Pierre Broussel (c. 1575 – 27 August 1654) was a councillor in the

Parlement Under the French Ancien Régime, a ''parlement'' () was a provincial appellate court of the Kingdom of France. In 1789, France had 13 ''parlements'', the original and most important of which was the ''Parlement'' of Paris. Though both th ...

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

under

Louis XIII Louis XIII (; sometimes called the Just; 27 September 1601 – 14 May 1643) was King of France from 1610 until his death in 1643 and King of Navarre (as Louis II) from 1610 to 1620, when the crown of Navarre was merged with the French crown. ...

and

Louis XIV LouisXIV (Louis-Dieudonné; 5 September 16381 September 1715), also known as Louis the Great () or the Sun King (), was King of France from 1643 until his death in 1715. His verified reign of 72 years and 110 days is the List of longest-reign ...

, and later its president. He was a popular politician, in part due to his opposition to tax plans proposed by

Cardinal Mazarin Jules Mazarin (born Giulio Raimondo Mazzarino or Mazarini; 14 July 1602 – 9 March 1661), from 1641 known as Cardinal Mazarin, was an Italian Catholic prelate, diplomat and politician who served as the chief minister to the Kings of France Lou ...

and his support for other legal reforms. Mazarin arrested him and a number of other members of the Paris Parlement for their politics on 26 August 1648. In response, the people of Paris rebelled and Mazarin was forced to free Broussel two days later. This insurrection touched off the first

Fronde The Fronde () was a series of civil wars in the Kingdom of France between 1648 and 1653, occurring in the midst of the Franco-Spanish War, which had begun in 1635. The government of the young King Louis XIV confronted the combined opposition ...

. Broussel was appointed '' Provost of the merchants of Paris'' (effectively, the mayor) in July 1652, but he resigned in September in order to make it easier to end the civil war he had helped to start.

References

1570s births 1654 deaths Year of birth uncertain Provost of the Merchants of Paris {{Paris-politician-stub