimes with unusual physical manifestations) to the will of God.^^ Fenelon had been attracted to the mystical concepts of

^^Jerome de Pontchartrain to D'Argenson, n.p., May 2, 1715, ibid.

^®Jean François Marie Arouet de Voltaire, Siecle de Louis XIV, ed. by Emile Bourgeois, 5th ed. (Paris, 1910), p. 764.

^^On quietism and the Fenelon-Bossuet controversy, see: Louis Cognet, Crépuscule des mystiques: le conflit Fenelon-Bossuet (Tournai, 1958); Agnes de La Gorce, Le vrai visage de Fenelon (Paris, 1958); Ronald A. Knox, Enthusiasm, pp. 231-339; Raymond Schmittlein, L'aspect politique du différend Bossuet-Fénelon (Bade, 1954); François Varillon, Fenelon et le pur amour (Paris, 1957); Henri Bremond, Apologie pour 309 quietism through his acquaintance with Madame Guyon, a rather dynamic lady who had been inspired in part by a contemporary form of mysticism that had its origins in Spain. Madame Guyon frequented the court circle of the Duchesses de Bethune-Charost, de Beauvillier, de Chevreuse, and de Mortemart, which was also frequented by Madame de Maintenon; and it was here that she met Fenelon. After a brief period of heady activity near the center of power in France, during which time Fenelon became the educational preceptor of the Due de Bourgogne (the heir apparent to the

French throne) and authored his famous Aventures de Télémaque, both he and Guyon fell from favor. The motives were exceedingly complex and in­ volved concomitant religious and political factors. On the religious side, the time for a mystical movement was not favorable (it was, ac­ cording to one authority, the "crépuscule des mystiques" in France); and

Bishop Bossuet, bastion of orthodoxy, the Jansenists (who, ironically, were soon suppressed themselves), and certain non-ultramontanist Jesuits reacted sharply to suppress the small but vocal and literate devotees of

Fenelon, 2d ed. (Paris, 1910); Gabriel Joppin, "Fenelon et le Quietisme. Le problème théologique," XVII^ Siècle, nos. 12-13-14 (1951-1952), 215- 225; Jean Orcibal, "Fenelon et le Quiétisme. Le process des Maximes des saints à Rome," XVIie Siècle, nos. 12-13-14 (1951-1952), pp. 226-241; Louis Cognet, "Fénelon," Dictionnaire de spiritualité ascétique et mystique, doctrine et histoire, V (Paris, 1964), 151-170; Paul Dudon, "Bossuet," Dictionnaire de spiritualité ascétique et mystique, doctrine et histoire, I (Paris, 1937), 1874-1883; Marius-Henri Guervin, "Bossuet et Fénelon," XVII^ Siècle, no. 16 (1952), 545-568; the numerous pub­ lished editions of the works of Fénelon, Bossuet, and Madame Guyon; and, Harold P. Anderson, "Fenelon and the Quietist Controversy: The Origins of the Archbishop of Cambrai*s Conflict with Bossuet (1688- 1696)" (unpublished M.A. Thesis, The Ohio State University, 1969). 310 quietism. On the political side, Madame de Maintenon's disenchantment with Fenelon, the association of heresy with opposition to the King, and possibly the fear of a political complot around the Due de Bourgogne 52 have to be considered as factors in the affair. Then too, the self- righteous indignation of Fenelon that his own writings had been investi­ gated for their orthodoxy led him deep into controversy with Bossuet who, while the epitome of religious orthodoxy and spokesman for the religious support of royal authority, was probably as uninformed as anyone could be on the Catholic mystical tradition. The net result, as far as the principals in the case were concerned, was disastrous. Guyon 53 was imprisoned at Vincennes and the Bastille. Fenelon was banished to his diocese in Cambrai, lost his position as royal preceptor, had his works suppressed, and was condemned by the Papacy.

52 While political intrigue was a consideration, it probably was not the threat that some authors, like Lionel Rothkrug, Opposition to Louis XIV: The Political and Social Origins of the French Enlighten­ ment (Princeton, 1965), have tended to make it; and Fenelon was cer­ tainly not the dominant spearhead of dissent during the period 1684- 1700 that Rothkrug has suggested. On Fenelon's political inclinations, see, in addition to the works already cited: Fenelon, Les aventures de Télémaque, ed. by Albert Cahen, 2 vols. (Paris, 1920); idem., Ecrits et lettres politiques, ed. by Charles Urbain (Paris, 1920); idem., Lettre a Louis XIV, ed. with pref. by Henri Guillemin (Neuchatel, 1961); and, Roland Mousnier, "Les idées politiques de Fénelon," XVII® Siècle, nos. 12-13-14 (1951-1952), pp. 190-206. 53 On the unusual Madame Guyon, see: Jeanne Marie Bouvier de la Motte Guyon, La vie de Madame Guyon écrite par elle-même, ed. by H. Roudil and Jean Bruno (Paris, 1961); and Maurice Masson (éd.), Fénelon et Madame Guyon, documents nouveaux et inédits (Paris, 1907). As for her imprisonment, see: Bibliothèque de l'Arsenal, Archives de la Bastille, Ms. 10512, dossier Guyon; and, "Interrogatoires et procès de Mme Guyon, emprisonée à Vincennes après son arrestation â Popaincourt, le 26 décembre 1695," Documents d'histoire (1910), 98-120, 457-468. 311

The role of the police in the affair involved the arrest and interrogation of Madame Guyon, the enforcement of the on-again, off-again prohibitions against Fenelon's writings,and the surveillance of anyone associated with him who happened to arrive in Paris. In this last in­ stance, D'Argenson even reported on the Archbishop's valet de chambre who died in a cabaret of La Grenouillère between "deux femmes de mauvaise vie." They informed the police that the valet was in Paris under an assumed name to conduct some business for his master, which naturally sitrred the curiosity of the police.

Jews

The history of Jews and the police in Paris during the reign of

Louis XIV is a very short one. Jews were simply not permitted in Paris, nor much of France, without special permission of the Chancellor or a

Secretary of State; and, even then, so few permissions were granted, it was highly unlikely that a Jew would have an extraordinary encounter

See, for instance, the numerous letters of Louis/Jerome de Pontchartrain to D'Argenson in Archives Nationales, Ms. 0^ 42: Versailles, February 17, 1698, fols. 29v-32v; Versailles, June 9, 1698, fol. 116r-v, [Versailles], June 18, 1698, fol. 134v; Versailles, July 8, 1698, fol. 143v; Compiegne, September 20, 1698, fol. 196r-v; Fontainebleau, October 8, 1698, fol. 209r-v. For the works that were subject to seizure by the police, see: Anne Sauvy, Livres saisis à Paris entre 1678 et 1701 (The Hague, 1972). During this same period one glimpses Madame de Maintenon's sub rosa role in the affair. In a letter of May 29, 1698 to Cardinal de Noailles, the Archbishop of Paris, and a recipient of her patronage, she wrote: "Pousses Mr d'Argenson, Monseigneur, et faittes luy parvenir que nous le croyons gagne par les amis de Mme Guyon." Madame de Maintenon, Lettres, ed. by Marcel Langlois, V (Paris, 1939), 347.

^^D'Argenson to Jérôme de Pontchartrain, Paris, June 8, 1702, Bibliothèque Nationale, Ms. Français 8120, fols. 57-58v. 312 with the police.Perhaps happily for them they were not one of the groups that Louis XIV was apt to inquire about through the Secretary of

State of the Maison du Roi. In fact, they were more conspicuous by their absence from the administrative and police correspondence of Paris than they were by their presence. Most of the Jews who came to Paris, and usually there were only between ten and twenty at any given time, came from Metz, the only officially recognized residence of Jews in France

(and even then only because Metz had been annexed in 1648); some, however, came from abroad on business. While they were in Paris, Jews had to be registered with the lieutenant general de police, who kept a close watch on their activities. The lieutenant général, in gathering information for his reports to the royal ministers, apparently relied heavily on the opinions of established members of the Parisian business community who had first-hand contact with Jews. Thus, for instance, in describing to the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs the status of two Jewish merchants from Denmark, D'Argenson wrote:

Quelques uns de nos meilleurs negotians dont la probité m'est connue et la fidélité certaine m'ayant repondu des deux juifs danois, nommez Mosez et Abraham Mosez Wallac qui font icy un assez grand négoce de Joaillerie avec plusieurs marchands qui s'en louent. Je leur ay remis la permission qui les authorize à continuer leur séjour à Paris durant trois mois suivant l'ordre que vous m'en donnez. . . . Je ne laisseray pas d'y faire observer scrupuleusement touttes leurs demarches pour avoir l'honneur de vous en rendre c o m p t e . 57

For a general overview of Jews in France, particularly in the regions around Metz and Bordeaux, see: Delaware, Traité de la Police, I, 299-305; Mousnier, Institutions de la France, pp. 323-334; and, Bernhard Blumenkranz, ed.. Histoire des Juifs en France ([Toulouse], 1972).

^^Argenson to Torcy, Paris, November 8, 1704, Archives des Affaires Etrangères, Correspondance Politique, Danemark 70, fol. 136. 313

Periodically, as in this same case, the Secretary of State would solicit an opinion from the lieutenant general de police on the desirability of 58 permitting the Jews to remain. One of the main reasons for allowing

Jews in Paris, especially the Jews from Metz, was their usefulness to the government in financial and monetary matters. In December 1706, for instance, when the government was apparently contemplating banning

Metzian Jews from Paris unless they contributed a substantial sum to the war effort, D'Argenson reminded Controller-General Charaillart how useful the Metzian Jews were in transactions involving money from the tax farms and the extraordinaire de la guerre (money raised to finance a large part 59 of the French military expenditure).

However, despite their usefulness in monetary matters lieutenant general de police'D'Argenson harbored many of the same prejudices against

Jews that many individuals and governments of the early modem period

(as well as so many other periods in history) did, and he expressed his opinion about them in a letter to Controller General Desmaretz in 1715.

Along with a list of the seventeen Jews who had permission to be in Paris, he wrote:

CO Torcy to D'Argenson, Versailles, July 25, 1705, ibid., fol. 199. 59 D'Argenson to Chamillart, Paris, December 2, 1706, Archives Nationales, Ms. G^ 1725. In a marginal note on the same letter, which presumably served as the basis for Chamillart's reply to D'Argenson, the Controller-General wrote that unless he received a letter from M. de Saint-Contest, the intendant at Metz, that the Jews had made a substantial contribution to the extraordinaire de guerre, he was in favor of sending those of them in Paris back to Metz. 314

On ne peut douter que l'agiotage et l'usure ne soint leur principalle occupation; puisque c'est (si l'on ose s'exprimer aincy) toute leur étude; et qu'ils se font une espece de relligion de tromper autant qu'ils peuvent tous les chrétiens avec qui ils traittant. Au reste j'apprends qu'ils partiront de Paris incessament parce que la fest qu'ils nomment des sept trompettes les rappelle à leur sinagogue.GO

Obviously, D'Argenson's tolerance of Jews in Paris was totally utili­ tarian.

The Clergy

Shortly after D'Argenson's installation in office, the Secre­ tary of State of the Maison du Roi wrote him a letter which provided him with practical guidelines for his official conduct vis-à-vis the clergy and the Archbishop of Paris.The letter dealt primarily with a misunderstanding between the Secretary of State and D'Argenson con­ cerning the investigation of a priest who maintained a school on the

Rue Saint-Nicaise. A question had arisen about the advisability of permitting the priest to continue his educational activities, and the

Secretary was trying to correct an earlier impression that he had given

D'Argenson that questions involving the clergy were the exclusive pro­ vince of the Archbishop of Paris. He wrote that while the Archbishop

^%'Argenson to Desmaretz, Paris, August 30, 1715, Archives Nationales, Ms. G? 1728;list of Jews, ibid.

^^The Archbishop in question was Louis Antoine de Noailles. On his administration of the archdiocese of Paris, which lasted from 1695 to 1729, see: Marcel Fosseyeux, "Le Cardinal de Noailles et l'administration du diocese de Paris (1695-1729)," Revue historique, exIV (September-December, 1913), 261-284, and CXV (January-April, 1914), 34-54. 315

could "prendre conn*"® [connaissance]" of the life of the priest in

question, he could not "en faire justice, s'il y avoit quelque chose

dans sa [the priest's] conduitte qui ne fut pas dans l'ordre." The

Archbishop and his grands vicaires, he continued had the right to de­

termine who were qualified to be maîtres d'écoles; but, if the priest

in question or any other priest was involved in "des desordres ou

intrigues criminelles," then there was nothing to prevent D'Argenson

from pursuing them. D'Argenson was obliged to act according to the

"regies ordinaires de la justice," and to inform the Archbishop of his

actions as a matter of courtesy only. The Secretary added that in

certain cases in the past it had been judged better to banish of­

fenders than to institute legal proceedings against them. D'Argenson,

he said, would have to be the best judge of what to do in these matters,

but that he would have to be extremely cautious in accepting advice

upon which to base his decisions because sometimes those who gave

advice "y sont portez par des motifs bien differens de ceux qu'ils

veulent persuader estre les véritables

D'Argenson did not hesitate to police the professional guardians

of faith and morals in Paris. Members of both the regular and secular

clergy found their way into the police reports, generally as a result

62 Louis de Pontchartrain [probably] to D'Argenson, [Versailles - ?], April 9, 1697, Archives Nationales, Ms.O^ 41, fol. 59r-v. For further advice, Pontchartrain suggested that D'Argenson consult with La Reynie ("vous ne pouvez mieux faire"). Thus, while Pontchartrain may have been instrumental in easing La Reynie out of office, he did not underestimate the information and practical wisdom that the former lieutenant général de police could still provide. 316 of "mauvais" conduct or "la vie infâme." It was not officially among

D'Argenson's specific duties to watch over the conduct of the clergy; but frequently the activities of some impious clerics caused enough public scandal among the populace to whom they were supposed to give good example, that he became involved.

One reads, for instance, in the police correspondence of the

"conduitte d'un mauvais prestre . . . deux fois condamné par sentence 63 de 1 'officialite de Paris, et qui, après avoir donné sa soumission de sa retirer en sa province, est revenu icy [to Paris], où il scandalise le public par ses discours et par le dérèglement de ses moeurs." What did the police chief of Paris recommend? "II semble donc que la maison de force de l'Hôpital général est la seulle retraitte qui puisse convenir à un tel homme. . . Pontchartrain agreed.

In the case of a priest from Avranches who was involved in "intrigues" with a group of "libertins et de fripons," and who was carrying on a

"Comerce scandaleux" with a woman, D'Argenson recommended that he be chased from Paris by order of the King.^^ Occasionally, impious clerics persisted in a life of dissipation and thus gained the continued

The officialite de Paris was the ecclesiastical court of the diocese of Paris.

^^D'Argenson to Jérôme de Pontchartrain, Paris, August 12, 1700, Bibliothèque Nationale, Ms. Français 8123, fols. lOOv-101.

^^Jêrôme de Pontchartrain to D'Argenson, Versailles, August 18, 1700, Archives Nationales, Ms.Ql 44, fol. 357v.

^^D'Argenson to Jérôme de Pontchartrain, Paris, January 16, 1701, Bibliothèque Nationale, Ms. Français 8120, fols. 2v-3. 317

attention of the police. In 1700, the Abbé D ’Authecour was reported to be living in a "concubinage public" with his servant.A week later

Pontchartrain was informed that the abbé was better known for his de­

bauchery than for anything else; and as he had had three children by

his servant, the scandal was only "trop bien prouve." Despite condemna­

tions by the officialite of Paris, and admonitions by Cardinal de

Noailles, the abbé was apparently too accustomed to his servant to pay heed.^^ He was placed in the Maison de Saint-Lazare for correction.

Four years later he was still there, not yet cured of his "tempérament 69 libertin." ^

Disorderly clerics were occasionally locked away upon requests

from their families, who sought to prevent further shame and dishonor to

the family by appealing to "la bonté" and "I'authorite" of the King.^^

Louis XIV, ever attentive to family honneur, was quite willing to grant

these requests as much for the preservation of a family's reputation as for the opportunity it presented him to sustain his authority in church

67 D'Argenson to Jerome de Pontchartrain, Paris, August 12, 1700, Bibliothèque Nationale, Ms. Français 8123, fol. lOlv.

^^D'Argenson to Jérôme de Pontchartrain, Paris, August 20, 1700, ibid., 'fols. 168V-169.

^^D'Argenson to Jerome de Pontchartrain, Paris, September 14, 1704, Bibliothèque Nationale, Ms. Français 8124, fols. 86-87.

^^Such requests were generally addressed to the Chancellor, the Secretaries of State, or the lieutenant général de police. These officials were asked by the families to intercede on their behalf with the King. When D'Argenson received such requests he generally passed them on to the Secretary of State of the Maison du Roi. 318 affairs. However, before a lettre de cachet was issued, the lieutenant général de police generally carried out an investigation and offered his opinion in the matter to the Secretary of State of the Maison du Roi.

Until Cardinal de Noailles, the Archbishop of Paris, fell from favor,

D'Argenson frequently consulted him for advice in these affairs, as he did in most matters which affected religious affairs in the diocese of

Paris. Thus, for instance, in 1702, a cleric of the diocese was im­ prisoned for a year in Saint-Lazare after D'Argenson had verified the facts of the family's accusations, and after Cardinal de Noailles had 71 agreed "à cacher aux yeux du publiq cet ecclésiastique. ..." In

1713, however, in the case of an abbé who dishonored his family by "une yvrognerie habituelle, accompagnée de tous les vices qui la suivent nécessairement . . .," D'Argenson wrote to Pontchartrain, without having consulted Noailles:

Je pense donc qu'il n'est pas moins juste que nécessaire d'accorder à cette famille l'ordre qu'elle de­ mande pour le renfermer dans la maison des religieux de la Charité de Charenton.^Z

It was an even more trying and delicate matter to discipline a prelate of the church, as in the case of Charles Hervé, Bishop of Gap, who, upon nearing the age of fifty, gave himself over to a life of debauchery. His newfound interests led him to take up residence in Paris

71 D'Argenson to Jérôme de Pontchartrain, Paris, September 17, 1702, Bibliothèque Nationale, Ms. Français 8123, fol. 359r-v. 72 D'Argenson to Jérôme de Pontchartrain, Paris, September 22, 1713, Bibliothèque Nationale, Ms. Français 8121, fols. 234-235. 319 where he enjoyed the company of women whose virtue was "trez-suspecte,” as D'Argenson politely put it. The Bishop's neighbors in Paris were considerably less polite, being "tellement scandalizez de la conduitte et du peu de circonspection dont il usoit, qu'ils en parloient tout haut 73 avec indignation." The surveillance of the Bishop's activities by the police confirmed for the King the necessity of taking action, and Hervé 74 was subsequently exiled.

It was not unusual for persons who desired to carry on a dis­ orderly life to come to Paris. As D'Argenson wrote in his report con­ cerning an abbé who had seduced the daughter of a newly converted gentilhomme, and then come to Paris to live in "la débauché": "II vint ^ V 75 . . . se réfugier à Paris, où le crime peut aisement se cacher. ..."

D'Argenson had already proposed a remedy for such cases in a letter to

Jerome de Pontchartrain in 1700:

. . . il n'y a point d'autres moyens pour mettre a la raison les eclésiastiques scandaleux et en purger cette grande ville où il accourent de toutes parts, que de les renvoyer aux evesques qui les ont ordonnez; de leur faire sçavoir en mesme temps que ce renvoy se fait par l'ordre du Roy, et que l'intention de Sa Majesté est qu'il soit pourveu à leur subsistance soit par leurs parents et sur les revenus de leur titre clerical, soit dans les hôpitaux généraux des lieux ou dans des séminaires et aux dépens du cierge. J'ay eu l'honneur de proposer ces veues à M. le cardinal de Noailles, qui m'a paru les approuver, mais j'oze dire qu'il ne faut pas moins que toute l'authorité du Roy pour

73 D'Argenson to Jérôme de Pontchartrain, Paris, March 23, 1702, Bibliothèque Nationale, Ms. Français 8123, fols. 342-343v.

^^Hervé was also suspected of being the author of a work critical of Cardinal de Noailles. See: D'Argenson to Jérôme de Pontchartrain, Paris, February 20, 1703, ibid,, fol. 338. 75 D'Argenson to Jérôme de Pontchartrain, Paris, November 4, 1706, Bibliothèque Nationale, Ms. Français 8120, fols. 279-282v. 320

en assurer l'exécution dans les provinces, où chaque Evesque croit avoir beaucoup fait pour son dioceze lorsqu'il en a chassé un prestre impie qui, d 'abort se vient cacher à Paris et y commet impunément les plus grands crimes.

Clerics who were not returned to their respective dioceses, or who be­ longed to the diocese of Paris itself, were generally imprisoned in one 77 of three places: Bicetre, Saint-Lazare, or Charenton. However, in the event that more secrecy was desired, the clerics were incarcerated either at the Chateau de Vincennes, or in the most formidable of all the royal prisons, the Bastille. The elaborate secrecy of the Bastille could be employed to hide away those suspected of heinous offenses or crimes of lèse-majéste. Such was the case on Saturday, January 16,

1700, at six o'clock in the evening, when an officer of the grand prévôt de l'Ile-de-France, who frequently executed D'Argenson's orders, arrived at the Bastille with a prisoner--a monk of the Order of Premontré--whom he led into the prison disguised as an "homme de guerre." The gouverneur of the Bastille, Saint-Mars, greeted the men and took them to his living quarters where they dined in the company of Du Junca, the lieutenant du roi at the Bastille. A half hour after the meal was over, the gouverneur

^^D'Argenson to Jerome de Pontchartrain, Paris, October 27, 1700, Bibliothèque Nationale, Ms. Français 8123, fols. 92-94. 77 A. A Bicetre was the house of correction for men at the Hôpital Général. Saint-Lazare was the former hospital for lepers that was placed under the direction of the Congregation de la Mission of which Vincent de Paul was the superior; its vast enclosure became a house of detention for men at the end of the seventeenth century (see: Lebeuf, Histoire de la ville, VI [Rectifications et Additions by F. Bournon], 315-320). Charenton was also originally a charitable hospital which came to serve as a house of detention for men, particularly the "malades d'esprit" (see: ibid., II, 378-379). 321 had the monk escorted to an isolated room in one of the towers of the 78 Bastille where he was held incommunicado. Two days later. Saint-Mars sent D'Argenson a report on the precautions taken with the prisoner.

He began by saying that D ’Argenson's officer had disguised the monk so well and had led him into prison in such an adroit manner, that all of the soldiers and footmen at the Bastille believed the man to be a rela­ tive of the gouverneur himself, or at least an army officer with whom he was acquainted. After describing the sham meal that had taken place and the confinement of the prisoner in his cell, Saint-Mars, in one of those chilling verisimilitudes that gave the Bastille its historical reputation, wrote:

Je vous promets. Monsieur, qu'en cent ans il [the prisoner] ne recevra ny ne donnera auqune nouvelles de vive voix, ny par écrit, tant qu'il sera enfermé dans ce lieu la.

He further remarked that he would furnish the prisoner only with those things which D'Argenson prescribed and nothing else; and, he would give 79 the monk whatever name D'Argenson thought suitable. As this particular case turned out to involve "fausses accusations" rather than lese-majeste, the monk was spared a hundred silent years inthe Bastille; and, instead, he was condemned to ten years imprisonment in an abbey of his order, ^ ^ gQ and to "des penitences très rudes." Nevertheless, one can hardly doubt

78 Journal entry for January 16, 1700 in Junca's registre. Bibliothèque de l'Arsenal, Ms. 5133, fol. 47v.

^^Saint-Mars to D'Argenson, Paris, January 18, 1700, Bibliothèque de l'Arsenal, Archives de la Bastille, Ms. 10525, dossier Gillard. 80 Jerome de Pontchartrain, to D'Argenson, Versailles, December 22, 1700, Archives Nationales, Ms. 0 44, fol. 629r-v. 322 the determination of the police and prison officials to maintain the

Bastille as a prison where someone might well disappear for a hundred years.

. Churches and Religious Observances

Disorders in the churches of Paris required the frequent atten­ tion of the police. Periodically, the King had to issue ordonnances reconfirming all the previous regulations concerning behavior in churches; and the lieutenant general de police had to see that they were enforced. As an ordinance of March 10, 1700 put it:

Sa Majesté étant informée que ses Ordonnances 5 celles des Rois ses predecesseurs, touchant le respect du aux Eglises, ne sont point exécutées; que l'indecence 5 le scandale augmentent tous les jours; S que la plupart des personnes de l'un 5 de l'autre sexe S de toutes conditions paroissent avoir oublié un devoir si important. Sa Majesté a ordonné § ordonne que les Edits, Ordonnances, Arrêts G Règlements rendus sur ce sujet seront executez de point en point, a peine de désobéissance, G sous les autres peines y contenues: Enjoint au Sieur d'Argenson, Conseiller du Roy en ses Conseils, Maître des Requêtes ordinaire de son Hôtel, Lieutenant Général de Police de sa bonne Ville, Prévôté G Vicomté de Paris, de tenir la main à 1'execution de la présenté Ordonnance, même d'informer Sa Majesté des contraventions. Fait à Versailles le dixième jour de mars mil sept cens.81

The ordonnances did not seem to prevent incidents, and D'Argenson found himself regularly informing the Secretary of State of the "lack of re­ spect" in the churches of Paris. In 1700, for instance, a longstanding conflict between marguilliers and erreurs, which had previously resulted

81 Delamare, Traité de la Police, I, 359. 323 in violent verbal and physical disruptions of church services, had the public "justement scandalise." D'Argenson wrote that it would be ended 82 only by "I'authorite du Conseil." On another occasion, the congrega­ tion of the Church of Saint-Louis was scandalized by a conseiller au

Parlement who spoke "d'un ton tres-haut" during a church service. He was admonished by the vicar of the parish, but then spoke even louder.

The vicar warned him: "'Monsieur, si la crainte de Dieu ne peut vous retenir, les ordonnances du Roi doivent du moins vous imposer silence.'"

To implement the vicar's belief in the King, D'Argenson urged that a letter be sent by the King to the relatives of the offensive conseiller 83 in the hope that familial persuasion would work a "tres bon effect."

The King was informed of "irreverences scandaleuses" in the 84 church of Saint-Germain-1'Auxerrois, of the "furie et . . . inso- 85 lence" of a "fameux libertin" who brandished his sword in Saint-Roch, of the "menaces trbs dures et trbs outrageantes" made by a former cabaret owner who had lost his seat in another church,of a woman who 87 wanted to snatch the wigs of the ecclesiastics in Notre-Dame. The incidents, ordonnances, and arrests continued throughout Louis's reign.

B^D'Argenson to Jerome de Pontchartrain, Paris, September 21, 1700, Bibliothèque Nationale, Ms. Français 8123, fol. 457. 83 D'Argenson to Jérôme de Pontchartrain, Paris, December 19, 1700, ibid., fols. 96-97v. 84 D'Argenson to Jérôme de Pontchartrain, Paris, September 2, 1701, ibid., fols. 167-170. 85 D'Argenson to Jérôme de Pontchartrain, Paris, December 15, 1701, ibid., fols. 222-223.

D'Argenson to Jérôme de Pontchartrain, Paris, May 14, 1704, Bibliothèque Nationale, Ms. Français 8124, fols. 75v-76v. 8 7 D'Argenson to Jérôme de Pontchartrain, Paris, January 12, 1705, ibid., fol. 98v. 324

In addition to enforcing a behavioral code of respect in

churches, the lieutenant général de police and the commissaires of the

Chatelet also played a role in enforcing the numerous regulations re­ garding the proper observance of Sundays, feast days, and special religious periods such as Lent. These regulations affected, among other things, the amount of servile work that could be performed by merchants, artisans, and workers, the prices and locations at which certain goods could be sold (if at all), and the manner in which public

events or spectacles could be conducted. Among the most carefully watched groups were the bakers and butchers. As Delamare noted in his treatise: "le pain est la nourriture la plus commune et la plus nécessaire . . 8 8 and, "après V. le pain il n'y a point d'aliment plus 89 commun, et d'un usuage plus universel que la viande. ..." Conse­ quently, the lieutenant général de police periodically issued ordinances

and rendered sentences in support of the government's (and Church's) 90 policy on those two commodities, as well as others. Finally, the police were also responsible for the maintenance of order during the religious processions which took place in Paris each year. As Delamare remarked: "Le Magistrat de Police est tout occupé le jour de la

^^Delamare, Traité de la Police, 1, 379. gq Ibid., p. 381. 90 The background and history of the observance of Sundays, feast days and special periods of religious activity are recounted by Delamare in ibid., pp. 360-392. 325 ceremonie, à maintenir l'ordre S la tranquillité publique dans la 91 Ville."

91 Ibid., p. 398. Delamare reviewed the regulations related to the three most important processions--those of the Blessed Sacrament, the Assumption of the Holy Virgin, and the Reliquary of Sainte- Geneviève (the patron saint of Paris), in ibid., pp. 393-398. The procession of the Châsse de Sainte-Genevieve only took place in times of great need, such as 1694 and 1709. See, for example. Relation de ce qui s'est passé en la découverte descente, et procession de la chasse de sainte Geneviève faite le seizième May 1709, in the Archives Nationales, Ms. K 122, no. 4^. CHAPTER VII

THE POLICING OF MORALS, MANNERS, AND MAGIC

In his discourse on "moeurs" in the Traite de la Police, commissaire Delamare described the steps by which he thought amour propre led men to the worst moral excesses. An inordinate passion for luxury, for expensive things, for gaming, for gambling and public enter­ tainment, he wrote, caused men to neglect their duties and live beyond their means. From there, it was only a short step to a life of de­ bauchery, drinking, swearing and blasphemy, and only another short step to reliance on diviners, sorcerers, magicians, and other charlatans who 1 held out the hope of hidden treasures and diabolic aid.

While many cases of moral dissoluteness did not develop exactly according to the steps of Delamare's analysis, the vices and foibles which he described were the ones which the police of Paris frequently found themselves trying to correct, or at least prevent, through the enforcement of a Church- and state-supported code of moral conduct, through sumptuary laws, and through prohibitions against all of the mysterious and magical arts.

Sexual Morality and Family Honor

Adultery, debauchery, abduction for illicit purposes, incest.

^Delamare, Traite de la Police, I, vii.

326 327 rape, "crimes against nature," and other "corruptions" (which "souvent

attire la colere du Ciel sur la terre, § armé toute la sévérité des

Loix pour en châtier les coupables") were, according to Delamare, among the important concerns of the police at the beginning of the eighteenth century. It was hoped that the police would remove from society "tous

ces grands crimes en veillant sur les moeurs des citoyens." At the

same time, they would also combat the "moins criminelles . . ., mais beaucoup plus fréquentes" problems of "concubinage" and "la débauché des femmes qui se dévouent publiquement à la lubricité [i.e., prosti­ tution] ."^

The correspondence and reports of the lieutenant général de police would seem to confirm Delaware's observations. Over and over V 3 again, one reads of "la vie irreguliere et scandaleuse," of "beaucoup de dérèglement et de scandale,"^ of "crimes qui meriteroient les châtiments les plus rigoreux,"^ of "la conduitte . . . infâme et déréglée,"^ of "la dernière infamie,"^ of "mauvais moeurs,"^ of "les

^Ibid., 515. 3 D'Argenson to Louis/Jérôme de Pontchartrain, Paris, August 20, 1697, Bibliothèque Nationale, Ms. Français 8122, fol. 395.

^D'Argenson to Louis/Jérôme de Pontchartrain, Paris, September 2; 1698, ibid., fol. 415.

^D'Argenson to Jérôme de Pontchartrain, Paris, September 19, 1704, Bibliothèque Nationale, Ms. Français 8120, fol. 182r-v.

^D'Argenson to Jérôme de Pontchartrain, Paris, October 23, 1711, Bibliothèque Nationale, Ms. Français 8121, fol. 164.

^D'Argenson to Jérôme de Pontchartrain, Paris, December 24, 1712, Bibliothèque Nationale, Ms. Français 8125, fol. 268. 328 plus infâmes prostitutions."^ The list is practically endless.

The many details contained in the police reports of the period concerning the private lives of the persons who were investigated and arrested for crimes against morality permit a partial reconstruction of the paths that led them to a life of dissipation (and provide a source, as well as a commentary, on the social history of the grand siècle). To take an example, in 1703, lieutenant general de police D'Argenson of­ fered the following report to Secretary of State Pontchartrain on the background of a prostitute who frequented the vicinity of the Hotel des

Mousquetaires, "le lieu le plus convenable à son commerce et le plus fertille en jeunes dupes." On the basis of information he had received from Marseilles and from Paris, he wrote:

L 'histoire de cette mère [since she had two young women with her whom she claimed were her daughters and whom she was introducing into the oldest profession] est une suitte de prostitutions, de friponneries et de débauches dont tout accoutumé que je suis au récit de semblables avantures, je n'ai peu m'empescher d'estre surpris. Son père estoit un des juges des ports de Malthe. Elle fit ses premières armes (s'il est permis de parler ainsy) avec M. le chevalier Colbert qui pour s'en débarrasser obligea, par force, le fils d'un pauvre cabaretier de Beaucaire a devenir son mary. Ce marriage authoriza sa débauche en la mettant en état de ne plus garder aucunes mesures. Son mary la conduisit à Marseille où après avoir passé par différentes moins, elle se fist une protection considerable. Mais l'ardeur de son tempéramment ne luy permit pas de la ménager longtemps: elle se livra sans réserve à tous ceux qui se présentèrent, in­ sulta et fist insulter son mary qui morut bientost, soit de chagrin ou ce qui est plus vraysemblable par quelque autre moyen plus simple dont les femmes impatientes de leur liberté

8 > D'Argenson to Jérôme de Pontchartrain, Paris, October 22, 1700, Bibliothèque Nationale, Ms. Français 8123, fol. 63. g Police report on Jean Baptiste Le Bel, prisoner at the Bastille, Bibliothèque Nationale, Ms. Clairambault 986, fols. 49-50. 329

sont quelquefois tentées de faire usage. Dez qu'elle fust veuve, elle se mit en société avec les deux plus infâmes prostituées de la ville de Marseille. . . .

From that point on her life became even more disordered. She and the other prostitutes obtained the protection and procurement services of a panderer. She prostituted her eldest daughter. She prostituted herself to young men, foreign merchants, soldiers, lackeys, and even a convict from one of the galleys. Upon becoming pregnant, she even had

"1'insolence," according to D'Argenson, to institute charges of kid­ napping for illicit purposes against a cloth merchant; but she dropped them after being paid a large sum of money. From Marseilles, she pro­ ceeded to Tarascon, to Beaucaire, and to Aix-en-Provence, all the while plying her trade. When she got to Lyon "elle étala de nouveau ses charmes uzés et le nombre de ses duppes fust assez grand." Finally, one of her paramours brought her to Paris where"elle a trompé tant de monde, surpris des fripiers et des marchands et joué tant de person­ nages différants." She had already been condemned once in Paris by sentence de police; but it seemed to have little effect on her. He added: ". . . elle imagine chaque jour de nouvelles friponneries dont elle prétend se procurer l'impunité par quelque tour d'esprit ou par le sçavoir faire de ses protectuers." Naturally, D ’Argenson concluded,

"il semble donc qu'il n'y a pas moins de nécessité que de justice à la renfermer à l'Hôpital par ordre du Roy." In this case the entire adventure from Marseilles to Paris took ten years; and similar stories abound in the police records. Many persons with dubious skills and morals arrived in Paris at the end of the grand siècle only to be 330 greeted by the police and sent to the Hôpital Général or back from whence they came.^^

The "grands crimes" against morality in the grand siècle were incest and rape; yet, they do not appear very frequently in the police records of the period. The reason is unclear. In D'Argenson's cor­ respondence with Jerome de Pontchartrain, which provides a unique abstract of Parisian morality during the last decades of Louis X I V s reign, one would expect to find periodic references to such cases if they were common--every other type of moral vice is described therein-- but there is scant reference to them. It is hard to imagine that

D'Argenson would not have described them if he had information on them.

One is led to the conclusion that either there was a low incidence of such crimes, or perhaps, more likely, that there was a low incidence of reporting such crimes to the police because of the great social stigma attached to them.^^ In one of the few incidents that D'Argenson did report, in July 1701, he informed Secretary of State Pontchartrain

D'Argenson to Jérôme de Pontchartrain, Paris, April 20, 1703, Bibliothèque Nationale, Ms. Français 8123, fols. 383-388. On D'Argen­ son's request, Pontchartrain commented: "bon." In another letter to Pontchartrain, in the case of a "pro- vençalle" who had fled her jealous husband, D'Argenson referred to Paris as "I'azille ordinaire de touttes les femmes de province qui baissent leurs maris de tout leur coeur ou qui font gloire de les mépriser" (Paris, May 25, 1705, Bibliothèque Nationale, Ms. Français 8120, fols. 224-227V). 11 No studies have yet been done on the incidence of these, or other, serious moral and physical crimes in Paris during the reign of Louis XIV. Even for later in the eighteenth century, very little has been published on these crimes in the context of criminality: there is only Petrovitch's "Recherches sur la criminalité," which deals with morals' crimes in passing. 331 that there was evidence in a case in which a musician was convicted of violating his own daughter, and subsequently condemned to death par contumace, that the daughter was not entirely blameless. He added that no regular convent would accept her, and that it would almost be more acceptable to leave her with her family (the father obviously being gone) than to put her in what he characterized as "quelques-uns de ces couvents de contrebande d'où l'on sort à toute heure et qui ne sont

^ 12 proprement que des séminaires de débauché." Pontchartrain remarked in the margin of the letter: "bon, s'il y a quelqu'un qui la veuille pour un temps."

Petitions from interested parties were a common source of morals investigations; but before police action was taken against an individual a great many factors had to be weighted. For example, in the summer of 1697 the Cure of Saint-Sulpice and several other "per­ sonnes de piété" sent a petition to the King concerning the scandalous life of a woman residing in the parish. The petition was passed via the Secretary of State of the Maison du Roi to the lieutenant general de police, who investigated the accusations. He discovered that the woman had previously been arrested for her disorderly life, but had been freed by authority of the lieutenant criminel. In his report, D'Argenson wrote that this circumstance obliged him to proceed against her with

"plus de circonspection et d'ajouter de nouvelles informations aux preuves qui résultent des anciennes, afin que la vérité du fait fut

12 D'Argenson to Jérôme de Pontchartrain, Paris, July 25, 1701, Bibliothèque Nationale, Ms. Français 8123, fol. 141v. 332

13 entièrement éclaircie." The woman, who was the daughter of a former maître chirugien (another consideration), had been living in la débauche for more than ten years. During that time, according to D ’Argenson, she had three illicit affairs which had resulted in at least five and pos­ sibly seven children. At the time of the investigation she was being maintained by a customs clerk who had just about completely abandoned his wife, his family, and his duties to devote himself entirely to

"cette malheureuse creature," as D ’Argenson called her. She had already cost the clerk a great deal of money which gave rise to the proper maintenance of the revenues which he collected for the King. What did

D ’Argenson recommend?

II semble donc qu’il n ’est pas moins digne de la charité du roi que de sa justice qu’il lui plaise de donner un ordre pour faire enfermer a l'Hôpital général. . . . Cet ordre est même le moyen le plus convenable pour satisfaire le public, et principalement les personnes de piété . . ., justement scandalisées d ’une prostitution aussi déclarée et d ’une aussi longue impunité.14

Action against morals offenders was frequently taken to protect

13 ^ D ’Argenson to Louis/Jérôme de Pontchartrain, Paris, August 20, 1697, Bibliothèque Nationale, Ms. Français 8122, fols. 395-398v. In part, D ’Argenson’s intent was to criticize the lieutenant criminel and the ordinary judicial process for freeing disorderly types too soon. It is the same sort of approach that he employed throughout his tenure in office against those, like the lieutenant criminel and the prévôt des marchands whose authority overlapped with his own. His erstwhile fellow Parisian magistrates were, of course, equally critical of him in return.

^^Ibid. As previously, one notes here the propensity of D'Argenson to employ the lettre de cachet as his preferred modus oper- andi in cases in which he wished a speedy conclusion or in which the King or a Secretary of State had expressed a strong interest. In other cases he relied on ordinary judicial proceedings (see, for instance: D ’Argenson to Jérôme de Pontchartrain, Paris, March 21, 1714, Bibliothèque Nationale, Ms. Français 8125, fol. 347). 333 their families from social dishonor. The relatives of wayward kin them­ selves often petitioned the King or Secretary of State of the Maison du

Roi to take action. The King, very amenable to such requests, had the petitions passed on to the lieutenant général de police, who investigated the veracity and gravity of the offenses. In the reports that D ’Argenson sent back to the Secretary of State the concern for the social standing of the persons being investigated was very evident; and perhaps no one was in a better position to evaluate Parisian society than the lieutenant général de police who dealt with every segment of that society, from the poorest wretches to the most privileged noblemen, on a continual basis.

For instance, in the investigation of the son of a deceased substitut procureur du Chatelet, against whom the King had received a petition,

D'Argenson not only confirmed the allegations, but speculated on their social significance. The young man "a dissipé dans la débauche du vin et des femmes le peu de bien que son père lui avoit laissé." Indeed:

il aime beaucoup mieux fréquenter des scélérats et des fripons que d ’avoir la moindre correspondance avec sa famille, et s ’il va quelquefois chez la dame sa mère, ce n ’est que pour l’injurier ou pour dérober tout ce qu’il trouve. Mais comme ces sortes de vols ne peuvent pas longtemps fournir à sa débauche, on doit s ’attendre à luy voir commettre d ’autres crimes dont la punition lui attirera une fin funestre et deshonnera plusieurs personnes d ’une probité distinguée dans la robbe ou dans la meilleure bourgeoisie, qui sont ses parens.

Under the circumstances, D ’Argenson felt that "I’authorite du Roy ne peut estre mieux employee qu’à le renfermer à l’Hôpital général pour un an. . . .’’

^^D’Argenson to Jérôme de Pontchartrain, Paris, February 8, 1713, Bibliothèque Nationale, Ms. Français 8121, fols. 205-206v. 334

When members of noble families threatened to disgrace their

social position by carrying on affairs with less privileged members of

Parisian society, the lieutenant general de police coordinated the royally ordered investigations and executed the royally ordered direc­

tives to end such affairs. The melodramatic liaison between the Prince

de Léon, son of the Due de Rohan, and the notorious Florence, a

danseuse at the Opera, was ended when she became pregnant and the King

acted, upon petition of the Due, to prevent their marriage. D'Argenson, who had already kept the King and Secretary of State of the Maison du

Roi informed about the affair for two years,carried out the orders

effecting its termination. Florence was arrested and taken to the

Bastille, while the Prince de Léon was away from her at Versailles.

D'Argenson even placed the prince under constant surveillance in order to insure that he would not be present when the arrest of his 17 mistress took place. At the Bastille, the danseuse was questioned by D'Argenson and was found to be willing to end her relationship with

the prince. D'Argenson, in reporting this, gave the King and minister a report enlivened by a brief caricature of the famous Florence. Though

As it turned out, D'Argenson was a poor prophet in affairs of the heart. He had written to Jérôme de Pontchartrain on December 11, 1705, that the affair would probably soon be over: Bibliothèque Nationale, Ms. Français 8124, fols. 342-343v. This probably was the same Florence who had previously been the mistress of Philippe II, Due d'Orléans, by whom she had a son who became an abbot. See: Elisabeth Charlotte, Princess Palatine and Duchess of Orleans, Letters from Liselotte, trans. and ed. by Maria Kroll (New York, 1970), pp. 76 and 184. 17 ^ ^ D'Argenson to Jérôme de Pontchartrain, Paris, December 12, 1707, ibid., fols. 237-238v. 335 three months pregnant, he wrote, "sa taille se soutient toujours, son tient est un peu grossy par le rouge, mais ses yeux ont conservé toute leur vivacité. Elle a la bouche agréable, les dents blanches et bien rangées, la gorge fort belle, et un assez grand air de beauté, qu’elle 18 orne de beaucoup de mines." The main problem in this case, as far as the authorities were concerned, was to find a place of detention where the prince would not attempt to see his attractive paramour, or worse yet, try to free her. Until a "convent sûr" could be located, as the 19 King wished, it was decided that the most unassailable place to keep 20 her until she had her child was the Bastille.

18 ^ ^ D'Argenson to Jérôme de Pontchartrain, Paris, December 14, 1707, ibid., fols. 239-243. 19 Extrait of a letter from Jérôme de Pontchartrain to D ’Argenson, December 21, 1707, Bibliothèque de l’Arsenal, Archives de la Bastille, Ms. 10572, dossier Florence [Mlle. Pellerin].

^^D’Argenson to Jérôme de Pontchartrain, Paris, December 31, 1707, Bibliothèque Nationale, Ms. Français 8124, fols. 246-247v. The Duc de Rohan paid the expenses for the incarceration of Florence until she left the Bastille in June 1708 to have her baby at the residence of a Parisian physician. See: Funck-Brentano, Lettres de cachet, p. 155. Florence reappeared in the police reports several months later when D ’Argenson noted for Jérôme de Pontchartrain the difficulty that might arise with the Archbishop of Paris in trying to relocate her in a convent : "II est impossible que je puisse procurer a la demoiselle Florence l’entrée d ’un couvent puisque M. le Cardinal de Noailles peut seul dispenser des règles qu’il a établies sur ce sujet. Vous scavez mesme qu’il desire qu’on concerte toujours avec luy le choix des monastères ou le Roy juge quelque fois à propos de faire renfermer certaines personnes qui pouroient aluiser de leur liberté et qu’en ces occasions vous avez souvent pris la peine de luy en escrire. Aincy mon antremise ne servit d ’aucun usage a la demoiselle Florence, et ne pouroit que luy attirer de nouvelles difficultez. ..." Paris, November 5, 1708, Bibliothèque Nationale, Ms. Français 8120, fols. 338-339. 336

Family honor and social position appear over and over again as major considerations in police reports dealing with morality and family life. In 1701, for instance, when the niece of Guy Fagon, premier medicin of the King, became embroiled in a bitter marital controversy with her husband, D'Argenson found himself reporting frequently to the

Secretary of State on the status of the affair until the husband was finally exiled from Paris. In the first place, he worried about the effects of the controversy on the health of Fagon:

. . . s'il scavoit ce qu'on a lieu de craindre de son em­ portement, l'inquiétude qu'il en auroit seroit capable d'altérer sa santé, infiniment précieuse à 1 'Estât par rapport à celle du Roy.

And secondly, he sought to use the King's "authorite immediatte [i.e., an ordre du roi] pour provenir les malheurs dont la famille de M. Fagon

^ 21 se voit menacée, ..."

To take another example, in 1705, when the elderly Marshal

Vauban was discovered to be making frequent visits to the home of the

Duchesse de Saint-Pierre in order to see a young demoiselle "accoutumée

à gagner les coeurs les plus difficiles," the lieutenant général de police feared that the young lady hoped that "1'habitude de la voir produira nécessairement une passion violente, dont elle saura bien faire 22 usage." In 1711, one reads of Madame de Savonnière, widow of a

2 1 /s D'Argenson to Jérôme de Pontchartrain, Paris, August 21, 1701, Bibliothèque Nationale, Ms. Français 8123, fols. 179-182. See also five letters from the former to the latter in ibid.: September 7, fols 173- 174; September 7, à six heures du soir, fols. 177-178v; September 9, fols. 171-172v; September 10, fols. 185-186v; September 12, fols. 183-184.

22D'Argenson to Jérôme de Pontchartrain, Paris, November 10, 1705, 337

conseiller in the Grand Chambre of the Parlement, who "déshonore sa

famille et scandalise le publiq par son libertinage et par le dérègle­ ment de ses moeurs.” Even when her husband was alive, D ’Argenson con­

tinued, "sa débauche fut portée à tel excès, . . . qu'il fut obligé

d'avoir recours à l'authorité du Roy pour la faire renfermer dans un '

couvent de Touraine, mais sa detention, qui a duré près de vingt ans,

n'a point changé ses moeurs, . . . [et] elle s'est abandonné à de nouveaux désordres." After recounting her new foibles, D'Argenson

wrote, "dans ces circonstances, je pense que l'ordre publiq, 1 'interest

de cette femme et l'honneur de sa famille, veulent absolument qu'elle

soit renfermée dans une maison religieuse où l'on aura soing de payer

^ 23 une pension convenable à sa qualité et proportionée à ses revenus."

In most cases involving morals charges, the opinions of parish

curés, respected citizens, and family members were important factors

both in the investigation of the charges, and in the determination of

Bibliothèque Nationale, Ms. Français 8120, fols. 256r-257v. The sur­ veillance of Marshal Vauban continued (see, for instance, Jérôme de Pontchartrain to D'Argenson, Versailles, November 18, 1705, Archives Nationales, Ms. 0^ 366, fol. 297v), and apparently, at this point, had nothing to do with his authorship of the famous Dîme Royale which soon after appeared in published form. 23 D'Argenson to Jérôme de Pontchartrain, Paris, October 15, 1711, Bibliothèque Nationale, Ms. Français 8121, fols. 160-163; the placets related to the case are attached as fols. 157, 158, and 159. On the continuing saga of Madame de Savonnière and the search for a suitable convent in which to put her, see: the letters of D'Argenson to Jerome de Pontchartrain, Paris, October 23, 1711, ibid., fols. 164-169; and December 20, 1711, ibid., fols. 170-172v. See also, the letters of D'Argenson to Daniel François Voysin (Secretary of State for War], Paris, December 19, 1711, Archives de la Guerre, Ms. A^ 2344, fol. 272; December 22, 1711, ibid., fol. 276; and December 25, 1711, ibid., fol. 282. 338 the appropriate action to be taken (since families usually paid for the confinement of wayward members in convents and prisons, they had an important interest in the arrangements that were made). Thus, for in­ stance, in 1709, D'Argenson investigated a complaint made by a man against his profligate daughter-in-law. The woman's husband had allegedly left her because of her unsavory conduct; and the father-in- law had taken her into his own home to try to reform her. However,

D'Argenson wrote, her "penchant pour la débauche ayant toujours prévalu sur ses justes remonstrances, elle a eu l'insolence de le vouloir fraper d'un coup de couteau lorsqu'il a voulu l'empescher, en dernier lieu, de courir les lieux de débauche." In his recommendation to

Jérôme de Pontchartrain for suitable action, he concluded:

J'adjousteray que . . . [un] directeur des Aydes^^ qui connoist particulièrement la probité du [beau-père] et les sujets de plainte qu'il a contre sa belle-fille m'a asseuré qu'elle méritoit d'estre mise pour quelque temps en la maison de force de l'Hôpital Général, où l'on aura soin de payer une pension convenable, affin qu'elle n'y soit pas à charge, et je ne crois pas pouvoir me dispenser d'estre de cette avis.25

The police frequently imposed themselves in family life to remedy cases of adultery. The solution to such marital problems, as

D'Argenson saw it, was to seek and remove the cause. In June 1699, for

^^The aides were certain of the indirect taxes, such as the octrois and droits d'entrée, levied during the ancien regime. 25 D'Argenson to Jérôme de Pontchartrain, Paris, December 4, 1709, Bibliothèque Nationale, Ms. Français 8121, fols. 14-15. Pontchartrain commented in the margin of the report: "bon, pour six mois." 339

example, he reported to Jerome de Pontchartrain that the trésorier of

the Swiss-Guards had left his wife in order to live in a "commerce

scandaleux" with a former Opéra singer-turned-prostitute to whom he had

given many of the family possessions. The prostitute had already been

chased from several parishes and quartiers by different curés and

commissaires; and the unfortunate wife had been obliged to retire to a

religious community. The treasurer himself had already been condemned

by one judicial sentence but refused to accept it. To D'Argenson, the

solution was simple: "L'on comprend aisement que le seul moyen pour

le faire revenir de son obstination, c'est d'éloigner la cause de leur

divorce." The cause, in his view, being a known prostitute whose dis­

ordered life was "infâme" and "public," he concluded that he must have

"recours à l'autorité du roi et vous [Secretary of State of the Maison du

Roi] supplier de m'envoyer une lettre de cachet pour la faire renfermer

au plustost dans la maison du Refuge ou de l'Hôpital général."

If an illicit affair created a public scandai (which meant in

almost every case that it was brought to the attention of the authori­

ties by the complaints of cures, neighbors, or relatives), the police,

backed by royal orders, frequently took action to end it outside of

normal judicial procedures. However, in such cases the attitude of the

D'Argenson to Jérôme de Pontchartrain, Paris, June 20, 1699, Bibliothèque Nationale, Ms. Français 8122, fols. 437-441r. D'Argenson proposed the Refuge as the first choice because "on trouvera certaine­ ment chez cette femme de quoy payer sa pension pendant plusieurs années sans d'autres secours, et que la maison de force [at the Hôpital Général] ne convient proprement qu'aux personnes dont la penitence est entièrement desesperée." 340 injured spouse in great part determined the nature of the action taken.

In the case of one particularly scandalous adulteress, D'Argenson felt that she should be placed in the Hôpital Général; but:

comme son mary paroist autoriser sa débauche, et qu'il y a presque toujours de l'inconvénient à mettre une femme en correction publique, lorsque le mary ne se plaint pas, j'ai cru qu'il pourroit estre plus convenable de renvoyer celle-cy dans son pays par une lettre de cachet, en luy defendant de g? revenir à Paris sans une permission expresse et particulière.

In the case of another woman, already imprisoned at.l'Hôpital Général, whose husband decided he wanted her back, D'Argenson proposed that she be released on the condition that she and her husband leave Paris and 28 ^ ^ never return. The intention of the lieutenant général de police in proposing expulsion from Paris as a suitable action against adulterers, as well as other persons leading disorderly moral lives, was to remove possible sources of corruption and scandal from the "bonne ville de

Paris." At the same time, expulsion served to relieve the financial burdens of the city's prisons and hospitals. Prisoners, or their families, were obliged to pay the cost of imprisonment; but, persons who had led disorderly lives often could not because they had already

27 > ys D'Argenson to Jerome de Pontchartrain, Paris, March 24, 1700, Bibliothèque Nationale, Ms. Français 8119, fol. 313. In this same case D'Argenson noted: "Des personnes d'une piété distinguée feront volontiers la dépence de son voyage en cas qu'elle ne soit pas en état d'y satisfaire, comme on le peut aisément présumer du dérèglement de sa vie trop occupée des besoins presents pour luy permettre de penser à l'avenir."

28 D'Argenson to Jérôme de Pontchartrain, Paris, April 11, 1700, ibid., fols. 318v-319v. 341

29 lost their money through profligate spending and gambling.

Also, with regard to family life, the lieutenant general de police was vigorous in his attempt to make parents more responsible for the moral education and conduct of their children. In 1700, for instance, he wrote to Secretary of State Pontchartrain that during the course of the year, he had observed that "plusieurs bourgeois, et mesme quelques marchands des plus distingués, negligent tellement l'éducation de leurs enfants qu'ils les laissent parmi des filoux et des coureurs de nuiet, sans se donner aucuns soins pour les rappeler dans leurs maison, ny pour les corriger.Upon discovering an eighteen year-old "fils de famille" living with prostitutes, the lieutenant général de police felt obliged to issue "une ordonnance générale pour exciter les pères de dénoncer au magistrat leurs enfants libertins et vagabonds, à peine d'estre responsables civillement de toutes les fautes qu'ils pourront commettre et d'une amande proportionnée à leur négligence." Sometimes parental tolerance went beyond neglect to the point of active encourage­ ment of debauchery. D'Argenson periodically reported the sad results

29 Expulsion commonly meant that a person could not return to within at least thirty lieues (about seventy-five miles) of Paris. Those who were daring enough to return to Paris without permission were imprisoned if they were apprehended. For example, when a young rake, the illegitimate son of a marquis, returned in violation of the King's ban, D'Argenson immediately had him imprisoned in Fort 1 'Evêque (D'Argenson to Jérôme de Pontchartrain, Paris, December 1, 1702, Bibliothèque Nationale, Ms. Français 8123, fols. 328-329v).

^%'Argenson to Jérôme de '^ontchartrain, Paris, October 27, 1700, ibid., fols. 90-91.

^^Ibid. 342

to Pontchartrain: a mother had prostituted her daughter and was living 32 off the revenue; another mother, "layde, vieille, et infectée des

maladies les plus infâmes," had sold her son to sodomites and her

daughter (not yet thirteen years old) "a tous ceux qui la luy demand- 33 ent"; a mother who had prostituted her fourteen year-old daughter, hoped to marry her to a lackey in order to continue the prostitution

"sous 1 'ombre de ce mariage.On the other hand, some parents re­

quested the authorities to detain their disorderly offspring in order

to prevent further scandal and dishonor to the family. They petitioned;

D'Argenson investigated. If the allegations were correct, then the pro­

fligate offspring would generally be ordered to retire to a prison or

religious house for rehabilitation. Thus, for instance, when the

parents of a young man petitioned the King in 1715 to detain their son

because of his debauchery. Secretary of State Pontchartrain forwarded

the placet to D'Argenson, who investigated and found the facts to be

"exactement veritable." And he added:

J'apprends mesme que ce jeune libertin qui n'est âgé que de dix-neuf ans, a eu deux enfans d'une fille prostituée avec qu'il loge, et qu'il a si peu de relligion qu'il a négligé de faire sa première communion, nonobstant les instances sollicitations de ses parens et son curé. Dans ces circonstances, je crois, qu'il vous paroistra egalle- ment juste et nécessaire d'accorder à ces pauvres gens

32 D'Argenson to Jérôme de Pontchartrain, Paris, November 12, 1699, Bibliothèque Nationale, Ms. Français 8119, fols. 279-282v. 33 D'Argenson to Jérôme de Pontchartrain, Paris, September 19, 1704, Bibliothèque Nationale, Ms. Français 8120, fols. 181-183v.

^^D'Argenson to Jérôme de Pontchartrain, Paris, September 30, 1702, ibid., fols. 65-66v. 343

l ’ordre qu'ils demandent pour renfermer leur fils à 1 'Hospital, où je crois qu'il sera bon de le laisser au moins pendant une a n n é e . 35

Occasionally persons expelled from Paris as a result of their unacceptable moral conduct were permitted to return provided their con­ duct was reformed; and the watchful eyes of the police observed to see that it remained reformed. In a report written to Secretary of State

Pontchartrain in 1714, D'Argenson reviewed the history of one such case concerning a young libertine relegated to Lyon in 1709:

. . , vous vouleustes bien employer l'authorité du Roy [i.e., a lettre de cachet] pour en purger Paris. Cependant, [the young man's father] vous ayant représenté, au mois d'avril dernier qu'il voudroit bien, si vous l'agreez, éprouver la conduitte de son fils par un retour limitté, vous vouleustes bien luy accorder un rapel de six mois et comme depuis son retour il ne m'est revenu contre luy aucunes plaintes je pense qu'on pouroit sans inconvéniant luy accorder un second rapel de six autres mois pendant lesquels j'auray soing de le faire observer e n c o r e . 36

In another case, at about the same time, D'Argenson commented on the request of a young man exiled to his native province for having robbed his uncle and dishonored himself by his roguery and debauchery: "... je ne crois pas que vous [i.e., Pontchartrain] jugiez a propos de l'en rappeler sans la participation de son oncle, ny jusqu'à ce qu'il ait raporté des certificats de son obéissance à l'ordre de son exil, aincy 37 que de la conduitte qu'il y a tenue."

35 D'Argenson to Jérôme de Pontchartrain, Paris, January 3, 1715, Bibliothèque Nationale, Ms. Français 8125, fols. 394-395. Pontchartrain remarked in the margin: "bon, voir alors."

^^D'Argenson to Jérôme de Pontchartrain, Paris, September 2, 1714, Bibliothèque Nationale, Ms. Français 8121, fols. 309-310. 37 ^ D'Argenson to Jérôme de Pontchartrain, Paris, December 19, 1714, Bibliothèque Nationale, Ms. Français 8121, fols. 343-344v. 344

It was almost impossible for the authorities to straighten out the complicated moral lives of some of the spirited individuals who provoked numerous police reports over the years. The demoiselles de

Boussans, for instance, made their first appearance in the correspondence of the lieutenant general de police in May 1700 by "scandalizing the public" with the irregularity of their morals. "Apres avoir oublié la bonne education qu'elles ont reçeus dans la maison royalle de Saint- 38 Cyr," D'Argenson wrote, "elles se sont livrées aux derniers excez."

The eldest of the young ladies was married to the sieur de

Dillon, a captain in a regiment of the same name, and nephew of the duchess of Tirconnel; married, that is, "si l'on peut regarder comme solide un mariage contracté par un jeune homme qui n'a pas vingt ans, >• 39 [et] maigre les oppositions de toute sa famille." In any event, the demoiselles were imprisoned in a religious house following com­ plaints from their father and the "prétendu" husband of the eldest.

The young captain soon changed his mind, however, and sought the release of his wife. He attempted to have the English ambassador intercede on his behalf; but the ambassador, being informed of all the circumstances.

38 One suspects that the King and Secretary of State Pontchartrain and even Madame de Maintenon, were greatly interested in this notable failure of the educational system at Saint-Cyr, Maintenon's great pro­ ject. Langlois noted the adventure of the demoiselles Boussans in his edition of Maintenon's correspondence without, however, any specific reference to Maintenon's own participation in it (Maintenon, Lettres, V (Paris, 1939), 501-503). Nevertheless, given the fact that Maintenon was privy to so much of the information received by the King from the Secretaries of State, it is hard to imagine that she would not have been informed about the Boussan affair from the outset. 39 D'Argenson to Jérôme de Pontchartrain, Paris, May 30, 1700, Bibliothèque Nationale, Ms. Français 8123, fols. 55-56. 345 was not inclined to become involved. The young husband, however, con­ tinued to say that he was born a subject of the King of England and that he wanted to return to England with his wife. Though he was born a

Catholic, and had always professed his faith, his allegiance to it was suspect. And D'Argenson wrote that one could reasonably presume that the young man, upon reaching London, would embrace the religion of that country; and, if his wife were permitted to go there, she, as well, would soon follow his example, "le dérèglement de ses moeurs faisant douter, avec raison, de la fermeté de sa foy." This last possibility, he continued, made him all the more opposed to her release because he would regard "comme un grand scandale qu'une demoiselle, eslevêe dans la maison de Saint-Cyr après avoir dêshonnoré son education et sa naissance par une conduitte honteuse deshonnorât la religion par une abjuration publique à la veue mesme de nos fugitifs qui s'en feroient une fausse g l o i r e . Political considerations were never completely forgotten during the involvement of the loyal serviteur in moral and religious affairs. The lieutenant général de police was, of course, envisioning the propaganda value that French Protestant refugees in England would derive from the tarnished product of a royally patronized education in

France. The adventures of the demoiselles had hardly begun, however.

In September 1700, they both escaped over the wall of the religious house where they were being held, and fled in a carriage that their

father and the young husband had waiting for them. D'Argenson admitted

^^b'Argenson to Jerome de Pontchartrain, Paris, June 14, 1700, ibid., fols. 71-73. 346 his surprise, not as one might expect at the over-the-wall escape of the eldest daughter who was four or five months pregnant, but rather, that the father, whose only source of subsistence was a pension provided by 41 the King, aided in the escape! The young ladies were recaptured and held in separate establishments, one in the Convent of the Magdelaine, the other in the Refuge. Their father, who had somehow avoided arrest, presented a petition to the King, seeking their release. D'Argenson wrote to the Secretary of State that the facts of the father's version of the affair failed to conform to the truth. The young ladies, he said, should remain where they were for a while, locked away. Pontchartrain 42 agreed. However, their enforced period of reflection apparently did not impress them. The younger demoiselle again drew the attention of the police in 1703 when she had a child in the Hôpital Général after an affair with sieur Stouppe, an officer of the Swiss Guards. In order to obtain her release from the Hôpital, she accepted an offer of marriage from an impoverished Frenchman from Languedoc named Dumont de Blaignac.

The bridegroom wrote to the lieutenant général de police and indicated that he knew of his bride's shortcomings. Was the bridegroom another

Don Quixote? D'Argenson wondered. He wrote to Pontchartrain; "je ne

croy pas qu'on en trouve de pareilles dans aucun roman, sans en excepter

celuy du fameux dom Quixotte, qui ne se picquoit pas d'estre si difficile

^^D'Argenson to Jérôme de Pontchartrain, Paris, September S, 1700, ibid., fols. 57-59V. 42 D'Argenson to Jérôme de Pontchartrain, Paris, October 22, 1700, ibid., fols. 61-63v. 347 que les autres héros.A romantic, however, D ’Argenson was not. His suspicious nature prevailed, and he decided to watch the new marriage closely. He soon learned that Stouppe, an "intime amy" of the bride­ groom, had paid all the expenses of the marriage and had provided the newlyweds with a furnished apartment "se faisoit une espèce de gloire d'avoir trouvé un François encore plus facille et moins délicat en amour que les Suisses." As for the bridegroom, D'Argenson commented;

"je pense que le pauvre mary n'a consulté que sa mauvaise fortune et a conclud qu'il falloit mieux avoir du pain avec une femme infidelle, 44 que de manquer de toutes choses."

Several months later, D'Argenson reported again. The husband had left for the army; and Stouppe was taking remedies to cure the

"infâme maladie que produit ordinairement la débauche la plus scandaleuse"; however, the affair with his mistress continued. D'Argenson concluded:

"l'on doit s'attendre que ces trois personnes seront bientost réduittes a la derniere misère et dans la triste nécessité de chercher leur sub­ sistance dans les moyens les plus criminelsThe lieutenant général de police had little doubt that poverty and crime were closely linked.

^^D'Argenson to Jérôme de Pontchartrain, Paris, December 30, 1703, ibid., fols. 65-67v.

^^D'Argenson to Jérôme de Pontchartrain, Paris, January 10, 1704, Bibliothèque Nationale, Ms. Français 8124, fols. 67-69. In this same letter D'Argenson noted that he had warned the bridegroom that Pont­ chartrain himself wanted to see him and his bride in person at his residence in Paris. Such an action was highly unusual, and probably indicates the concern of the Secretary of State that the whole Boussan affair was becoming intolerably farcical.

^^D'Argenson to Jérôme de Pontchartrain, Paris, August 7, 1704, Bibliothèque Nationale, Ms. Français 8120, fols. 177v-178v. 348

The elder Boussan sister, still married to sieur de Dillon, reentered the picture in 1707. She and her family petitioned to have her released from the Convent of the Magdelaine, and transferred to that of the Ursulines at Baune. Since she had been well-behaved at the

Magdelaine, the authorities agreed to the transfer.She had spent less than half a year at Baune when her release was secured by none other than her brother-in-law, the sieur de Blaignac! D'Argenson learned through his information sources that Blaignac, having lost his own wife, apparently hoped to prostitute his sister-in-law and had sup­ posedly begun by pandering her to one of his own wife's former lovers.

For her part, Madame Dillon apparently planned to earn enough money to pass over to England to look for her husband, who had supposedly gone there and renounced his religion.The police searched for several weeks before they located her, after which^she was again confined to the

Convent of the Magdaleine in Paris where she remained at least until 48 February 1710. Then, like so many other persons who traversed the police reports, the former demoiselle de Boussan, along with her rela­ tives and lovers, simply faded into an obscurity from which they all probably wished they had never emerged.

^^D'Argenson to Jerome de Pontchartrain, Paris, July 25, 1707, Bibliothèque Nationale, Ms. Français 8124, fol. 259.

^^D'Argenson to Jérôme de Pontchartrain, Paris, January 6, 1708, ibid., fols. 370-372V. 48 Letters from D'Argenson to Jérôme de Pontchartrain, Paris, January 25, 1708, ibid., fols. 373-377v; and, February 26, 1710, Bibliothèque Nationale, Ms. Français 8121, fols. 91v-92r. See also: the mémoire on Dillon in the Bibliothèque Nationale, Ms. Français 8125, fols. 78-92V. 349

There were other morals cases during the period which, like that of the demoiselles de Boussans, seemed to drag on interminably. In

September 1698, for instance, one reads of D'Argenson’s warning to a 49 Madame de Murat to restrain her scandalous gambling parties. A year later D'Argenson reported that it was not easy to detail all the dis­ orders of her conduct "sans blesser les règles de l'honnestetè," and he added, "le public a peine à voir une dame de cette naissance dans un dérèglement aussi honteux et aussi d é c l a r é . Several months later

D'Argenson reported again on her alleged "attachement monstrueux pour des personnes de son sexe," as well as a long list of specific incidents that had occurred at her home. Unfortunately, he added, no one who was in a position to verify the facts wished to testify against her. Some were embarrassed by their own involvement with her. Others felt it was beneath their dignity to become involved. Still others feared reprisals from Murat's friends.Again, she was warned about her conduct and even made to sign a soumission. She told D'Argenson that she planned to go to a distant province. However, as her personal finances were in complete disarray, she pleaded that it was impossible for her to pay even her carriage fare out of Paris. D'Argenson verified her dire financial

D'Argenson to Louis/Jerome de Pontchartrain, Paris, September 29, 1698, Bibliothèque Nationale, Ms. Français 8122, fol. 415. The warning was issued on the basis of an order from the Secretary of State of the Maison du Roi.

^%'Argenson to Jerome de Pontchartrain, Paris, December 6, 1699, ibid., fol. 506.

^^D'Argenson to Jerome de Pontchartrain, Paris, February 24, 1700, ibid., fols. 490-493. 350 straits for the Secretary of State and wondered, under the circumstances, whether the Secretary would "exciter la libéralité du Roy en faveur d'une personne qui ne l'a pas méritée par sa conduitte, mais dont le malheur present ne laisse pas d'estre un digne objet de compassion." He added that perhaps "sa naissance, quoy qu'un peu défigurée par la suitte de sa ^ 52 vie mérite quelques égards. ..." The following year Madame de Murât was again the object of police attention when she returned to Paris and the "horreurs et les abominations" of her relationship with another woman "font une juste horreur a tous leurs voisins." D'Argenson noted in his new report that although Pontchartrain had told him that the

King wanted Murat put in prison if she renewed her moral excesses, and although she was "indigne de son nom et de sa naissance," she still be­ longed to the "personnes du premier ranq," and he casually added, she was five months pregnant. Therefore, he recommended that it would be

"plus juste et plus convenable "to arrange her retreat from society with 53 her family." A few days later he wrote again that he had received even more information of the "blasphemes, les obscénitez et I'yrognerie" of Murat and her friends.D'Argenson's own tolerance of Madame de

Murat finally wore thin. In February 1702 he reported that although she was aware that the King had been informed of her conduct, she was

52 D'Argenson to Jerome de Pontchartrain, Paris, April 20, 1700, ibid., fols. 482-484r. 53 D'Argenson to Jérôme de Pontchartrain, Paris, December 1, 1701, Bibliothèque Nationale, Ms. Français 8123, fols. 211-215.

^^D'Argenson to Jérôme de Pontchartrain, Paris, December 4, 1701, Bibliothèque Nationale, Ms. Français 8122, fol. 502. 351 counting on the possibility that he would not find a religious community

"assez hardie" to receive her. Just as well, he remarked, because he now felt that she should be locked away in a distant chateau. She had also informed him that since her husband had not complained about her conduct, the public had no right to complain. However, as D ’Argenson noted; "ce pauvre mary ne se taist que pour ne pas s'exposer aux fureurs d ’une famme qui l’a pensé tuer deux ou trois fois. . .

Finally, Madame de Murât was incarcerated in the Château de Loches (in

Touraine); but she soon began a correspondence with her old cronies which D ’Argenson took steps to end.^^

Below the level of the Demoiselles de Boussans and the Mesdames de Murat, and the attendant considerations of social rank and family honor, the police dealt with cases of moral dissipation at the level 57 of the world’s oldest profession, prostitution. In such cases there were few special considerations. "La prostitution de la nommé Marie

Genevieve Dusautoir, ditte Lopin, est toute publique, . . . elle se prostitute avec la dernière infamie. Aincy la maison de force convient parfaitement." The Maison de Force (also known as the Salpêtriere) of

^^D’Argenson to Jérôme de Pontchartrain, Paris, February 11, 1702, ibid., fols. 508v-509v.

^^D’Argenson to Jérôme de Pontchartrain, Paris, April 30, 1702, Bibliothèque Nationale, Ms. Français 8123, fols. 230-234v. 57 In considering prostitution and its history, as it was seen by contemporaries of Louis XIV, see especially: Delamare, Traité de la Police, I, 515-542; and, Henri Sauvai, La chronique scandaleuse de Paris, chronique des mauvais lieux (Paris, 1910 [written prior to 1671)j 58 D'Argenson to Jérôme de Pontchartrain, Paris, December 24, 1712, Bibliothèque Nationale, Ms. Français 8125, fols. 267v-268. 352 the Hôpital Général was specifically intended as a "work house" to punish "les femmes d'une débauche & prostitution publique & scandaleuse

. . . lors qu'elles y seront conduites par l'ordre de Sa Majesté, ou en vertu des jugemens qui seront viendus pour cet effet au Chatelet par 59 le Lieutenant de Police. . . So read a règlement on the subject from 1684. The detailed regimen of the work house included: attendance at Mass on Sundays and feast days; prayer periods in the morning and evening; lectures based on the Catechism and other pious books; and treatment for any illness in the Maison itself, except in cases of ex­ treme necessity. The inmates were required to dress in linsey-woolsey and wear sabots. They were to receive bread, soup, and water for nourishment; and a straw mattress, sheets and a blanket for sleeping.

They were to be worked as long and as hard as their strength would per­ mit. If anyone showed signs of repentence they could perform less strenuous tasks and they could buy up to half a pound of meat a day, as well as fruits and other supplies that the directeurs of the Hôpital

Général saw fit to permit. Swearing, laziness, fits of passion and other indiscretions which the inmates committed were to be punished by a reduction of their soup allotment and by placing them "au carquan, dans les malaises durant certain temps de la journée," or by any other

Règlement [que le Roy veut estre execute pour la punition des femmes d'une débauché publique 8 scandaleuse qui se pourront trouver dans sa bonne Ville de Paris, 8 pour leur traitement dans la Maison de la Salpêtriere de l'Hôpital, où elles seront enfermées], Versailles, April 20, 1684, printed in Delamare, Traité de la Police, I, 528-529, and Peuchet, Collection des lois, I, 447-449. 353

standard practice of the Hôpital.The Maison de Force was the most rigorous of a trio of establishments which took in most of the "femmes de mauvais vie" in Paris; the Refuge (another section of the Hôpital-

General) and the Convent of the Filles de la Magdeleine were the other well-known houses of detention.

The procedure for dealing with prostitutes was fairly standard throughout the grand siècle, only the intensity of the suppression varied. Ordinarily, the commissaires of the Châtelet enforced the regu­

lations against those engaged in the "infâme commerce." Action was taken only after a disorder, or a public scandal, or a complaint by "gens d 'honneur" who lived in a neighborhood had brought to the attention of a commissaire the fact that a "mauvais lieu" existed in his quartier.

The commissaire then issued a summons, delivered by a huissier de police, ordering the women living in such places to appear at the audience de police (weekly police court). On the appointed day, the commissaire would give a report of the complaints against the women (the neighbors, or whomever complained, remained anonymous in order to avoid reprisals), and add any other information that he had gathered. The police magis­ trate would then fine the women and order them to dislodge themselves within twenty-four hours or risk the confiscation of their belongings.

If they had already been chased from several quartiers, they could be ordered to leave the city. If the commissaire discovered that the proprietor of the building in which the women had stayed had previously

sheltered such women, he too was subject to punitive action. He could

^^Ibid, 354 be fined and prevented from making rentals; and his building could be boarded up for six months to a year.^^ The condemned women and pro­ prietors could, if they wished, appeal the Chatelet's condemnation to

the Parlement; and the parlementarians were generally more than willing

to review the decisions of the Châtelet and the lieutenant general de police. The Parlement particularly objected to the Châtelet's reliance on anonymous informers. In order to justify the Châtelet’s methods to the Secretary of State of the Maison du Roi, who inquired about them in 1711 amidst a periodic parlementary complaint, D'Argenson wrote:

ce qui fait le plus de peine dans cette espèce de procédure [i.e., judicial proceedings against "les femmes de mauvais vie], et ce qui ne s'observoit point autrefois c'est que Messieurs du parlement veuillent maintenant que ces sortes de plaintes soient rendues publiques et que les femmes de mauvais vie qui en sont l'objet connaissent ceux qui se sont plaints de leur conduitte, ou qui ont déposé contre elles, et c'est à quoy nos bons artisans et nos meilleurs bourgeois ne veullent pas s'exposer par la crainte des suittes funestes que de pareilles notifications leur attireroint de la part des scélérats qui soutiennent ordinairement ces personnes à cause de l'utilité qu'ils en retirent.62

In the view of the lieutenant général de police, protecting the sources of information (in this case the artisans and bourgeois who feared the reprisals of the panderers of the prostitutes) was more important than protecting the rights of the accused— especially when the accused were prostitutes. As far as D'Argenson was concerned, prostitution and

Delamare, Traité de la Police, I, 525-527. Cf. Déclaration du Roi [concernant le jugement des femmes de débauche]. Marly, July 26, 1713, printed in Peuchet, Collection des lois, II, 319-326.

D'Argenson to Jérôme de Pontchartrain, Paris, October 23, 1711, Bibliothèque Nationale, Ms. Français 8121, fols. 164-165. 355 debauchery meant scandals, disorders, and problems that he would just as soon suppress by whatever means were necessary. As he explained to

Secretary of State Pontchartrain in 1703:

je sçay que les femmes qui cachent leur prostitution et qui ont quelque confusion de leur désordre ne sont pas le véritable objet de notre police. Mais quand elles font gloire de leur dérèglement et que non contentes de s'abandonner au premier venu elles engagent des maris à quitter leurs femmes, à oublier leur famille et â renoncer aux obligations les plus essentielles, le magistrat ne sçauroit estre trop attentif à les corriger, ny négliger de le faire sans manquer à un de ses plus importans devoirs.63

This little credo on police concerns prefaced D'Argenson's report on a woman from Abbeville who came to Paris and successively scandalized the city quarter by quarter. D'Argenson had fined her and her sister five or six times without positive results. He had even intervened once to prevent her marriage to a young man "d'une condition honorable." She had had liaisons with more than a dozen married men and several eccle­ siastics, and had had several illegitimate children. At the time of

D ’Argenson's report, she had so "bewitched" another married man that he badly neglected providing for his wife and children and even failed to heed D'Argenson's warnings. So the lieutenant général requested an 64 order to lock her away in the Hôpital Général.

Sodomy and homosexuality were looked upon by the authorities with even more horror than prostitution. D'Argenson continually referred

^^D'Argenson to Jérôme de Pontchartrain, Paris, November 16, 1703, Bibliothèque Nationale, Ms. Français 8124, fols. 51-53v.

G^lbid. 356 to the activities that sodomites engaged in as "les dernières abomina­ tions"; and, the King himself was particularly anxious for the lieutenant general de police to pursue those who engaged in such moral excesses.In one case, in 1702, a lackey who was arrested and in­ terrogated by D'Argenson for committing "le pêche" of sodomy, implicated numerous persons in his debauchery and cast the spectre of suspicion on two dues, a former ambassador, and a valet in the household of the Due d'Orléans. Even more serious were his allegations that young school­ boys were being corrupted by older men in the Jardin de Luxembourg and even by their schoolmasters.^^ Louis XIV and Secretary of State

Pontchartrain were horrified, as might be expected, at the prospects of a widespread commerce in such debauchery. Pontchartrain's comments to

D'Argenson left little doubt as to their feelings in the matter:

J'ay leu a Sa Majesté l'interrogatoire que vous avez fait prester au nommé le Bel. Elle veut que vous approfondissiez à fond et en détail toutes les misères et les abominations dont il a commencé â vous parler, en luy promettant de le faire recevoir â Saint-Lazare,67 ainsy qu'il le désire. Travaillez donc incessament à cette affaire sans avoir

While Louis could not control the apparent homosexual activi­ ties of his own brother. Monsieur, Due d'Orléans, perhaps he felt he could succeed in demonstrating his own strong personal distaste for such practices on a grand scale in Paris. On Monsieur, see: Philippe Erlanger, Monsieur, frère de Louis XIV (Paris, 1953); and Duchesse of Orleans, Letters from Liselotte, pp. 72, 76, 99, passim.

^^Bibliothèque de l'Arsenal, Archives de la Bastille, Ms. 10531, dossier Lebel; and. Bibliothèque Nationale, Ms. Clairambault 986, fols. 49-50.

^^Lebel apparently was trying to plea-bargain his way into the House of Saint-Lazare, the former leper hospital turned mission house and house of correction on the northern perimeter of Paris. 357

aucuns égards pour qui que ce soit qu'il pourroit nommer. Vous jugez mieux que personne de quelle importance il est d'aprofondir ce qui regarde les rêgens et les précepteurs qui corrompent les écoliers.68

Sodomites like LeBel were unwelcome guests of the Bastille or Vincennes, not so much because of their social status (unlike many of the prisoners at these institutions), but rather because of the heinous nature of their offenses.Even then, most sodomists were so disdained by the authorities, they were not judged worthy enough to be at the Bastille!

As Pontchartrain wrote to D'Argenson in the case of several gens de livrée arrested for homosexual offenses: "vous jugez bien que de telles gens ne méritent pas l'honneur d'estre â la Bastille.Fre­ quently, the only way for such men to redeem themselves was to enroll in the army. (Though this solution was of dubious value, the army could use everybody it could get during the War of the Spanish Succession.)^^

As D'Argenson wrote with regard to one of the gens de livrée: "il serait bien juste, ce me semble qu'un fripon de cette espèce ne put etre mis en liberté qu'à condition de prendre parti dans les troupes où il 72 seroit en état de bien servir si son courage répond â sa taille."

^^jérSme de Pontchartrain to D'Argenson, Versailles, June 21, 1702, Archives Nationales, Ms.Ql 363, fols. 129-130v. 69 A perusal of Funck-Brentano's Lettres de cachet suggests that, in fact, sodomites were not infrequent prisoners at the Bastille and Vincennes.

^^Jêrôme de Pontchartrain to D'Argenson, n.p., February 24, 1706, Archives Nationales, Ms.O^ 367, fol. 50r. 71 Men caught in other types of perverse activity were also allowed to conscript. For more on this, see Chapter VIII of this study.

^^Bibliothèque de l'Arsenal, Archives de la Bastille, Ms. 10566, 358

D'Argenson's own attitude toward libertines of this sort is perhaps best summed up in his recommendation that one such individual who had seduced two teenage boys, then allowed his friends and other "scélérats" to 73 sodomize them, be sent to the Bastille "pour y être oublié."

In addition to the more serious morals offenses, lesser of­ fenses such as exhibitionism were not uncommon during Louis XIV's reign; and, on occasion, they too were reported to the King and Secretary of

State. In September 1707, for instance, D'Argenson received a note from commissaire Delamare that one of the Swiss-Guards at the Cathedral of

Notre Dame had seen "un de ces malheureux qui montrent leur nudité," and had taken him to Delamare's house where he was subjected to pre­ liminary questioning which revealed that his name was Cyrano, and that he was the nephew of Cyrano de Bergerac.D'Argenson requested more 75 information in order to prepare a report for Jérôme de Pontchartrain.

So Delamare questioned Cyrano a second time and provided the lieutenant général de police with more details about his family background, his source of income (400 livres de rentes), and his excuse for his actions

dossier Langlois; and, Bibliothèque Nationale, Ms. Clairambault 985, fols. 81-82. 73 ^ ^ The case is reported in D'Argenson to Jérôme de Pontchartrain, Paris, August 30, 1701, Bibliothèque Nationale, Ms. Français 8123, fols. 159-161V. Pontchartrain remarked in the margin: "bon, à Vincennes."

^^Delamare was involved because he was a commissaire for the Quartier de la Cité and lived near Notre-Dame. Delamare to D'Argenson, Paris, September 7, 1707, Bibliothèque de l'Arsenal, Archives de la Bastille, Ms. 10572, dossier Cyrano. 75 D'Argenson's note to Delamare, September 7, 1707, written on ibid. 359

("le vin et I’eau-de-vie")A further report, from the exempt at whose home Cyrano was detained until the authorities made a decision about what to do with him, revealed that he was in thehabit of shocking women with his crude antics by jumping from behind thepillars near the 77 Cathedral altar dedicated to the Virgin. The circumstances of the case were curious enough that the King ordered Cyrano held at the

Bastille until D'Argenson himself conducted an interrogation. The in­ terrogation itself was concerned almost as much with Cyrano’s famous uncle and the types of works he wrote, and who printed them, as it was with Cyrano’s own problem. Since no further information was developed, 78 Cyrano was sent out of Paris to St. Quentin. Some of these incidents which took up the time of Pontchartrain and D’Argensonhave an air of absurdity about them until one realizes the extent of the era’s concern with social decorum and how it was simply reflected in the attitude of the King, Secretary of State, and lieutenant général de police. For instance, in addition to the case just cited, in March 1701, D ’Argenson received a note from Pontchartrain informing him that the gentleman who had the insolence to urinate in the theater box of the Opera above that of Madame (the Duchesse d ’Orleans, sister-in-law of the King) merited a severe punishment. However, Madame herself wished to pardon the gentle­ man, and thus D ’Argenson must demure to her wishes and simply reprimand

Delamare to D'Argenson, Paris, September 10, 1707, again written on ibid. 77 Symmonet to D ’Argenson, Paris, September 11, 1710, ibid.

7 8 Ibid. See also: Bibliothèque Nationale, Ms. Clairambault 983, fols. 441-445. 360

79 him. It is hard to imagine a less significant and less worthy subject for the chief of police and the Secretary of State to deal with.

Games, Gambling, and Extravagance

Among the other concerns of the police that involved moral con­ siderations were les jeux (games and gambling]. They were thought to corrupt morality and endanger family life (by way of lost fortunes and 80 huge debts). Not all games were forbidden. Only those which depended upon "hazard tout pur" and were commonly played for money were outlawed.

However, this included most of the popular dice, card, and board games of the period like hocca, bassette, lansquenet, pharaon, barbacolle, pour et contre, and fortifications (at first approved, then pro­ hibited).^^

In March 1697, shortly after D'Argenson had taken over as head of the police, the Secretary of State of the Maison du Roi issued in­ structions to him that were often repeated during the next eighteen years, when he wrote: "Vous ne pouvez avoir trop d'attention pour empescher, les jeux publics. 11 ne faut point épargner les gens que vous trouverez en contravention à cet égard. ..." Thus it was quickly

The incident is related in Jerome de Pontchartrain to D'Argenson, Versailles, March 5, 1701, Archives Nationales, Ms. Ql 362, fols. 82v- 86v. 80 As in the case of sexual morality Louis had many examples of the ill effects of gambling around him at Court. When Monsieur, his brother, who loved to gamble, died in 1701, he left enormous debts (see. Duchesse of Orléans, Letters, p. 99, passim).

01 See: Delamare, Traité de la Police, 1, 478-514, on the history of j eux and lotteries (which were permitted) in France. 361 made clear to D'Argenson that he was expected to continue the vigorous war on illegal games and gambling that had begun under his predecessor, 82 La Reynie. However, the early modern (or, perhaps more ageless) human proclivity for game-playing and gambling made the enforcement of these orders difficult, if not hopeless. Later that same year, in December,

D'Argenson was again informed of the King's strong desire to repress les j eux. The firm reminder was occasioned by the continuation of gambling at the residence of Sieur Aubert, the introducteur des ambassadeurs for

Monsieur's (the King's brother's) household. D'Argenson was apparently still cautious about his actions vis-à-vis a member of the household of a royal prince. The Secretary of State attempted to end such reluctance when he wrote:

Le Roy m'ordonne de vous dire une fois pour toujours tant pour celuy la que pour tous les autres qui tiendront des jeux dans Paris au prejud^® des ordon^® que vous devez sans distinction des personnes condamner les contrevenans à l'amende, les abandonner au Recevoir des amendes pour le paym^ et renouveler vos condam®^^ autant de fois que le cas le requera sans vous mettre en peine de ce que les maniéré de f[aire] cesser les jeux et ceux qui n'auront pas de quoy y payer, s'absenteront pour ne pas courir la risque d'entrer en prison

82 Louis de Pontchartrain to D'Argenson, n.p., March 23, 1697, Archives Nationales, Ms. 0^ 41, fol. 48r. Shortly before La Reynie left office, he was ordered by Secre­ tary of State Pontchartrain to provide a complete list of all the places, participants, and protectors of prohibited games and gambling. As it turned out, many of the locations where the activities took place were protected by Monsieur and the Duke de Chartres (the future Due d'Orleans), the King's brother and nephew. Pontchartrain then informed La Reynie that both he and the King himself would speak directly to the royal princes about the situation. See: Letters of Louis de Pontchartrain to La Reynie, Versailles, February 4, 1697, Archives Nationales, ibid., fol. 15; and, Versailles, February 14, 1697, ibid., fol. 25. 83 ^ Louis/Jérôme de Pontchartrain to D'Argenson, Versailles, De­ cember 11, 1697, ibid., fol. 186r. 362

Despite such firm resolve, the police action taken against persons like

Aubert continued to be tempered by special considerations. Aubert him­

self was the subject of another police investigation several years

later, in 1700, when he was condemned for gambling and card playing; but

the King temporarily ordered the sentence suspended. Whereupon

D'Argenson wrote to Jerome de Pontchartrain that he was sure that

Aubert would continue to play pharaon "puisque la saisie générale de

ces biens et l'air de dépense qu'il a pris luy en imposent la nécessité."

He added that he would continue to watch Aubert carefully for new

signs of illegal gambling, as Pontchartrain wished, but that positive proof of such activity "est comme impossible sans l'entremise d'un

commissaire dont la visite luy paroistra toujours désobligeante, de ^ -• 84 quelque honnêteté qu'elle puisse estre accompagnée."

The campaign against illegal games and gambling in Paris con­

tinued throughout the rest of Louis's reign and at one point, undoubtedly

to the embarrassment of D'Argenson, apparently even extended into his 85 own household and family.

In addition to dealing with game-playing and gambling as a moral problem, the police sometimes had to deal with them as a threat to

^^D'Argenson to Jérôme de Pontchartrain, Paris, March 24, 1700, Bibliothèque Nationale, Ms. Français 8119, fols. 313v-314r. 85 Letters of Jerome de Pontchartrain to D'Argenson, Versailles, March 24, 1706, Archives Nationales, Ms. Ol 367, fols. 85-86v; and. Marly, May 12, 1706, ibid., fols. 142-143v, in which the Secretary wrote: "On a cité à Sa Majesté une infinité de maisons ou l'on y joue publiquement, et on met au nombre de ces personnes M ’’’® d'Argenson et mesdames vos belles-soeurs." Unfortunately, D'Argenson's reply to this inference has been lost. 363

public order. Establishments and residences in which these activities

took place were periodically the scenes of fights and brawls. Thus,

D'Argenson occasionally wrote to the Secretary of State to obtain orders

to close down gambling operations in these places. In one such case,

in January 1699, he wrote for an order because: "cette maison où l'on

tiré l'espêe presque toutes les nuicts donnera lieu a des accidens

funestes qu'il seroit encore temps de prévenir.

In the same fashion that the authorities acted against gambling

in Paris, they also acted against le luxe (extravagance)--with the same

sort of dubious results.

According to Delamare, in his Traité de la Police, a "desordi- nate passion" for luxury and ostentation were at the root of many moral vices. But, "une longue experience a fait connoitre que de toutes nos

Loix il n'y en a point qui tombent si facilement dans l'oubli, que les

SomptuairesNo sooner were sumptuary laws dealing with le luxe

promulgated, than ways to circumvent them were invented; and, the gov­

ernment found itself issuing and reissuing a plethora of laws regarding

luxury.

One of the most comprehensive of the edicts dealing with le

luxe during Louis XIV's reign was issued in March 1700. It contained

provisions regulating, in great detail, the decorativeness of furniture,

clothing, silverplate, carriages, and buildings. The intent of the

edict, and its provisions for stiff fines, was to curb the excessive

D'Argenson to Jerome de Pontchartrain, Paris, January 21, 1699, Bibliothèque Nationale, Ms. Français 8122, fols. 474-475. 364 spending which some of the King's subjects had engaged in during the period of peace following the War of the League of Augsburg (ironically, the edict immediately preceded France's involvement in another long war).

The lieutenant général de police and the commissaires of the Chatelet were designated by the edict as the agents of enforcement; and on

March 29 D'Argenson issued a police ordonnance giving six commissaires 87 the primary responsibility for enforcing it.

In the years which followed the King and Secretary of State of the Maison du Roi were persistent in demanding the enforcement of the law. With regularity D'Argenson would receive letters from the Secretary which read:

La Roy est informé que le luxe reprend sa vigeur à Paris. . . . Sa Majesté est fort estonné que vous veillez avec si peu d'attention à 1 'execution de l'Edit qui a este conné sur ce sujet.&&

Or, on magnificent clothing:

Les demoiselles qui sont à Marly ce voyage et celles qui ont êste le precedent y ont paru avec des habits magnifiques et d'un prix bien au dessus de celuy qui est réglé par l'ordonnance. Le Roy qui en est très mecontant m'ordonne de vous escrire, qu'on lieu de luy donner la peine ainsy

87 Edit du Roi [pour le retranchement du luxe des meubles, habits, vaisselle équipages 5 batimens], Versailles, March 1700, printed in Delamare, Traité de la Police, I, 451-455. Delamare, who lived on the Ile du Palais where many of the city's goldsmith and jewelry shops were located, was one of the com­ missaires chosen for the task of enforcing the new edict. In a procbs- verbal after it had gone into effect he reported that the orfevres and jouaillers had compiled, but that a number of doreurs sur bois et sur métaux, horlogeurs, tapissers, tailleurs and couturiers were found to be in violation of it. Ibid., p. 456.

88Jérôme de Pontchartrain to D'Argenson, Fontainebleau, September 28, 1703, Archives Nationales, Ms. Ol 364, fol. 260r. 365

qu'elle s'y trouvera obligé d'en témoigner son mécon­ tentement.89

Or, on gilded carriages:

Vous ne devez point souffrir absolument qu'il y ait des carrosses dorez à Paris et le Roy veut que obligiez par les voyes les plus convenables et selon que vostre pru­ dence vous dictera ceux qui en ont â les surcharger d'une autre couleur. Je dois vous dire que Sa Majesté a si fort à coeur l'observation de l'edit du luxe qu'elle en parle souvent aux seigneurs de sa cour afin qu'ils n'ignorent pas qu'elles sont cela ses intentions.90

Why did Louis have sumptuary laws "si fort â coeur"? And, for that matter, why gambling laws? Did he really feel they were morally wrong?

Maybe, in part, inasmuch as he could see the unfortunate results among his own family and among many courtiers. But perhaps the preamble to the edict of 1700 best captures the sort of reasonable answer one might expect from Louis himself— despite the trappings of his own gloire.

89 /s Jerome de Pontchartrain to D'Argenson, Marly, January 28, 1705, Archives Nationales, Ms. 366, fol. 31r.

^^Jerome de Pontchartrain to D'Argenson, Versailles, April 22, 1705, Archives Nationales, Ms. 0^ 366, fol. 102v. One wonders if this letter, and all the others like it, were not in fact trying to counter­ mand a hopeless situation inasmuch as early modern Parisians seemed to thrive on the social competition and entertainment afforded by the close, critical observation of the demeanor and appearance of their fellow citizens. As La Bruyère wryly put it: "L'on se donne à Paris, sans se parler, comme un rendez­ vous public, mais fort exact, tous les soirs au Cours ou aux Tuileries, pour se regarder au visage et se desapprouver les uns les autres. "L'on ne peut se passer de ce même monde que l'on n'aime point, et dont l'on se moque. "L'on s'attend au passage réciproquement dans une promenade publique; l'on passe en revue l'un devant l'autre: carosse, chevaux, livrées, armoires, rien n'échappé aux yeux, tout est curieusement ou malignement observé; et selon le plus ou le moins de 1'equipage, ou l'on respecte les personnes, ou on les dédaigné." Jean de La Bruyère, Les caractères de Théophraste traduits du grec avec les caractères ou les moeurs de ce siecle, ed. by Robert Garapon (Paris, 1962), p. 206. 366

One sentence in particular seems to epitomize the notion that what

Louis had brought together was not meant to be frivolously thrown away.

It read:

Le desir que Nous avons eu de procurer l'abondance dans notre Royaume, d'y maintenir l'ordre public, § de con­ server autant qu'il est possible les fortunes de nos Sujets, Nous a obligé de faire différentes Ordonnances pour empêcher les dépenses excessives auxquelles ils s'engageoint, § la consommation en choses inutiles des matières précieuses d'or § d'argent que l'on tire aveCg^ tant de peine S de dépense des Pais les plus éloignez.

While it would be far-fetched to ascribe to Louis any sort of social conscience on the basis of these lines and the numerous lines in the administrative correspondence which followed in their wake, perhaps there is in them a kernel of social awareness and reform-mindedness that most critics of Louis XIV tend to assign only to his political and intel­ lectual opponents. Granted, one can read in them elements of mercantile economic policy and conservative police policy; but perhaps one can also read in them a concern that the dark moments of the mid-1690's, if they should repeat themselves, not be aggravated by wasteful and wanton dissipation and display of the national wealth, and that family fortunes no matter what the size not be threatened by foolish spending

(and gambling). In a wild moment of imagination one might even like to believe that Louis had read Fénelon's Lettre à Louis XIV and taken the criticism "fort à coeur," particularly the line that reads "au lieu de tirer de l'argent de ce pauvre peuple, il faudroit lui faire

^^Edit, in Delamare, Traité de la Police, I, p. 451. 367

92 1 'aumône et le nourrir." Perhaps the year 1700 was the point in

Louis's long reign when there was a great opportunity to complete the reforms that were envisioned and begun with enthusiasm in the 1660's.

It might have resulted in the crowning achievements of Louis's reign.

Instead, the crown of Spain was more alluring, and Louis dragged his kingdom into another exhaustive war.

Sorcerers, Magicians, Fortune-Tellers, Alchemists, and Other Practitioners of the Magical Arts

Though the heyday of sorcery had passed by the last decades of

Louis XIV's reign, sorcerers and their confreres in magic and the occult continued to warrant the periodic attention of the police and to comprise 93 a significant percentage of the prisoners held at the Bastille. The police had few illusions about the nature of sorcerers' activities; and they commonly referred to would-be sorcerers as "faux sorciers" (phoney sorcerers] and "fripons" (swindlers), and to their victims as "dupes."

They might well have disregarded sorcerers even more were it not for the sacrilegious ceremonies and serious crimes, such as poisonings and swindles, that sometimes accompanied the practice of sorcery. Louis

92 ^ ^ Fenelon, Lettre a Louis XIV, p. 66. 93 The essential work on sorcery in Early Modern France is: Robert Mandrou, Magistrats et sorciers en France au XVII^ siècle: Une analyse de psychologie historique ([Paris], 1968). See also: Delamare, Traite de la Police, I, 552-566, on "des magiciens, des sorciers, des devineurs, S des prognostiqueurs." On the sorcerers at the Bastille, see: Funck-Brentano, Les lettres de cachet h Paris. Naturally, the Archives de la Bastille at the Bibliothèque de l'Arsenal contain numerous dossiers on sorcerers and their confreres. 368

XIV's government evidenced its hostile attitude towards sorcery and all

other forms of non-religious or sacrilegious human activity which in­ volved supposed magical, occult, or supernatural powers, as well as poisonings in a strongly worded edict against such activities in the 94 wake of the affaire des poisons of the early 1680's. However,

the mentalité of the age provided fertile ground for the hokus-pokus

of sorcery, magic, devination, and related activities which, when com­ bined with the lure of easy money to be made by playing upon popular hopes and fears that were not fulfilled or dispelled by organized religion, served to keep the mysterious and magical arts alive.

One of the more notorious cases of sorcery during D'Argenson's

tenure in office was the Affair of the Fourteen (as Junca referred to

it in his journal), of which the central figure was Marie-Anne Dela- 95 ville. The affair, which started in the provinces, began to reach its

denouement in the Bastille on January 12, 1703, with the arrival of an

Abbe Bouillon, the first of fourteen persons to be rounded up and im­

prisoned for sorcery over the next two months. Special attention was

94 Edit [pour la punition des maléfices, empoisonnemens S autres crimes], July 1682, printed in Delamare, Traité de la Police, 1, 562-563, and with slightly different description in Isambert, Anciennes lois, XIX, 396-401. 95 Most of the voluminous material on Marie-Anne Delaville is contained in Bibliothèque de l'Arsenal, Archives de la Bastille, Ms. 10545, dossier Marie-Anne Delaville; some appears in Junca's registres, Mss. 5133-5134. See also: Charles de Coynart, Une sorcière au XVI11^ siècle. Marie-Anne de la Ville 1680-1725 (Paris, 1902), in which the author points out the possible influence of Madame Guyon on Marie- Anne. 369

paid to the capture of the famous Marie-Anne. At the end of January,

Secretary of State Jerome de Pontchartrain ordered the intendant at

Tours to make a special effort to capture the elusive sorceress, who was rumored to be in his locale, and to send her with the utmost secrecy

and precaution to the Bastille.Within two weeks, the intendant re­ ported to Pontchartrain that the capture had been made by a former

lieutenant of the provincial maréchaussée to whom the task had been

entrusted. The only complication was an illness which Marie-Anne had 97 suddenly developed which prevented her from traveling. However, in

Paris, lieutenant général de police D'Argenson had learned (probably

from one of the sorceress's captured cohorts) that Marie-Anne's illness was probably self-induced, since she was reputed to be able to cough

and spit blood at will. In order to outwit her, D'Argenson suggested

to Pontchartrain that she be placed in a litter and informed that she

was being taken to a convent, but then in reality transferred as quickly

as possible to the Bastille without being interrogated (presumably,

D'Argenson did not want to alarm or prepare Delaville for what was in

store for her). Better yet, he thought, the officer in charge of her

transfer should tell her that the whole affair was probably a case of

^^Jérôme de Pontchartrain to Jacques Etienne Turgot, Versailles, January 31, 1703, Archives Nationales, Ms. 364, fol. 30.

^^Lehoux, ancien lieutenant de la maréchaussée, to Jérôme de Pontchartrain, Mayenne, February 14, 1703, Bibliothèque de l'Arsenal, Archives de la Bastille, Ms. 10545, dossier Delaville; and, Jérôme de Pontchartrain to D'Argenson, Marly, February 17, 1703, Archives Nationales, Ms. 0^ 364, fol. 42r. 370 mistaken identity. Further, he suggested that she be given a companion who would have a sympathetic ear for her ailments yet would say nothing about the affair in which she was involved. Finally, D'Argenson sug­ gested that some of Marie-Anne's confiscated books and papers also be sent to Paris even though, he boasted, the case against her was already so well documented, she would scarcely be able to resist the facts of 98 the matter in her forthcoming interrogations . Pontchartrain then wrote to the intendant to have Marie-Anne transferred from her point of illness to Alençon, and to have part of her papers sent to the greffier of the commissions extraordinaire of the Conseil, who lived in Paris. Three days later, he sent a copy of D'Argenson's letter to the intendant at Alençon and ordered him to carry outthe transfer of 99 Marie-Anne to the Bastille in the manner prescribed by D'Argenson.

Two weeks later, Marie-Anne arrived at the Bastille in the prescribed litter! In the course of the next seven months, Marie-Anne was inter­ rogated at length by the lieutenant general de police, and was confirmed to be a "fausse sorcière." Marie-Anne had claimed to be able to command the prince of Babel and other spirits to do her bidding. But, as

D'Argenson remarked, "toute cette autorité disparut à la Bastille."

Marie-Anne's success as a sorceress had, it seemed, stemmed from her

98 ^ /s D'Argenson to Jerome de Pontchartrain, Paris, February 1703, copy, in Bibliothèque de l'Arsenal, Archives de la Bastille, Ms. 10545, dossier Delaville. 99 Jérôme de Pontchartrain to Turgot, Marly, February 24, 1703, Archives Nationales, Ms. 0^ 364, fol. 50; Jerome de Pontchartrain to Nicolas Prosper Bauyn d'Angervilliers, [Marly-?], February 27, 1703, ibid., fol. 50v; Jérôme de Pontchartrain to D'Argenson, [Marly-?], February 27, 1703, ibid. 371 ventriloquist-like ability with voices and her natural persuasiveness in conjuring up spirits for the benefit of "dupes" whom she deceived.

As a result of these revelations, she, and many of those arrested in the affair were sent to the Hôpital Général to atone for the sacrilegious excesses of their sorcery.

In addition to conjuring up spirits and performing black masses and other sordid ceremonies, early modern sorcerers and magicians did a flourishing business in love potions, marriage counseling, and advice to the lovelorn. (Apparently, many individuals were hopeful that the supernatural would attract what the natural could not.) Frequently, the police reports about suspected sorcerers contain evidence that they had bilked money from unsuspecting dupes who were anxious to have a suc­ cessful conjugal life. One of D ’Argenson's exempts, Symonnet, spent a considerable amount of time investigating the hoaxes perpetrated by some of these fraudulent sorcerers. He reported in one instance on an unfortunate blanchisseuse who was swindled out of several hundred livres by a group of unscrupulous sorceresses-matchmakers. The attempt to capture one of the suspects in the case is of particular interest be­ cause it again illustrates the means by which the police of Paris extended their activities beyond the limits of the capital itself. The suspect in question, Marie Anne Gasgon (alias Poncet, alias Legrand), had gone

Interrogations of Marie-Anne Delaville, Bibliothèque de l'Arsenal, Archives de la Bastille, Ms. 10545, dossier Delaville; and Funck-Brentano, Lettres de cachet, p. 135.

^^^Ibid.; and, Junca, registre. Bibliothèque de l'Arsenal, Ms. 5134. 372 to Rouen before the police could arrest her. Secretary of State Pont­ chartrain then ordered the intendant at Rouen, Nicolas Etienne Roujault, to locate her and send her to the Bastille. However, Roujault had dif­ ficulty making a positive identification of the suspect,and, fearing that he might arrest the wrong woman, wrote back to Pontchartrain for 102 further information. Pontchartrain, anxious to have the correct suspect arrested, decided to have officer Symonnet himself go to

Rouen to arrest Gasgon. In the meantime, Roujault had

come to Paris and Pontchartrain suggested that D'Argenson confer with him on the Gasgon matter.Shortly thereafter, Symonnet went to Rouen with a royal writ; and, after advising the First Presi­ dent of the Parlement of his mission, he arrested Gasgon and led her back to Paris.As it turned out, Gasgon was a victim of the maladie infâme which prevented the lieutenant général de police from interro­ gating her extensively. He assessed that her disease would soon lead her to her grave, so he requested and received orders for her transfer to the Hôpital Général.

102 ^ ^ Jerome de Pontchartrain to D'Argenson, Versailles, May 23, 1713, and attached letter of Roujault to Jérôme de Pontchartrain, Rouen, May 17, 1713, Bibliothèque de l'Arsenal, Archives de la Bastille, Ms. 10607, dossier Gasgon (Poncet). Roujault's concern stemmed from the fact that he had already had one bad experience when he arrested the wrong person in another case in which he received an order from Pontchartrain. 103 Jérôme de Pontchartrain to D'Argenson, [Versailles], June 27, 1713, ibid. 104 Symonnet to D'Argenson, [Paris], July 15, 1713, ibid.

^^^D'Argenson to Camuset, commissaire, Paris, September 14, 1713, ibid.; Funck-Brentano, Lettres de cachet, p. 173. 373

The desire of the King and the Secretary of State of the Maison du Roi to know in the least detail all of the names, places and other relevant (and sometimes irrelevant) facts of cases involving the magical arts filtered down through the lieutenant général de police to the police officers under him. In April 1701, for instance, when commissaire

Daminois wrote to D'Argenson in the case of a suspected sorcerer named

Aubert de Saint-Étienne,he told him that he had received his informa­ tion in the form of a mémoire from individuals who wished to remain anonymous. However, the commissaire judged it his duty to "conceal nothing" from D'Argenson, to whom he sent the name, address, and socio­ professional status of each of his sources as well as their mémoire 107 (undoubtedly to vouch for their reliability). The mémoire itself related in great detail various incidents and claims made by Aubert de Saint-Étienne concerning satanic forces, genies, and sacrilegious ceremonies. As the affair appeared to involve members of the clergy and a trésorier of the Temple, Jérôme de Pontchartrain, writing on behalf of the King, evidenced a great concern in the matter and urged D'Argenson 108 to pursue it with all possible attention. D'Argenson did. He em­ ployed one Madame Frêmy to pose as a prospective client seeking Saint-

^^^Bibliothèque de l'Arsenal, Archives de la Bastille, Ms. 10527, dossier Aubert de St.-Etienne.

^^^Daminois to D'Argenson, [Paris], April 22, 1701, and mémoire, ibid. 1 08 Letters of Jérôme de Pontchartrain to D'Argenson, Versailles, May 5 and May 26, 1701, Archives Nationales, Ms.Ol 362, fols. ITTv- 174v, and 193-194. 374

109 Etienne's special magical talents. As a result, the self-claimed sorcerer landed unceremoniously in the Bastille where he admitted, among other things, to be able to foresee all of the events which would trouble all of the rulers of Europe until the end of the century. This was enough

^ 110 to assure him a long stay in prison.

The investigation of suspected sorcerers, magicians, fortune­ tellers and other practitioners of the magical arts, was generally ini­ tiated by the receipt of an accusatory placet by either the lieutenant general de police or the Secretary of State charged with the administra­ tion of Paris. When the latter received such a placet, he simply passed it on to the lieutenant général for investigation. The lieutenant général in turn usually entrusted it to one of the special officers as­ signed to his service (each of whom seemed to specialize in certain types of police cases). Thus, in January 1712, when Jérôme de Pontchartrain sent D'Argenson a placet that he had received from a woman named Voisin who accused a widow named Valentin of being a devineresse in matters of lost or stolen items and in marriages,D'Argenson sent officer Symonnet to confirm that Voisin had made the charges. She had; so Symonnet pro­ ceeded to send a "demoiselle de confiance" to meet Valentin in order to

Frémy to D'Argenson, [Paris], [June 1701], Bibliothèque de l'Arsenal, Archives de la Bastille, Ms. 10527, dossier Aubert de St.- Etienne.

^^^St.-Etienne was transferred to Charenton in 1706. Funck- Brentano, Lettres de cachet, p. 124.

^^^The accused divineresse was Marie Guillotin, widow of Charles Valentin. Bibliothèque de l'Arsenal, Archives de la Bastille, Ms. 10600, dossier Guillotin/Valentin. 375 establish first-hand evidence of the truth of the accusations. The woman he sent faked her need for assistance in finding something that had been stolen and for advice in regard to marital matters. The meeting took place in a cabaret because, as Symonnet correctly guessed,

Valentin did not wish those whom she duped to know where she lived.

Valentin offered to provide Symonnet*s undercover agent with a drug that would cause her to have a vision while she slept of the thief who had supposedly robbed her. She also offered the agent a magical bottle of water in which she would be able to see anything that she wished.

Finally, she offered to improve the agent's love life with a special love potion--all for the modest price of a louis d'or (20 livres)!

Symonnet also reported that Valentin had a twelve year-old daughter to whom she was teaching her tricks; and, he added, he hoped that the lieutenant general's ordinary charitable discretion would be extended 112 to help the young girl. As a result of the investigation, Valentin was taken to the Bastille (as most diviners and sorcerers in Paris ini- 113 tially were) where she was interrogated by D'Argenson; soon afterwards, she was transferred to the Salpetriere for correction. The young girl, it turned out, was not really Valentin's daughter, but simply a young trainee in the magic arts and in abortion. She too was sent to the

Salpetriere, though to a different section than her pretended mother.

112 Symonnet to D'Argenson, [Paris], January 20, 1712, ibid. 113 Symonnet to D'Argenson, [Paris], February 12, 1712, ibid.; "extraits des interrogatoires," Bibliothèque Nationale, Ms. Clairambault 983, fol. 494. 376 where it was reported several years later that she was making good pro­

gress in learning the essentials of religion and of activities that would permit her to support herself without recourse to the magical arts.

The attitude of the police towards the ever-popular arts of fortune-telling and astrology were predictable. They discouraged them.

In March 1701, for example, Bardy de Villeclerc reluctantly emerged into the official spotlight as "un homme qui passe pour fameux dans ce métier" (i.e., astrology, horoscopes, and predictions); and his case

serves to illustrate more of the day-to-day methods employed by the police.11^ D ’Argenson, upon learning of Villeclerc’s questionable activities, sent one of his exempts, in this case Aulmont the Younger, to investigate. Aulmont, in turn, sent an agent to Villeclerc’s house to purchase a horoscope in order to obtain the positive proof needed to trap the astrologer in his craft. The agent learned while carr> ,ng out his mission that Villeclerc had supposedly prepared horo­

scopes for a maître des requêtes and a conseiller. To gather addi­

tional evidence against Villeclerc, commissaire Delamare, in whose quartier the astrologer lived, was sent to search his residence, and he found additional horoscopes and a talisman which he confiscated,

^^^Bibliotheque de l'Arsenal, Archives de la Bastille, Ms. 10602, dossier Valentin [the young protégée].

^^^Bibliothèque de l'Arsenal, Archives de la Bastille, Ms. 10528, dossier François-Henri Bardy de Villeclerc.

^^^Letters of Aulmont the Younger to D'Argenson, [Paris], March 2 and March 3, 1701, ibid. 377 sealed (as was the practice in such seizures), and turned over to another 117 of D'Argenson's exempts. Villeclerc was held for a year in the

Bastille, partly as a result of his daring to forecast the horoscopes 118 of the royal princes and the King himself. The case of Villeclerc also illustrates another aspect of government and police methods under

Louis XIV and Jerome de Pontchartrain, namely, the protection of im­ portant persons from possible implication in scandalous affairs. In this instance, Pontchartrain complimented D'Argenson on his omission of the names of persons from Villeclerc's interrogatoire judique. But, desirous of knowing all the facts himself, he demanded a special mémoire from D'Argenson regarding the persons with whom Villeclerc had

(or claimed to have) contact in the practice of his avocation. As if to reassure D'Argenson on the matter, Pontchartrain wrote "personne ne le ,,119 verra."

Treasure hunting and alchemy were two more of the mysterious and magical arts which the government and police saw fit not to appreciate during Louis XIV's reign. In a letter to Controller General Chamillart in September 1702, D'Argenson summed up his own opinion about hunting for

117 Delamare to D'Argenson, [Paris], March 18, 1701, ibid. The exempt was a member of the compagnie du prévôt général de l'Ile. 118 He was exiled into the custody of a relative in Argentan in Normandy. Funck-Brentano, Lettres de cachet, p. 123.

^^^Jérôme de Pontchartrain to D'Argenson, Fontainebleau, October 19, 1701, Archives Nationales, Ms.Ol 362, fols. 336-339. 378 buried treasures when he wrote; "J'ay toujours remarque que les trésors me fuyent, et je veux croire que cette antipathie ne sied pas mal â un magistrat de police." The police chief-turned-satirist referred to the consistent inability of treasure hunters to produce a cache in his presence. In fact, he continued, it had just happened to him again when he went to observe an excavation for a treasure for which Madame

Bethune had obtained an arrêt to dig. As it turned out, the individual who had claimed to know the location of the treasure disappeared just prior to the digging, but not before he had bilked his financial backers 120 out of several hundred livres. In general, the ministers and the police had few illusions about the schemes of persons who invoked spirits and engaged in alchemy and hidden treasure searches. As Secretary of

State Pontchartrain cynically suggested in a letter to D'Argenson con­ cerning an investigation into such a case, the suspects should be ques­ tioned to determine if, under the pretext of chemistry, they were not actually engaged in counterfeiting "comme cella arrive souvent et 121 presque toujours. ..."

Like a pot of gold at the end of a rainbow, the elusive philo­ sophers' stone (the legendary elixirial substance of alchemy that could change baser metals into precious ones) was an irrepressible attraction to the early modern imagination; and, on at least one occasion, the lure

170 D'Argenson to Chamillart, Paris, September 1, 1702, Archives Nationales, Ms. 431. 121 Jérôme de Pontchartrain to D'Argenson, n.p., September 25, 1708, Bibliothèque de l'Arsenal, Archives de la Bastille, Ms. 10583, dossier Bègue. 379

of gold almost proved too much for the government itself to resist.

In April 1715, Colbert de Torcy, Jérôme de Pontchartrain, and D'Argenson

all received mémoires concerning a self-styled Italian named Diesback

living in the Rue Baubourg who, it was claimed, knew how to transmute

baser metals into gold and silver so that even goldsmiths were deceived 122 /s by the results. Jérôme de Pontchartrain wrote to D'Argenson on

April 10 that both he and the King wanted the police chief to verify

"à fond" and with "une grande exactitude et une grande attention," 123 the details of the allegations. After a preliminary inquiry had verified Diesback's existence and his dabbling in alchemy, but fallen

short of establishing his alleged accomplishments, Pontchartrain wrote again, on April 27, that Diesback was undoubtedly a "fripon" who sought out dupes under the pretext of having the secret of the pierre philosophale. He ordered the police chief to arrest him, to

interrogate him, and to hold him incommunicado at the Bastille. He

also ordered that his papers and other effects be seized and searched.

On May 2, Pontchartrain wrote again that, although he personally

felt that affairs such as Diesback's were always a case of fraud,

he had received another mémoire which claimed that Diesback really

did know the secret of transmuting metals. Therefore, the King, ac­

cording to the Secretary of State, wanted D'Argenson to do everything

1 oo Bibliothèque de l'Arsenal, Archives de la Bastille, Ms. 10620, dossier Diesback [Girard]. 123 Jérôme de Pontchartrain to D'Argenson, n.p., April 10, 1715, ibid.

^^^Jérôme de Pontchartrain to D'Argenson, n.p., April 27, 1715, ibid. 380 possible to reach a definitive conclusion in the matter, even if it meant interrogating Diesback incessantly and making him perform his 125 wonderous works. (Maybe Louis XIV was half-hoping that there was some truth to Diesback's purported talent. He certainly could have used the money.) The King agreed to a suggestion by D'Argenson that suspicious items and substances among Diesback's effects be analyzed by a maître apothicaire prior to Diesback's interrogation. So on

May 23, Antoine Lenoir, a master apothecary of Paris, went to the

Bastille to examine the chemicals, ores, and metals contained in a chest owned by Diesback. The examination failed to produce any special secret substances, and Diesback himself, whose real name it had been discovered was Joseph-Marie Girard, remained intransigent in his re­ fusal to perform any of his experiments--possibly because he had 127 nothing special to demonstrate. Nevertheless, Pontchartrain wrote again, on May 29, that the King had been informed (by an unnamed source) that Diesback might be willing to talk or work in the presence of a

Dr. Boudin (formerly the physician of Monseigneur, Louis XIV's deceased son) whom he knew and trusted. Hedging against an unexpected success, 128 Pontchartrain ordered D'Argenson to continue his interrogations.

125 > Jerome de Pontchartrain to D'Argenson, n.p.. May 2, 1715, ibid.

Jerome de Pontchartrain to D'Argenson, n.p.. May 8 , 1715, ibid. 127 Description of Lenoir's examination of the contents of the cas­ sette of Joseph-Marie Girard, alias Diesback, May 23, 1715, in ibid. 128 - Letters of Jerome de Pontchartrain to D'Argenson, n.p.. May 29, and June 18, 1715, ibid. 381

As it turned out, Boudin and the ever-skeptical D'Argenson made a deal.

For his part, Boudin convinced Diesback to admit that he had no special talent that was useful to the state, and that his method of extracting gold and silver from ore was more expensive than profitable. In return,

D'Argenson agreed to write to Pontchartrain to seek an early release of

Diesback into the custody of Boudin so that the latter might attempt to 129 rehabilitate the former as a physician. Accordingly, D'Argenson ordered commissaire Cailly to obtain a signed interrogation from Diesback that conformed to the latter's admissions to Boudin. He added that he himself intended to propose to Diesback that he leave the kingdom after 130 his stay with Boudin. Pontchartrain and the King agreed to the ar­ rangement to have Diesback work in Boudin's laboratory, but they pre­ ferred to take a wait-and-see attitude (one can almost imagine one of

Louis's famous "je verrai" comments) before ordering Diesback to leave the kingdom; perhaps they even thought there still might be something to the 131 pierre philosophale. On July 26, Diesback was released into 132 Boudin's custody, and presumably lived the rest of his life in obscurity— at least he never reappeared at the Bastille--and the pot of gold remained as elusive as ever.

129 Letters of Boudin to D'Argenson, Paris, June 29, and Marly, July 15, 1715, ibid. 130 Note from D'Argenson to commissaire Cailly, appended to Boudin letter of July 15, July 17, 1715, ibid. 131 ^ Jérôme de Pontchartrain to D'Argenson, n.p., July 23, 1715, ibid. 132 Funck-Brentano, Lettres de cachet, p. 179. 382

Finally, with regard to the mysterious arts and the conjuring up of evil spirits, there was the related problem of individuals who appeared to be possessed by spirits or supernatural forces. D'Argenson's skepticism about "spirits" possessing people was abundantly clear in his letters to Pontchartrain. His primary concern in such cases was the public commotion that they caused. In one such case, in 1713, a general nuisance resulted when the daughter of a Farmer-General (tax farmer) was thought to be possessed by what D'Argenson dubbed a "prétendu esprit."

The rites of exorcism were even being considered as a remedy. D'Argenson in his report to Pontchartrain was critical of the girl's father,

Maurice Tessart. If the incident had occurred to a member of "le peuple," he wrote, strong measures would have been taken to prevent public excitement and scandal. However, because of Tessart's social position, the case had to be handled with circumspection. The problem, as D'Argenson saw it, was that Tessart did not have the strength of resolve to send his daughter to a convent in the provinces where the

"spirit" would soon be forgotten. Instead, Tessart's home had become a curiosity attraction for persons from all over Paris; and D'Argenson 133 had to use a squad of police officers to control the crowds.

133 D'Argenson to Jérôme de Pontchartrain, Paris, November 14, 1713, Bibliothèque Nationale, Ms. Français 8125, fols. 311-312v. CHAPTER VIII

FOREIGN AFFAIRS AND THE WAR EFFORT

After seeing in previous chapters the involvement of the police

in so many aspects of the public and private lives of individuals, it is perhaps not surprising to discover that they were also involved in matters related to foreign affairs and war. In general, anything that was even remotely related to diplomacy or the war effort was liable to be the subject of police investigation; and the close liaison of the

lieutenant general de police with the Secretaries of State for War and

Foreign Affairs during the latter years of Louis XIV's reign attests to

the frequency with which such investigations took place. The circum­ stances of a lengthy war and an active diplomacy made it possible for

the lieutenant general de police to augment his reporting relationships with ministers other than the Secretary of State of the Maison du Roi which, though it meant more duties and more work, gave him increased visibility in the administrative structure and brought even more of the

information he generated to the attention of the King.

Foreigners and Spies

Unquestionably, the major task undertaken by the police in

support of the war effort and foreign affairs was the surveillance of

foreigners. The lieutenant general de police and the commissaires of

383 384 the Châtelet, being stationed as they were in each quartier, provided a city-wide network for such a task. Theoretically, the surveillance should have been an easy task since police regulations required that aubergistes report to the commissaires within twenty-four hours the ar­ rival of foreigners in their establishments. The commissaires in turn reported the arrivals to the lieutenant général de police or one of his aides; and the lieutenant general decided whether or not to investigate further. Depending on the information he received, the lieutenant général notified one or more Secretaries of State (which almost always meant Col­ bert de Torcy or Jérôme de Pontchartrain, or both). When the system worked smoothly, D'Argenson would receive a short note such as the one sent by commissaire Regnard on November 1, 1704:

Lamb, medecin anglais et sa femme de Londres sont revenus loger chez Saint-Martin cloitre Saint-Etienne- des Grecs, ce l^r novembre 1704. ^ Comm. Regnard L.

D'Argenson, as was his habit, wrote his decision on the note itself, so that his greffier could draw up the orders: "M. Aulmont l'aisné pour 2 3 s'en informer ce 12 novembre 1704." Aulmont the Elder then investi- • gated and reported back to D'Argenson that Lamb was the twenty-eight year old son of the deceased physician of James II of England, also deceased.

^Bibliothèque de l'Arsenal, Archives de la Bastille, Ms. 10552, dossier Lamb.

^Note, ibid.

^Aulmont the Elder was one of D'Argenson's aides who was offi­ cially attached to the company of the lieutenant criminel de robe courte. 385

He had studied medicine at Reims; and, following his father's death he had gone to England with his wife (la demoiselle Hebb, also English, but raised in a French convent), and practiced medicine in London. He had

left England and gone to Holland two months earlier with his wife and

two boys under assumed names ("ayent este obliges de changer leurs noms

à cause qu'il est déffandu en Angleterre, soub peinne de la vie, aux

catholiques, d'en sortir pour venir en France"). From Holland, he and his wife had come to Paris to visit his mother who was still living

there.^ D'Argenson passed this information on to Secretaries of State

Pontchartrain and Torcy; and, apparently, both in turn inquired of the

English Court-in-exile at Saint-Germain-en-Laye whether Lamb was known

there.^ Pontchartrain replied to D'Argenson that Lamb was not "assez connu du roi et de la reine d'Angleterre pour etre hors de soupçon"; and he ordered the lieutenant général to place him in the Bastille and to

interrogate him "le plustost qu'il se pourra afin de ne l'y pas retenir

longtemps s'il ne le mérité pas."^ Unfortunately for Lamb, it was

decided that he did merit the Bastille. D'Argenson interrogated him and

^Two letters from Aulmont to D'Argenson, Paris, November 12 and November 20, 1704, in ibid.

^Note of D'Argenson, undated, in ibid. Torcy apparently sent D'Argenson a response he had received from Lord Middleton, but it has been lost. On the relationship of Louis XIV's government with the Jacobites, see: Claude Nordmann, "Louis XIV and the Jacobites," in Louis XIV and Europe, ed. by Ragnhild Hatton (London, 1976), pp. 82-111.

^Jérôme de Pontchartrain to D'Argenson, Versailles, December 3, 1704, Archives Nationales, Ms. 0^ 365, fols. 281v-282r. 386 wrote to Pontchartrain:

Je crois que vous jugerez par ses réponses que sa detention estoit encore plus nécessaire que je ne l'avois presume d'abord. Je n'avois alors contre luy que la qualité d'Anglois et le faux nom qu'il avoit pris dans son passe- part, mais ses réponses et ses écrits le convainquent d'être entré en conference avec milord Marlborough pour luy servir d'espion, et quoyqu'il désavoue d'avoir accepté sa proposition, les offres qu'il fait de renouver cette négociation pour la service de la France, sont plus propre a faire naistre des soubçons qu'à les dissiper. Aincy je pense que cet étranger doit être retenu à la Bastille comme très suspect ou renvoyé dans son pays sans retarde­ ment et le premier party me paroistroit plus convenable au service du Roy que le second si des raisons secrettes et particulières n'obligent de preferer celuy-cy.?

Pontchartrain replied: "Il ne convient pas de renvoyer le nommé Lamb,

Anglais: il sera au contraire soigneusement gardé à la Bastille pendant O longtemps." And so he was until 1708 when he was finally released and exiled from the kingdom.

Information about foreigners in Paris came to the Secretaries of

State and the police from a variety of sources. In addition to the already-mentioned aubergistes, military governors (who issued passeports in border provinces), postal commis (who were under the control of the

Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs), informers, domestics, transport workers, government agents abroad, and members of the English Court at

Saint-Germain all provided information. No matter what the source, however, the lieutenant général de police ordinarily conducted any re­ sultant investigations in Paris. His correspondence with the Secretaries

7 Paris, December 21, 1704, Bibliothèque Nationale, Ms. Français 8124, fols. 90-91. g Jérôme de Pontchartrain to D'Argenson, Versailles, December 24, 1704, Archives Nationales, Ms. 0^ 365, fol. 301r-v. 387 of State on the subject of foreigners was frequent. He would write, for example, to Colbert de Torcy, Secretary of State for Foreign Af- g fairs, that:

On m ’a donné advis que le Sr. Bergeret qui loge à 1 'extrémité de la rue Montmartre a des relations à la cour de Vienne, qu'il y escrit et qu'il en reçoit des lettres. Il semble même que les correspondances de cet homme doivent estre d'autant plus suspects que depuis le dernier traitte de Riswick, estant chez Mr le Comte de Sinzendorff ou logeoit alors l'ambassadeur de l'Empereur, qui revenait de Madrid, il luy eschappa de dire des choses qui ne per- mettoint pas de douter qu'il ne fut en comerce de lettres avec eux pendant la derniere guerre: Si vous desiriez que je vous envoyasse de son écriture; Je croy que cela ne me seroit pas bien difficille, et je suis persuadé que la 10 poste donneroit lieu de penetrer dans toutes ses intrigues

Or, he would offer the minister lengthy descriptions of suspects. In the case of a foreigner who had been under surveillance for several days, he wrote:

9 On Jean-Baptiste Colbert, marquis de Torcy, see: John C. Rule, "King and Minister: Louis XIV and Colbert de Torcy," in William III and Louis XIV: Essays 1680-1720 by and for Mark A. Thomson, ed. by Ragnhild Hatton and J. S. Bromley (Liverpool, 1968), pp. 213-236; idem., "Colbert de Torcy, an Emergent Bureaucracy, and the Formulation of French Foreign Policy, 1698-1715," in Louis XIV and Europe, ed. by Ragnhild Hatton (London, 1976), pp. 261-288; William Roth, "Jean- Baptiste Colbert, Marquis de Torcy," in Roland Mousnier, Le Conseil du Roi de Louis XIII à la Révolution (Paris, 1970), pp. 175-203; Joseph Klaits, Printed Propaganda under Louis XIV (Princeton, 1976); and, especially the minister himself in the Journal inédit de Jean-Baptiste Colbert, marquis de Torcy ministre et secretaire d'etat des affaires étrangères pendant les annees 1709, 1710, et 1711, ed. by Frederic Masson (Paris, 1884). For a general discussion of the whole problem of foreigners in France, see: Jules Mathorez, Les étrangers en France sous l'ancien régime, 2 vols. (Paris, 1919).

^%'Argenson to Torcy, Paris, June 2, 1702, Archives des Affaires Etrangères, Correspondence Politique, Autriche 80, fol. 167. 388

. . . Mais je dois avoir l'honneur de vous dire qu'il garde beaucoup de mesures, qu'il est fort circomspect dans touttes ses demarches et qu'il ne luy eschape aucuns discours qui puissent exciter contre luy le moindre soubçon. Il est age de 30 à 32 ans et origin de L'isle en flandre ou son pere est estably. Sa taille est mediocre, ses cheveux sont bruns et crespez, ses yeux noirs, son nez pointu et assez long, son visage fort plain; Il vend de touttes sortes de marchandises; mais principalIment des Cheveux; Il fait tous ses voyages à pied et parte sur ses epaulles un assez gros sac que est couvert de moquette verte. Il va souvent en hollande et en Angleterre et la derniere fois qu'il est venu à Paris il n'y est demeuré que cinq jours. Il loge ordinairemt dans la rue boulabé au lion Dargent. . . . H

Or, he might offer the Secretary his general views on foreigners. In the case of those from hostile countries, if D'Argenson had had his way, he would have resolved the problem by banning all of them from Paris. As he wrote in 1709 in the case of a Portuguese apprentice tailor:

Nous avons à Paris depuis six ans un garçon tailleur nomme Joseph de Souza originaire de Lisbonne. Les maitrès des auberges ou il a logé en rendent des témoignages avantageux; cependant le pais de son origine excite contre luy de justes soubçons et il y auroit moins d 'inconvenians à chasser de Paris tous les sujets des Etats avec qui la France et en guerre que de les y tolerer comme on fait; puisque la regie generalle decide contre eux et qu'on ne peut penetrer le secret de leurs intentions. . . .12

While he was not always successful in locating suspects on whom he had received information, D'Argenson had enough confidence in his police network that he could ordinarily assure Torcy that "Si 1 'homme que nous cherchons est encore à Paris je suis asseuré qu'il ne nous

^^D'Argenson to Torcy, Paris, June 6 , 1702, Archives des Affaires Etrangères, Correspondance Politique, Angleterre 214, fols. 216-217V. 12 D'Argenson to Torcy, Paris, January 20, 1709, Archives des Affaires Etrangères, Correspondance Politique, Portugal 45, fols. 1S8-159V. 389 echapera pas."^^

For his part, Torcy periodically wrote to D'Argenson that, for example, the King had been informed (by an undisclosed source) that one Daniel Garry "Irlandais dont les desseins sont très suspects" was in Paris, and had to be watched very carefully.Or, with regard to a

Dutchman who had arrived in Paris without a passport.

Je vous prie de prendre la peine de vous informer où il loge, de tacher de découvrir pour quelle affaire il est venu, a quoy il s'occupe, comment il le conduit et avec quels gens il a commerce, afin que je puisse informer Sa Majesté des eclairissements que vous me donnerez sur ce sujet.15

The reporting of information on foreign ambassadors and envoys was always an important part of D'Argenson's work for Torcy, as well as for Jerome de Pontchartrain. Whether it was a case of discovering the location of the son of one of the secretaries of the Due of Hanover, or reporting on the mistreatment of the secretary of the envoy from 17 Parma by the dog of a rich merchant, or reporting on the departure

13 'D'Argenson to Torcy, Paris, June 7, 1703, Archives des Affaires Etrangères, Correspondance Politique, Angleterre 215, fol. 126v.

^^Torcy to D'Argenson, Versailles, May 7, 1703, ibid., fol. 8 8 . As it turned out, Garry was arrested and spent ten years in the Bastille for espionage; see: Bibliothèque de l'Arsenal, Archives de la Bastille, Ms. 10542, dossier Garry.

^^Torcy to D'Argenson, Versailles, January 15, 1703, Archives des Affaires Etrangères, Correspondance Politique, Hollande 200, fol. 13.

^^D'Argenson to Torcy, Paris, April 23, 1702, Archives des Affaires Etrangères, Correspondance Politique, Brunswick-Hanovre 38, fol. 403. He was located at the residence of a Swedish envoy. 17 D'Argenson to Torcy, Paris, July 9, 1702, Archives des Affaires Etrangères, Correspondance Politique, Parme 5, fol. 185. The same 390

18 of a member of the English ambassador's entourage, the lieutenant general de police was apt to send to the Secretaries whatever information he gathered. In some cases, the information was highly detailed as a result of police contacts with the domestic staff of a diplomatic resi­ dence. Following a meal given for the English ambassador at the Hotel des Ambassadeurs Extraordinaires, D'Argenson sent to Versailles a detailed 19 account of what was eaten and what was said.

Jerome de Pontchartrain was as interested as Torcy (and even more insistent) that D'Argenson constantly provide him with information on foreigners and foreign envoys in Paris. Perhaps he was not altogether pleased with the reporting relationship between the lieutenant général and the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs; perhaps it was part of his insatiable desire for detailed information, but whatever the motive he, like Torcy, received extensive information about foreigners in Paris.

He did not leave D'Argenson much of an alternative. Since the lieutenant general de police was told that his letters were read to the King, he was urged to provide as much information as possible. Pontchartrain periodically reminded him, for instance, that:

secretary was back in the police correspondence several years later when he apparently became enamored with his wife's sister and caused quite a scandal in the parish of Saint-Sulpice. See: D'Argenson to Torcy, Paris, February 24, 1705, ibid., fols. 252-253. 18 D'Argenson to Torcy, Paris, October 26, 1702, Archives des Affaires Etrangères, Correspondance Politique, Angleterre 214, fol. 312.

^^D'Argenson to [Jérôme de Pontchartrain], [Paris], November 19, 1699, with mémoire. Bibliothèque Nationale, Ms. Clairambault 806, fols. 240-243V. 391

Vous devez aussy me tenir exactement informe de tous les étrangers qui arrivent à Paris, mesme des Anglois. On scaura distinguer ceux qui seront avouez par le Roy d'Angleterre [i.e., the Pretender].20

Or,

Continuez à m'escrire ce qui se passera chez M. l'ambassa­ deur d'Espagne, par rapport au retranchement de son traint et autres choses qui mêritteront curiosité.21

And D'Argenson would periodically send back reports, such as:

Voici les nouvelles qui se répandent icy parmy les étrangers, On assure que les Hollandois continuent leurs instances auprès de l'empereur pour se faire déclarer members de l'empire, mais on a peine à comprendre que cette négocia­ tion puisse être agréable au roy d'Angleterre, ny que les Etats ozent la faire sans sa participation. M. Heimskerk est tousjours dangereusement malade. Cependant on commerce a esperer qu'il n'en moura pas. Les Saxons qui sont à Paris se proposent de sortir de France aussitôt que la paix sera conclue entre la Suede et le roy de Pologne, leur souverain, ne doutant pas que toutes ses troupes ne passent au service de l'empereur. Il est arrivé icy depuis le commencement du mois, un assez grand nombre de Saxons, et suivant le nouvel ordre que j'ai cru devoir établir pour la police des chambres garnies, j'ay esté informé de leur arrivée dèz le lendemain. Les baigneurs et les chirurgiens résistent encore à la l'observation de cette règle, mais il sera facile de les y assujettir, lorsqu'il plaira au Roy de l'ordonner et que la conjoncture des temps le fera juger nécessaire.22

20 A / \ Jérôme de Pontchartrain to D'Argenson, Versailles, April 23, 1703, ibid., fol. 95.

21 ^ Jérôme de Pontchartrain to D'Argenson, Versailles, September 25, 1706, Archives Nationales, Ms. 0^ 367, fol. 264r-v.

22 D'Argenson to Jérôme ^ de Pontchartrain, Paris, January 13, 1701, Bibliothèque Nationale, Ms. Français 8122, fol. 132v. Pontchartrain remarked in the margin, "bon." Visits to the city by members of the members of the English Court at Saint-Germain were also certain to elicit a report from the lieutenant général, as in the case of the visit of James III, the Pre­ tender, to the Comédie Française in 1706. See: D'Argenson to Jérôme de Pontchartrain, Paris, October 19, 1706, Bibliothèque Nationale, Ms. Français 8120, fols. 273-277. 392

As politics determined the government's attitude towards foreign nationals, reprisals against foreigners were used to rectify unfavorable

treatment of Frenchmen by foreign princes. In Paris, such reprisals were carried out by the lieutenant général de police upon orders of

the King and ministers. In 1697, for instance, D'Argenson was sent

the following ordre by the King:

Monsieur D'Argenson, la mauvaise conduitte, et les procédez violens que l'on a tenu en Pologne et à Dantzic envers mes sujets ou envers ceux qui se sont trouvez audit pays chargez d'affaires pour des François, m'obligeant de prendre des mesures pour les obliger à faire raison de ces violences. Je vous écris cette lettre pour vous dire que mon intention est que vous vous transportier incessam­ ment dans tous les lieux et endroits de ma bonne ville de Paris ou il y aura des marchands ou banquiers Polonois ou Dantzicois que vous lieu de seurëtê en laissant cependant aux dits marchands la liberté de leurs personnes. Je veux pareillement que vous vous transportiez chez tous ceux de mes sujets marchands, banquiers, negotiants et autres qui auront entre leurs mains des effets apparanans aux Polonois et Dantzicois que vous les obligiez de vous en faire leur déclaration et que vous vous en assuriez en leur faisant des deffinses très exprisses de s'en de 23 saisir sous quelque pretexte que ce doit sans mon ordre.

In 1703, following the defection of the Due de Savoie from his alliance

with France (an alliance sealed in 1698 by the marriage of his daughter,

Marie-Adelaide de Savoie, to the Due de Bourgogne, the heir presumptive

to the French throne), Louis XIV ordered the arrest of all Savoyards

in France,ostensibly in retaliation for the arrest of Frenchmen in

23 K Ordre à M. D'Argenson de faire saisir tous les effets de Polondois et Dantzicois, Versailles, November 20, 1697, Archives Nationales, Ms. 0^ 41, fol. 172r-v.

^^Jérôme de Pontchartrain to the intendants, Fontainebleau, October 14, 1703, Archives Nationales, M s . 01 364, fol. 276v. 393

Savoy. Even in a general reprisal, however, there were exceptions and

distinctions made on the basis of the political, social, and economic

status of the persons involved. The Secretary of State of the Maison du Roi outlined this aspect of the government's policy for the lieu­

tenant general de police:

Le Roy m'ordonne de vous escrire de faire arrester les sujets du duc de Savoye qui se trouveront à Paris, à l'exception nêantmoins de M. 1'ambassadeur et ceux de sa suitte. Comme je ne scais point quels gens vous trouverez, je ne puis vous déterminer les lieux ou vous les mettrez, mais en général vous pouvez envoyer à la Bastille ceux de quelque consideration, où à Vincennes, et faire mettre les autres dans les prisons ordinaires, donnez-moy avis de tout ce qui se passera à cet esgard.25

As the reprisal was an extension of foreign affairs, most of the orders

were issued through Colbert de Torcy; but, inasmuch as they affected

Parisian affairs. Secretary of State Pontchartrain was involved.

Though he claimed to be in full agreement with Torcy on the matter,

Pontchartrain nevertheless aimed to maintain his prerogative in Pari­

sian affairs. As he wrote to D'Argenson:

Vous n'avez qu'à suivre ce que vous mandera M. de Torcy sur ce qui regarde les sujets du duc de Savoye, que vous avez fait arrester et qui pourront 1 'estre dans la suitte. Nous sommes luy et moy de bonne intelligence sur cela, et il suffira que vous me mandiez ce que vous ferez en exécu­ tion des ordres que vous recevrez par luy simplement afin qu'ils ne me soient pas inconnus.26

While D'Argenson was self-assured (and reassuring to the

25 Jerome de Pontchartrain to D'Argenson, Fontainebleau, October 14, 1703, ibid., fol. 277r.

Jérôme de Pontchartrain to D'Argenson, Fontainebleau, October 20, 1703, ibid., fol. 283r. 394

Secretaries of State) that the police could find and place under sur­ veillance anyone they needed to, the task was not always easy, nor always successful. False names, false nationalities, false addresses, and false papers were commonly used to foil the police. VVhen, for in­ stance, in November 1704 commissaire Chevalier had the guet detain three persons involved in a late night fracas for questioning, it turned out that one of the three, who claimed to be Flemish, was 27 actually Dutch. D'Argenson was surprised at the discovery, and wanted to know why he had not been informed of the Dutchman's arrival within twenty-four hours (his concern arising, no doubt, from the fact 28 that France was at war with Holland). Aulmont the Elder, the officer who handled many of the cases involving foreigners for D'Argenson, was sent to investigate. He discovered that the detainee had been at

Paris for thirteen months! As he explained to D'Argenson: "Comme sur le livre de ces aubergistes cet étranger s'est toujours dit Flamand, c'est la cause monsieur pourquoy vous n'avez pas esté adverti de son 29 arivê à Paris." D'Argenson could only remark that it was necessary in the future to be more attentive in verifying a foreigner's country and his reason for being in France.The lieutenant général de police

27 K Chevalier to D'Argenson, Paris, November 9, 1704, Bibliothèque de l'Arsenal, Archives de la Bastille, Ms. 10550, dossier Boomhouer. 28 Note to Aulmont the Elder, on Chevalier's letter, ibid. 29 Aulmont to D'Argenson, Paris, November 12, 1704, ibid. 30 Note by D'Argenson, ibid., presumably to be copied into a letter for the commissaires and the aubergistes. As in other dos­ siers, D'Argenson also noted "J'ay écrit à Messieurs de Torcy et de Pontch." 395 and the Secretaries of State tried to minimize as much as possible the false information they received from and about foreigners, as well as

Protestant religious dissidents, through a careful surveillance of the foreign post and through the strict control of passports at the country's borders. In the case of the latter, for instance, one finds

Jérôme de Pontchartrain informing Chamillart, who had responsibility for the military governors of the frontier provinces, in 1701, that several "religionnaires fugitifs" (Huguenots) who had reentered France after being abroad had given the governors the names of various Pari­ sian quarters as their intended places of residence, but had then 31 failed to appear in the places they had indicated. To remedy the situation, Pontchartrain wrote.

Sa Majesté trouve à propos de faire avertir les gouverneurs d'obliger ceux qui rentreront en France d'indiquer des per­ sonnes connues et domiciles à Paris qui puissent donner avis de leur arrivée au Lieutenant General de Police. Vous aurez, s'il vous plaist agréable de prendre les ordres de Sa Majesté pour escrire à messieurs les gouverneurs sur ce sujet.32

The police were also wary of the pretexts sometimes used by for­ eigners to remain in Paris during wartime beyond their welcome.

In June 1703, for example, D'Argenson wrote to Chamillart that he had discovered eight to ten Germans who had remained in

Paris to carry on their business affairs and their "intrigues"

31 Pontchartrain surmised that they were attempting to circum­ vent the declaration of 1698 concerning the reentry of religionnaires into France. See; Isambert. Anciennes lois, XX, 322-325. 32 Jérôme de Pontchartrain to Chamillart, Versailles, April 10, 1701, Archives de la Guerre, Ms. Al 1524, fol. 254. 396

despite a declaration of war against their sovereign. He complained that they had only been able to maintain an authorization for their stay by virtue of their declaration of intention (which 33 D'Argenson doubted] to be naturalized.

Naturally the major purpose of the surveillance of foreigners was protection against enemy agents. Suspected spys were closely watched; their movements, conversations, correspondence, and hand­ writing were of interest to the police, the ministers, and the King.

D'Argenson, ever-wary, ever-watchful, undoubtedly took pride in well executed spy hunts. He coordinated the gathering of information to support his suspicions, and, when necessary, interrogated the sus­ pected spy.

In a typical case, D'Argenson received information frcm an informer in Avignon that a Protestant from Geneva named Cassin had passed through the southern French town on his way to Paris. The man, he was told, might be a spy. He ordered him located and watched; then he reported to Secretary of State Pontchartrain. Cassin was swtiching auberges frequently. D'Argenson speculated that the suspect might be poorly paid, but perhaps "il affecte d'estre mal paye pour

33 D'Argenson to Chamillart, Paris, June 19, 1703, Archives Nationales, Ms. 432.

^^As in most of these cases, the commissaires of the Chatelet and the exempts attached to D'Argenson as aides, as well as their paid (and unpaid) informers, carried out the location and surveillance of suspects. Frequently, the informers were used to engage the sus­ pects in conversation and to obtain samples of their handwriting. On Cassin, see: Bibliothèque de l'Arsenal, Archives de la Bastille, Ms. 10550, dossier Cassin. 397 mieux couvrir son jeu." The suspect was overheard speaking of trips to

England, Holland, and Italy "comme s ’il les avait entrepris par un pur esprit de curiosité." He inadvertently let slip that he never saw a people "si gueux ny si aveugle dans son esclavage que les Francois."

He received letters from abroad. He carried his own letters to the post

"avec beaucoup de precaution et de secret." He received a package that had to be delivered personally by the person who brought it. "Toutes ces circonstances," the lieutenant général de police wrote, "paroissent exciter de justes soubçons contre cet étranger." A sample of Cassin's handwriting was obtained and sent to the Secretary of State, along with the news that Cassin had recently visited Versailles. The lieutenant général concluded that Cassin's "pais, ses voyages, ses discours, et 35 sa religion" made it appear that he indeed might be a spy. Pont­ chartrain agreed. He ordered Cassin's arrest and suggested to

D'Argenson that he verify the suspected spy’s mailing address "afin de donner à la poste de vous les faire remettre.As it turned out, the circumstantial evidence against Cassin never solidified. However, the suspicions lingered, and he was exiled from France after three months in the Bastille.

In a case which demonstrates the complexity of some of these affairs, a military paymaster at Metz named Monicart was suspected, on

•Z C Autograph copy of letter from D ’Argenson to Jérôme de Pont­ chartrain, Paris, August 15, 1704, in ibid.

Jérôme de Pontchartrain to D ’Argenson, n.p., August 20, 1704, Archives Nationales, Ms. 0^ 365, fol. 186 398

the basis of intercepted correspondence, of offering to surrender a

French fortress, or at least spike its cannons, for the Duke of Marl- 37 borough. The war ministry, knowing that in all likelihood the original unsigned intercepted letters probably were written by an artillery of­

ficer or at least someone with a thorough knowledge of French fortifi­

cations, initiated a search of its archives for samples of handwriting

similar to that used in the intercepted letters--whence the discovery of a series of letters bearing a striking resemblance to the hand­ writing in question. The letters had been sent by Monicart to former

Secretary of State for War Chamillart several years previously. Upon

inquiry of then-Secretary of State for War Voysin, Monicart was dis­

covered to be in Paris. The Secretary then sent D'Argenson an ordre

du roi for the arrest and imprisonment of Monicart at the Bastille, and

a lengthy explanation of the case as far as he understood it. To 38 these, he attached the intercepted correspondence. D'Argenson re­

ceived the orders sent by special courier at five o'clock on the morning

of September 11, 1710. He, in turn, dispatched officers to arrest

Monicart. Upon arrival at the auberge where Monicart was supposedly

lodged, they were told by the aubergiste that no such person was staying

there. However, upon sending another individual disguised as an artisan

37 See: Bibliothèque de l'Arsenal, Archives de la Bastille, Ms. 10592, dossier Monicart, and Ms. 10616. dossier Monicart; as well as. Archives de la Guerre, Mss. Al 2206, A 2207, A^ 2208, A^ 2263, ail of which contain numerous scattered correspondence and reports on the case.

Voysin to D'Argenson, Marly, September 10, 1710, Bibliothèque de l'Arsenal, Archives de la Bastille, Ms. 10592, dossier Monicart. 399 to inquire about Monicart, the police officers learned that the auber- gist had misled them. Monicart was in fact due back at the auberge later in the morning; the aubergiste had simply concealed the fact, perhaps because he had not registered his guest as the law required.

After several hours of waiting, during which time D'Argenson worried 39 that the suspect might have been warned of his impending arrest,

Monicart was finally arrested and taken to the Bastille. His papers,

"trouvés en fort grand nombre," were taken as well. On the way to the

Bastille, Monicart claimed that a terrible mistake had been made, that he was an old acquaintance of Chamillart (not that that would do him much good in 1710), and that he had offered to be a go-between with the Grand Pensionner in Holland for Secretary of State Torcy. D'Argenson remarked to Voysin that Monicart appeared to be "un de ces intrigants dangereux qui paraissent vouloir servir les deux parties pour en tromper un."^^ After interrogating Monicart several times, D'Argenson reported to Voysin that the prisoner "se defend, comme tous les espions ont coutume de faire, en disant que s'il a eu des intelligences secrèttes avec les ennemis (comme il n'en peut disconvenir), c'etait en vue de les attirer dans les pièges qu'il se proposait de leur

39 D'Argenson sent two letters to Voysin on September 11. The first one was carried back to the Secretary of State by the special courier who had brought D'Argenson his initial orders. Archives de la Guerre, Ms. a 1 2263, fol. 113.

^^D'Argenson to Voysin, Paris, second letter of September 11, 1710, ibid., fol. 114. The papers seized by the police and provided by the war ministry, including some of the Chamillart-Monicart corres­ pondence, are located in Bibliothèque de l'Arsenal, Archives de la Bastille, Ms. 10592, dossier Monicart. 400 t e n d r e . Shortly thereafter he reported again that the circumstances of Monicart’s trips abroad, his attempts to form liaisons with the enemy, and his own letters appeared to be highly prejudicial; but, he added, "ses bonnes intentions sont cachées dans le secret de son coeur où l'on ne peut voir." D'Argenson concluded that Monicart was a

"veritable espion du nombre de ceux qui doivent rester à la Bastille, 42 jusqu'a la paix." Voysin asked D'Argenson to interrogate Monicart further as to whether or not he had any co-conspirators, in particular, 43 a Baron de Schefart. D'Argenson replied that there did not appear to be any evidence against the baron in Monicart's papers, and that on the basis of his long experience, "lorqu'on interroge des prisonniers sur des faits dont ils sauvent bien qu'on ne peut avoir aucune preuve, ^ 44 on ne les rend que plus opiniâtres et plus insolens." He wrote again a short time later that Monicart knew Schefart but claimed that both he and the baron had only had the same good intentions.Voysin wrote back that the King had accepted D'Argenson's suggestion to leave Monicart in the Bastille until the war was over; as for Schefart, he was to be

^^D'Argenson to Voysin, Paris, September 27, 1710, Archives de la Guerre, Ms. Al 2263, fol. 128.

^^D'Argenson to Voysin, Paris, September 30, 1710, ibid., fol. 134.

^\oysin to D'Argenson, Versailles, October 6 , 1710, Archives de la Guerre, Ms. A 2207, fol. 146. 44 D'Argenson to Voysin, Paris, October 7, 1710, Archives de la Guerre, Ms. a ^ 2263, fol. 152.

^^D'Argenson to Voysin, Paris, October 13, 1710, ibid., fol. 163. 401 relieved of his commission as a 1ieutenant-colone1 and sent home.^^ And

so Monicart remained a guest of the state until 1714.

In another case, D'Argenson received word from Secretary of

State for Foreign Affairs Torcy that a Genoese named Frassenetti, who was in the service of the Due de Lorraine, was accused "très vraisem­ blablement d'estre espion." D'Argenson was ordered to arrest him and

interrogate him, and to ignore the fact that he served the Due de Lor-

raine--there being no special considerations shown where the security 47 of the state was involved. Shortly after being interrogated by

D'Argenson at the Bastille, Frassinetti committed suicide in his cell.

Bernaville, governor of the prison, went in person to D'Argenson's home 48 to alert him. D'Argenson went to the Bastille and conducted an in­

quiry, replete with a medical examination, in order to appraise Torcy 49 of the situation. Frassinetti had hanged himself from his window

during the night, he wrote. His wife coincidentally had come to visit

D'Argenson that very day, and the lieutenant general had concealed from

her "cette funestre aventure qui établit trop évidemment la preuve de

son crime," which, he added, was even more odious than the fact that

46 Voysin to D'Argenson, Versailles, October 22, 1710, Archives de la Guerre, Ms. A^ 2208, fol. 190.

^^Torcy to D'Argenson, n.p.. May 26, 1711, Bibliothèque de l'Arsenal, Archives de la Bastille, Ms. 10598, dossier Frassinetti. 48 The gouverneur apparently missed D'Argenson at his residence, for he left a note. Bernaville to D'Argenson, [Paris], August 6 , 1711, ibid. 49 Medical report, August 6 , 1711, signed by D'Argenson, Bernaville, Launey (lieutenant du roi), and Reilhe (surgeon at the Bastille), in ibid. 402 he had already married a Lyonnaise whom he had deserted and left with several children. The "indigne homme," as D'Argenson called him, was to be interred in the jardins of the Bastille itself, since he did not merit holy ground.Apparently, neither D'Argenson nor Bernaville informed Jérôme de Pontchartrain of the developments, because several days later the angry Secretary of State wrote to Bernaville that the

King and others had informed him (who was supposed to know everything that went on in Paris and the Bastille) that a man had hanged himself at the Bastille.

Many spies and would-be spies entered the Bastille during

D'Argenson's tenure in office; and most were eventually exiled out of the country, or at least away from Paris and Versailles. The Archives of the Bastille themselves, housed at the Bibliothèque de l'Arsenal in Paris, and Funck-Brentano's Lettre de cachet à Paris. Etude suivie d'une liste des prisonniers de la Bastille (1659-1789) attest to the frequency of cases of espionnage and intelligences avec les ennemis du royaume which include everything from a rare escape from the 52 53 Bastille, to a plot to kidnap James III, the Pretender, to a poison

^*^D'Argenson to Torcy, Paris, August 6 , 1711, ibid. 51 Jerome de Pontchartrain to Bernaville, August 11, 1711, Biblio­ thèque de l'Arsenal, Archives de la Bastille, Ms. 12629, papiers de Bernaville. Bernaville had committed a cardinal sin in a bureaucratie structure. He had allowed his superior to be surprised with information that he himself should already have provided to him. In this case the surpriser was the King who had probably received his information from Torcy.

^^Bibliothèque de l'Arsenal, Archives de la Bastille, Ms. 10521, dossier Galeazo Boselli. As a result of Count Boselli's escape, most of his immediate family, who had conspired in the plan, traded places with him. 403 handkerchief at Versailles,to a plot to assassinate the Archiduc d'Autriche (one thing Louis XIVs government never condoned was the assassination of princes, even enemy princes),and so on. The War of the Spanish Succession undoubtedly served as a catalyst for all manner of dreamers and schemers.

Post Office, Censorship, and Propaganda

While Jerome de Pontchartrain had the lieutenant général de police as a primary source of information, Colbert de Torcy had an almost equally valuable source in the head of the bureau des postes.

Torcy, in addition to being Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, 57 was also, in effect. Postmaster of France; and, as such, he was privy to as much information as the head of the postal bureau and his commis

53 Bibliothèque de l'Arsenal, Archives de la Bastille, Ms. 10533, dossier Broomfield. Broomfield was in and out of the Bastille on at least three different occasions, for various reasons.

^^Bibliothèque de l'Arsenal, Archives de la Bastille, Ms. 10544, dossier Bredeville. The handkerchief in question, similar to the King's own mouchoir, was discovered in the Chapel at Versailles.

^^Bibliothèque de l'Arsenal, Archives de la Bastille, Ms. 10597, dossier Bellefond, and Ms. 12545.

^^As in the case of D'Argenson with the police, the contrôleur general des postes generally oversaw the daily operations of the Post Office and handled the information requests of the Secretaries of State. During Louis XIV's reign, the top functional positions in the postal service were held continuously from 1665 by members of the interrelated Pajot and Rouillé families. D'Argenson and Pajot d'Onzembray (or d'Ons-en-Bray) had, in the course of their duties, frequent contact with each other in Paris. 57 r "Commission de surintendant des postes pour M le Marquis de Torcy ," September 28, 1699, Archives Nationales, Ms. 0 43, fol. 307v. 404

58 could glean from the mail. He directed the same incursions into the private affairs of individuals that Pontchartrain directed through the police— and for the same purpose— to gather information. He also en­ joyed some of the same fear-and-anger inspiring reputation that Pont­ chartrain did, but without the same slightly misanthropic overtones.

Letters to and from anyone in France were subject to perusal by Torcy's postal clerks, either in the Bureau des Postes in Paris, or in the so-called cabinet noir at Versailles. In addition, Torcy had letters diverted to the lieutenant general de police for his perusal on behalf of other Secretaries of State; and, naturally, he himself used the lieu­ tenant général to investigate leads initially developed by his postal detectives, particularly when those leads suggested espionage or deal­ ings with the enemy. Perhaps even more importantly, Torcy had D'Argenson 59 carry out many investigations of the postal service itself.

58 On the history of the postal service during Louis XIVs reign, see: Eugene Vaille, Histoire générale des postes françaises, 6 vols. (Paris, 1947-1955), IV, V; idem., Le cabinet noir (Paris, 1950), 1-137; Arthur de Boislisle, "Le secret de la poste sous le règne de Louis XIV," Annuaire-Bulletin de la Société de l'Histoire de France, XXVIl (1890), 229-245; Saint-Simon, Mémoires, XXVIII, 158-141; Delamare and Le Cler-du-Brillet, Traité de la Police, IV, 552-637, which covers postes as well as messageries. 59 Torcy even paid the expenses incurred by the police when the investigations required special trips and equipment, as in the case of the murder of a postal courier from Bordeaux. Pierre Bazin, a lieutenant in the compagnie du lieutenant criminel de robbe courte, was sent by D'Argenson to spend ten days on special assignment near Estampes, where the courier was killed, to gather whatever information he could. See: Torcy to D'Argenson, n.p., July 6 , 1713, Archives des Affaires Etrangères, Mémoires et Documents, France 1192, fol. 16r-v; D'Argenson to Torcy, Paris, July 14, 1713, ibid., fol. 38r-v; and, request of Bazin to Torcy, [July, 1713], ibid., fol. 40. 405

Jérôme de Pontchartrain, ever-opportunistic, was active in his attempts to use Torcy's control of the mails to his own advantage.

Twice in early November 1702, for example, he wrote to Torcy with re­ quests that involved diverting mail, unopened, to D'Argenson. In the first instance, he explained, a Genevan named Dupré, suspected of being a Protestant minister or spy, was living in Paris. More information was needed on his activities, so "le Roy a jugé à propos defaire intercepter quelques-unes de ses lettres." After giving Torcy further instructions, he concluded:

Sa Majesté m'ordonne donc de vous écrire de donner vos ordres aux directeurs des postes d'en arrester quant a present quelques-unes de celles [lettres] qu'il [Dupré] reçoit et de les faire remettre à M. d'Argenson pour en faire ouverture, afin de voir s'il pourra parvenir à connoistre qu'il est et quelles sont ses intrigues.GO

A week later Pontchartrain wrote to Torcy with another request. An

Englishman named Stevenson, "qui se mesle de banque et qui est plus connu sous le nom de Chester," was suspected among other things of sending gold specie to England. To acquire proof of his "mauvais com­ merce" it was necessary to intercept his letters. "Sa Majesté le trouve bon et m'a commandé de vous dire de donner vos ordres aux controlleurs

Jérôme de Pontchartrain to Torcy, Versailles, November 1, 1702, Archives Nationales, Ms. 363, fol. 2S4r-v. On the same day, Pontchartrain wrote to D'Argenson to have him try to discover more about Dupré through an informant, ibid., fol. 248v. Two weeks later, Pontchartrain sent orders for the arrest of Dupré (also known as Samuel Gringoletj, who it turned out was a spy involved in a plot to set fire to ships and supplies at Brest. See: Jerome de Pontchartrain to D'Argenson, Versailles, November 15, 1702, ibid., fol. 267; and. Bibliothèque de l'Arsenal, Archives de la Bastille, Ms. 10530, dossier Dupré. 406 des postes de les remettre à M. de d'Argenson pour en faire ouverture, et les faire traduire si elles sont comme il y a apparence en langue angloise."1 • ..61

Even without Torcy's assistance, Pontchartrain was still capable of garnering information from an individual's correspondence by ordering the seizure of his papers or by relying upon the indiscretions of police informers. In one case, for instance, a limonadier surrepti­ tiously pilfered letters in English addressed to three Scots who ostensibly had come to Paris to study medicine. He delivered them to D'Argenson who had translations prepared and sent to Jérôme de

Pontchartrain. The originals were clandestinely returned to their addressees via the same route they had been taken. Pontchartrain, in the meantime, had inquired of the English Court at Saint-Germain about the three Scots and had received assurances of their reliabil­ ity from the Duke of Perth. Nevertheless, he recommended that 62 D'Argenson "observer et mander" on the three. While never formally stated as a policy, the obtaining of information and evidence by whatever means available short of violence, was com­ monly abetted by the police.

While Torcy justified his own manipulation of the postal service by shrouding it in the mantle of state security, he loudly

^^Jêrôme de Pontchartrain to Torcy, Marly, November 8 , 1702, Archives Nationales, Ms. 0^ 363, fol. 257r-v.

D'Argenson to Jerome de Pontchartrain, Paris, January 10, 1704, Bibliothèque Nationale, Ms. Français 8124, fols. 67-69. 407 complained of the manipulation of the poste for private purposes by some of his commis. Selling information, carrying contraband, and stealing letters containing money were the most persistent abuses. It was particularly embarrassing for the government, for instance, when important letters passing through the mail were stolen, or opened, and the information they contained subsequently appeared in popular gazettes. In 1708, Torcy described the growing abuse to the lieutenant general de police:

La licence des écrivains de gazettes à la main devient si grande nonobstant les punitions faites l ’année passée, que la surété des lettres du public en souffre considér­ ablement. Ces gens ayant des liaisons avec quelques commis de la poste, il se trouve de temps en temps des lettres ouvertes pour en tirer les nouvelles nécessaires à l'entretien du gain qu'ils font par la commerce de leurs gazettes.63

In order to stem the illicit commerce, or at least to serve as a warning to those engaged in it, Torcy sent D'Argenson orders for the arrest of two commis suspected of tampering with the mail of the papal nuncio.

The orders, he wrote, were to be carried out with the utmost secrecy so that neither suspect would escape; but, once the arrests were ac­ complished, the news was to be widely publicized and the nuncio was to be informed. He further ordered the lieutenant général de police to in­ vestigate "tous les écrivains de nouvelles, dont quelqu'uns donnent 64 en Hollande des avis très contraires au service du Roi."

^^Torcy to D'Argenson, Versailles, March 11, 1708, Bibliothèque de l'Arsenal, Archives de la Bastille, Ms. 10583, dossier Barbier.

G^ibid. 408

Torcy called upon D ’Argenson the following year to investigate a commis in the Bureau des Postes in Paris suspected of "malversations et infidélités dans son employ," of intercepting letters containing

"billets de monnoye" and "envoies d'argent," and of concealing "contre­ bande."^^ Replying to D'Argenson's report on the arrest of the commis and the search of his house by a commissaire, Torcy wrote:

Je vous remercie. Monsieur, des eclairissements que vous avez pris la peine de me donner au sujet d'Hainfray. Comme vous connoissez l'importance de cette affaire je suis persuadé qu'il n'en échappera rien à votre penetration. Il est cer­ tain que le public se croit intéressé à la découverte de la vérité et à la punition du coupable, et que bien des gens demandent pourquoy l'on ne remet pas au parlement à faire justice d'un crime qui attaque la seureté publique. Si Hainfray a quelque sens il doit tout faire pour ne pas sortir de vos mains ne pouvant esperer de grace s'il est une fois livré à la sévérité du parlement. Le seul moyen de 1 'éviter est de vous declarer ingenuement et de bonne foy tout ce qu'il a fait. Je l'ay dit à son père mais il m'a prpondu que ne pouvant ny parler ny écrire a son fils il lui étoit impossible de l'exhorter à faire une confession sincère. Je ne croy pas cependant qu'il fut a propos de permettre entre eux aucune communication. Je suis plus que personne. Monsieur, entièrement à vous. De TorcyGG

D'Argenson used Torcy's letter (written entirely in the Secretary of

State's own hand) as a psychological lever to pry further information from Hainfray by showing it to him just before his final interroga­ tions.^^ Torcy was apparently satisfied with the sobering effect

^^Bibliothèque de l'Arsenal, Archives de la Bastille, Ms. 10586, dossier Hainfray.

^^Torcy to D'Argenson, September 23, 1709, ibid.

^^D'Argenson noted in the margin of Torcy's letter: "J'ay communiqué cette lettre à Hynfray ce 8 jan. 1710." Ibid. 409 that the thinly veiled threat had on the commis, for Instead of turning him over to the Parlement, he had him exiled to Mouy. Undoubtedly,

Torcy also did not wish to risk having the postal bureau dissected by the parlementarians. This same case also clearly illustrates the delicate position in which the lieutenant general de police sometimes found himself when dealing with the Secretaries of State, for he re­ ceived the following urgently-worded letter written by Jérôme de

Pontchartrain in his own hand;

Quoyque je ne doive ny ne veuille, monsieur, entrer dans l'affaire d'Infré qui regarde uniquement M. de Torcy, je ne puis m'erapecher de vous demander un éclaircissement sur un mémoire anonime que j 'ay receû par lequel on me marque que Latine un de mes valets de chambre estois depuis lontemps en relation avec Infray et qu'il vous sollicite fortement pour luy. Comme vous scavez qu'il m'est important en tous sens d'en scavoir la vérité, je vous prie, instament de la demeler à fonds, adroitement, et sous main sans commettre personne et de me faire part de ce que vous en aurez appris, vous promettant de ma part tout le secret que vous exigerez de moy. Je suis toujours au delà de toute expression et plus a vous. Monsieur, que personne du monde. Pontchartrain

While Pontchartrain may have been concerned about scandal tainting his household staff, one suspects that his insatiable curiosity about events in Paris was also at work.

During the War of the Spanish Succession, as the allied forces pressed the hostilities against French-held territory, the pressure placed upon postal directors and clerks became very great as the con­ flicting parties vied for control of the mail and information.

Jérôme de Pontchartrain to D'Argenson, Versailles, December 30, 1709, ibid. 410

Consequently, the allegiance of postal employees was a matter of grave concern to Torcy; and, occasionally, he had to take decisive action as in the case of Pierre Lheureux, directeur de la poste à Valenciennes.

In 1712, with Marlborough's troops close-by Valenciennes, at Bouchain,

Lheureux was suspected of having made a secret deal with the allied forces to preserve his own employment as the postmaster at Valenciennes in the event of an allied takeover. He was arrested upon orders from

Torcy to the intendant in Flanders, transported to the Bastille under guard of the maréchaussée, and interrogated by D'Argenson. As it turned out, Lheureux, through the intermediation of Jopin, postmaster for the allied army, had visited the allied encampment, seen the size of the allied army, and received a promise from the Duke of Marlborough that he would retain his post when Valenciennes was taken. Instead, 69 he sat in the Bastille until the end of the war.

The problems involved in managing the postal service for the benefit of the conduct of foreign affairs and for state security in­ cluded, as has been suggested in previous pages, the attempted control of uncensored news that appeared in the pages of the gazettes à la main. These handwritten gazettes had the same ephemeral quality as their printed counterparts--the tendency to mysteriously appear every­ where.^^ Torcy's concern about them was part of his larger concern

^^Bibliothèque de l'Arsenal, Archives de la Bastille, Ms. 10601, dossier Lheureux.

^^As Jérôme de Pontchartrain aptly remarked to D'Argenson in a case involving a "nouvelliste" and his copyists: "Vous scavez aparemraent mieux que moy qu'il y a à Paris 411 about the general control of information related to foreign affairs and the war in whatever format it took— be it book, pamphlet, or newsletter.

This greater concern manifested itself in the converse but comple- 71 mentary activities known as censorship and propaganda. The police of Paris were involved in both, though to a greater extent in the former than the latter.

While censorship in France was technically the prerogative of the Chancellor of France, there was rarely any problem in having a work condemned if a Secretary of State deemed it unworthy of publication.

Torcy ordinarily reviewed for publication any work related to, or capable of affecting, diplomacy and the war effort. Since D'Argenson enforced the government's censorship regulations on a day-to-day basis, he frequently received the initial requests for publication and distribution from printers and booksellers (when they sought it!). These he passed along for Torcy's judgment: did he approve of a request to print a manifesto of the King of Sweden against 72 the King of Poland? did he approve of a request to print

des gens de cette espèce qui se meslent d'escrire les gazettes à la main qu'ils envoyent mystérieusement dans les maisons particulières dans les provinces et en pays étrangers, qu'ils font valoir comme choses particulières quoiqu'elles ne soient précisément remplier que de ce qui est dans les gazettes imprimées. . . ^ Marly, July 12, 1702, Archives Nationales, Ms. 0 363, fol. 152v.

^^With regard to censorship and propaganda in the area of foreign affairs, see the excellent recent study by Joseph Klaits, Printed Propaganda under Louis XIV. See also. Chapter IX, section on "Censorship," of this study. 72 D'Argenson to Torcy, Paris, May 2, 1704, Archives des Affaires 412

a letter of the Elector of Cologne against the conduct of the 73 Emperor? did he approve of a request to print a manuscript entitled

Estât des biens confisquez par le Prince d'Orange en Irlande depuis le

13 février 1688?^^ Such inquiries were numerous. Depending upon Torcy's replies, D ’Argenson would either permit or deny publication, or would

institute a search-and-seize procedure for works already published.

Thus, for instance, after Torcy had received from D'Argenson an inquiry

about the permissibility of distributing the Gazette d 'Hollande in

Paris, he replied: "comme elle est souvent remplie d'impertinences

dont il assez inutile que le public soit informe, il ne convien en *t6 aucune maniéré au service de sa Ma. que vous accordiez cette per- 75 mission. . . ." And for the next two months D'Argenson reported on

seizures of the gazette.

Occasionally the Secretary of State solicited the assistance

of the lieutenant general de police in promoting his own propaganda

efforts on behalf of France. Obviously, the lieutenant general had to

Etrangères, Correspondance Politique, Suède 100, fol. 54r-v. 73 D'Argenson to Torcy, Paris, April 26, 1702, Archives des Affaires Etrangères, Correspondance Politique, Cologne 54, fol. 244r-v.

^^D'Argenson to Torcy, Paris, February 14, 1703, Archives des Affaires Etrangères, Correspondance Politique, Angleterre 215, fol. 27. After checking with Lord Middleton at the English Court at Saint- Germain and determining that they had not approved the publication of the work, Torcy ordered D'Argenson to stop its publication. See copy of his letter, Versailles, March 18, 1703, ibid., fol. 48. 75 Torcy to D'Argenson, Versailles, September 16, 1703, Archives des Affaires Etrangères, Correspondance Politique, Hollande 200, fol. 107.

I f i D'Argenson to Torcy, Paris, October 4, 1703, ibid., fol. 117, and Paris, November 29, 1703, ibid., fol. 137. 413 know which works should not be seized for the very reason that they 77 contained French wartime propaganda; and, as in the case of highly successful Lettres d'un suisse à un françois, he assisted the Secretary in locating a new printer for the propaganda pamphlets when the old one 78 proved unsatisfactory.

The ’Prisoner without Name'

On May 20, 1712, Bernaville, gouverneur of the Bastille, re­ ceived an order from Colbert de Torcy that a mysterious prisoner who had been conducted to the Bastille the previous evening must always be referred to as "le prisonnier sans nom." Moreover, the prisoner was to be held incommunicado and in such a fashion that he could not take his own life. Only lieutenant général de police d'Argenson was permitted 79 to have access to the prisoner.

D'Argenson himself had been at Versailles the previous evening to receive a briefing from Torcy about the secret affair in which he was to become involved. The fact that he had to go to Versailles to receive

77 D'Argenson was well aware of the timing that could affect propa­ ganda. For instance, in the case of the Manifeste de Monsieur l'Electeur de Bavière, scheduled for publication at the time of the unforeseen French military setback at Blenheim, D'Argenson inquired if the "nou­ velles circonstances" changed the Secretary of State's plans. D'Argenson to Torcy, Paris, August 22, 1704, Archives des Affaires Etrangères, Correspondance Politique, Bavière 50, fol. 74. 78 Torcy to D'Argenson, Versailles, December 3, 1702, Archives des Affaires Etrangères, Mémoires et Documents, France 1106, fol. 145. On the history of the Lettres d'un suisse, see: Klaits, Printed Propa­ ganda under Louis XIV, pp. 113-170.

^^Torcy to Bernaville, Versailles, May 20, 1712, Bibliothèque de l'Arsenal, Archives de la Bastille, Ms. 12629. For the secondary works dealing with this case, see Chapter III, footnote 57 of this study. 414 verbal instructions from the Secretary of State indicated the gravity of 80 the matter. The "prisoner without name" was in fact Charles Augustin

Le Marchand, native of St. Malo, cordelier and former soldat canonnier,

who stood accused of plotting to poison the King of Spain, Philippe V,

grandson of Louis XIV. The gravity of the matter was also pointed up by

the presence in Paris of Louis-Jean-Charles de Talleyrand, Prince de

Chalais, personal envoy of Madame des Ursins. He had come to France to

act as an interested party for the Court of Spain; and, D'Argenson was in- 81 structed by Torcy to keep him abreast of developments in the case.

The case itself unfolded against the backdrop of a very diffi­

cult period for the French Court and government. The military and

diplomatic situation in the War of the Spanish Succession was uncertain;

and France was still recovering from the crisis years of 1709-1710. The

Court and country had recently been stunned by the consecutive loss of

three dauphins in rapid succession over a thirteen month period. Louis

X I V s son. Monseigneur, the Grand Dauphin, had died of smallpox in

April 1711; Monseigneur's eldest son, Louis, Due de Bourgogne, suc­

cumbed to measles in February 1712; and Burgogne's eldest living son.

Torcy to D'Argenson, Versailles, May 20, 1712, Bibliothèque de l'Arsenal, Archives de la Bastille, Ms. 10601, dossier Le Marchand. D'Argenson to Torcy (copy on Torcy's letter), Paris, May 21, 1712, ibid. 81 Marie Anne de La Trêmoille, Duchesse de Bracciano, Princesse des Ursins (Orsini), was the duenna to the Queen of Spain (Philippe V s first wife, Marie Louise Gabrielle of Savoy), a behind-the-scenes ad­ viser to Philippe V, a correspondent of Madame de Maintenon, and an enemy of the Orléans family. See: Françoise d'Aubigné, Marquise de Maintenon, The Secret Correspondence of Madame de Maintenon with the Princess des Ursins, 3 vols. (London, 1827); and. Duchess of Orleans, Letters from Liselotte. 415

Louis, second Duc de Bretagne, died of the same disease in March 1712.

Their deaths, though natural, touched off public rumors that they had been poisoned by the Due d'Orléans who stood to gain if the heirs ap­ parent to the French throne were eliminated. Moreover, Orleans had a

laboratory, complete with a chemist, in his residence at the Palais-

Royale. This simply added fuel to popular suspicions about the pos­

sibility of a sinister plot. Thus with rumors about Orleans already

in the air, the alleged plot to poison the King of Spain began to un­

fold; and, for Louis XIV's nephew the timing could not have been worse,

for he had already been involved in a political intrigue against

Philippe V of Spain, Louis's second grandson, several years earlier.

Undoubtedly part of the great secrecy surrounding the Le Marchand case

derived from a concern on the part of Louis XIV and Torcy that Orleans might indeed be involved in a new plot. In fact, it appears that D'Argen­ son was even provided with a list of the persons who had accompanied the Due d'Orléans in Spain during his military campaign there several 82 years earlier. Presumably, the intent was to discover whether Le

Marchand had had contact with anyone in the Due d'Orléans' entourage previous to 1712. At least with Le Marchand incarcerated in the

Bastille, Louis XIV and Torcy were assured of controlling the key figure

in the case. Even if Orleans was not involved, a threat against the

life of Philippe V was a serious matter, for it would have been the

greatest irony of all if the prince over whom the War of the Spanish

82 List, in Bibliothèque de l'Arsenal, Archives de la Bastille, Ms. 10601, dossier Le Marchand. 416

Succession had been fought was murdered.

Two days after Le Marchand's arrival in the Bastille, D'Argenson began a long series of interviews which lasted almost eleven months.

The early weeks of Le Marchand's imprisonment, when his role and con­ tacts in the affair were still uncertain, were marked by an abundance of gossip and rumors both at Court and in Paris, and D'Argenson was obliged to employ some "personnes de confiance" to investigate the validity of those that were reported to him. In one instance, a young woman living in the enclosure of Saint-Germain-des-Pres claimed to have overheard derogatory remarks about Madame des Ursins in a conversation be­ tween two "hommes d'épée." She reported the incident to a member of the 83 D'Aguesseau family, who sent her to D'Argenson, who mentioned the incident to the Prince de Chalais, who related it to Torcy, who wrote back to D'Argenson that he should try to discover who the men were.

The police chief replied that he was already doing so; but no further 84 information bearing upon the incident was uncovered.

As for Le Marchand, he was having a rather unpleasant stay in the Bastille. Most of his interrogations lasted hours (after which they were transcribed and sent to Torcy). Those of them which still exist, and there are almost forty of them, skirt the question of complicity on the part of Orleans, which is not altogether surprising, since copies

83 Probably Henri, a conseiller au conseil royal, or Henri- Francois, procureur general au parlement. 84 Note of D'Argenson, May 25, 1712, in ibid; D'Argenson to Torcy, Paris, June 4, 1712, ibid. 417

85 of them were sent to the Spanish Court. And since D'Argenson and

Torcy had frequent personal meetings during this affair, any sensitive

information was undoubtedly passed on verbally.

The participation of Chalais in the investigatory process— in providing witnesses, in reviewing developments, etc.— was another facet of the case with which D'Argenson had to contend. Judging by his cor­ respondence with Torcy, D'Argenson tolerated the meddlesome presence of

the representative of the Spanish Court only because he was ordered to 87 do so; and it was a tenuous cooperation at best. From Torcy's stand­ point, Chalais' participation was probably viewed as a diplomatic ac­ commodation, one designed to placate the Spanish Court during this period

of delicate diplomatic overtures prior to the peace settlement of 1713.

This would seem to be confirmed by the fact that Le Marchand, though

a native-born Frenchman arrested on French soil, was eventually given

over to Chalais to be led into imprisonment in Spain.

The case against Le Marchand rested heavily upon the testimony

of one Antoine Desquerres, manufacturer and merchant of starch and

85 On June 25, Torcy wrote to D'Argenson that he had read the first eleven interrogations in their entirety to the King, who then ordered that they be copied and sent to the King of Spain. Ibid.

Most of the interrogations still exist in ibid. Many of Torcy's letters to D'Argenson are marked with a note in D'Argenson's hand: "répondu verbalement." 87 There are about twenty letters back and forth between Torcy and D'Argenson between May 1712 and July 1713 still existent in the dossier on Le Marchand, ibid. In one of them, D'Argenson even refers to the "inquietude et la defiance de ce monsieur" (draft copy, D'Argenson to Torcy, Paris, July 20, 1712, ibid.). 418 chemicals, who had gone from Bordeaux to the Spanish Court at Madrid in early April 1712, and unraveled a tale of the possible threat to

Philippe V*s life to Secretary of State Grimaldo and French Ambassador

De Bonnae. According to Desquerres, he had first met Le Marchand three and a half years earlier while conducting business affairs in Lisbon and acting as an interpreter for General Rau. He knew that Le Marchand was an army deserter who had spent time in prison in Lisbon for his actions. He further claimed that Le Marchand, after his release from prison, had approached him in an effort to obtain a large quantity of poison, ostensibly to kill rats, but in reality to poison the King of

Spain. The merchant further alleged that Le Marchand claimed to have 89 the support and protection of the Queen of Portugal, an Archduke 90 [Charles of Austria], and a great prince in France who had already tried to become the master of Spain (a thinly veiled reference to

Orleans). He further claimed that upon his refusal to assist Le

Marchand, he himself was put into prison for six months by Portuguese authorities. After his release, he left Portugal and returned to France.

In Bordeaux he accidentally encountered Le Marchand who was posing as a religious cordelier; and, he discovered that his nemesis had finally ob­ tained a supply of deadly poison. With this information Desquerres hast­ ened to Madrid to offer his services to the Spanish Court. Thus began

88 Copy of a statement by Desquerres, July 6, 1712, in ibid. 89 The queen he referred to was Maria of Austria, wife of Joao V.

^^Charles VI of the Holy Roman Empire as of 1711, and Carlos III of Spain to the anti-Bourbon coalition. 419

Le Marchand's troubles.

Beyond the accusations made by Desquerres, the main evidence in the case against Le Marchand was a sack containing a suspicious sub­ stance that was found among his belongings when he was arrested. After some bickering between D'Argenson and Chalais as to how the substance should be tested, it was decided that doctors from the Faculty of

Medicine would perform experiments with it. Consequently, several doctors and apothecaries tested the substance on dogs, with dire results, 91 The dogs died. (Presumably they were victims of the substance and not of the doctors' methods— though one wonders, given early modern doctors' less than sterling performance in the treatment of humans.)

Despite these findings, D'Argenson argued to Torcy that the only sure means of arriving at the truth was to arrange a face-to-face confronta- 92 tion between Le Marchand and his accuser, Desquerres. Torcy agreed to this procedure, and in March 1713 the two men were brought face-to- face. D'Argenson reported in his account of the meeting to Torcy that he thought that Le Marchand had pointed out "des contradictions très 93 apparentes et très sensibles" in Desquerres' testimony against him.

But despite D'Argenson's own hesitancy about concluding that the

"prisonnier sans nom" was guilty of plotting to kill Philippe V, Le

Marchand was in effect condemned and sacrificed for the sake of French diplomacy, for Louis XIV and Torcy concluded that he should be turned

^^Results of the tests, finally done in Chalais' presence, are in the dossier on Le Marchand, ibid. 92 D'Argenson to Torcy, Paris, February 25, 1713, ibid.

93 D'Argenson to Torcy, Paris, March 20, 1713, ibid. 420 over to Chalais to be led back to imprisonment in Spain.

It is hard not to imagine that Desquerres’ conduct in this af­ fair was motivated in part by a desire for revenge against one of the men responsible for his earlier imprisonment in Portugal. When Le

Marchand was confronted with Desquerres' accusations, he denied them vigorously. However, his own boastfulness and his impolitic statements about the Spanish King probably condemned him. As a result of them, he became a sacrificial pawn in French-Spanish diplomacy, and was given over to the Spaniards as a prisoner. He was sequestered in a tower of the fortress-castle of Segovia where he remained for at least 94 the next ten years.

As for the Due d'Orléans' possible implication in the affair, it seems highly unlikely that he was directly involved despite Saint-

Simon's assessment that D'Argenson covered up for him and thus earned 95 the future Regent's gratitude. If Le Marchand had actually been an

94 The Due de Saint-Simon visited the castle in the 1720's and indicated that the prisoner was still alive at that time. Mémoires, XXIII, 64.

^^Saint-Simon wrote (Mémoires, XXIII, 63): "[D'Argenson] fut assez adroite pour faire sa cour à M. le duc d'Orléans de ce qu'il ne trouvoit rien qui le regardât, et des services qu'il lui rendoit là-dessus auprès du Roi. Il vit en habile homme la folie d'un déchaînement destitué de tout fondement, dont l'emporte­ ment ne pouvoit empêcher M. le duc d'Orléans d'être un prince très principal en France pendant une minorité que l'âge du Roi laissoit voir d'assez près, et il su profiter du mystère qui lui offrit son ministère pour se mettre bien avec lui de plus en plus; car il l'avoit soigneusement quoique secrètement, ménagé de tout temps, et cette con­ duite, comme on le verra en son temps, lui valut une 421

Orléanist agent, it is almost inconceivable that he ever would have been permitted to leave the Bastille for Spain, no matter what the value of such good will diplomacy.

Swindlers, Recruiters and Suppliers

It has already been noted in this study that on the one hand, soldiers disrupted public order by their frequent involvement in criminal and violent actions, yet on the other helped to preserve it by their timely presence or intervention. Wartime conditions increased the likelihood that they would be involved one way or the other with the police. War, in fact, created the circumstances for a whole set of difficulties that required police attention. These included, among other things: swindles in the sale of military commissions, desertions, recruitment and forced enrollment problems, military supply problems, and sedition. As in so many other instances, the lieutenant general de police co-ordinated the handling of the problems in Paris.

In the case of swindles involving military commissions,

D'Argenson acted on behalf of the Secretaries of State for War and for

the Marine to seek out the culprits. Thus, for instance, he was sent by Michel de Chamillart, in his capacity as Secretary of State for

War, to arrest a former avocat of the Conseil Privé who was engaged

grande fortune [i.e., D'Argenson became an important figure, and even held the position of garde des sceaux during the Regency]." See also: ibid, XXXIII, 34-36. 422

in making and selling false army commissions.^^ In other cases, he acted on behalf of Jérôme de Pontchartrain, who was Secretary of

State for the Marine as well as the Maison du Roi. Pontchartrain was particularly vexed, for instance, in 1703 when his own household staff and marine bureaux were discovered to be the object of clan­ destine attempts by several persons to gain special privileges and marine commissions. D'Argenson was entrusted with the investigation 97 which led to a number of arrests. Pontchartrain was insistent on what he wanted the lieutenant général de police to do hence­ forth:

. . . il faut que vous ayez attention aux gens de cette sorte dont l'occupation est des intrigues pour des affaires et que vous m'avertissiez de tout ce qui viendra à vostre connaissance à cet égard afin d'en faire des exemples, non pas de loin à loin, comme vous le proposez, mais au contraire très fréquem­ ment. . . .98

The Secretary of State for War used the Parisian police as military police to seek out military personnel who were absent without leave from their military units, or who were wanted for a criminal

96 Chamillart to D'Argenson, Versailles, July 30, 1704, Archives de la Guerre, Ms. A^ 1721, fol. 267, 97 D'Argenson drew up a report in the case entitled, "Faits concernant la maison et les bureaux de Monsieur le comte de Pont­ chartrain tirés des interrogatoires des prisonniers de la Bastille arrestez au sujet des commissions de la marine." Bibliothèque de l'Arsenal, Archives de la Bastille, Mss. 10546-10547, dossiers Rozemain [pouchon]. See also: Bibliothèque Nationale, Ms. Clairambault 986, fol. 63, which contains information on the interrogations. 98 Jérôme de Pontchartrain to D'Argenson, Versailles, August 26, 1703, Archives Nationales, Ms. 0^ 364, fol. 224r-v. 423 offense, because such persons often sought to hide themselves amidst 99 the large Parisian population. In one case, for example, Chamillart, after being informed that a colonel of an infantry regiment had decided to turn a short leave into a lengthy one and had left his troops to go to Paris, requested D'Argenson to find the errant officer and to imprison him in the Bastille "pour luy aprendre une autre fois à ne point quitter son regiment sans Sa [the King's] permission.In another case, when a captain in a cavalry regiment attacked and wounded the Comte du Bourg at Versailles, Chamillart immediately wrote to

D'Argenson that the King wanted the lieutenant général de police to do anything that was necessary to find and arrest the officer if he 101 was in Paris. In another poignant case, D'Argenson reported to

Chamillart that the facts in a petition from a soldier in the regiment of Bourbiton were true. A captain in the same regiment had killed the soldier's pregnant wife. Since the soldier could not afford legal proceedings against the captain, D'Argenson recommend that Chamil­ lart intervene directly in the interests of justice and military

99 , On the history of the military, see: Andre Corvisier, L'armée française de la fin du XVII® siècle au ministère de Choiseul, 2 vols. (Paris, 1964).

^^^Chamillart to D'Argenson, Fontainebleau, October 14, 1703, Archives de la Guerre, Al 1634, fol. 280. The King and minister de­ cided, following the colonel's arrest by D'Argenson, that an eight-day stay in the Bastille would suffice as discipline. See: Chamillart to D'Argenson, Fontainebleau, October 18, 1703, Archives de la Guerre, Ms. a 1 1635, fol. 27.

^^^Chamillart to D'Argenson, Versailles, March 5, 1706, Archives de la Guerre, Ms. a1 1913, fol. 213. 424

102 discipline. Finally, in a letter in 1710 to Daniel Voysin, Chamil- lart's successor, D'Argenson, after assuring the Secretary that he was doing everything possible to prepare for the reported arrival in Paris of errant troops from the northern front that the Secretary wished to have arrested, explained his general attitude about the problems he was en­ countering at the time and his proposed solution:

J'adjouteray qu'il y a dautant plus de nécessité et dautant moins inconveniant à multiplier les emprisonnemens dans cette conjoncture; que cinq ou six vols commis depuis peu dans 1 'intérieur de quelques maisons avec des violences innusitées ne permettent pas de douter qu'il ne soit arrivé dans cette ville plusieurs de ces vagabonds de profession qui courent les campagnes durant l'été et se retirent à Paris durant l'hyver où il seroit impossible de les réduire par les voyes lantes, incertaines et difficilles de la justice ordinaire si la resource de 1'hôpital general et celle des relegations par ordre du Roy ne vous mettoit en estât d'y supplier.103

Aside from criminal and violent acts committed by military per­ sonnel in Paris, probably the most persistent and dangerous war- related problem was that of military recruitment. In this, the police found themselves in a dual role. On the one hand, they had to actively 104 assist in the recruitment of personnel for the French war machine.

102 D'Argenson to Chamillart, Paris, January 22, 1705, Archives de la Guerre, Ms. A^ 1895, fol. 121. 103 D'Argenson to Voysin, Paris, October 10, 1710, Archives de la Guerre, Ms. A^ 2263, fol. 156. As long as he was in office D'Argenson continued to make complaints about "la justice ordinaire."

^^^For instance, an ordonnance [pour obliger les communautés des marchands et artisans des villes du royaume a lever et fournir des hommes pour servir de recrues aux troupes d'infanterie], Versailles, December 10, 1701, noted that: "S.M. [Sa Majesté] ordonne que le lieutenant général de police de sa bonne ville de Paris fera incessam­ ment avertir les communautés des marchands et artisans de ladite 425 but, on the other hand, they had to actively resist the questionable practices and "enrollements forces" of unscrupulous recruitment offi­ cers. Unfortunately, they sometimes mixed their duties; and, depending upon who was being enrolled, they alternatively encouraged or dis­ couraged the action taken. Enrollment was viewed not only as a mili­ tary exigency, but also as a practical remedy to social and economic problems. Thus D'Argenson candidly wrote to the Secretary of State for War in 1701:

Je continue à faire donner aux officers les mandiants et les vagabonds qui leur conviennent et cet expedient qui purge Paris d'un grand nombre de mauvais sujets incap­ able d'aucuns travails contribuera davantage à rétablir la seuretê publique et le bon ordre que les condemnations les plus severe. J'ay seulement prie les officiers qui font des levées de m'indiquer les auberges ou ils se proposent de les faire loger affin que j'empescher le peuple de faire insulte à ces maisons et que je prévienne les emotions tumultueuses dont ces violences sont presque toujours accompagnées.105

ville, du nombre des soldats qu'elles devront fournir. . . ." Isambert, Anciennes lois, XX, 398-400. In January 1702, D'Argenson informed Chamillart that he had made the necessary arrangements for leading sixty recruits to their destinations. Letter, January 15, 1702, Archives de la Guerre, Ms. 1606, fol. 134.

^^^D'Argenson to Chamillart, Paris, January 28, 1701, Archives de la Guerre, Ms. A^ 1524, fol. 62. In this same letter D'Argenson alerted the Secretary to a possible scheme in which nouveaux convertis were actually using enrollment as a means of escaping from France. He wrote that among the newly enrolled soldiers there were the sons of several "nouveaux catholiques bons bourgeois et riches marchands et l'on me fait craindre avec quelque apparence que les pères ne consentent a ces enrollements à dessein d'assurer la sortie de leurs enfants hors du royaume sous des condi­ tions avantageuses aux capitaines qui promettent de favoriser leur evasion." While D'Argenson added that it was not easy to prove these secret ar­ rangements, he suggested that Chamillart might wish to investigate further and alert his officers. 426

He wrote again in 1703 with a plan to provide several thousand men for the army by enrolling vagabonds.

While the lieutenant gênerai de police saw enrollment as a means of ridding Paris of a problem group, more often than not he found himself trying to temper the indiscriminate methods and selections of army recruiters. As the War of the Spanish Succession continued,

D'Argenson and the police frequently found themselves protecting

Parisians from those who were supposed to be protecting France from foreigners. Incidents were common and sometimes serious, as in May

1703 when four officers of a regiment of dragoons were on the verge of leading away Denis Rouillé de Noisé, one of the directors of the Bureau des Postes, before the guet stationed on the Pont Neuf heard the at- 107 tendant ruckus and took action. However, while the Secretary of

State might write one day that "le Roy ne voulant pas souffrir les engagements forcées" and that an individual so enrolled had to be re- 108 leased and indemnified, the very next day he might equally write that he counted on D'Argenson's help in raising recruits for the regi­ ments of dragoons.Since recruits, "forced" or not, were held in various auberges and residences until they could be led out of the

^^^D'Argenson to Chamillart, Paris, January 23, 1703, Archives de la Guerre, Ms. Al 1700, fols. 15-16.

^^^D'Argenson to Chamillart, Paris, May 29, 1703, Archives Nationales, Ms. 432. 108 Chamillart to D'Argenson, Versailles, March 2, 1705, Archives de la Guerre, Ms. Al 1896,fol. 11.

1 nq Chamillart to D'Argenson, Versailles, March 3, 1705, ibid., fol. 27. 427 city, the possibility of an incident was great, particularly since the populace frequently reacted against round-ups of recruits the same way they did against round-ups of beggars. Thus D'Argenson found himself periodically writing to Chamillart as he did on May 1, 1705:

Mercredy, au soir sur les sept heures plus de douze cent personnes s'assemblerant a la porte d'une auberge de la Rue des vieux Augustins d'où ils voulurent enlever plusieurs Savoyards qu'on y tenoit renfermez dans une chambre secrette malgré les ordres que jay tant de fois donnez de vostre part aux officiers qui font ici des recrues. Le commissaire du quartier après avoir appaise la fureur du peuple entra dans cette maison et y trouva cinq pauvre Savoyards dont quatre luy déclarent qu'ils avoient esté enrôliez par force et qu'un particulier vestu en abbé les avoit attirés dans ce lieu là sous pretexte d'y apporter un pacquet de livres qu'il venoit de retirer d'un bureau de messagerie. Ces pauvres gens adjouterent qu'a peine furent ils entrez dans cette auberge que le Sieur de la Verpillière Capitaine au Regiment de Noaillé et le nommé Goblin soldat du regi­ ment des gardes compagnie de Terlet les avoient obligés à force de mauvais traittemens de declarer leurs noms et de recevoir chacun deux escus qu'on leur mit dans leurs poches.110

The fake abbé and the soldier were found hidden under a bed and led off to prison. This sort of problem continued throughout the war, and if anything, got worse as it dragged on. On January 14, 1712, for instance, D'Argenson reported to Voysin:

Sur les cinq heures du soir plusieurs laquais et gens de livrée s'étant imaginez que le Sr de Fetouville lieutenant colonel du regiment de Bouffiers qui demeure rue des fossoyeurs près l'église de St. Sulpice enrolloit des hommes par force et les enfermoit dans sa cave se sont attroupez au nombre de plus de deux cens a l'entrée de cette maison et ont cassé touttes les vitres. La femme du Sr de Fetouville qui estoit seule ayant paru aux fenestres à este assaillie a coups de pierres: et un

^^^Archives de la Guerre, Ms. A 1897, fol. 1. 428

. vallet qui rentroit a esté aussy fort mal traitté de coups de bastons. Enfin le Sr. de Fetouville estant survenu avec une escouade du guet a escarté cette livrée sédi­ tieuse qu'on croit s'estre assemblée par une espece de complot à cause de 1 ’enrollement d'un crocheteur que cet officier avoit engagé le matin et qui s'en estant repenty avoit fait de grands cris et appellé plusieurs voisins qui ont crié aussitost que cette maison estoit un four et qu'on jettoit le monde dans la cave. Quelques gens mesme de la maison voisine pretendoint avoir veu descendre des gens dans la cave. . . . m

The commissaire of the quarter came and searched the cellar, found no one, and the tumult ceased. Fetouville, as it turned out, had signed eight voluntary recruits, but did not have them in the cellar. Never­ theless, a squad of the guet was placed outside the residence all night to guard against further agitation; and, D'Argenson strongly urged that in order to prevent similar incidents in the future, Fetouville 112 not keep recruits in his residence. In fact, in cases in whichre­ cruiters feared desertions or in which the enrollment was being con­ tested, the recruits already were ordinarily kept at the Châtelet, the prison of the Abbey of Saint-Germain, or the prison of the Abbey 11% of Saint-Martin.

Ill 1 Archives de la Guerre, Ms.A 2314, fol. 24.

ll^ibid. 113 Jérôme de Pontchartrain to Voysin, n.p., March 6, 1712, ibid., fol. 71. As in the case of other types of prison facilities, D'Argenson periodically visited the military prisons (or sections of other prisons where military personnel were detained) to inform the Secretary of State for War of the status of prisoners. See, for instance, Argenson to Chamillart, Paris, September 6, 1705, Archives de la Guerre, Ms. Al 1899, fol. 45, in which the lieutenant général de police sent a list of the twenty-seven soldiers being held in the prison of the Abbey of Saint-Germain-des-Prbs. As with every other aspect of Parisian life, Jérôme de 429

Another set of problems that the police dealt with on behalf of the military were supply problems. The Secretaries of State fre­ quently called upon lieutenant general de police D ’Argenson for as­ sistance in expediting supplies to the military and for investigating fraudulent or fault-prone suppliers. For example, he: investigated the delay at a customs facility of 1,600 shirts manufactured by the

Filles de la Charité for the suppliers of the French troops in the lies 114 d'Amérique; investigated the fraud in the administration and distri­ bution of foodstuffs to the armies in the field on the northern front

(an administration described by him as "un tissu de fripponneries où chacun paroist avoir voulu trouver son compte au prejudice du Roy");^^^ investigated the contestation between a hat manufacturer and the com­ mandant of the regiment de Lespare; obliged a horse merchant to exchange a defective horse he had sold to an officer of the cara- 117 biniers; and complained that the military foragers of the army in

Pontchartrain was interested in the forced enrollments. It would almost be a disappointment if one did not find something from him to D'Argenson that read: "Continuez à avoir une attention particulière sur les enrollemens forcez et mandez moy tout ce qui se passera à cet égard." Letter, Versailles, April 1, 1705, Archives Nationales, Ms. 0 366, fol. 86v.

^^^Jérôme de Pontchartrain to D'Argenson, n.p., August 3, 1707, Archives Nationales, Fonds des Colonies, Ms.B 28 (Iles d'Amérique), fol. 595.

^^^D'Argenson to Voysin, Paris, December 30, 1709, Archives de la Guerre, Ms. A^ 2262, fol. 4.

^^^D'Argenson to Voysin, Paris, March 10, 1711, Archives de la Guerre, Ms. 2343, fol. 132.

^^^D'Argenson to Voysin, Paris, February 20, 1711, ibid., fol. 96. 430

Flanders were preventing any foin (hay) from reaching Paris, which could only have dire consequences (the "disette entière [of foin] pourroit exciter des emotions populaires dans la ville et sur les ports m'obligent de vous faire sur ce sujet les supplications les 118 plus vives et les plus instantes"). This last example illustrates the balance that had to be maintained between the needs of the array and the needs of the civilian population, and equally, the co-opera­ tion and communication that had to be maintained between the lieu­ tenant general de police and the Secretaries of State. Just as

D'Argenson had relied on Chamillart in the winter of 1709 to give him assistance and support to prevent a catastrophe in Paris, so too

Chamillart had relied on D'Argenson to provide the Hôtel Royal des

Invalides, the great military hospital on the outskirts of Paris, with needed supplies of grain and bread. D'Argenson gladly repaid the debt. Rethanking Chamillart for all of the help he had given him,

D'Argenson wrote in April 1709: "Je vous asseure qu'aprez la lettre que vous m'avez fait l'honneur de m'escrire de votre main, il n'y a rien que je ne fasse pour empescher que 1 'hostel Royal des Invalides ^ 119 ne manque de pain et de blé."

Finally, with regard to war-related or aggravated problems.

118 D'Argenson to Voysin, Paris, March 15, 1712, Archives de la Guerre, Ms. A^ 2413, fol. 85; see also, D'Argenson to Voysin, Paris, March 17, 1712, ibid., fol. 103. 119 D'Argenson to Chamillart, Paris, April 22, 1709, Archives de la Guerre, Ms. A^ 2182, fol. 179. On May 25, D'Argenson assured Chamillart that he had procured all the needed supplies. Ibid., fol. 189. 431

there were numerous instances of the police'being used to suppress seditious language and schemes. "Mauvais discours" against the King was enough to earn a critic a stay of several months in the Bastille, as Jacques Leperche, a master arms-maker in Paris, discovered. Ac­ cording to a report of "personnes digne de foy" (the ever-helpful

"persons whose opinion could be trusted"), La Perche had made some disparaging and off-color remarks about the King and Madame de Maintenon and had even said that the King had ruined his kingdom by chasing 120 away the Huguenots. Pontchartrain sent instructions to D'Argenson that the King wanted La Perche placed in the Bastille and interrogated on his "discours insolens." 121 La Perche was detained for two months, then released with a warning that if he repeated his "mauvais discours" 122 he would bring upon himself a more severe punishment. Hard times in

France in 1709 caused other malcontents to foster seditious schemes for ending the war. Naturally, the government and police did not view these "mauvais desseins" very favorably; and, the schemers, if dis­ covered, were promptly arrested and imprisoned. Such was the fate of

four men caught scheming (or dreaming) to turn Paris over to Prince 123 Eugene of Savoy and the English. They planned first to seize the

120 Bibliothèque de l'Arsenal, Archives de la Bastille, Ms. 10531, dossier La Perche. 121 Jerome de Pontchartrain to D'Argenson, Versailles, April 26, 1702, Archives Nationales, Ms.O^ 363, fol. 81r. 122 Jérôme de Pontchartrain to D'Argenson, Versailles, June 24, 1702, ibid., fol. 137v.

^^^Bibliothèque de l'Arsenal, Archives de la Bastille, Ms. 10586, dossiers Gui Hie r and Garnier. 432

Arsenal, then, if possible, the Bastille. At the same time they hoped to set Paris ablaze and distribute flags bearing the arms of Prince

Eugene and of the English. This rather ambitious undertaking was to be accompanied by shouts of 'A moi, prince Eugène'! However, instead of the schemers taking the Bastille, the Bastille took them following their arrest by the lieutenant general de police. It was doubtful that their plan was very serious,but the government, probably wishing to discourage similar bravado on the part of other would-be heroes, left two of the men in the Bastille for several months to serve as a warning to others.

D'Argenson wrote to Pontchartrain that the informers who re­ vealed the scheme "ne méritent pas une fort grande récompense." In other words, he was suggesting that the compensation should be pro­ portionate to the value of the information, which in this case was dubious. Letter, February 26, 1710, Bibliothèque Nationale, Ms. Français 8121, fol. 92r. CHAPTER IX

ANCILLARY SERVICES

In addition to the preoccupation of the police with the main­ tenance of public and private order through the prevention and sup­ pression of crime and violence, the protection of the economic order, the policing of religion and morals and the surveillance of spies and foreigners, there were a host of ancillary duties that helped to shape the total police effort in Paris. Among the most important of these were the maintenance of street-lighting and street-cleaning services, fire prevention and fire-fighting, prison and hospital administration, and censorship.

Street-Lighting and Street-Cleaning

In the case of street-lighting, the government and police made a concerted effort to maintain and improve its quality in order to promote an increased level of safety on Parisian streets. Paris was the only city in Europe to have an extensive system of street­ lights (both permanent fixtures and lanterns on long cords that could be lowered from an upper level of a building in order to be lit); and, according to most accounts, it offered an increased measure of security at night when compared to the situation at the beginning of Louis XIV's reign--though, to be sure, it still was not a good idea

433 434 to wander around the city at night.^ The 5,532 lanterns at the end of 2 Louis's reign hardly bathed the city in light; and the level of illu­ mination varied from quarter to quarter and from street to street. In addition, the lights were frequently the target of vandals and criminals, who undoubtedly preferred the cover of darkness for their nefarious activities; and they were also the victims of the supply problems as­ sociated with the last years of Louis's reign. Nevertheless, the principle of lights at night was good enough that the government began 3 the illumination of public buildings, such as the Louvre, in 1709.

In the case of street-cleaning, the government and police tried to enforce the regulations for the regular and rapid removal of mud, filth, and human and animal wastes to specified sites outside the 4 city limits in order to remove a considerable health hazard. As

D ’Argenson noted in a sentence he pronounced against several individuals responsible for the cleaning of the Vieille Place aux Veaux, their failure to remove the refuse (which they apparently were retaining to

On street-lighting in Paris, see: Bibliothèque Nationale, Ms. Français, 21687, which contains numerous notices, ordinances, notes, and letters by La Reynie, D'Argenson, and Delamare; Delamare, Traite de la Police, IV, 230, passim; and. Commandant Herlaut, "L'éclairage des rues de Paris à la fin du XVII® et au XVIII® siècles," Mémoires de la Société de l'histoire de Paris et de l'Ile-de-France, XLIII (1916), 129-265. 2 Totalled from the figures in La Caille, Description de la Ville. 2 On vandalism one reads, for example, Jérôme de Pontchartrain urging D'Argenson to find out who detached lanterns in the Quartier du Marais. Letter, Versailles, April 27, 1701, Archives Nationales, Ms. 0^362, fol. 166v. On the installation of lanterns at the Louvre: D'Argenson to Jérôme de Pontchartrain, Paris, December 4, 1709, Bibliothèque Nationale, Ms. Français 8121, fol. 13-16v.

^Delamare, Traité de la Police, IV, 200-294. 435 sell as fertilizer) was causing

une telle infection dans les rues voisines, qu'il seroit à craindre que la santé des Habitans n'en fût altérée, § que la corruption de l'air n'y causât des maladies g communicables, s'il n'y étoit promptement pourvu. . . .

The citizens themselves were obliged by regulation to assist in the street-cleaning procedure, according to the Traité de la Police, by:

1° à ne jetter dans les rues par les fenêtres aucunes eaux croupies ni infectées. 2° Que dans toutes les maisons il y ait des latrines. 3° A ne faire aucuns amas de fumiers le long des murs de leurs maisons. 4° Dans les défenses de brûler de la paille ni autres choses dans les rues. 5° A balayer au devant des maisons aux heures marquées [i.e., prepare for the refuse pick-up]. 6° Que personne ne nourrisse chez soy ni parcs, ni lièvres, ni lapins Gc.G

However, as might be expected, not everyone took their civic duty seriously, for the streets of Paris retained their earthy piquancy ; and the Secretary of State had to periodically remind the lieutenant général de police to admonish the commissaires of the Châtelet that it was 7 part of their duty to oversee the cleaning of streets in each quarter.

Though most Parisians undoubtedly benefited from the maintenance of street lights and street cleaning, they were not terribly anxious to pay for the services as their response to an edict of December 1701

^Sentence ^ police, August 9, 1703, printed in ibid., p. 280.

^Ibid., p. 252.

^See, for example, two letters from Jérôme de Pontchartrain to D'Argenson, both from Fontainebleau, October 20, 1700, Archives Nationales, Ms. Ol 44, fols. 530v, and 531v-532r. In the second letter Pontchartrain remarked that "Sa Majesté a remarque plus d'une fois que vous avez trop de pente a excuser leurs fautes [i.e., the commissaires']. 436 concerning the administration of the services would indicate. The edict took the receipt of fees for street-cleaning and lantern main­ tenance out of the hands erf neighborhood bourgeois and created new officers (receuveurs) for the task. It also ordered that new tax rolls be drawn up, and that an additional twelve livres fee be added onto the ordinary maintenance assessment for all lanterns permanently g attached to buildings. Apparently the government did not think that property owners would mind the extra assessment on the permanent lanterns which spared them the task of lowering a lantern from their window each evening during the fall and winter months (they seem to have been considered a luxury item!). However, the government guessed wrong. Property owners began to dismantle their lantern boxes rather than pay the extra tax, and the lieutenant general de police soon found himself in the midst of a major controversy. On September 16, 1702

D'Argenson issued a circular to his commissaires in which he explained an arrêt du conseil of April 1702 which formed the basis of police policy in the matter. In it he noted that the assessment of the twelve livre tax depended upon whether a given lantern was judged to be "de bienfeance" or "de nécessité."^ In the case of the latter, no tax was to be assessed. Furthermore, the twelve livres were to be divided among every four houses so that each house only paid three

^Reprinted in Delamare, Traite de la Police, IV, 237-238.

g The arrêt is reprinted in ibid., p . 238. The lettre circu­ laire aux commissaires is located in the Archives Nationales, Ms. G7 431: 437 livres whether or not it actually had a lantern, the assumption being that the light from one lantern illuminated a four-house area.

Finally, he instructed the commissaires to order the residents of their respective quarters to light their lanterns for the new season on

October 6; and, if anyone failed to do so, they were to be sent to the police court at the Chatelet where they would be fined.

D'Argenson's handling of the lantern tax issue was severely criticized by the procureur du roi of the Chatelet, Claude Robert, who wrote a series of letters on the subject to Controller-General of

Finances Chamillart during September and October.In these letters,

Robert blamed D'Argenson for what he considered to be an insufferable decrease in the number of permanent lantern boxes of which he claimed more than three-fourths had been removed by their owners. D'Argenson, aware of Robert's criticism,informed the Controller General that

"1'experience vous fera connoistre que le peuple se fie plus volontiers

à mes paroles qu'aux discours de celui qui affecte de me décrier. 12 ..." In order to make good on his claim, however, D'Argenson personally had to walk the streets of Paris to persuade property owners to maintain or reinstate their lantern boxes. As an incentive, he ap­ parently offered a large number of exemptions from the twelve livres tax on the basis of the clause in the April arrêt which permitted him

^^The letters, dated September 9, 10, 22, 24, 25, and October 3, 6, 13, are located in the Archives Nationales, Ms. G^ 431.

^^D'Argenson to Chamillart, Paris, September 22, 1702, ibid. 12 D'Argenson to Chamillart, Paris, September 29, 1702, ibid. 438

13 to declare whether or not a lantern was "necessary" and thus exempt.

Robert was disdainful of D'Argenson's method of achieving compliance with the law and wrote to Chamillart on October 3 that only a small number of homeowners and landlords had acceded to the police chief's advice. He remarked that:

La plus grande partie des bourgeois ne veulent point y prendre confiance, prétendant que la parole d'un magis­ trat n'est pas chose suffisant pour les décharger d'une redevance établie par un edit du Roi et des arrêts du Conseil.14

On October 6, Robert wrote again in the same vein, adding that

D'Argenson's appearance on the streets of Paris had provoked numerous incidents and verbal outbursts; the implication was that D'Argenson had lost the respect and confidence of the Parisian populace. However, the procureur du roi casually added that all of the lanterns probably 15 would be lit on schedule. And so it was as the procureur himself was forced to admit in a letter a week later.

13 The actual exemption, a copy of which is attached to the lettre circulaire aux commissaires in ibid., read in part: "Estimons S sommes d'avis que les Boëtes attachées à la maison de ____ pour la descente des Lanternes publiques qui éclairent la rue de ______sont nécessaires, ê ne doivent estre sujettes à la redevance annuelle de douze livres. ..."

^^Letter in ibid.

^^Letter in ibid.

^“Letter, October 13, 1702, in ibid. As it was, the amount col­ lected and allocated for street-cleaning and street-lighting was in­ creased to 300,000 livres by the Edict of December 1701 and the arrêt of April 1702. However, the expense for these services was 308,104 livres. For a breakdown of the figures, see: "Etat de la recepte et depense des deniers imposés pour le nettoyement des rues et pour 439

Fire Prevention and Fire-Fighting

Fire prevention and fire-fighting were other areas of interest 17 to the police. Prevention included the enforcement of: building regu­ lations; prohibitions against the open burning of materials in the streets; and prohibitions against the handling of certain dangerous materials. With regard to building regulations, the police were par­ ticularly concerned about chimney construction. In 1672 La Reynie had issued an ordonnance de police outlining in great detail the precautions to be taken in chimney construction by masons, carpenters, and 18 roofers. The ordonnance was renewed and enlarged by D'Argenson in

1698 following a fire in the Faubourg Saint-Antoine in which it was 19 discovered that construction regulations had been ignored. With re­ gard to open burning, the regulations were aimed at preventing the accidents which were all too prevalent when combustible materials, 20 such as old straw, were burned in the streets. With regard to

l'entretient des lanternes suivant l'édit du mois de décembre 1701 et 1 'arrest du 11 avril 1702," in ibid. Leon Bernard has two excellent chapters on the problems involved in trying to keep the streets of Paris safe and clean in his Emerging City, pp. 56-82, and 188-208. 17 ^ Much of the following section is based on: Bibliothèque Nationale, Ms. Français 21681, which contains ordonnances, notes, and letters of Delamare and D'Argenson on incendies; and, Delamare, Traite de la Police, IV, 136-167. 18 Ordonnance de police, January 26, 1672, reprinted in Delamare, Traite de la Police, IV, 138-139.

^^Ordonnance de police, April 11, 1698, reprinted in ibid., p. 140.

Z^Ibid., p. 151. 440 dangerous materials, the regulations were aimed at preventing disasters that sometimes occurred with the careless handling of materials like gunpowder.

In the matter of fighting fires once they had broken out, the police were interested in enforcing the regulations which more or less made masons, carpenters, and roofers the backbone of the Parisian fire­ fighting force by requiring that they immediately transport themselves to the scenes of fires upon the request of the commissaires of the

Chatelet who coordinated fire-fighting efforts in their respective quarters. Since masons, carpenters, and roofers knew the most about building construction, they were thought to be best equipped to lead the fire-fighters. Refusal to lend assistance entailed stiff penal- ties. 22 Other regulations were designed to insure a dependable source of water, be it fountain or well, in all quarters of the city in the 23 event of a fire. The greatest innovation in fire-fighting, however, was the development of portable water pumps specifically designed to fight fires. In October 1699, Dumourier Duperier, who later became directeur general des pompes and inaugurated the first permanent corps of fire-fighters in France, was granted an exclusive right to sell his

^^Ibid., 142-144. 22 Ordonnance de police, March 7, 1670, reprinted in ibid., p. 153; and, sentence ^ police, January 7, 1701, and July 10, 1706, in ibid. 23 For example: ordonnance de police [concernant les obligations d'entretenir en bon état les puits des maisons], July 4, 1670, in ibid., p. 156; and, ordonnance de police [concernant l'entretien du Puits-Certain, par rapport aux incendies 6 à la commodité publique], May 3, 1697, in ibid. 441 water pumps throughout F rance.Jérôme de Pontchartrain wrote to

D ’Argenson at the time that the King himself was pleased to learn of 25 the "bon effet" that Duperier's pumps had in fighting fires.

Though initially there were only thirteen pumps in Paris (30 as of

1716), they demonstrated their usefulness on numerous occasions. On one occasion in particular, in March 1704, the pumps were used to put out a fire at the Palais des Tuileries in the presence of Marshal

Vauban and Mansart. As for the lieutenant général de police, he was frequently on hand at fires to assess the potential danger and to 27 offer advice. Fontenelle, in his eulogy of D'Argenson, remarked in this regard that

II [D'Argenson] n'a jamais manque de se trouver aux Incendies, G d'y arriver des premiers. Dans ces momens si pressans, G dans cette affreuse confusion, il donnoit les ordres pour le secours, G en même tems il en donnoit l'exemple, quand le péril étoit assez grand pour le demander. A l'embrasement des Chantiers de la porte Saint Bernard, il falloit, pour prévenir un embrasement général, traverser un espace de chemin occupe par les flammes. Les gens du Port G les Detachemens du Régiment des Gardes hesitoient à tenter ce passage; M. d'Argenson le franchit le premier, G se fit suivre des plus braves, G l'incendie fut arrêté. Il eut une partie de ses habits

^^Bibliothèque Nationale, Ms. Français 21681, fols. 90-95, passim; and Delamare, Traité de la Police, IV, 157.

25 -- Jérôme de Pontchartrain to D'Argenson, Versailles, October 28, 1699, Archives Nationales, Ms. 0^ 43, fols. 353v-354. 26 Claude Robert to Chamillart, Paris, March 26, 1704, Archives Nationales, Ms. G? 432. 27 See, for instance: D'Argenson to Jérôme de Pontchartrain, Paris, March 26, 1713, Bibliothèque Nationale, Ms. Français 8125, fol. 211. 442

brûlés, S fut plus de vingt heures sur pied dans une action continuelle. . . .28

Prison and Hospital Administration

Prisons and hospitals were also areas of great concern to the government and police. Once the ministers, the police, or the judicial magistrates had decided that someone needed to be removed from society for a while, for whatever reason be it criminal, civil, medical, or familial, they needed a place to put them. Prisons, hospitals, monas­ teries and convents filled the need. The nature of an individual's difficulty with the authorities, or with one's own family, and the so­ cial and economic condition of the individual and his or her family generally determined which institution the individual entered. The various companies of police officers saw to it that individuals made 29 it to the proper institution safely. Once in an institution, an individual might even encounter the lieutenant général de police himself

28 Fontenelle, "Eloge de M. D'Argenson," pp. 104-105. 29 ^ >• Suspects who were arrested on orders of the lieutenant général de police were generally held as temporary prisoners either at the residence of a commissaire of the Chatelet, at the residence of an exempt specifically designated for such guard duty, or at the hotel of the lieutenant général himself, pending a ministerial decision as to whether to turn the suspects over to the normal judicial processes or to deal with them in an extraordinary fashion by lettre de cachet. The lieutenant général de police could have suspects sent to the Bastille prior to receiving official orders to do so. Junca refers in his journal to suspects received at the Bastille "sur une lettre de M. d'Argenson" [Bibliothèque de l'Arsenal, Ms. 5133,- March 19, April 27, November 21, 1704, for example) pending the arrival of the necessary orders countersigned by a royal minister. 443 in his roles as the chief state interrogator and general inspector of prisons in Paris. In this latter capacity he prepared annual états of prisoners in Parisian prisons, listing their offenses and their physical and mental conditions for the various Secretaries of State who had counter­ signed orders for their incarceration.^^ On a regular basis he also made recommendations for the extension or diminuition of the sentences of pris­ oners. For example, when Guillaume Fourcroy, a cartier (card-maker) was arrested for fraud and taken to the Hôpital General, D'Argenson recommended to the Controller-General of Finances that he be left there for at least 31 six months in order to make an impression on other cartiers. However,

Some of these états still exist among the papers of the various royal ministers and in the Archives de la Bastille. Though each of the ministers countersigned orders for prisoners sent to the Bastille, Secretary of State Jerome de Pontchartrain zealously guarded his right to know everything that occurred in this famous prison located within his area of administration. Accordingly, he was irritated whenever another Secretary of State was seemingly better informed or given more consideration than he. Saint-Mars, governor of the Bastille, felt his wrath for such a mistake in 1704 when the Secretary wrote: "J'ay receu votre lettre d'hier, la copie de celle que le baron Kock a escrit le 8 de ce mois au sieur Broomfield, que j^attendois avec impatience, parce que M. d'Argenson m'avoit desja informe des intrigues de ces deux prisonniers. Mais j'ai este surpris de voir que vous avez envoyé l'original de cette lettre et des precedents à M. de Torcy. Il faut que vous n'y avez pas fait reflexion car vous scavez que la police de ca Bastille est de mon department, et que par cette raison je dois prendre connaissance de tous les incidents que peuvent y arriver. J'espire qu'à l'avenir vous y ferez plus d'atten­ tion et que vous m'informerez plus soigneusement de tous les incidents qui surviendront à la Bastille." , Fontainebleau, October 11, 1704, Archives Nationales, Ms. 0 365, fol. 238v. Copies of many of the interrogations conducted by D'Argenson still exist throughout the dossiers of the Archives de la Bastille, and in the Bibliothèque Nationale, Mss. Français 8119-8125, and Ms. Clairambault 983. 31 D'Argenson to Chamillart, Paris, August [?], 1706, Archives Nationales, Ms. G^ 1725, no. 67. 444 three months later he wrote again to the Controller-General and asked for Fourcroy*s release citing as cause the extreme hardship that his imprisonment was having on his family: "Je ne puis refuser à la pauvreté extreme de sa femme et de ses enfans de vous demander sa liberté. . .

When D'Argenson made his first prison visits, he was ac­ companied by his predecessor. La Reynie. The King had ordered a general release of prisoners as a goodwill gesture on the occasion of the peace ending the War of the League of Augsburg in 1697. The King ordered each Secretary of State to recommend the names of persons who could be safely freed. Louis de Pontchartrain sent a list of men and women held at the Hôpital Général and the Refuge to both La Reynie and D'Argenson, and ordered them to personally visit the prison facilities and verify the reasons for detention and the current con­ duct of each prisoner. La Reynie was called upon to participate be­ cause he was more familiar than anyone with the cases of the majority of those held. As Pontchartrain noted, many of the prisoners were held not only on his orders, but also those of his predecessors,

Jean-Baptiste Colbert and Colbert de Seignelay— all of whom La Reynie had served. He added that he and the King felt that La Reynie could also comment on prisoners whose orders had been signed by Louvois, 33 Barbezieux, Chateauneuf, and Torcy.

32 D'Argenson to Chamillart, Paris, November 10, 1706, ibid., no. 81. 33 Louis de Pontchartrain to D'Argenson, Versailles, November 11, 445

The nature of an individual's crimes and the subsequent re­ ports of the lieutenant general de police about the individual's im­ prisonment could doom an individual to an unending stay in prison.

What generally happened was similar to what happened to Pierre

Bertrand, procureur of the Chatelet d'Orleans. He was arrested in

1703 on suspicion of forgery and complicity with the "fanatiques" in the revolt of the Cevennes, and was sent to the Bastille on orders signed by Michel Chamillart. D'Argenson was ordered to interrogate him and to examine all his papers.His findings confirmed the govern­ ment's suspicions; and the prisoner was locked away. As the years slipped by, Bertrand sunk deep into despair. In 1709, "ses inquietudes lui ont dérangé l'esprit, en sorte qu'il passe successivement de l'imbécillité h. la fureur, et de la fureur à 1'imbécillité."^^

D'Argenson never recommended his release. Indeed, in 1713, after reviewing the case, he wrote in his report:

L'examen de ses [Bertrand's] papiers a fait connoitre aussi qui c'étoit un faussaire des plus industrieux et des plus insignes. Car il s'y est trouvé plus de cent pièces faussement fabriquées, et toutes d'une assez grande conse­ quence. Ainsi je pense que ce prisonnier doit être oublié pour long temps à la Bastille pour assurer le repos publicq.36

1697, Archives Nationales, Ms. 0 41, fols. 167v-168r; and Louis de Pontchartrain to La Reynie, Versailles, November 11, 1697, ibid., fol. 168r.

^^Chamillart to D'Argenson, Marly, December 4, 1703, Archives de la Guerre, Ms. A 1637, fol. 94.

^^Bibliothèque de l'Arsenal, Archives de la Bastille, Ms. 10541, dossier Bertrand. See also: Ms. 12541, on Bertrand's entrance into the Bastille; and Ms. 12718, "Etat des prisonniers â la Bastille."

^^Ibid. 446

The following year he wrote again,

II se portoit assez bien; mais nonobstant la paix genéralle je crois toujours qu'un faussaire aussy habile et aussy déclare devoit estre oublié dans ce chateau [i.e., the Bastille], et j'ai appris alors qu'un très grand nombre de familles apprehendoient fort sa sortie, qu'ils regarderont comme leur ruine.3?

Forgotten he was, for he never left the Bastille, and died there in

1725.

Violence in prison was not tolerated. The inmates involved in such incidents were dealt with harshly, and in murder cases very harshly. One such episode occurred in 1703 in the Bastille when one of the principals in the Affair of the Fourteen (sorcery and sacrilege), 38 one Chevalier de Picardie, was murdered by his cellmate Daniel Perrot.

Junca, the lieutenant de roi at the Bastille, reported in his journal entry for Saturday, September 15, 1703, that Perrot beat and strangled 39 Chevalier to death and menaced his jailers before being subdued.

D'Argenson was quickly notified; and he dispatched comissaire Camuzet to make a preliminary investigation. The lieutenant général de police himself arrived late in the afternoon to hear Camuzet's report, to interrogate Perrot, and to view the body of the dead man.^^ Jérôme de Pontchartrain and Michel Chamillart, the ministers who had signed the original incarceration orders for Chevalier and Perrot, were then

3?Ibid.

7 0 Bibliothèque de l'Arsenal, Archives de la Bastille, Ms. 10526, dossier Perrot.

^^Bibliothèque de l'Arsenal, Archives de la Bastille, Ms. 5334.

^^According to Junca, Chevalier was buried the next day in the parish cemetery of Saint-Paul near the Bastille. 447 notified of the grisly developments. In his report to Chamillart,

D'Argenson dealt with the questions of motive and of what the govern­ ment's response in the matter should be. He wrote that Perrot, who was at the Bastille on a charge of espionage, was a Protestant fanatic who had killed Chevalier because the latter was a "papiste qui parloit mal de la religion reformée." Beyond this, Perrot said that he had acted for the "gloire de la vérité tyranniquement persécutée," and that the "Dieu vivant" had inspired his plans. As for what to do with

Perrot, D'Argenson asked whether it was à propos to expose the public to "un homme de ce caractère, qui sera d'humeur à prêcher le peuple jusque sur 1'échafaud et à donner au milieu de Paris un spectacle peu convenable à la conjoncture où nous sommes" (an obvious reference to the state of war in which France found herself). He wondered whether

Perrot might not best be judged in the Chambre de l'Arsenal and executed 41 in the courtyard of the Bastille itself. Apparently, D'Argenson had little doubt about what the sentence would be, particularly since the motive for the murder was sure to infuriate the King. And he was right. Chamillart replied to the police chief that the King had given specific orders for the procedure in this case. D'Argenson himself was given the commission to judge the case at the Chatelet.

Pontchartrain wrote that if Perrot was condemned "au dernier sulpice," there was no better place to execute him than in the Place

D'Argenson to Chamillart, Paris, September 16, 1703, Archives Nationales, Ms. 432. Presumably, D'Argenson sent a similar auto­ graph letter to Jérôme de Pontchartrain, but it has been lost. 448 de la Grève, after taking precautions to prevent him from speaking any

"discours inutiles." Again, there was little doubt about the sentence.

The Secretary of State went on to say that D'Argenson's reservations

about the place of execution had been presented to the King, but that the King felt otherwise.So, as Junca reported, on Saturday,

October 13, 1703, at 7 a.m., Perrot was transferred in a locked car­ riage from the Bastille to the Chatelet where he was tried, convicted, and condemned to be hanged and strangled in the Place de la Grève. And 43 the sentence was carried out the same evening.

The police performed much the same function in the case of hôpitaux that they did in the case of prisons (the distinctions between the two types of institutions were not that great). They escorted to the hospitals those persons who needed to be removed from society for a while, whether for reasons of mental derangement, moral degeneracy, 44 physical illness (especially in the case of communicable diseases), disability, poverty, or abandonment. The lieutenant general de police performed in a similar capacity too. He inspected various institu­ tions, like the Hôtel-Dieu and the Hôpital-Général, to appraise the

situation and collect statistics for the Secretary of State of the

^^Jerome de Pontchartrain to D'Argenson, Fontainebleau, October 10, 1703, Archives Nationales, Ms. 0^ 364, fol. 271r-v.

^^Bibliothèque de l'Arsenal, Ms. 5134. 44 See: Delamare, Traite de la Police, I, 648-680; and, cf. Jean-Jacques Hemardinquer, "L'essai de peste au XVII® siècle," Revue d'histoire moderne et contemporaine, XXIII (April-June, 1976), 278-290. 449

45 Maison du Roi. In.addition, he monitored the lotteries that were held for the benefit of various hospitals; and he saw to it that the hospitals were assured of an adequate supply of provisions. He also played an important role in classifying individuals as threats to society and public order by virtue of his assessment of their mental contition and attitude in his reports to the King’s ministers.

This assessment was critical for many individuals because, in large part, it determined whether they emerged from the institutions which held them, or remained a part of the seventeenth century’s response to 46 mental illness— ’’renfermement." One finds in D ’Argenson’s reports many examples: a man described as "une espèce de furieux capable de tuer ses parents les plus proches et de se venger au prix de sa vie," who

D ’Argenson hoped would be kept at the Hôpital-General "par rapport à la sûreté publique et à l ’honneur de sa famille";^^ a woman who

"s’emporta jusqu'a la fureur" at a religious ceremony, attempted to

At the end of Louis XIV’s reign the Hotel-Dieu was caring for approximately 2,000 ill and diseased persons at any given time. See: D ’Argenson to Jerome de Pontchartrain, Paris, January 15, 1713, Bibliothèque Nationale, Ms. Français 8125, fol. 303v, in which the figure is 2,189; and, another letter, Paris, April 4, 1714, ibid., fols. 334-342v., in which the figure is 2,002. On the role of the lieutenant général de police at the Hôtel-Dieu, see: Fosseyeux, L ’Hotel-OTeU) pp. 61-64, passim. 46 In addition to Foucault, La folie, on mental illness, see: the chapter on "Irrationality and Madness in Seventeenth and Eighteenth Century Europe" in George Rosen, Madness in Society (New York, 1968), pp. 151-171.

^^D’Argenson to Jérôme de Pontchartrain, Paris, December 4, 1701, Bibliothèque Nationale, Ms. Français 8122, fol. 503v. Pont­ chartrain remarked in the margin of the letter, "bon." 450 strike a cleric, "fit toutes les extravagances que son imagination malade luy suggéra," was finally led to the Chatelet where "sa folie a dégénéré en fureur," and "son esprit est tellement dérangé qu'elle a 48 comme oublié son nom"; a widow described as "une furieuse insensible aux refflections et aux remonstrances," who publicly denounced her brother, the eighty-nine year old dean of the curés in Paris, as a villain and a thief, and was subsequently locked up in a convent in 49 the provinces; a valet who upon receipt of a placet by his wife was found to have sunk to "des accez de fureur, qui I'auroient porté aux extrémités les plus fâcheuses," had he not already been arrested "comme un furieux" and led to the Chatelet where "sa folie est beaucoup aug­

mentée" (though, one suspects, the Chatelet might have been enough to augment anyone's "folie")a gentilhomme from Champagne in the

Bastille who had an "esprit très dérangé" as well as visions and mes­ sages from God.^^ The examples are numerous.

Censorship

Finally, the police also acted as the enforcers of the

48 ^ /\ D'Argenson to Jérôme de Pontchartrain, Paris, February 5, 1705, Bibliothèque Nationale, Ms. Français 8120, fols. 202-205v.

^^D'Argenson to Jérôme de Pontchartrain, Paris, November 25, 1707, Bibliothèque Nationale, Ms. Français 8124, fols, 227-230v; and, another letter, Paris, January 5, 1708, ibid., fols. 251-252.

^^D'Argenson to Jérôme de Pontchartrain, Paris, January 25, 1708, ibid., fols. 373-377V. He was eventually sent to the religious insti­ tution at Charenton.

^^Bibliothèque de l'Arsenal, Archives de la Bastille, Ms. 10617, dossier Vrizy. 451

government's censorship policy. In this, they attempted first to pre­

vent the publication of printed works of any sort that did not have

prior approval by the royal censors; second, to suppress any works that

appeared as a result of clandestine printing in Paris, or more likely

as the result of being smuggled into the capital from the provinces or 52 abroad. The first task was manageable because the police at least

had fairly tight control of the presses in Paris through control of

the printers, binders, and booksellers' guilds. The second task was more like trying to catch sand with a sieve; there were simply too many ways for the clandestine press to slip its product into Paris.

Nevertheless, the lieutenant general de police and the commissaires

of the Chatelet acted upon the instructions of the Chancellor of France 53 (in his capacity as garde des sceaux), the directeur de la libraire,

and the Secretaries of State to suppress as many "bad" books and "bad"

52 On the book trade and censorship, see: David T. Pottinger, The French Book Trade in the Ancien Regime, 1500-1789 (Cambridge, Mass., 1958); Henri-Jean Martin, Livre, pouvoir et société à Paris au XVIIG siècle (1598-1701), 2 vols. (Geneva, 1969); Livre et société dans la France du XVIIie siècle, ed. by François Furet, 2 vols. (Paris and The Hague, 1965-1970); Anne Sauvy, Livres saisis à Paris entre 1678 et 1701 (The Hague, 1972); Nicole Hermann-Mascard. La censure des livres à Paris à la fin de l'ancien régime (Paris, 1968); and, Klaits, Printed Propaganda. In addition, much of the source material on the subjects exists among the Harlay papers in the Bibliothèque Nationale, especially in Ms. Français 15798, and among the Delamare papers, in Mss. Français 21740-21743 (this last ms. providing the basis for the above-mentioned work by Anne Sauvy. 53 On Abbe Bignon, directeur de la libraire at the end of Louis XIV's reign, see: Jack A. Clarke, "Abbe Jean-Paul Bignon: 'Moderator of the Academies' and Royal Librarian," French Historical Studies, VIII, no. 2 (Fall, 1973), 213-235. 452

ideas as possible. For the most part, this meant suppressing works

that involved attacks upon the King, religion, politics, foreign

affairs, and the economic condition of the country. The instructions

the police received were frequent and specific. Chancellor Pont­

chartrain, for example, would write to D ’Argenson, as he did in March

1701, that a recently published work entitled Investiture du duché de

Milan et autres lieux which purported to be printed in Cologne at

chez Pierre Marteau, was in fact printed in Paris at chez Leonard.

D'Argenson was instructed to go to the printer’s establishment, seize

the copies of the work, and institute a "procedure la plus rigoreuse"

against the printer himself. He was further urged to redouble his

efforts and attention to the conduct of Parisian printers because, as

the Chancellor put it.

Je suis informe qu'ils impriment tous les jours sans per­ mission une infinité de libelles et qu'ils croyent se mettre a couvert en falsifant le nom du Libraire et de ^ la ville. Vous scavez aussi bien que moy de quelle consequence il est que ces sortes de contraventions ne demeurent pas i m p u n i e s . 54

A May 1701 letter instructed the lieutenant général de police on a

different type of problem, that of a work which once had "approbation

et privilege," but because of contemporary circumstances no longer

did. The work in this case was the Régie de perfection by Benôit de

Canfield which had been approved for publication in 1608. By the

1690's, however, it had become associated with the "erreurs des

^^Louis de Pontchartrain to D'Argenson, Versailles, March 21, 1701, Bibliothèque Nationale, Ms. Français 21220, fol. 251r-v. 453 quietists," and therefore, in the view of the authorities, had to be suppressed.Similarly, in June 1701, the Chancellor requested

D'Argenson to send commissaire Delamare to the establishments of two bookdealers to seize a work entitled Dialogue sur les plaisirs entre

M. Patru et d'Abbancourt which,though approved for publication,had to be suppressed for important, though unspecified, reasons.Frequently, the instructions concerned works which raised questions about Louis

XIV's governance of France or acknowledged the existence of major problems. In 1707, for instance, D'Argenson was ordered to confiscate copies and investigate the publication and sale of La Dime Royale,

Marshal Vauban's reflections and statistics on the plight of the state,

"avec toutes la diligence et toute l'exactitude dont vous êtes capable et de me rendre compte incessamment de tout ce que vous aurez fait au sujet."• * ,,57

As in so many other areas of police activity, D'Argenson pro­ moted the use of the "autorité immediate du roi" to deal with censorship

^^Louis de Pontchartrain to D'Argenson, Versailles, May 4, 1701, ibid., fols. 496v-497r.

^^Louis de Pontchartrain to D'Argenson, [Versailles-?], June 1, 1701, ibid., fol. 597r. 57 Louis de Pontchartrain to D'Argenson, Versailles, March 19, 1707, Bibliothèque Nationale, Ms. Français 21226, fols. 234v-235r. An excellent account of the suppression of the Dime royale is contained in Arthur de Boislisle, "Mémoire sur le projet de dîme royale et la mort de Vauban," Séances et Travaux de 1'Académie des sciences morales et politiques (Institut de France), 34e année— nouvelle série (1875), 229-247, 522-551. Boislisle reprints many of the letters and reports contained in the Delamare papers. Bibliothèque Nationale, Ms. Français 21746. 454 problems, particularly in cases involving the ubiquitous gazettes [hand­ written and printed newsletters)— a procedure supported, though not without comment, by higher authority. The Secretary of State of the

Maison du Roi wrote, for instance, in July 1702, to confirm the King's intention to aid the police:

Sur ce que vous m'escrivez que vous estes obligé d'avoir recours à l'autorité immediate du Roy contre les escrivains de gazettes, à cause du peu de succès qu'ont vos sentences sur cette sortes de gens. Sa Majesté m'a ordonné de vous dire qu'elle veut bien vous ayder de son autorité dans les occasions qui en vaudront bien la peine.58

D'Argenson was apparently piqued by the wording of the letter, for three days later he wrote back that

. . . cette distribution de gazettes écrites à la main a tousjours esté regardée comme contraire au service du Roy, et lorqu'on a voulu reprimer ceux qui s'en meslen^g c'a tousjours esté par voye de son autorité immediate.

As the War of the Spanish Succession dragged on, and France became im­ mersed in a quagmire of difficulties, increased attacks on the King and his government by the gazetteers caused Louis XIV and his ministers to find more and more occasions "worth the trouble" of an ordre du roi or a lettre de cachet.

A side feature of the censorship activities of the government and police was the seizure of personal papers. Generally cloaked in the

58 Jerome de Pontchartrain to D'Argenson, Versailles, July 19, 1702, Archives Nationales, Ms. Ol 363, fol. lS7v.

^^D'Argenson to Jérôme de Pontchartrain, Paris, July 22, 1702, Bibliothèque Nationale, Ms. Français 8120, fols. 61v-62r. 455 guise of a search for "intrigues" and "cabales," such seizures were a common feature of royally ordered investigations. Whenever the King and ministers were informed that a suspect, for almost any offense, was an active writer, they generally ordered the lieutenant general de police to seize and peruse the person’s personal papers and books as, for example, in May 1710 when he was ordered to search the room and cabinet of an abbe who was an aged visionary and longtime prisoner of the Crown. The King had been informed by an unsigned placet that such a search would turn up "papiers de caballe."^^ In fact, about eighty

"livres ou libelles," including many Jansenist tracts, and writings against Madame de Maintenon, important church prelates and the Jesuits were discovered. D'Argenson concluded in his report to Jérôme de

Pontchartrain that the abbe attacked anyone who did not share his own point of view--which was to install himself at Court and to chase all of the Jesuits from France.Whether the seventy-five year old abbé represented an actual threat was questionable; nevertheless, he was placed in the Bastille where he remained until his death in 1714.^^

Jerome de Pontchartrain to D'Argenson, [Versailles-?], May 7, 1710, Bibliothèque de l'Arsenal, Archives de la Bastille, Ms. 10588, dossier Blache.

^^Mémoire and list of livres sent by D'Argenson to Jérôme de Pontchartrain, Paris, July 18, 1710, ibid.

^^In this same case one glimpses the relationship between Père Le Tellier, Louis XIV's Jesuit confessor, and D'Argenson. Secretary of State Pontchartrain had written to Le Tellier to ask him what he thought should be done with Blache's papers. Receiving no reply, he wrote again (copy of letter, September 30, 1710, in ibid.). Le Tellier, apparently unsure of what his response should be, wrote to D'Argenson to request his immediate advice (letter, October 2, [1710], in ibid.). D'Argenson replied the same evening (autograph draft 456

During the last years of Louis XIV's reign, the King and his government were particularly sensitive about what they considered to be a pronounced increase in libellous publications and "mauvais livres."

The need to capture and make "examples" of offenders was reflected in the increased air of urgency in the police correspondence of the period. In some cases the ferreting out of suspects seemed to be almost an obsession for the King and ministers— as if they thought all their problems would disappear with the suppression of "dangerous" books.

In the spring of 1715, for instance, D'Argenson was ordered by Secre­ tary of State Pontchartrain, writing on behalf of the King, to find an itinerant bookseller named Coquaire who was engaged in the distribu­ tion of libellous works in Paris.On May 29, Jerome de Pontchartrain wrote to D'Argenson to inform him that the King was depending upon him

in ibid.): "Je crois mon très Reverend Pere que la réponse la plus simple et la plus naturelle que vous pussiez faire à la lettre que vous m'avez fait l'honneur de me communiquer et que je vous renvoyé [i.e., Pontchartrain's letter] c'est de dire que les papiers trouvez dans l'appartement du pere Blache paraissent devoir estre joings à ceux que j'ay déjà et a quantité d'autres de la meme espece qu'il a pieu au Roy de me confier. Mais je suis persuade que cette repense doit estre plustost randue de vive voix que par écrit. Je suis toujours avec tout le respect et tout l'attachement possible. . . ." The crafty lieutenant général de police was offering counsel based on many years of experience in dealing with Jerome de Pontchartrain, and undoubtedly, at the same time, cementing a relationship with another important figure who had direct and frequent access to the King.

Coquaire, previously a domestic servant and a latin and arith­ metic instructor, had already been arrested and confined in the Bastille from September 1712 to September 1713 as the result of selling for­ bidden works. He was then exiled to Rennes. Bibliothèque de l'Arsenal, Archives de la Bastille, Ms. 10604, dossier Coquaire. 457

64 to discover Coquaire’s whereabouts. On June 5 the Secretary of State wrote that the King wanted D'Argenson to put "tout en usage" to arrest

Coquaire.On June 15 Coquaire was arrested and taken to the Bastille.

The following day Pontchartrain again wrote to D'Argenson to tell him that the King wanted him to thoroughly interrogate Coquaire and again

"mettre tout en usage" to make him reveal the names of the purchasers of the forbidden works. (Presumably these persons would themselves be immediately suspect.On the nineteenth, Pontchartrain wrote again that the King wanted Coquaire thoroughly interrogated and also that he wanted a copy of the interrogation sent to him. He added ominously:

"il faut le p a r l e r . Nevertheless, Coquaire remained reticent (if not ignorant) about his activities, and so Pontchartrain ordered him locked away "très étroitement" (presumably in some sort of solitary confine­ ment) in a place where he would feel "toute la rigueur de sa prison."

The Secretary of State hoped that boredom and the harshness of prison would loosen his tongue.Apparently, however, it did not, for

Coquaire was released from the Bastille in September 1715 after Louis

XIV's death without ever revealing any really significant information--

^^Bibliotheque de l'Arsenal, Archives de la Bastille, Ms. 10619, dossier Coquaire.

^^Ibid.

^^Ibid.

^^Ibid.

^^Jerome de Pontchartrain to Bernaville (gouverneur de la Bastille), Marly, July 16, 1715; and, Jérôme de Pontchartrain to D'Argenson, Marly, July 17, 1715, in ibid. 458 if he ever knew any in the first place.

In another case Claude Jorre, printer and bookdealer of Rouen, was arrested in September 1712 for printing and selling a number of libellous and forbidden works including: L*injuste accusation de

Jansénisme; Reflextions sur le Mémoire de Monseigneur le Dauphin;

Mémoires des guerres de Flandre, de Bavière, et d'Espagne; and. Les amours du Roi. After almost three months in the Bastille he was re­ leased with a stern warning not to resume his illegal activities.

However, a year and a half later Jorre was back in the Bastille for printing Jansenist works, including: Reflexions sur un écrit intitule

Mémoire de M. le Dauphin pour N.S.P. le Pape, avec une declaration du père Quesnel sur ce mémoire. D ’Argenson wrote in his report of

October 30, 1714, that despite numerous placets from the printer’s wife and supporters seeking leniency, he felt that Jorre should spend at least a year in the Bastille to serve as an "exemple" to other members of the Rouen book trade which did more business in Paris than anywhere else. He added that such an'fexample',' the favorite punitive and prescriptive technique of the government and police, was especially needed at that time because of the proliferation of printed libels which troubled "la tranquillité publique plus encore qu’il n'a jamais fait."^^ Apparently, Chancellor Pontchartrain and his successor

^^Bibliothèque de l’Arsenal, Archives de la Bastille, Ms. 10600, dossier Jorre.

^^Bibliothèque de l’Arsenal, Archives de la Bastille, Ms. 10616, dossier Jorre. 459

Voysin, who had been kept informed of the facts of the case, and

Secretary of State Jérôme de Pontchartrain agreed, for Jorre remained 71 in the Bastille until September 1715.

Finally, in the course of his investigations, D'Argenson occa­ sionally crossed paths with some of the well-known and soon-to-be- known writers of the period including, in 1717, the young Francois- 72 Marie Arouet, better known in history as Voltaire. The young writer had already experienced difficulty with the government in 1716 when he was exiled to Sully-sur-Loire by the Due d'Orleans, Regent of

France, in order to correct "son impudence et temperer sa vivacité" 73 (in which there is a certain irony given the Due's own vivacité).

Shortly after being allowed to return to Paris in 1717, the young

Arouet again ran afoul of the authorities for making the Regent and his daughter, the Duchesse de Berry, the subjects of irreverent verse.

Orléans ordered his arrest; and he was taken to the Bastille.The

^^Bibliothèque de l'Arsenal, Archives de la Bastille, Ms. 10621, dossier Jorre. 72 Ail of the known letters, ordres, notes, and other documents related to Voltaires early encounters with the authorities have been faithfully reproduced in Les oeuvres completes de Voltaire/The Complete Works of Voltaire, ed. by Theodore Besterman, et al., LXXXV (Geneva and Toronto, 1968), 44-78, 377-581 (appendix D5). The originals are scattered among many individuals and repositories. The first known use of the name "Voltaire" by Arouet does not occur until June 1718. See ibid., 73-74. 73 ^ Phillipe II, due d'Orleans, to Louis Phelypeaux, Marquis de La Vrilliere, n.p.. May 4, 1716, ibid., p. 35.

^^Many of the documents related to Voltaire's sojourn in the Bastille are still located in the Bibliothèque de l'Arsenal, Archives de la Bastille, Ms. 10633, Voltaire; and, ibid., Ms. 12479. 460

officer who carried out the arrest remarked that along the way to prison

Arouet was "beaucoup goguenarde" (could one expect anything less of

Voltaire?) and had feigned surprise that, it being the feast of the 75 Pentecost, the police had to work. Several days after his arrival

Arouet met lieutenant general de police D'Argenson face-to-face when

the latter arrived at the Bastille to interrogate him. After first

being sworn to tell the truth, the prisoner identified himself as

“prancois-Marie Harrouet aage de vingt deux anes orignaire de Paris

n'ayant aucune profession. . . Then, after identifying some of his

personal papers which had also been seized, he was questioned by

D'Argenson as to whether or not he had authored a certain libellous

and satirical inscription in Latin which he had discussed with an army-

officer-turned-police-informer. Arouet denied authorship; but the

authorities apparently believed otherwise, for he remained at the 77 Bastille until April 1718. During his stay he composed a poem en­

titled "La Bastille" at the end of which he alluded to lieutenant

general D'Argenson:

75 Bazin, officer of the compagnie du lieutenant criminel de robe courte, to D'Argenson, [Paris], May 16, 1717, Bibliothèque de l'Arsenal, Archives de la Bastille, Ms. 10633, Voltaire, fols. 453-454. n r "Interrogatoire du sr. Harrouet fils prisonnier à la Bastille 21 may 1717," in ibid., fols. 455-457r. Also, reprinted in Voltaire, Oeuvres completes (Besterman, ed.), LXXXV, 377-381. See also: Salenne de Beauregard to D'Argenson, n.p., [May 10, 1717], in ibid., pp. 62-64.

^^Louis XV to Bernaville, Paris, April 10, 1718, Bibliothèque de l'Arsenal, Archives de la Bastille, Ms. 10633, Voltaire, fol. 452. 461

0 Marc-René, que Caton le Censeur Jadis dans Rome eût pris pour successeur 0 Marc-René, de qui la faveur grande Fait ici-bas tant de gens murmurer, Vos beaux avis n'ont fait claquemurer: yg Que quelque jour le bon Dieu vous le rende!

In his later years Voltaire was much more sympathetic towards D'Argenson; and in fact he credited the lieutenant général with having saved

Fontenelle from an unjust persecution by Louis XIV's Jesuit confessor.

Le Tellier.In the Siècle de Louis XIV, he wrote of D'Argenson:

. . . le second lieutenant de police qu'eut Paris acquit dans cette place une reputation qui le mit au rang de ceux qui ont fait honneur à ce siècle: aussi était-ce un homme capable de tout. Il fut depuis dans le ministère; et il eût été bon general d'armee. La place de lieutenant de police était au-dessous de sa naissance et de son mérite; et cependant cette place lui fit un bien plus grand nom que le ministère gêné et passager qu'il obtint sur la fin de sa vie.80

70 "La Bastille," [1717], in Voltaire, Oeuvres complètes, ed. by L. Moland, 52 vols. (Paris, 1877-1885), IX, 353-355.

^^"Ecrivains français du siècle de Louis XIV," in ibid., XIV, 74; and, "Lettre sur les français [De Fontenelle]," in ibid., XXVI, 501.

G^Ibid., XIV, 503. D'Argenson fared remarkably well with eighteenth-century writers like Voltaire, Fontenelle and Saint-Simon, considering the un­ pleasant tasks he had to perform as head of the police and the fierce popular reputation with which he had to live and die. One can only wonder what his reputation might have been like if Friedrich Schiller had succeeded in his plan to use D'Argenson as the dark protagonist and domestic complement to Wallenstein in a play entitled Die Polizei which apparently would have illustrated his concern with the problems posed by a police state. See: Gordon A. Craig, "Friedrich Schiller and the Police," Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society, CXII, no. 6 (December, 1968), 367-370. CONCLUSIONS

Reading the correspondence and reports of the police is like

examining a slice of life itself. If one looks long enough and close

enough, one sees all of the vices, the virtues, and motivational forces which make humanity what it is amidst the chaos and order of any given age. One sees the customs, the institutions, the beliefs, and the at­

titudes that men and women cling to, or cast off, in their attempts to deal with themselves, with each other, and with the external circum­

stances, both predictable and unpredictable, which govern their daily

lives. Of course, one especially sees in them the activities and atti­

tudes of one of the institutions man has created in an attempt to order

his life in relation to his fellow human beings and his environment.

Unfortunately, police reports do little to uplift the human

spirit. They do less to reveal the goodness and dignity of man, or the

benefits of "civilized" society, or man's mastery of his own fate, than

they do the darker side of human nature, man's inhumanity to man, and man's seeming helplessness in the face of certain circumstances beyond

his control.

The police function in western history was born of the frailties

of human nature and the need to administer the relations between man and

man. It was raised according to the needs of communities and emergent

states; and, perhaps, the recognized need for its existence is proof

enough of the need for a fundamental change in human nature if man is

462 463 to achieve that higher plane for which he has so often strived. Yet, how lamentable that in modern times police forces themselves have been misused by some to promote on a grand scale some of the cruelties of human nature that they were created to control.

Each modern state has developed its police system according to its own unique needs, and this study has attempted to trace part of that development in France--the first western state to make a serious attempt at formalizing its police authority.^ The concern with police in late-seventeenth and early-eighteenth-century France was part of an overall attempt by Louis XIV and his ministers to provide France with, as Delaware put it, that "good order upon which the well-being of states depends." It was part and parcel of the attempt to create that construct which history has since referred to as absolutism. Louis XIV, the clas­ sic absolutist monarch--theoretically unlimited in his power to act in defense of the body politic and in the interest of public safety— acted to establish the "good order" which his metier, his psychological make-up, 2 and his advisers suggested to him. In part, it was a long look backwards

For a comparative history of the development of police systems in Western Europe, see: David H. Bayley, "The Police and Political De­ velopment in Europe," in Tilly, ed. , The Formation of National States, pp. 328-379. 2 ^ On absolutism, the metier de roi, and other influences on Louis XIV, see the essays in Rule, ed., Louis XIV and the Craft of Kingship; Hatton, ed., Louis XIV and Absolutism; Roland Mousnier and Fritz Hartung, "Quelques problèmes concernant la monarchie absolue,” Relazioni del X Congresso de Scienze Storiche, [held in Rome, 1955], (Florence, n.d.), pp. 3-55; Mousnier, Les institutions de la France, especially pp. 499-526; and François Olivier-Martin, Histoire du droit français des origines a la Revolution (Paris, 1948), especially pp. 281-356. In most of these works it is pointed out that the "absolute" power of 464

to the glory that was Rome's under Caesar Augustus and to classical 3 concepts of order; in part, it was a shorter look backwards to the

Frondes, the disorders of his childhood in the capital of a kingdom that

was supposedly his; in part, it was an attempt to resolve the difficulties

created by the survival of congeries of disparate medieval institutions;

in part, it was a strong monarch's response to the challenge of dealing with the raucous social environment created by half a million people in

one relatively confined area— a challenge that could no longer be ignored;

in part, it was the attempt to firmly establish an executive rather than

a judicial administration in France's largest city (just as the intend- 4 ants represented that executive authority in the provinces). In sum,

it was exactly what one would expect from the man who epitomized the

absolutist state from which grew the modern bureaucratic state.^

Absolutism, as one historian has recently noted, "still seems

an undisputed historical fact, .... it was and is considered to be a

historical phenomenon connected with the aggrandisement and centralisation

the King is in fact qualified and limited by, among other things, the unwritten "lois fondamentales" of France. 3 Delamare, of course, provides ample proof of this. But, see also the stimulating article, "The City as the Idea of Social Order," by Sylvia L. Thrupp in The Historian and the City, ed. by Oscar Handlin and John Burchard (Cambridge, Mass., 1963), pp. 121-132.

^On this point, see: Mousnier, Paris au XVII^ siècle, p. 107.

^For an overview of this development, see: Henry Jacoby, The Bureaucratization of the World, trans. by Eveline Kanes (Berkeley and Los Angeles, 1973 [orig. published 1969]). On a more specific in­ quiry into the development of bureaucracy in the government of Louis XIV, see: Rule, "Colbert de Torcy," in Hatton, ed., Louis XIV and Europe, pp. 261-288. 465 of the state and with the increase of its power.If, indeed, Louis

XIV brought the absolutist state to its apogee in France, as Ernest 7 Lavisse and so many others after him have told us, then the attempt to develop a police organization responsive to his and his ministers' direct commands has to be considered a major development in the evolution of that state. Henry IV may have felt that Paris was well worth a Mass;

Louis XIV felt Paris was well worth the attempt to rule it. And though the office of lieutenant general de police, Louis's contribution to this effort, did not survive the French Revolution, just as the monarchy--as

Louis knew it--did not, what was erected in its place almost has enough g similarities to be more properly deemed a resurrection.

In the context of Louis's reign itself, the continued attention paid to the development of the police in Paris (and in the provinces

^E. H. Kossmann, "The Singularity of Absolutism," in Hatton, ed., Louis XIV and Absolutism, p. 3.

^For example, Lavisse, Histoire de France, Vlll (1), p. 478; Olivier-Martin, Histoire de droit français, pp. 291-293.

^Even in contemporary times one has a sense of déjà vu when, for instance, one reads in a recent institutional study on the police: "Le préfet de police devient un personnage essentiel dans la région parisienne. Que ce soit en matière de police administration, de maintenir de l'ordre public, de lutte contre l'incendie ou d'hygiène social, son autorité, de départementale qu'elle était, tend à devenir régionale. "Le renforcement de l'autorité de la préfecture de police se fait inévitablement au detriment des préfets, 11 Patricia Lemoyne de Forges, "La police dans la région parisienne," in Aspects actuels de l'administration parisienne. Travaux et Recherches de 1'Université de Droit d'Economie et de Sciences Sociales de Paris, Série Science Administrative - 3 (Paris, 1972), p. 73. 466

from 1699) would suggest that the end of the grand monarch's reign was not necessarily the period of decline and stagnation as it has so often been portrayed. Rather, one might conclude that the attention paid to the police, on the part of both King and ministers, was part of an at­ tempt— however modified by concomitant political, diplomatic, social, economic, and religious considerations— to provide good (in the sense of orderly) administration to the city of Paris despite economic malaise and war. It was the attempt by Louis XIV and his ministers to provide an example of determined royal control as well as good administration to the rest of France, and indeed, even to Europe. It was meant to con­ tribute not only to Louis's gloire, but also to the well-being of his subj ects.

Should we call it reform? In the context of western history, reform is a term that has meant positive change or correction for im­ provement. In effect, it would seem that Louis XIVs government and police were engaged in a campaign of reform in Paris during the last decades of Louis's reign--though admittedly according to their own

conceptions of order and improvement. In the person of the lieutenant

general de police they had the instrument they needed to cut through

(though not always with consistent determination) the constraints of

centuries of institutional history to deal with the people on a more

direct basis in order to bring about that reform. The police of Paris,

especially the lieutenant general de police and the commissaires of

the Chatelet, represented the will of.executive authority amongst the

people; and, in fact, their emergence as the dominant administrative 467 force in Paris was tied very closely to the person of the monarch and the Maison du Roi. Louis XIV may not have brought the royal personage 9 itself to Paris very often, but his persona was evident and active enough. Indeed, in light of the emphasis on "order" and "police" as evidenced in such things as Delaware's Traité de la Police, one might even conclude, as does Marc Raeff, that "the practices and intellectual presuppositions of seventeenth-century absolutism, as manifested in cameralist and police legislation, proved more significant and came earlier than the ideas of the philosophes in giving dynamic impulse to the process of modernization."^'^

The police of Paris grew in power during Louis's reign because of the desire of the monarch and his ministers to have an organized and reliable group of agents of order in the Parisian urban setting. They also grew in power because they became the government's main source of information about Paris, through the police organization itself, through

the use of mouches, and through the role of the lieutenant général de

9 Between 1693 and 1715, Louis XIV was in Paris only six times, twice to the Invalides and four times to Notre-Dame. For a complete list of his visits to Paris, see: Saint-Simon, Mémoires, XXVIII, Appendice VI, 518-520.

^^Marc Raeff, "The Well-Ordered Police State and the Development of Modernity in Seventeenth- and Eighteenth-Century Europe: An Attempt at a Comparative Approach," American Historical Review, LXXX (December, 1975), 1242-1243. In what is probably the most interesting and provo­ cative article on "police" in recent historiography, Raeff goes on to add that "in endowing these earlier impulses with its own rhetoric, the Enlightenment appears only as a response to, not a precondition of, Europe's embarking on modernity" (p. 1243). For "heuristic purposes," Raeff defines "'modern'" as: "society's conscious desire to maximize all its resources and to use this new potential dynamically for the en­ largement and improvement of its way of life" (p. 1222). Cf. Leonard Krieger, "The Idea of Authority in the West," ibid., LXXXII (April, 1977), 249-270. 468 police as the government's chief interrogator. They also grew in power because of the willingness and inclination of the lieutenant general de police to resort to "the immediate authority of the King," or in other words to the lettre de cachet, to enforce the royal will and to bypass the "ordinary" legal mechanisms of the ancien regime.

However, despite this growth in power, and despite the use of methods that at times seemed arbitrary, the police, at least in the activities that the lieutenant général de police controlled, combined utility and justice in their approach to the problems they encountered, and even evidenced a humaneness and paternalism towards the great mass of Parisians. Granted certain groups, like lackeys, soldiers, vagabonds and beggars, were stereotyped as troublemakers and were just as easily locked away as tolerated; but nowhere in the correspondence and reports of the period does one find a critical, much less misanthropic, attitude towards the people as a whole. On the contrary, even in the darkest, coldest moments of 1709, amidst the government's insistence on order, there is evidence of humanity in the efforts of the police under

D'Argenson to ameliorate the condition of the people.

As for D'Argenson himself, Roland Mousnier has recently written that he made the lieutenance générale de police "un veritable ministre.

Mousnier, Les institutions de la France, p. 448; idem., Paris au XVII^ siècle, p. 98. The suggestion is not altogether new. D'Argenson's son, Rene-Louis, wrote in his Journal et Mémoires (I, 12) that "mon père était véritablement un ministre, car il travaillait directement avec le roi, et était avec ce grand monarque dans une cor­ respondance continuelle. ..." Saint-Simon speculated (Mémoires, XXX, 282) that "le feu Roi avoit fait du lieutenant de police de Paris une espèce de ministre secret et confident, une sorte d'inquisiteur. . . ." 469

Actually, D'Argenson came close; but, though he was quite active and quite powerful, his actions and power depended very much on the will of the King and the real minister-secretaries of state. One simply cannot overlook the strong hand of Jerome de Pontchartrain, the Secretary of 12 State of the Maison du Roi, in Parisian affairs. In another way, however, Mousnier's characterization of D'Argenson might be even more applicable than intended. The most intriguing aspect of the history of the police during D'Argenson's years as head of the police is his rela­ tionship with the minister-secretaries. D'Argenson was technically responsible to the Secretary of State of the Maison du Roi (each secre­ tary was responsible for overseeing a different area of France, and the

Secretary of the Maison du Roi oversaw Paris); and, throughout most of

D'Argenson's tenure in office this was Jerome de Pontchartrain who had succeeded his father, Louis de Pontchartrain, when the latter became

Chancellor of France. D'Argenson owed his office to the patronage of the Phelypeaux de Pontchartrain family. Yet one cannot help but be struck by the tension between D'Argenson and the younger Pontchartrain in their correspondence. The tone of the incessant demands and complaints (occa­ sionally modified by praise) of Jérôme, though frequently made in the name of the King, appear to have worn a little thin on the lieutenant général de police during the decade 1700-1710. The demand for investi­ gations "a fond," the demands for rapid police action (yet the periodic

12 During the Regency, however, this characterization is probably very near to the mark because of the close working relationship between the Regent and D'Argenson from 1715 to 1718. Unfortunately, it was so close they left very little correspondence. 470 criticism of the lieutenant general's request for lettres de cachet), the occasional playing off of other judicial and police officials against

D'Argenson, all apparently combined to form a situation of which the lieutenant general grew weary. As a consequence, D'Argenson appears to have purposely edged away from the domineering control of Jérôme de

Pontchartrain towards the other Secretaries of State and the Controller-

General of Finances. He was still fully responsive to the Phelypeaux de Pontchartrain clan, but he certainly was building bridges to Chamil- lart, Torcy, Desmaretz and Voysin. They, too, found it useful to re­ ciprocate; and they, too, had funds they could utilize to finance special police operations. Though it is not possible to determine how often D'Argenson met with the other Secretaries, both the tone and the indirect evidence in his letters would suggest that he had periodic personal contact with them (usually at their residences in Paris), and, with their commis. What is interesting in all of this is how D'Argenson's relationship with all of the ministers mirrors Louis XIV s own attempts to balance the ministers off against one another. Finally, in this regard, the evidence that D'Argenson had occasional tête-à-têtes with the King himself suggests that there may even have been a secret du roi in police affairs just as there was in foreign affairs— and if there was one thing D'Argenson was noted for, it was his circumspection in delicate affairs.

One wonders how D'Argenson did it all. From his own corres­ pondence, from Fontenelle's eulogy, from his son's Mémoires, and from

Dangeau's Journal we know that he must have worked at least sixteen - 471 eighteen hours a day (sometimes more!), often eating in his coach as he hurried about Paris, and dictating letters and reports to several secre­ taries at a time. Still, the volume of material he generated on such a variety of subjects is prodigious. Nor were his reports thoughtless collections of facts. In many cases they were rich in detail and ana­ lytic in their assessment of situations. Perhaps one- can even see in them an "enlightened" and skeptical approach to life that many writers wish to attribute only to those who somehow opposed Louis XIV and abso­ lute monarchy. D'Argenson was basically a pragmatic, common-sense, and hard-working administrator; but he was also humane, just, and even paternalistic. One cannot help but wonder what manner of man could write in 1700 that interior religious sentiment was something "neither fear of laws nor the authority of men can change"--and this from the man who was enforcing Louis X I V s religious policy in Paris! One is almost tempted to say that the philosophes could not have done better.

This is not an attempt, however, to nominate D'Argenson as a spokesman for religious toleration (his attitude towards the Jews is enough to qualify that), or as an early enlightenment hero. He was as bound by custom and duty as anyone who served the government of Louis XIV was, to uphold the King, the Church, and the Law; yet he generally saved his criticism in religious matters for those who violated and flaunted the 13 exterior prohibitions against differing religious views. Perhaps he

13 One cannot help but recall here Ronald Knox's comment on the Quietists as religious "enthusiasts," that the chief complaint against them was that they did not know how to keep quiet. Enthusiasm, p. 262. 472 simply understood that different religious sentiments did not neces­ sarily make one an enemy of the state.

What of his attitude towards "le peuple"? In reading his corres­ pondence with the Controllers-General, one is struck by his desire to ameliorate the condition of the great mass of Parisians (if, of course, they were willing to help themselves). Granted, his motives were mixed.

He had to maintain order, and he was quick to lock up the sources of disorder, but he was aware of "la misère" and was as determined as a

Fenelon, a Vauban, or a Boisguilbert to end it. No one in the admini­ strative bureaucracy worked any harder to maintain an abundance of life’s necessities at an affordable price in the marketplaces of Paris than

D'Argenson. No one was more critical of those who would profit from the misery of the people. He was in a position to act, and he did— to the limits that his office, his orders, his influence with the ministers, and his differences of opinion with fellow magistrates would permit. As in the case of his use of lettres de cachet, D'Argenson tried to cut through the institutional adiaphora to reach solutions that produced rapid results; yet, if need be, he also knew how to fall back on customs and legal arguments, with commissaire Delamare as his source, in order to consolidate or defend his position.

At the level of society above "le peuple," D'Argenson was the preeminent defender of family honor. In a society in which family at­ tachments and lineage were so important, in which family considerations were generally more important than individual considerations, and in which familial, social, and professional status constantly counterbalanced 473 the impact of laws and regulations, D ’Argenson acted to protect the family institution. His use of lettres de cachet in this regard was 14 frequent, though not arbitrary. Opinions of other family members, cures, and the ministers were solicited. As in all other areas of police activity, D'Argenson was not unleashed on Paris to do as he pleased— there were always checks on his authority.

Finally, D'Argenson probably would have been amused by Saint-

Simon's characterization of his appearance as that of one of the "judges of hell."^^ He did not seem to mind the placards which appeared in Paris describing him in even more vivid terms. If his countenance was fright­ ening to behold, then so much the better as far as he was concerned— for no one ever imposed order by being handsome. However, one also imagines, he might have been more pleased with Fontenelle's assessment that: "Autant que par sa sévérité, ou plutôt par son apparence de sévérité, il sçavait se rendre redoubtable au peuple dont il faut être craint, autant par ses manières § par ses bons offices il sçavoit se faire aimer de ceux que la crainte ne mène pas."^^

As Arthur de Boislisle, who probably was as familiar with police records of the ancien regime as anyone who ever studied the subject, wrote: "Au moins pour le règne de Louis XIV, j'attends encore que l'on constate bien dûment un cas où l'intervention du pouvoir discrétionnaire ne pouvait se justifier par des raisons d'ordre public ou d'ordre privé, et j'estime que les déclamateurs en ont tout autant exagéré l'abus que celui des lettres de cachet." Lettres de M. de Marville, lieutenant général de police au ministre Maurepas (1742-1747), ed. by A. de Boislisle, I [Paris, 1896), p. xxiii.

^^Saint-Simon, Mémoires, XXXIII, 34.

^^Fontenelle, "Eloge de M. D'Argenson," Histoire, p. 108. BIBLIOGRAPHY

474 BIBLIOGRAPHY

I. Archival and Manuscript Sources

ARCHIVES DE LA GUERRE. Ministère des Armées. Service Historique de l'Armée. Vincennes. Section Ancienne Série Al (contains correspondence between the lieutenant général de police and the secrétaire d'Etat de la guerre, 1701-1715) 1524, 1606, 1633, 1634, 1635, 1637, 1641, 1700, 1721, 1895, 1896, 1897, 1898, 1899, 1900, 1913, 1927, 2004, 2005, 2009, 2013, 2063, 2109, 2132, 2162, 2182, 2205, 2206, 2207, 2208, 2262, 2263, 2268, 2269, 2270, 2271, 2272, 2273, 2279, 2343, 2344, 2413.

ARCHIVES DE LA PREFECTURE DE POLICE. Paris. Cartons WJ II: Bastille. Notes sur les prisonniers, I661-I775. Collection Lamoignon (police ordinances and regulations). Dossiers (on the lieutenants généraux de police). No. 2, D'Argenson (E A/16).

ARCHIVES DE LA VILLE DE PARIS ET DE L'ANCIEN DEPARTEMENT DE LA SEINE. Paris. série AZ--Nouvelles Acquisitions; Melanges (Contains diverse letters to and from D'Argenson) 1 AZ 6, 1 AZ 10, 2 AZ 63, 3 AZ 234, 4 AZ 361, 4 AZ 569, 4 AZ 1309, 6 AZ 31, 6 AZ 133.

Série D. C^— Insinuations au Chatelet 7 Lettres de chancellerie . . ., 1704-1731. 21 Idem. 215 Idem. Testaments (contains abstract of testament of Marc-Rene de Voyer de Paulmy d'Argenson, November 15, 1720).

ARCHIVES DE L'ACADEMIE FRANÇAISE (INSTITUT DE FRA14CE). Paris. Dossiers D'Argenson (Marc-René de Voyer de Paulmy, marquis).

475 476

ARCHIVES DES AFFAIRES ETRANGERES. Ministère des Affaires Etrangères. Paris. Mémoires et Documents [contains police reports and correspondence of lieutenant gênerai de police D'Argenson, 1697-1718) France: 137, 1106, 1137, 1160, 1167, 1580, 1596

Correspondance Politique (contains correspondence between the lieutenant general de police and the secretaire d'Etat des affaires étrangères and his commis with regard to affairs affecting certain geographic areas or the citizens of those areas, 1697-1718) Angleterre: 213, 214, 215, 216, 217, 219, 221, 235, 237, 240, 243, 245, 248, 249, 254, 261, 262, 263, 269, 270, 272, 274. Autriche:' 80, 81, 82, 83, 84, 85, 86, 87, 88, 89, 90, 91, 92, 95. Bavière : 50, 62, 63. Brunswick-Hanovre: 38, 44. Cologne : 54, 58, 60, 61, 67. Danemark : 65, 66-67, 68, 69, 70, 71, 72, 75, 76, Supplement 3. Espagne : 85, 92, 106, 143, 152, 164, 165, 181, 184, 185, 205, 211, 212, 217, 218, 219, 240, 245. Geneve: 24, 29, 32. Hollande: 199, 200, 206, 217, 251, 264. Lorraine : 80. Mantoue: 31, 44. Mayence: 38. Naples : 24. Palatinat: 27. Parme: 5. Pays Bas: 64, 65, 66, 67, Supplements 9 and 10. Portugal: 45. Pologne: 117 477

Prusse; 42. Rome: 447. Russie (Moscovie): 6. Saxe: 18, 19. Suède : 95, 96, 100, 103, 122.

ARCHIVES NATIONALES. Paris. Section Ancienne: Ancien Régime Série — Amirauté et Conseil des prises 214: Prises, amendes, et confiscations, 1672-1707. 215:^ Délibérations, Conseils des prises. 217: Arrêts du Conseil des prises, 1695. 218: Minutes des jugements des prises, 1695.

série G^--Contrôle général des finances 8: Minutes des lettres des contrôleurs généraux (contains registers and loose copies of letters sent by Louis Pontchartrain, Chamillart, and Desmaretz), 1697-1702. 9: Idem. 1703-1705. 10 Idem. 1705-1706. 11 Idem. 1705-1706. 12 Idem. 1707. 13 Idem. 1708. 14 Idem. 1709. 15 Idem. 1708-1709. 16 Idem. 1708-1710, 17 Idem. 1710. 18 Idem. 1711. 19 Idem. 1710-1712. 478

20: Idem. 1710-1714. 21: Idem. 1714. 2 2: Idem. 1715. 429: Lettres et mémoires au contrôleur général (contains cartons of original correspondence of the intendants of the provinces, of the lieutenant général de police of Paris, and other government officials). 1696-1698. 430: Idem. 1699-1700. 431 Idem. 1700-1702. 432 Idem. 1703-1704. 433 Idem. 1705-1706. 532 Lettres des secretaires d'Etat au contrôleur général (contains letters of Seignelay, Louvois, Barbezieux, Chateauneuf, Croissy, Torcy, Villacery, La Vrilliere, Louis Pontchartrain, Le Blanc, Boucherat, and Arnauld de Pomponne). 1682-1715. 533: ' Idem. Jérôme de Pontchartrain. 1699-1707. 534 Idem. Jerome de Pontchartrain. 1708-1712. 535 Idem. Jérôme de Pontchartrain. 1713-1715. 537-540: Idem, (contains letters of Voysin and Torcy). 1700-1734. 937: Projet des appointements, gages du conseil et pensions. 1708. 1171: Fermes générales. Passeports. 1700-1722. 1538: Affaires extraordinaire (contains material on the administra­ tion of police affairs). 1539: Idem. 1548: Idem. 1550: Idem. 1551: Idem. 1652: Commerce des blés. 1708-1709. 1653: Idem. 1709-1713. 479

1654: Idem. Correspondance de M. d ’Argenson (contains numerous letters, mémoires, and supporting documents from the lieutenant général de police). 1708-1710. 1655: Idem. Correspondance de M. d'Argenson. 1710-1711. 1725: Police de Paris. Correspondance de M. d'Argenson (contains numerous letters of the lieutenant général de police). 1706- 1708. 1726: Idem. 1709-1710. 1727: Idem. 1711. 1728: Idem. 1712-1715. 1850: Conseils des finances (1690-1730). Listes des départements de messieurs les secrétaires d ’Etat. série K— "Monuments" Historiques 122: Cartons des rois. Louis XIV. 176: Chatelet de Paris 1020: Ville de Paris. Police. 1022: Idem. Police. Approvisionnent de Paris. 1564-1740.

Série M — Mélanges 616: Titres généalogiques. St. Lazare. série 0^— Maison du Roi 37: Expeditions des actes royaux par le secrétaire de la Maison du roi et registres du secrétariat. 1693. 40: Idem. 1696. 41 Idem. 1697 (contains copies of numerous letters to D’Argenson), 42 Idem. 1698 (contains copies of numerous letters to D'Argenson) 43 Idem. 1699 (contains copies of numerous letters to D’Argenson), 44 Idem. 1700 (contains copies of numerous letters to D'Argenson), 45 Idem. 1701. 480

46 Idem. 1702. 47 Idem. 1703. 48 Idem. 1704. 49 Idem. 1705. 50 Idem. 1706. 51 Idem. 1707. 52 Idem. 1708. 53 Idem. 1709. 54 Idem. 1710. 55 Idem. 1711. 56 Idem. 1712. 57 Idem. 1713. 58 Idem. 1714. 59 Idem. 1715. 60 Idem. 1716. 61 Idem. 1717. 62 Idem. 1718. 21"7: Minutes et originaux de lettres patentes, provisions, etc. 1599-1767. 274: Ordres du Roi et provisions. 1672-1741. 275: Lettres patentes et expéditions, 36QA: Ville de Paris. Administration. 362: Lettres du ministre de la Maison du Roi. 1701 (contains copies of numerous letters to D 'Argenson). 363: Idem. 1702 (contains copies of numerous letters to D'Argenson). 481

364 Idem. 1703 (contains copies of numerous letters to D'Argenson), 365 Idem. 1704 (contains copies of numerous letters to D'Argenson), 366 Idem. 1705 (contains copies of numerous letters to D'Argenson) 367 Idem. 1706 (contains copies of numerous letters to D'Argenson) 368 Idem. 1718-1719 (contains copies of numerous letters to D'Argenson).

Série V^--Requêtes de l'Hôtel 1502: Lettres patentes. 1684-1709. série Y— Chatelet 167: Registres des insinuations (contains references to contrats de marriage and donations of the D'Argenson family). 1622. 183 Idem. 1644. 186 Idem. 1648. 192 Idem. 1655. 194 Idem. 1657. 206 Idem. 1657. 238 Idem. 1680. 261 Idem. 1693. 263 Idem. 1694. 273 Idem. 1699. 275 Idem. 1702. 276 Idem. 1701-1703. 9407: Chambre de Police. 1697-1718. 9498: Minutes d'ordonnances et sentences de police. 1685-1731. 9532: Informations plaintes et interrogatoires en la Chambre de police. 1679-1747. 482

9536: Roles, rapports et contraventions de police. 1670-1704. 9586: Registres d'audience de la chambre de police et d'enregistre­ ments d'edits et déclarations concernant la police. . . . 10637: Registres des rapports des médecins et chirurgiens du Chatelet et visites de cadavres â la morgue. 1673-1712. 14371: Archives des commissaires au Chatelet. Nicolas Delamare. 1684-1698. 14372: Idem. Nicolas Delamare. 1701-1716. 16127:^ . . ' . Arrêt du conseil d'état relatif aux prérogatives, privilèges, et exemptions des lieutenants généraux de police, des com­ missaires de police, . . . 1701. 17374: Ordonnance. Sûreté publique pendant la nuit dans la Ville et faubourgs de Paris. 1702. 17189: Edit. Règlement pour la juridiction du lieutenant général de police, S celle des prévost de marchands et échevins de Paris. 1700. . 17107: Déclaration. Les formalitez qui doivent estre observées pour la correction des femmes et filles de mauvais vie. 1713.

série Z^^--Cent-Suisses de la Maison du Roi 7: Procédures criminelles instruits contre des Cents-Suisses par diverses juridictions pour coups et blessures rixes, duels, etc.

Section Moderne série f 12_-Commerce et industrie 51 Conseil de commerce. 1705. 55 Idem. 1710. 59 Idem. 1716. 62 Idem. 1717.

Fonds Particuliers^ Archives Imprimées (Collection Rondonneau) AD I 22&: Police. 483

AD I 22^: Idem AD I 24: Idem. AD I 25*: Idem. AD I 25^: Idem. AD I 26: Idem. AD I 27A: Idem. AD I 2 7 B: Idem. AD II 7: Chatelet, AD III 20: Livres condamnés. AD VIII 6: Imprimerie et librarie. AD XVI 9: Villes et provinces. Paris. AD XVI 10: Idem. Paris.

Minutier Central (Actes des Notaires de Paris) Etude LXIV: Liasse 92 (contains testament and inventaire of René de Voyer d'Argenson). 1651. Etude LXXV: Liasse 441. 1699. Etude CXV: Liasse 399 (contains the original testament and inventaire des biens of Marc-René de Voyer de Paulmy d'Argenson). 1721. Liasse 402. 1722. Liasse 403. 1722. Liasse 404. 1722. Liasse 405. 1722.

Fonds des Colonies (Jusqu'en 1815) série B— Correspondance Envoyée. Ordres du Roi 2 0: Registre (contains copies of letters to D'Argenson). 1699. 27 Idem. 1705. 28 Idem. 1706-1707. 30 Idem. 1708 484

31 Idem. 1708-1709. 34 Idem. 1712. 35 Idem. 1713. 36 Idem. 1714. 37 Idem. 1715.

série C^--Correspondance Générale. Extreme Orient 8: Chine. 1658-1699 (contains the "Articles pour le voyage de la Chine, du Tonkin, et de la Cochinchine," 1660). 2 0: Compagnie de la Chine. 1710.

Archives de la Marine (Dépôt du Service historique de la Marine). série B^--Correspondance, lettres envoyées

Dépêches de Monseigneur Phelypeaux (contains copies of letters to D'Argenson). 1694. 103: Idem. 1695, 104 Idem. 1695. 109 Dépêches de la Marine de Ponant. 1695. 112 Dépêches de Monsieur Phélypeaux. 1696. 116 Dépêches de la Marine de Ponant. 1696. 197 Idem. 1707. 209 Idem. 1708.

Série B --Correspondance, lettres récues 115: Ministres, clergé, parlements, etc. (contains letters and related materials sent to the secrétaire d'état de la marine by D'Argenson). 1701. 119: Idem. 1702. 132: Idem. 1705. 140: Idem. 1706. 485

189: Idem. 1710. 202: Idem. 1711. 7 ^ série B — Pays étrangères, commerce et consulats 498: Correspondances et mémoires concernant le commerce. 1697.

BIBLIOTHEQUE DE LA CHAMBRE DES DEPUTES. Paris. Manuscrits 341, 345, 347: (Diverse legal documents related to the D'Argenson family history.)

BIBLIOTHEQUE DE L'ARSENAL. Paris. Manuscrits 2181: Germain Vuillart. "De la reconnoissance chrétienne" (contains interrogation by D'Argenson). 3422: Mélanges sur l'histoire de France. 3499: Recueil. 4161: Recueil (contains genealogical material on the D'Argenson family, including Duprat's "Généalogie de M. le Marquis d'Argenson). 4275: Registre des principaux points de cérémonie arrivez dans l'ambassade de monseigneur le comte d'Argenson (à Venise), fait par son secrétaire," 1651-1655. 4588: Dissertation sur l'origine de la charge de chancelier, son etymologie, et l'explication de ses fonctions, présentée à très haut et très puissant seigneur monseigneur Marc-René de Voyer de Paulmy, chevalier, marquis d'Argenson, garde des sceaux de France et président du Conseil des finances, pour prouver qu'il depend de la seule volonté des rois de destituer les chanceliers de leur charge, sans leur faire leur procès. 5133: Registre . . . Du Junca (entrées into the Bastille). 5134: Registre . . . Du Junca (sorties from the Bastille). 6164: Oeuvre topographique de M. le marquis d'Argenson, lavé à l'encre de la Chine, d'après ses desseins (views of various châteaux of the D'Argenson family by René-Louis de Voyer d'Argenson). 486

6516: Papiers d'Ulric Obrecht (concerning the legitimacy of the rights of Philippe V to the throne of Spain). 7093: Idem.

Archives de la Bastille Administration du lieutenant general de police: 10001 (very few D'Argenson letters) Prisonniers: dossiers individuel et documents biographiques (contains numerous letters and notes to and from D'Argenson, interrogations, seized papers, police reports, etc. concerning the detention of prisoners at the Bastille, 1697-1718): 10509, 10510, 10511, 10512, 10514, 10515, 10518, 10519, 10520, 10521, 10522, 10523, 10524, 10525, 10526, 10527, 10528, 10530, 10531, 10532, 10533, 10535, 10538, 10539, 10540, 10541, 10542, 10543, 10544, 10545, 10546, 10547, 10548, 10550, 10551, 10552, 10554, 10555, 10561, 10562, 10566, 10571, 10572, 10573, 10575, 10586, 10587, 10579, 10583, 10585, 10588, 10589, 10592, 10596, 10597, 10598, 10601, 10604, 10609, 10611, 10615, 10616, 10617, 10618, 10619, 10620, 10622, 10633. Administration intérieure de la Bastille (and other prisons): 12475: . Ordres du roi. 12479: Registre d'écrou. 12482: Feuilles d'écrou. 12541: Tableaux des prisonniers, 1703. 12545: Idem. 1714. 12546: Idem. 1715. 12574: Etats des prisonniers, 1704-1726. 12629: Papiers des gouverneurs, . . . 12683: Bicêtre, 1701. 12718: Etats des prisonniers de la Bastille, 1714-1715. 12719: Répertoire des prisonniers qui sont aux archives de la Bastille. 12721: Catalogues alphabétiques des prisonniers de la Bastille. 487

BIBLIOTHEQUE DE L'INSTITUT DE FRANCE. Paris. Collection Godefroy 514; Mélanges (mémoires on the police). 541 (bound with 515): Mélanges (mémoires on the police).

BIBLIOTHEQUE HISTORIQUE DE LA VILLE DE PARIS. Paris. Manuscrits 131: Papiers de Marcel Poète. Police. 132: Idem. Police. 136: Papiers de Paul Jarry. Topographie de Paris. Le Marais. CP 3320: Vieille-du-Temple.

BIBLIOTHEQUE MAZARINE. Paris. Manuscrits 2334: Correspondance de la marquise de Lacour Balleroy. 1704-1716. 2355: Idem. 1717. 2336: Idem. 1718. 2345 (2055): "La Petite Fronde." Recueil de chansons historiques et satiriques sur la fin du règne de Louis XIV et la Régence.

BIBLIOTHEQUE NATIONALE (Paris). Département des Manuscrits Manuscrits Français 6791^ Dépenses de police arrêtées de la main du Régent (contains an "Etat des ordonnances de gratifications que le fue Roy avoit la bonté de faire remettre tous les ans entres les mains de M. D'Argenson ...» [1716]"). 8049: Collection Duprê (commissaire au Châtelet). Recueil de règlements sur la police. Table, 1660-1709. (A répertoire of this collection exists at the Archives Nationales, Mss. H*18802-15). 8050: Idem. Recueil . . . Table, 1709-1744. 8058: Idem. Recueil . . . Ordonnances relatives à juridiction a Paris. 8059: Idem. Recueil . . . Religion, moeurs, santé publique. 488

8060: Idem. Recueil . . . Vivres et approvisonnements. 8061: Idem. Recueil . . . Science, commerce et manufactures. 8062: Idem. Recueil . . . Arts et métiers. 8063: Idem. Recueil . . . Arts et métiers. 8072: Idem. Recueil de différents pièces concernant la police. 1667- 1713. 8077: Idem. Recueil . . ., 1560-1744. 8084: Idem. Recueil . . ., 1258-1732. 8089: Idem. Recueil . . ., 1699-1748. 8118: Registre de deliberations du conseil de police en 1666 et 1667. 8119: Recueil de pièces originales, correspondance, interrogatoires, . . . concernant des affaires criminelles ou de police à Paris et dans différents villes de France, 1670-1701 (con­ tains many letters from lieutenant général de police d'Argenson to the secrétaires d'Etat et la Maison du Roi Pontchartrain). 8120: Idem. 1701-1708. 8121: Idem. 1709-1721. 8122: Idem. 1666-1706. 8123: Idem. 1688-1715. 8124: Idem. 1703-1708. 8125: Idem. 1681-1715. 8126:^ "Mémoire sur la généralité de Paris," par Jean Phelypeaux. 11355: Table chronologique des edits, declarations, arrets, et sentences contenues dans le Traité de la police de Delamare. 15516^ Pièces relatives aux offices et officiers du Parlement, du Châtelet. . . . 489

15798: Papiers du president [du parlement] Achille III de Harlay . . . concernant les censures de différents ouvrages, les Jesuits, et les Jansénistes (contains originals and copies of letters from the Chancellor, ministers and lieutenant general de police to the First President of the Parlement]. 16527: Idem. Châtelet: fonctions de ses officers. 16749: Idem. Police. 16750: Idem. Mendiants, vagabonds, aumônes publiques, hôpitaux de Paris. 17435: Correspondance de Achille III de Harlay, 1699. 17437: Idem. 1701-1702. 17438: Idem. 1680-1706. 19232: Mélanges théologiques et historiques. 19582: Lettres originales du chancelier Pontchartrain au premier président Achille III de Harlay, 1699-1701, 21119: Recueil des lettres écrites par Mre Louis Phélypeaux, chevalier, comte de Pontchartrain, chancelier, garde des sceaux de France, commandeur des ordres du Roy (contains copies of letters written to D'Argenson], 1699-1700, 21120: Idem, 1701. 21121: Idem, 1702. 21124: Idem, 1705. 21125: Idem. 1706. 21126: Idem. 1707. 21128: Idem. 1708. 21131: Idem. 1710. 21132: Idem. 1710. 21134: Idem. 1711. 21135: Idem. 1712. 21139: Idem. 1714. 490

21565: Collection Delamare (materials initially collected by Nicolas Delamare, commissaire du Châtelet and author of the Traité de la Police; collection continued posthumously; contains numerous,notes and letters from La Reynie and D ’Argenson to Delamare). Melanges. 21566: Idem. Correspondance de Nicolas Delamare. 21570: Idem. Châtelet. 21571: Idem. Châtelet. Juridiction des officers du Châtelet contre 1 'Hotel de Ville. 21578: Idem. Police générale. Officers des police. 21580: Idem. Commissaires au Châtelet. 21581: Idem. Commissaires au Châtelet. 21582: Idem. Commissaires au Châtelet. 21583: Idem. Commissaires au Châtelet. 21584: . Idem. Commissaires au Châtelet. 21594: Idem. Baillage du Palais et requêtes du Palais. 21599: . Idem. Hotels de Ville. 21605: Idem. Religion. 21609: Idem. Religion. 21617: Idem. Hérétiques. 21622: Idem. Hérétiques. 21625: Idem. Moeurs. 21632: Idem. Vivres, halles et marchés. Laboreurs. 21633: Idem. Vivres, halles et marchés. Laboreurs. 21634: Idem. Grains et disettes. 21635: Idem. Grains et disettes. 21638: Idem. Grains et disettes. 491

21639: Idem. Grains et disettes. 21640: Idem. Grains et disettes. 21643: Idem. Grains et disettes. 21644: Idem. Grains et disettes. 21645: Idem. Grains et disettes. 21646: Idem. Grains et disettes. 21648: Idem. Grains et disettes. 21654: Idem. Viande. 21658: Idem. Viande. 21661: Idem. Marée. 21662: Idem. Marée. 21675: Idem., Bâtiments. 21681: Idem. Incendies. 21687: Idem. Nettoiements des rues. Lanternes. 21693: Idem. Voie publiques. 21694: Idem. Topographie de Paris. Plans, boundaries, portes. 21696: Idem. Topographie de Paris. Maisons, égouts, faubourgs îles. 21699: Idem. Topographie de Paris. Chaînes des rues. Gardes nuit sur les ports et quais. 21710: Idem. Tavernes, auberges. 21714: Idem. Affaires d'état. 21725: Idem. Affaires criminelles. 21728: Idem. Affaires criminelles. 21732: Idem. Arts libéraux. Académie française. 492

21740: Idem. Livres. Imprimeurs. 21741: Idem. Livres. Journaux-Gazettes. 21742: Idem. Livres. Libelles. 21743: Idem. Livres. Catalogue des livres défendus (forrms basis of the study by Anne Sauvy, Livres saisis à Paris entre 1678 et 1701 [The Hague, 1972]). 21768: Idem. Banque royale, 21778: Idem. Commerce. 21780: Idem. Commerce. Toiles peintes. 21800: Idem. Serviteurs et manoeuvriers. 22797: Collection Dangeau. Lettres à M. le duc d'Aumont, 26573: Cabinet des Titres. Pièces originales 89. Argensoa (no. 1863]. 29525: . Cabinet des Titres. Pièces originales 3041. Vo/er (tio. 67429). 29574: Cabinet des Titres. Dossiers bleus 29. Argenson. 30223: Cabinet des Titres. Dossiers bleus 678. Voyer. 30260: Cabinet des Titres. Carrés d'Hozier 31. Argensoai. 30872: Cabinet des Titres. Carrés d'Hozier 643. Voyer. 30873: Cabinet des Titres. Carrés d'Hozier 644. Voyer. 30894: Cabinet des Titres. Cabinet d'Hozier 13, Argenson (no. 296). 31219: Cabinet des Titres. Cabinet d'Hozier 338. Voyer (ao. 9514). 31237: Cabinet des Titres. Nouveau d'Hozier 12. Argenson (no. 230) 31561: Cabinet des Titres. Nouveau d'Hozier 336. Voyer (rxo. 5829). 31772: Cabinet des Titres. Ch$rin 210. Voyer (no. 421D-), 493

31796: Cabinet des Titres. Volumes relies. Armorial général des ordres royaux, militaires et hospitalières de Notre-Dame-du- Mont-Carmel et de Saint-Lazare-de-Jérusalem . . . par Claude Dorât de Chameulles. 32139: Cabinet des Titres. Volumes reliés. Généalogies de messieurs les maistres des requestes et intendants et conseillers au parlement. . . . 32351: Cabinet des Titres. Volumes reliés. Recueil de Toutes les épitaphes qui sont dans les cimetières et les églises de Paris. . . . 32355: Cabinet des Titres. Volumes reliés. (Undated genealogy, 1718-1721-?). 32502: Cabinet des Titres, Volumes reliés. Dictionnaire des annoblissements . . . par Chevillard. 32737: Cabinet des Titres. Volumes reliés. Extraits de la Gazette de France.

Nouvelles Acquisitions Françaises 243: Lettres de Dupré, commissaire au Châtelet, adressés a Le-Cler-du-Brillet, procureur du roi au siège de l'admirauté (and author and editor of vol. IV of Traité de la Police), 1741-1753. 1643: Collection sur la juridiction et la jurisprudence de la Chambre des comptes, par Clément de Boissy. Gages de police. 2832: Recueil de factums, mémoires . . . provient de l'abbé Bignon. 3240: Mélanges sur l’histoire de Paris. (Tables of baptisms, deaths, marriages, and abandoned children in the parishes of Paris, beginning in 1713-1714.) 3241: Idem. La Bastille. 3242: Idem. La Bastille (includes plans of the prison). 3247: Idem. Police et mélanges. 9640: Portfeuilles d'Antoine Lancelot. Recueil de notes et copies avec quelques pièces originales concernant l'histoire, le droit publique, les institutions, les généalogies et la littérature française. Mort et testament de Louis XIV. 494

9722: Idem. Documents généalogiques . le Voyer d'Argenson. 9770: Idem. Parlement.

Collection Clairambault 304: Recueil. Clergé et religionnaires. 490: Recueil des pièces historiques . . ., 1701-1717. 686: Minutes originales et expéditions faites par le secretaire d'Etat de la Maison du Roi, 1698. 709: Expéditions des secretaires d'Etat, Maison du Roi, 1669-1718 (contains an "Etat des [papiers] qui sont entre les mains de M. D'Argenson concernant le commerce et la marine, 1697"). 711; Idem. 1690-1699. 712 Idem. 1700-1710. 713 Idem. 171I-I718. 745 Chanceliers et gardes des sceaux de France. 806 Recueil concernant les rangs, cérémonies . . ., 1340-1725. 867 Recueil sur la Marine, 1663-1699. 873 Lettres relatives à la Marine. 983 Extraits d'interrogatoires fait par la police de Paris de gens vivans d'industrie, dans le desordre et de mauvais moeurs, et aussi des gens de la religion (et des sorciers, fous, empoissonneurs, etc.) 1678-1722, enfermées à Saint- Lazare, Vincennes, La Bastille, Bicêtre, Charenton, etc. 1702-1714. 984: Idem. 1678-1712 (especially on women). 985: Idem. 1686-1715. 986: Idem. 1692-1722. 1174: Minutes du recueil pour servir a l'histoire de l'Ordre et des commandeurs chevaliers et officiers de l'Ordre du Saint- Esprit,par Clairambault. 1703-1718. 1175: Idem. 495

1192: • Idem. Pieces concernant diverses familles. 1194: Idem. Pièces gravées. 1218: Melanges.

Collection Joly de Fleury 1114: Année 1709. Dime du ble. 1115: Idem. Grains et disettes. 1309: Mendicité. 1310: Assemblés de police. 1413: Affaires de Paris. Police. 1414: Idem. 1415: Idem. Justice et police, 1 1416: Idem.- 1418: Idem. Châtelet, 1674-1789. 1419: Idem. 1961: Affaires judiciares.

Fonds Moreau 834: Collection de Feuret de Fontette. Recueil de pièces relatives . . . à l'histoire de Bourgogne. 835: Idem.

Département des Imprimés (Réserve) Collection Châtre de Cangé 35 : Louis XIV. Règlements et ordonnances militaires. 69: Mélanges historiques et administratives (contains genea­ logical material on the secrétaires d'état, especially les Phélypeaux and les Colberts). 496

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