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Michel Le Tellier, marquis de Barbezieux, seigneur de Chaville et de Viroflay (19 April 1603 – 30 October 1685) was a French statesman.

Biography

Le Tellier was born in

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 ...

to a Parisian magistrate, Michel III Le Tellier, and his wife, Claude Chauvelin. He entered the public service and became ''

maître des requêtes A Master of Requests () is a counsel of the French ''Conseil d'État'' (Council of State), a high-level judicial officer of administrative law in France. The office has existed in one form or another since the Middle Ages. The occupational titl ...

'', (a higher level lawyer, or'' 'procureur')'' in 1631 for

Louis XIII of France 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. ...

.Encyclopædia Britannica (2009
"François-Michel Le Tellier, Marquis de Louvois"
Encyclopædia Britannica Online, 17 March 2009, retrieved 2009-03-17; In 1640 le Tellier was appointed Intendant of Justice for the French military stationed in

Piedmont Piedmont ( ; ; ) is one of the 20 regions of Italy, located in the northwest Italy, Northwest of the country. It borders the Liguria region to the south, the Lombardy and Emilia-Romagna regions to the east, and the Aosta Valley region to the ...

Italy Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...

. In 1643, owing to his friendship with the head French minister

Cardinal Cardinal or The Cardinal most commonly refers to * Cardinalidae, a family of North and South American birds **''Cardinalis'', genus of three species in the family Cardinalidae ***Northern cardinal, ''Cardinalis cardinalis'', the common cardinal of ...

Jules Mazarin, he became Secretary of State for Military Affairs (known as'' 'Secretary of State for War' ''during that era), and was known as being an efficient administrator. He was active in the troubles associated with the aristocratic

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 ...

uprising, remaining loyal to Cardinal Mazarin and to the state. In 1677 he was made

Chancellor of France The Chancellor of France (), also known as the Grand Chancellor or Lord Chancellor, was the officer of state responsible for the judiciary of the Kingdom of France. The Chancellor was responsible for seeing that royal decrees were enrolled and ...

. One of his major contributions as chancellor included his transformation of the royal army into a considerably larger, more professional force that helped impose the absolute rule of Louis XIV, helping to ensure France's dominance of Europe. As Chancellor, he also reestablished, in April 1679, the teaching of Civil Law at the University of Paris after Pope Honorius III had prohibited it on 11 May 1219. Luc-Normand Tellier, Face aux Colbert: les Le Tellier, Vauban, Turgot et l'avènement du libéralisme, PUQ, 1987, p. 310. Le Tellier, who despised

Protestantism Protestantism is a branch of Christianity that emphasizes Justification (theology), justification of sinners Sola fide, through faith alone, the teaching that Salvation in Christianity, salvation comes by unmerited Grace in Christianity, divin ...

, was one of those who influenced

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 ...

to revoke the

Edict of Nantes The Edict of Nantes () was an edict signed in April 1598 by Henry IV of France, King Henry IV and granted the minority Calvinism, Calvinist Protestants of France, also known as Huguenots, substantial rights in the nation, which was predominantl ...

which had previously provided religious freedoms to them. He further encouraged the persecution of the

Huguenot The Huguenots ( , ; ) are a Religious denomination, religious group of French people, French Protestants who held to the Reformed (Calvinist) tradition of Protestantism. The term, which may be derived from the name of a Swiss political leader, ...

s. He died in

Versailles The Palace of Versailles ( ; ) is a former royal residence commissioned by King Louis XIV located in Versailles, Yvelines, Versailles, about west of Paris, in the Yvelines, Yvelines Department of Île-de-France, Île-de-France region in Franc ...

, 15 days after the revocation had been signed by

and himself. Le Tellier also amassed great wealth during his life and left two sons, one being famous statesman Louvois who also served France as Secretary of State for War, and who ultimately became one of the most powerful officials of the regime under his father's tutelage. Michel's other son Charles Maurice Le Tellier became the

Archbishop of Reims The Archdiocese of Reims or Rheims (; French language, French: ''Archidiocèse de Reims'') is a Latin Church ecclesiastic territory or archdiocese of the Catholic Church in France. Erected as a diocese around 250 by Sixtus of Reims, the diocese w ...

. Michel le Tellier's correspondence reside within the

Bibliothèque nationale de France The (; BnF) is the national library of France, located in Paris on two main sites, ''Richelieu'' and ''François-Mitterrand''. It is the national repository of all that is published in France. Some of its extensive collections, including bo ...

in Paris.

Children

* François Michel Le Tellier (18 January 1641 – 16 July 1691), marquis de Louvois, married Anne de Souvré, Marquise de Courtenvaux, and had issue; his son the Marquis de Barbezieux succeeded him as Secretary of State for War; his grandson Louis Charles César Le Tellier was duke of Estrées, minister, and Marshal of France, and one of his grand daughters married Emmanuel Théodose de La Tour d'Auvergne, the Duke of Bouillon; amongst Louvois' direct descendants, we find Duke of Richelieu, and

Empress Elisabeth of Austria Elisabeth (born Duchess Elisabeth Amalie Eugenie in Bavaria; 24 December 1837 – 10 September 1898), nicknamed Sisi or Sissi, was Empress of Austria and List of Hungarian consorts, Queen of Hungary from her marriage to Franz Joseph I of Austri ...

(Sissi). * Charles Maurice Le Tellier (18 July 1642 – 22 February 1710),

, a very influential leader of France's Catholic Church, and one of the main European bibliophiles. *Madeleine Fare Le Tellier (1645 – 23 June 1668) married Louis Marie Victor d'Aumont, 2nd Duke of Aumont had issue; ancestress of Louise d'Aumont, Hereditary princess of Monaco. Present

Prince of Monaco The sovereign prince () is the monarch and head of state of the Principality of Monaco. All reigning princes and princesses have taken the name of the House of Grimaldi. When Prince Rainier III died in 2005, he was Europe's longest reigning mo ...

is a descendant of Madeleine Fare.

References

---- * {{DEFAULTSORT:Le Tellier, Michel 1603 births 1685 deaths Politicians from Paris French Roman Catholics Secretaries of State for War (France) Ancien Régime office-holders French Wars of Religion History of Christianity in France People of the Ancien Régime Religion in the Ancien Régime Michel Chancellors of France

Biography

Children

See also

References