Gabriel Nicolas de la Reynie
Gabriel Nicolas de la Reynie (* 1625 in Limoges ; † June 14, 1709 in Paris ) was the first lieutenant general of the French police . He was best known for his investigations into the poison affair .
Life
Early years in the province
Gabriel Nicolas was the youngest son from a poor family in Limoges. A wealthy marriage in 1645 gave him a small piece of land called La Reynie which earned him an annual income of £ 200 . He became a civil servant in Angoulême , then president of the court in Bordeaux . He evaded involvement in the clashes during the Fronde , was administrator of the governor of Guyenne and Duke of Épernon, Jean Louis de Nogaret de La Valette , who introduced him to court. In this capacity he bought the office of Maître des requêtes in the Council of State ( Conseil d'État ) in 1661 for £ 320,000 .
In Paris
On the recommendation of Finance Minister Jean-Baptiste Colbert , the king Louis XIV. A petition had brought, took over La Reynie 1667 the newly created post of lieutenant general of police in Paris, and knew it for 30 years. Under his leadership, the four existing police authorities in Paris were brought together. He had the cleanliness of the French capital improved, whereby the slums , the so-called Cours des miracles , were torn down, and he was concerned with the execution of the Lettres de cachet . La Reynie also acted as judge or public prosecutor ( procureur ) in extraordinary trials, including the multi-year poison affair in which the Chambre ardente was appointed as a commission and around 400 suspects were interrogated. In a report of a conversation with the king on December 27, 1679 on this subject, he writes:
“His Majesty urged us to do our right and our duty in such forceful and precise terms and stressed to us that, for the public good, he wishes us to penetrate as far as we can into the ill-fated poison trade to get to the root of it exterminate if possible. He has advised us to act strictly in law, regardless of person, class or sex, and His Majesty has told us this in such clear and vivid terms, and at the same time with so much kindness that it is impossible to answer his question Intentions to doubt and not to understand with what sense of justice he claims to have carried out this investigation. "
In 1697 he resigned as lieutenant general of the police, his successor was Marc René d'Argenson . But he remained a member of the Council of State and died in Paris in 1709.
Aftermath
In ETA Hoffmann's novella Das Fräulein von Scuderi , La Reynie (spelled La Regnie ) appears as a cruel, violent inquisitor .
In 1990 King Diamond released the album The Eye with stories from the witch hunt in France, in which La Reynie is mentioned by name.
literature
- Pierre Clément: La police sous Louis XIV. Didier & Co., 2nd edition, Paris 1866 ( online ) See in particular pp. 62–80 and 321–330; Correspondence from and to La Reynie pp. 401–441.
- Gerhard Sälters: Police and social order in Paris. Vittorio Klostermann, Frankfurt 2004, also dissertation Freie Universität Berlin 2000, ISBN 3-465-03298-5 , p. 107f.
Individual evidence
- ^ Encyclopedia Universalis
- ^ Pierre Clément: La police sous Louis XIV, p. 172
- ^ The Fräulein von Scuderi in the Gutenberg-DE project
Web links
- Entry in the Encyclopedia Universalis (French)
- Short biography (French)
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | La Reynie, Gabriel Nicolas de |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | first lieutenant general of the French police |
| DATE OF BIRTH | 1625 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Limoges |
| DATE OF DEATH | June 14, 1709 |
| Place of death | Paris |