Maximilien de Béthune, duc de Sully

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Maximilien de Béthune, Duke of Sully
Signature Maximilien de Béthune, duc de Sully.PNG

Maximilian von Béthune, Duke of Sully , baron, then Marquis of Rosny (born December 13, 1559 in Rosny near Mantes-la-Jolie (today the Yvelines department ); † December 22, 1641 in Villebon (today the Eure-et-Loir department ) , 20 km west of Chartres ) was a high-ranking French artillery officer , minister, statesman, Marshal of France and friend of Henry IV . His full name and title were: Maximilien (Ier) de Béthune, Duc de Sully, Baron de Rosny, Pair de France, Prince Souverain d'Henrichemont et de Boisbelle, Marquis de Nogent-le-Rotrou, Comte de Muret et de Villebon, Viscount de Meaux .

biography

Rosny-sur-Seine castle , built by Maximilien de Béthune

Sully, offspring of a less affluent and Calvinist sidelines of the Counts of Artois , was born at Rosny-sur-Seine Castle as the son of François de Béthune and Charlotte Dauvet. In 1572 he survived the massacre of St. Bartholomew's Night as a student at the Collège de Bourgogne in Paris . He was taught together with Henry of Navarre , the future king of France, and became his confidante. With the death of his older brother Louis de Béthune in 1578, he was given the title of Baron de Rosny and his parents' castle, which he replaced with a new building two decades later. He took part with honors in the campaigns of the young king of Navarre and fought at Coutras (1587) and Ivry (1590). In 1583 he married the wealthy Anne de Courtenay at Bontin Castle . Happy economic speculations, such as the trade in army horses, but also spoils of war, increased his property in a short time. After the death of his first wife, he married Rachel de Cochefilet in 1592.

In 1580 Sully was declared Chamberlain and a little later a member of the Navarre Council . In this capacity he negotiated with King Henry III. about a common fight against the Catholic League , which was however nullified by the Treaty of Nemours in 1585 . In the following years he fought in numerous battles on the side of Henry of Navarre. A strict Calvinist, proud and brusque, he repeatedly met his royal friend, especially his extravagance and debauchery, energetically. In 1593, Sully advised Heinrich, who had been King of France since 1589, to return to the Catholic faith in order to end the civil war.

In 1597 placed at the head of French finances ("Conseiller aux Finances", 1598 "Surintendant des Finances"), he paid off a national debt of 200 million livres , bought back most of the domains sold, abolished numerous superfluous offices, organized and simplified them the tax system, built roads, introduced the silk culture and other industries on the advice of Barthélemys de Laffema and favored agriculture ; He repeatedly called these and pasturage ( mfrz. pastourage , french. pâtourage ) the breasts from which France is nourished (“laborage et pasturage sont les deux mamelles dont la France est alimentée.”).

Since 1599 also the first grand master of the artillery of France and supervisor of all fortifications in the country, he quickly restored public calm, namely by fighting gangs of robbers . On Henry's move to Savoy (1600), Sully conquered the fortresses of Montmelian and Bourg, which were considered to be insurmountable . After the peace he took over the department of public buildings under the title of hereditary captain of the ports, rivers and canals, lifted tariffs, declared the grain trade free, opened canals and in this position did a lot to improve the country's means of communication. At the same time he also led the foreign negotiations.

1602 he acquired from his old comrades- Claude de La Tremoille the Sully castle together with the related land to the Loire . In 1604 he was made governor of Poitou and in 1606 hereditary duke of Sully . From 1602 to 1609 he and his second wife had Sully Castle rebuilt in the Renaissance style and a park laid out. He also owned Villebon Castle .

After the murder of Henry IV (May 14, 1610) he was appointed a member of the government council and prepared the budget for 1611. Against the will of the regent Maria de 'Médici he resigned from his offices as surintendant of finances and governor of the Bastille, in 1616 also from the majority of his other offices. In the following years he lived first on his estates in Sully, later mainly in Quercy and Figeac , where he devoted himself to writing his memoirs. But Ludwig XIII also made use of it. often his council and appointed him in 1634 Marshal of France . Sully's son of the same name took over the post of Grand Master of the Artillery, but died in 1634 at the age of 46. In 1634 the Duke bought the Hôtel de Sully in Paris , where he spent his last years.

Maximilien de Béthune, Duke of Sully, died on December 22, 1641 at the age of 81 in Villebon Castle.

progeny

Maximilien de Béthune was married twice:

1583 with Anne de Courtenay (1564–1589), marriage in the Church of Saint-Eustache , Paris. They had a son:

1592 with Rachel de Cochefilet, widow of the Lord of Châteauperse (1562–1659). They had three children:

Works

Économies royales , 1775

Important for the history of his time, although not at all reliable, are his Mémoires ou Oeconomies royales d'Estat, published in Amsterdam in 1634 in two volumes (2 supplement volumes 1662), which Abbé l'Écluse (das. 1745, 8 volumes) modernized , but also very changed and falsified.

The English writer and poet Charlotte Lennox translated his memoirs into English in 1753 under the title Memoirs of Maximilian de Bethune, Duke of Sully, prime-minister to Henry the Great . This translation was to be one of the main sources for its transmission in the English-speaking world for almost 100 years.

reception

Maximilien de Rosny, a literary figure inspired by the Duke of Sully, embodies the (almost?) Ideal politician in Heinrich Mann's novel The Completion of King Henri Quatre .

literature

  • Auguste J. Bouvet de Cressé: Sully . Rigaud, Paris 1878.
  • Joseph Chailley: Sully, Economies Royales . Alcan, Paris 1858.
  • L. Dussieux: Étude biographique sur Sully. Lecoffre, Paris 1887.
  • Jules Gourdault: Sully et son temps. La mémoires et documents du XVI. siècle. Mame, Tours 1876.
  • Ernest Legouvé : Sully . Didier, Paris 1873.
  • Moritz Ritter: The memoirs of Sully and the great plan of Heinrich IV. Franz, Munich 1871.

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Sully, Maximilien de Béthune, duc de
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Baron von Rosny
BRIEF DESCRIPTION French statesman and minister
DATE OF BIRTH December 13, 1559
PLACE OF BIRTH Rosny , Mantes-la-Jolie
DATE OF DEATH December 22, 1641
Place of death Villebon