Jacques Le Coq

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Jacques Le Coq (* 1676 ; † 1766 ), alternative name: Jacob Le Coq , was a Saxon secret war councilor, secret cabinet secretary and diplomat; Member of the Reformed Congregation in Dresden.

Life

Origin and family

Jacques Le Coq was a Huguenot and a member of the Le Coq family , which originally lived in Metz . The father, the "Procureur au Baillage et au Présidial de Metz" Pierre le Coq, fled religious persecution from Metz to Prussia after the repeal of the Edict of Nantes by Louis XIV in 1685 and emigrated. He is a direct descendant of Toussaint Le Coq, who married Jeanne Doron in Metz in 1565. The family tree of Béringuier does not list his son Jacques Le Coq, but only his brother Jean Le Coq, who married Jeanne Perrin, who died in 1713 at the age of 34. So she is (probably) also the mother of Jacques.

In the book by Ermann and Reclam and also in the family tree of Béringuier it is shown that the above-mentioned Toussaint Le Coq descended from the noble family of Seigneur d Egrenay et Corbeville and Conseiller au Parlement de Paris , whose ancestor Jean Le Coq in 1363 was ennobled . When Jacques le Coq was later (from 1719) as the Saxon envoy in Paris, this is said to have been confirmed to him by the Marquis de Goupillieres et de Corbeville. The named Marquis de Goupillieres et de Corbeville is obviously Jean-Baptiste Le Cocq (XI) Marquis de Goupillières (1663-1737). With his ancestor in the 7th generation (Antoine), who is said to have been the father of Toussaint, four descendants are listed, but not a son with the first name Toussaint. In the absence of evidence, the aristocratic origin cannot be proven. On the contrary, referring to Toussaint's marriage contract and his will , a pertinent descent is credibly questioned.

Jacques Le Coq was married to Anna Malchar.

His nephew Johann Ludwig von Le Coq (1719-1789) began in 1735 in the Electorate of Saxony his military career in the Saxon army and was Saxon lieutenant general .

Probably another nephew Elias Le Coq was appointed Saxon legation secretary in 1749 , was temporarily legation secretary in Rome around 1752 and, after 1764, legation councilor in Naples.

Career

Nothing is known about Jacques Le Coq's youth and education. He apparently left Berlin early and came to Dresden in what was then Saxony .

He was initially at least from 1711 to 1715 at the royal court in Dresden the royal secret secretary for the processing of the colony projects of the Huguenots who had fled to Saxony.

In Electoral Saxony , Friedrich August I of Saxony , known as "August the Strong" (1670–1733), was elector and duke of Saxony from 1694 and from 1697 in personal union as August II. King of Poland-Lithuania .

After the Prussian King Friedrich I died on February 13, 1713, King Friedrich August I was determined in 1713 to send French and other merchants , "traders" and "manufacturers" of the Reformed religion to Saxony, especially to the woo new colonies of Oschatz , Torgau and Meissen . By ordinance of June 8, 1713, he instructed Le Coq, who was born in Berlin and belonged to the Reformed congregation in Dresden, who was the representative of the Saxon ambassador Ernst Christoph von Manteuffel at the Berlin court from 1713-1714 , to take the necessary measures. This ordinance was essentially directed against Prussia and tried to divert the establishment of factories from the Mark Brandenburg. The endeavors, which were carried out in great secrecy, would have been successful at the beginning, because an entrepreneur whom Le Coq had recruited wanted to set up a tapestry factory and come to Saxony with his workers. The Prussian King Friedrich Wilhelm I reacted with a strict ban against the recruitment of colonists in the country and prevented emigration. The project was dropped.

In 1715, the long-planned departmental division of the Secret Consilium was implemented in the government . Four departments were created, each headed by a civil trainee lawyer. The area under the control of the former secretary in the secret cabinet Le Coq was reduced to foreign and Ernestine affairs by the establishment of a fifth department . In 1716 he received the title of secret trainee lawyer for foreign affairs in the Privy Council and had been a judicial councilor since 1718 , which suggests that he studied law before joining the administration.

From 1718 to 1728 Le Coq was envoy to London . During this time he was at the French court from 1719 to 1720. In 1723 he received the title of Privy Councilor .

From 1728 to 1729 he was commissioner at the Soisson congress and at the French court, later he was given the title of Privy Councilor .

With the accession to the throne August III. (1696–1763) after the death of his father in 1733, the so-called French party at court and Le Coq and all higher officials from the refugee families lost their positions.

The Weidlitzer manor

On January 11, 1730, Le Coq bought the Weidlitz and Pannewitz estates near Bautzen for 26,300 thalers in order to retire there, and did an extraordinary job of beautifying them. He laid out the park, which now extends over 10 acres, at the time in a French style, with terraces and water art. This facility was headed by the art gardener Johann Friedrich Seehahn , who stayed in France and England for several years, was called to Neschwitz in 1729, where the famous Neschwitz Park was created under the Princess of Teschen, who was then the owner of Neschwitz . At Le Coq's request, Weidlitz, which at that time was a woman's fief , and Pannewitz, which was still a man's fief, were transformed into pure allodial and hereditary estates by rescript of August 15, 1730 . In this rescript it is expressly noted that this request was granted out of special grace and for the sake of his long years of faithful service. Although one could assume that Le wanted to end his life in Weidlitz, on June 30, 1746 he sold both goods for 27,000 thalers and 150 ducats of key money to the cabinet minister Heinrich von Brühl . The reasons are not known. Perhaps he had taken over financially or he wanted to keep Brühl's inclination, whom he served as a foreign policy advisor.

Heinrich von Brühl (1700–1763) was appointed cabinet minister in 1733 and prime minister in Electoral Saxony in 1746.

After the Prussians invaded Silesia in the First Silesian War in 1740, Le Coq von Brühl was asked to become his foreign policy advisor. In an expert report in December 1740, he listed the reasons that spoke against an alliance between Saxony and Prussia. Brühl did not want to venture into such a war against Prussia because of the alliance commitment to Austria until it was clear that Great Britain and Russia also supported Austria, which then happened in the secret convention of April 11, 1741.

The endeavor of the Electorate of Saxony after the Peace of Westphalia was to maintain the balance of power in Europe . As a council of war, Le Coq wrote the memorandum Considerations sur L'Equilibre de l'Europe at the end of 1742 or beginning of 1743, accusing Great Britain of having revealed that Great Britain had been forced by Austria to cede Silesia to a prince as aggressive as Frederick the Great not about balance, but about a war against France.

After Prussia occupied Saxony without a declaration of war from August 29, 1756 at the beginning of the Seven Years' War , through which Prussia rose to become the fifth major European power , Le Coq anonymously published four writings directed against Prussia, which are listed in the list of his works. Le Coq was identified as the author.

From 1740 until Brühl's death in 1763, Le Coq corresponded with Brühl on foreign policy issues.

Le Coq died at the age of 90 years 7 months in Dresden in 1766 and was buried on June 18 in Neustadt in Saxony .

Works

  • Jacques Le Coq (identified author): Letters from a private person to one of his friends about the incursion into Saxony, as undertaken by the King of Prussia. 1757. Rostock University (digital and digital)
  • Jacques Le Coq (identified author): Continuation of letters from a private person to one of his friends about the incursion into Saxony, as undertaken by the King of Prussia, 1757 (digital)
  • Gottlieb Schumann, Jacques Le Coq: Lettres D'un Particulier à un de ses Amis Sur L'invasion de la Saxe, Faite Par le Roi de Prusse , 1757, ( Bavarian State Library, digital)
  • Jacques Le Coq (identified author): Natural conception of the truth, opposed to the Prussian so-called thorough and convincing report of the conduct of the courts in Vienna and Dreßden. 1756. (digital)

References and comments

  1. ↑ a b Cerl Thesaurus, accessed on April 19, 2020 (digital)
  2. ↑ CATALOG OF THE GERMAN NATIONAL LIBRARY, accessed on April 19, 2020, (digital)
  3. ^ A b c Jean-Pierre Erman, Pierre Christian Frédéric Reclam: Mémoires pour servir à l'histoire des réfugiés françois dans les États du roi. Volume 9, 1799, pp. 181 ff. (Free e-book, digital)
  4. ↑ a b c Richard Béringuier : Family trees of the members of the French colony in Berlin. 1885, p. 31. (digitized version)
  5. ↑ Jean Pierre Erman (1735–1814) was a Huguenot and married to Louise Le Coq (1738–1791), the daughter of the tobacco dealer Paul Le Coq (1703–1769). This was the son of the merchant Jean Le Coq, who had fled Metz. (Pedigree in: Wilhelm Erman: Paul Erman: ein Berliner Gelehrtenleben. 1764–1851 . Berlin 1927, after p. 8. (digitized version) . His sister Marie Charlotte (1739–1802), was with his son Charles Lecoq (1736–1814 ( Richard Béringuier : Family trees of the members of the French Colonie in Berlin. 1885, p. 31 digitized ). Ermann was thus twice related by marriage to the Le Coq family.
  6. ^ Henri Tollin: History of the French Colony of Magdeburg. Jubiläumsschrift, Vol. II 1887, p. 232 ff. (Digital) with reference to Ermann and Béringuier, but all without citing sources
  7. ↑ Anselme (de Sainte Marie, père): Histoire généalogique et chronologique de la maison royale de France, des pairs, grands officiers de la couronne & de la maison du roy & des anciens barons du royaume. 1733, p. 108 f. (free e-book)
  8. ^ J (ean) -L (ouis) Calbat. In: GENEALOGIE LORRAINE, Publication périodique trimestrielle de l 'Union des Cercles Généalogiques Lorrains. Nancy, No. 115, 2000, p. 105 (French). After that the father is Guillaume Le Coq from Blois. Website
  9. ↑ a b c d e f g h i Judith Matzke: Legation and diplomatic service of Saxony 1694–1763. Dissertation. Dresden 2007, p. 327. (Biographical Appendix) (digital)
  10. ↑ Johann Friedrich Seyfart : Impartial history of the Bavarian War of Succession. Leipzig 1780, p. 507, FN 736. (books.google.de)
  11. ^ Albrecht Kirchhoff : History of the Reformed community in Leipzig from its establishment to the safeguarding of its existence: 1700–1725: edited according to archival sources. 1874, pp. 174, 186 ff, 196f. (digital)
  12. ^ Heinrich Theodor Flathe :  Friedrich August I., Elector of Saxony . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 7, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1877, pp. 781-784.
  13. ^ A b Albrecht Kirchhoff : History of the Reformed congregation in Leipzig from its establishment to the safeguarding of its existence: 1700–1725: edited according to archival sources. 1874, p. 361 f. (Preview)
  14. ^ A b Guido Braun, Institut Historique Allemand Paris: Huguenots and German territorial states. Immigration policy and integration processes: Les États allemands et les huguenots. Politique d'immigration et processus d'intégration. 2014, p. 54 ff. (Limited preview digital)
  15. ^ Judith Matzke: Legations and diplomatic service of Saxony 1694–1763. Dissertation. Dresden 2007, p. 82 (digital)
  16. ^ Daniel Menning: Politics, Economics and Share Speculation: "South Sea Bubble" and Co. 1720. 2020, without page number, (before the chapter: Economic crisis and petitions), ISBN 978-3-11-042614-4 , (digital, restricted Preview)
  17. ↑ So far there is only an article about this congress in Wikipedia, Congress of Soissons digital
  18. ^ Albrecht Kirchhoff : History of the Reformed community in Leipzig from its establishment to the safeguarding of its existence: 1700–1725: edited according to archival sources. 1874, p. 258 fn. 213 atb # v = onepage & q = Le% 20Coq & f = false (digital)
  19. ↑ a b Gustav Adolf Poenicke (editor), Markgrafenthum Oberlausitz Weidlitz , in: Album of the manors and castles in the Kingdom of Saxony. 1859, Volume 3, Pages 25-27 (Weidlitz) wikisource digital
  20. ^ René Hanke: Brühl and the Renversement des alliances: the anti-Prussian foreign policy of the Dresden court 1744–1756. 2006, ISBN 3-8258-9455-X , p. 25 FN 1 (e-book preview digital)
  21. ^ René Hanke: Brühl and the Renversement des alliances: the anti-Prussian foreign policy of the Dresden court 1744–1756. 2006, ISBN 3-8258-9455-X , p. 40 FN 4. (e-book preview digital)
  22. ^ René Hanke: Brühl and the Renversement des alliances: the anti-Prussian foreign policy of the Dresden court 1744–1756. 2006, ISBN 3-8258-9455-X , p. 12 FN 5, (e-book digital)
personal data
SURNAME Le Coq, Jacques
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Le Coq, Jacob
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Electoral Saxon Privy Council of War, secret cabinet secretary and diplomat; Member of the Reformed Congregation in Dresden
DATE OF BIRTH 1676
DATE OF DEATH 1766