René Nicolas Charles Augustin de Maupeou
Encyclopedia
René Nicolas Charles Augustin de Maupeou (25 February 1714 – 29 July 1792) was a French
politician, chancellor of France, whose attempts at fiscal reform signalled the failure of enlightened despotism
in France.
to a family ennobled in the sixteenth century as noblesse de robe, the eldest son of René Charles de Maupeou (1688–1775), who was president of the parlement of Paris from 1743 to 1757.
In 1744 he married a rich heiress, Anne de Roncherolles (1725–1752), a cousin of Madame d'Epinay
, the friend of Rousseau
who moved in the circles of the Philosophes. Entering public life, he was his father's right hand in the conflicts between the parlement and Christophe de Beaumont
, archbishop of Paris
, who was supported by the court. Between 1763 and 1768, dates which cover the revision of the Calas case that Voltaire had championed and the trial of the comte de Lally
, Maupeou was himself president of the parlement. In 1768, he became chancellor in succession to his father, who had held the office for a few days only, largely in order to permit him to retire with the prestigious title. With the disgrace of Choiseul
, 24 December 1770, Maupeou was the chief minister.
He determined to support the royal authority against the parlement, the perennial block to reforms of the tax farming system or the privileges of the propertied classes, which in league with the provincial magistratures was seeking to arrogate to itself the functions of the states-general
. He allied himself with the duc d'Aiguillon
and the king's mistress Mme du Barry, and secured for a creature of his own, the Abbé Terray
, the office of comptroller-general. The struggle erupted over the trial of the case of the duc d'Aiguillon, ex-governor of Brittany
, and of La Chalotais
, procureur-général of the province, who had been imprisoned by the governor for accusations against his administration.
When the parlement showed signs of hostility against Aiguillon, Maupeou read letters patent from Louis XV
annulling the proceedings. Louis replied to remonstrances from the parlement by a lit de justice
, in which he demanded the surrender of the procedural minutes. On 27 November 1770 appeared the Édit de règlement et de discipline, which was promulgated by the chancellor, forbidding the union of the various branches of the parlement and correspondence with the provincial magistratures. It also made a strike on the part of the parlement punishable by confiscation of goods, and forbade further obstruction to the registration of royal decrees after the royal reply had been given to a first remonstrance. This edict the magistrates refused to register, and it was registered in a lit de justice held at Versailles
on 7 December, whereupon the parlement was suspended in its functions.
Voltaire
praised this revolution, applauding the suppression of the old hereditary magistrature, but by the aristocrats and the noblesse de robe Maupeou's policy was regarded as the triumph of tyranny. The remonstrances of the princes, of the nobles, and of the minor courts, were met by exile and suppression, but by the end of 1771 the new system of the parlements de Maupeou was established, and the Bar, which had offered a passive resistance, recommenced to plead. A renewed attempt was made to tax the privileged and exempted groups. But it was not merely the death of Louis XV in May 1774 that ruined the chancellor: Durand Echeverria characterized the dismissal of Maupeou as "the inevitable liquidation of an exhausted expedient".
was followed by a renewal of the quarrels between the new king and the magistrature. Maupeou and Terray were replaced, 24 August 1774, by Miromesnil
and then by Malesherbes
, recalled from his exile in 1775 to be Secretary of State of the Maison du Roi
, and by the economist Turgot
. Maupeou is said to have remarked, "I had won for the king an action to last three hundred years: he wishes to lose it again. He is the master of it."
Maupeou lived in retreat, still holding the office of Chancellor (abolished 1 July 1790) until his death at Thuit
(Eure) in 1792, having lived to see the overthrow of the ancien régime. His work, in so far as it was directed towards the separation of the judicial and political functions and to the reform of the abuses attaching to a hereditary magistrature, was subsequently endorsed by the Revolution
. He had aimed at securing absolute power for Louis XV, but his intrigues and the violence of his judicial actions were in reality a serious blow to the monarchy. "By pressing the issue of sovereignty to an ultimate confrontation in this way," remarks Keith Michael Baker of Maupeou's staffing his remodelled courts with men willing to exercise judicial functions within limits imposed by the royal will, "he undermined in practice that exactly that belief in a constitutional middle ground between liberty and despotism that Saige had been concerned to deny in theory".
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
politician, chancellor of France, whose attempts at fiscal reform signalled the failure of enlightened despotism
Enlightened absolutism
Enlightened absolutism is a form of absolute monarchy or despotism in which rulers were influenced by the Enlightenment. Enlightened monarchs embraced the principles of the Enlightenment, especially its emphasis upon rationality, and applied them to their territories...
in France.
Biography
He was born in MontpellierMontpellier
-Neighbourhoods:Since 2001, Montpellier has been divided into seven official neighbourhoods, themselves divided into sub-neighbourhoods. Each of them possesses a neighbourhood council....
to a family ennobled in the sixteenth century as noblesse de robe, the eldest son of René Charles de Maupeou (1688–1775), who was president of the parlement of Paris from 1743 to 1757.
In 1744 he married a rich heiress, Anne de Roncherolles (1725–1752), a cousin of Madame d'Epinay
Louise d'Epinay
Louise Florence Pétronille Tardieu d'Esclavelles d'Épinay was a French writer, a saloniste and woman of fashion, known on account of her liaisons with Friedrich Melchior, Baron von Grimm, and Jean-Jacques Rousseau, who gives malicious reports of her in his Confessions...
, the friend of Rousseau
Jean-Jacques Rousseau
Jean-Jacques Rousseau was a Genevan philosopher, writer, and composer of 18th-century Romanticism. His political philosophy influenced the French Revolution as well as the overall development of modern political, sociological and educational thought.His novel Émile: or, On Education is a treatise...
who moved in the circles of the Philosophes. Entering public life, he was his father's right hand in the conflicts between the parlement and Christophe de Beaumont
Christophe de Beaumont
Christophe de Beaumont , French ecclesiastic and archbishop of Paris, was a cadet of the Les Adrets and Saint-Quentin branch of the illustrious Dauphin family of Beaumont....
, archbishop of Paris
Archbishop of Paris
The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Paris is one of twenty-three archdioceses of the Roman Catholic Church in France. The original diocese is traditionally thought to have been created in the 3rd century by St. Denis and corresponded with the Civitas Parisiorum; it was elevated to an archdiocese on...
, who was supported by the court. Between 1763 and 1768, dates which cover the revision of the Calas case that Voltaire had championed and the trial of the comte de Lally
Thomas Arthur, comte de Lally
Thomas Arthur, comte de Lally, baron de Tollendal was a French General of Irish Jacobite ancestry. He commanded French forces in India during the Seven Years War. After a failed attempt to capture Madras he lost the Battle of Wandiwash to British forces under Eyre Coote and then was forced to...
, Maupeou was himself president of the parlement. In 1768, he became chancellor in succession to his father, who had held the office for a few days only, largely in order to permit him to retire with the prestigious title. With the disgrace of Choiseul
Étienne François, duc de Choiseul
Étienne-François, comte de Stainville, duc de Choiseul was a French military officer, diplomat and statesman. Between 1758 and 1761, and 1766 and 1770, he was Foreign Minister of France and had a strong influence on France's global strategy throughout the period...
, 24 December 1770, Maupeou was the chief minister.
He determined to support the royal authority against the parlement, the perennial block to reforms of the tax farming system or the privileges of the propertied classes, which in league with the provincial magistratures was seeking to arrogate to itself the functions of the states-general
French States-General
In France under the Old Regime, the States-General or Estates-General , was a legislative assembly of the different classes of French subjects. It had a separate assembly for each of the three estates, which were called and dismissed by the king...
. He allied himself with the duc d'Aiguillon
Emmanuel-Armand de Richelieu, duc d'Aiguillon
Emmanuel-Armand de Vignerot du Plessis de Richelieu, duc d'Aiguillon was a French soldier and statesman and a nephew of Louis François Armand du Plessis, duc de Richelieu. He served as the Minister of Foreign Affairs under Louis XV.-Early life:Before the death of his father, he was known at court...
and the king's mistress Mme du Barry, and secured for a creature of his own, the Abbé Terray
Joseph Marie Terray
Joseph Marie Terray was a Controller-General of Finances during the reign of Louis XV of France, an agent of fiscal reform, cut short by his death....
, the office of comptroller-general. The struggle erupted over the trial of the case of the duc d'Aiguillon, ex-governor of Brittany
Governor of Brittany
This page is a list of royal governors of Brittany during the Ancien Regime.*Nominoe, 9th century*Enguerrand VII, Lord of Coucy from 1380*Jean de Laval, husband of Françoise de Foix, 16th century*Louis III de Bourbon, Duke of Montpensier 1569-1582...
, and of La Chalotais
Louis-René de Caradeuc de La Chalotais
Louis-René de Caradeuc de La Chalotais was a French jurist who is primarily remembered for his role on the so-called "Brittany affair", in which the Breton parliament resisted the authority of the French monarchy...
, procureur-général of the province, who had been imprisoned by the governor for accusations against his administration.
When the parlement showed signs of hostility against Aiguillon, Maupeou read letters patent from Louis XV
Louis XV of France
Louis XV was a Bourbon monarch who ruled as King of France and of Navarre from 1 September 1715 until his death. He succeeded his great-grandfather at the age of five, his first cousin Philippe II, Duke of Orléans, served as Regent of the kingdom until Louis's majority in 1723...
annulling the proceedings. Louis replied to remonstrances from the parlement by a lit de justice
Lit de Justice
Lit de Justice is an American Champion Thoroughbred racehorse. He was bred by Robert Sangster's Swettenham Stud, and purchased by the French racing operation Mise de Moratalla who named him for a famous Parlement of Paris known as the Lit de justice...
, in which he demanded the surrender of the procedural minutes. On 27 November 1770 appeared the Édit de règlement et de discipline, which was promulgated by the chancellor, forbidding the union of the various branches of the parlement and correspondence with the provincial magistratures. It also made a strike on the part of the parlement punishable by confiscation of goods, and forbade further obstruction to the registration of royal decrees after the royal reply had been given to a first remonstrance. This edict the magistrates refused to register, and it was registered in a lit de justice held at Versailles
Versailles
Versailles , a city renowned for its château, the Palace of Versailles, was the de facto capital of the kingdom of France for over a century, from 1682 to 1789. It is now a wealthy suburb of Paris and remains an important administrative and judicial centre...
on 7 December, whereupon the parlement was suspended in its functions.
Maupeou's coup d'etat
After five summonses to return to their duties, the magistrates were surprised individually on the night of 19 January 1771 by musketeers, who required them to sign yes or no to a further request to return. Thirty-eight magistrates gave an affirmative answer, but on the exile of their former colleagues by lettres de cachet they retracted, and were also exiled. Maupeou installed the council of state to administer justice pending the establishment of six superior courts in the provinces, and of a new parlement in Paris, in which the magistrature would no longer be a hereditary prorogative but become salaried officials appointed by the Crown. The cour des aides was next suppressed. Maupeou proposed to make the judicial system more uniform throughout the country, which was a patchwork of local judicatures.Voltaire
Voltaire
François-Marie Arouet , better known by the pen name Voltaire , was a French Enlightenment writer, historian and philosopher famous for his wit and for his advocacy of civil liberties, including freedom of religion, free trade and separation of church and state...
praised this revolution, applauding the suppression of the old hereditary magistrature, but by the aristocrats and the noblesse de robe Maupeou's policy was regarded as the triumph of tyranny. The remonstrances of the princes, of the nobles, and of the minor courts, were met by exile and suppression, but by the end of 1771 the new system of the parlements de Maupeou was established, and the Bar, which had offered a passive resistance, recommenced to plead. A renewed attempt was made to tax the privileged and exempted groups. But it was not merely the death of Louis XV in May 1774 that ruined the chancellor: Durand Echeverria characterized the dismissal of Maupeou as "the inevitable liquidation of an exhausted expedient".
Maupeou's fall
The immediate restoration of the parlements by Louis XVILouis XVI of France
Louis XVI was a Bourbon monarch who ruled as King of France and Navarre until 1791, and then as King of the French from 1791 to 1792, before being executed in 1793....
was followed by a renewal of the quarrels between the new king and the magistrature. Maupeou and Terray were replaced, 24 August 1774, by Miromesnil
Armand Thomas Hue de Miromesnil
Armand Thomas Hue de Miromesnil was a minister of the French Ancien Régime who served as Keeper of the Seals under Louis XVI. He was brought into the ministry by his patron Maurepas following the ascension of Louis XVI and the dissolution of the Maupeou ministry, taking office alongside Turgot...
and then by Malesherbes
Guillaume-Chrétien de Lamoignon de Malesherbes
Guillaume-Chrétien de Lamoignon de Malesherbes , often referred to as Malesherbes or Lamoignon-Malesherbes, was a French statesman, minister, and afterwards counsel for the defence of Louis XVI.-Biography:...
, recalled from his exile in 1775 to be Secretary of State of the Maison du Roi
Secretary of State of the Maison du Roi
The Secretary of State of the Maison du Roi was the secretary of state in France during the "Ancien Régime" and Bourbon Restoration in charge of the Département de la Maison du Roi...
, and by the economist Turgot
Anne Robert Jacques Turgot, Baron de Laune
Anne-Robert-Jacques Turgot, Baron de Laune , often referred to as Turgot, was a French economist and statesman. Turgot was a student of Francois Quesnay and as such belonged to the Physiocratic school of economic thought...
. Maupeou is said to have remarked, "I had won for the king an action to last three hundred years: he wishes to lose it again. He is the master of it."
Maupeou lived in retreat, still holding the office of Chancellor (abolished 1 July 1790) until his death at Thuit
Thuit
Thuit or Le Thuit may refer to the following places in the département of Eure, France:*Le Thuit, Eure*Thuit-Hébert*Le Thuit-Anger*Le Thuit-Signol*Le Thuit-Simer...
(Eure) in 1792, having lived to see the overthrow of the ancien régime. His work, in so far as it was directed towards the separation of the judicial and political functions and to the reform of the abuses attaching to a hereditary magistrature, was subsequently endorsed by the Revolution
French Revolution
The French Revolution , sometimes distinguished as the 'Great French Revolution' , was a period of radical social and political upheaval in France and Europe. The absolute monarchy that had ruled France for centuries collapsed in three years...
. He had aimed at securing absolute power for Louis XV, but his intrigues and the violence of his judicial actions were in reality a serious blow to the monarchy. "By pressing the issue of sovereignty to an ultimate confrontation in this way," remarks Keith Michael Baker of Maupeou's staffing his remodelled courts with men willing to exercise judicial functions within limits imposed by the royal will, "he undermined in practice that exactly that belief in a constitutional middle ground between liberty and despotism that Saige had been concerned to deny in theory".
Issue
He had two sons:- René Ange Augustin de Maupeou (1746–1793), who became maître de campMaître de campMaître de camp was a rank in the Ancien Régime French army equivalent to Colonel. A maître de camp commanded a regiment. A regiment's commander was initially called a Colonel from the time of Francis I to that of Henry II, then a Mestre de camp from then until 1661, after which the name of the...
of a cavalry regiment of Burgundy. - Charles Victor René de Maupeou (1749–1789), who became maître des requêtesMaître des requêtesMasters of Requests are high-level judicial officers of administrative law in France and other European countries that have existed in one form or another since the Middle Ages.-Old Regime France:...
.