Pierre Matthieu (1563–1621) was a French writer, poet, historian and dramatist.

Biography

Pierre Matthieu was born at

Pesmes Pesmes () is a commune in the Haute-Saône department in the region of Bourgogne-Franche-Comté in eastern France. It is a member of Les Plus Beaux Villages de France (, ) is an independent association created in 1982 for the promotion of ...

in the

Haute-Saône Haute-Saône (; Frainc-Comtou: ''Hâte-Saône''; English: Upper Saône) is a department in the Bourgogne-Franche-Comté region of northeastern France. Named after the river Saône, it had a population of 235,313 in 2019.

(then in the

Free County of Burgundy The Free County of Burgundy (; ) was a medieval and early modern feudal polity ruled by a count from 982 to 1678. It became known as Franche-Comté (the ''Free County''), and was located in the modern region of Franche-Comté. It belonged to t ...

in the

Holy Roman Empire The Holy Roman Empire, also known as the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation after 1512, was a polity in Central and Western Europe, usually headed by the Holy Roman Emperor. It developed in the Early Middle Ages, and lasted for a millennium ...

. He studied under the Jesuits and mastered Latin, Ancient Greek and Hebrew. At the age of 19, he served his father as adjunct at the Collège of Vercel (also in the

) and it was there that his tragedy ''Esther'' (published in Lyon in 1585) was performed by the students. He studied law at Valence (then part of the Dauphine), he received his doctorat in 1586 and became a lawyer at the Présidial Court of

Lyon Lyon (Franco-Provençal: ''Liyon'') is a city in France. It is located at the confluence of the rivers Rhône and Saône, to the northwest of the French Alps, southeast of Paris, north of Marseille, southwest of Geneva, Switzerland, north ...

(then part of the province called the

Lyonnais The Lyonnais (, ) is a historical province of France which owes its name to the city of Lyon. The geographical area known as the ''Lyonnais'' became part of the Kingdom of Burgundy after the division of the Carolingian Empire. The disintegra ...

. Although he had expressed his attachment to the House of Guise and the Catholic League, he was among those chosen and sent by the inhabitants of Lyon to King

Henry IV of France Henry IV (; 13 December 1553 – 14 May 1610), also known by the epithets Good King Henry (''le Bon Roi Henri'') or Henry the Great (''Henri le Grand''), was King of Navarre (as Henry III) from 1572 and King of France from 1589 to 16 ...

in February 1594 to assure the new king of their fidelity. With the king having visited the city the year before, Matthieu was put in charge of organizing the ceremonies of the royal reception. Subsequently, he moved to

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 ...

and, with the protection of Pierre Jeannin, he became historiograph. He was esteemed by the royal court and enjoyed special access to Henry IV. He fell ill accompanying

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. ...

at the siege of

Montauban Montauban (, ; ) is a commune in the southern French department of Tarn-et-Garonne. It is the capital of the department and lies north of Toulouse. Montauban is the most populated town in Tarn-et-Garonne, and the sixth most populated of Oc ...

and died in Toulouse at the age of 58.

Works

Pierre Matthieu wrote five tragedies: * ''Clytemnestre'' (1578) - the story of

Clytemnestra Clytemnestra (, ; , ), in Greek mythology, was the wife of Agamemnon, king of Mycenae, and the half-sister of Helen of Sparta. In Aeschylus' ''Oresteia'', she murders Agamemnon – said by Euripides to be her second husband – and the Trojan p ...

* ''Esther'' (1581) - the story of

Esther Esther (; ), originally Hadassah (; ), is the eponymous heroine of the Book of Esther in the Hebrew Bible. According to the biblical narrative, which is set in the Achaemenid Empire, the Persian king Ahasuerus falls in love with Esther and ma ...

* ''Vashti'' (1589) - the story of

Vashti Vashti (; ; ) was a queen of Achaemenid Empire, Persia and the first wife of Persian king Ahasuerus in the Book of Esther, a book included within the Hebrew Bible, Tanakh and the Old Testament which is read on the Jewish holidays, Jewish holiday ...

* ''Aman, de la perfidie'' (1589) - the story of

Haman Haman ( ; also known as Haman the Agagite) is the main antagonist in the Book of Esther, who according to the Hebrew Bible was an official in the court of the Achaemenid Empire, Persian empire under King Ahasuerus#Book of Esther, Ahasuerus, comm ...

* ''La Guisiade'' (1589) - an attack of Henry III and justification of his assassination. The five tragedies of Matthieu sought — despite their use of Biblical or ancient stories (other than ''La Guisade'') — to explore contemporary issues of the

French Wars of Religion The French Wars of Religion were a series of civil wars between French Catholic Church, Catholics and Protestantism, Protestants (called Huguenots) from 1562 to 1598. Between two and four million people died from violence, famine or disease di ...

and to justify the noble defense of religion; the tragedies' heroes were generally allegorical representations of

Henry I, Duke of Guise Henri I de Lorraine, Duke of Guise, Prince of Joinville, Count of Eu (31 December 1550 – 23 December 1588), sometimes called ('Scarface'), was the eldest son of François, Duke of Guise, and Anna d'Este. His maternal grandparents were Ercole ...

. As poet, he published ''Tablettes de la vie et de la mort'' and ''Quatrains de la vie et de la mort''. His novels, ''La Magicienne'', ''Aelius Sejanus'' and ''La Femme Cathenoise'' were hostile to Concini and his wife. He also wrote several works of history and royal historiography. For example: * ''Histoire de Louis XI, Roy de France'' (1610) * ''Histoire de France et des choses memorables advenues aux provinces estrangeres durant sept annees de paix du règne de Henri IV'' (1605) * ''Historiopolitographia Sive Opus Historicopoliticum: In Qvo Res Toto Pene Orbe Hisce Proximis Annis gestae'' (1611)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Matthieu, Helisenne De 1563 births 1621 deaths People from the County of Burgundy Emigrants from the Holy Roman Empire to France People from the Lyonnais 16th-century French dramatists and playwrights 16th-century French male writers 17th-century French dramatists and playwrights 17th-century French male writers 16th-century French poets Historiographers