Nicolas René Berryer

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Nicolas René Berryer
(painting by Jean François Delyen)

Nicolas René Berryer Comte de La Ferrière (born March 4, 1703 in Paris , † August 15, 1762 in Versailles ) was a French judge , civil servant and politician.

Live and act

Nicolas René Berryer was the son of Nicolas Berryer (1660-1707), procureur général des Grand-Conseil and secrétaire des commandements de la pure Marie-Thérèse , and the Elisabeth Nicole Ursule d'Arnollet de Lochefontaine (1666-1739).

Nicolas René Berryer worked as a general attorney (avocat général aux Requetes de l'hôtel) from 1728 and subsequently as avocat général des Brevets . From 1731 he was advisor to the Parlement in Paris, Conseiller à la Chambre des cinquième Enquêtes du Parlement de Paris . In 1738 he married Catherine Madeleine Jorts de Fribois († 1802), a wealthy heiress and daughter of a tax farmer ( fermiers généraux ) . From this marriage a daughter was born, Marie-Elisabeth Berryer.

In 1739 he was appointed Maître des Requetes , a high-ranking administrative officer, by the minister responsible for the judicial system in the Ancien Régime . The prerequisite was to have previously served in a higher court for six years. He worked in his function closely with the Chancellor of France (chancelier de France) together. The chancellor was appointed for life. In case of illness or resentment of the king, his deputy, the guardian of the seals (Garde des sceaux de France) , took over his work. Berryer held the function of Garde des sceaux de France from October 13, 1761 to September 15, 1762.

Supported by Madame de Pompadour , the maitresse en titre of Louis XV. , he was appointed to the position of minister for the police, lieutenant général de police . So he was chief of police from May 1747 to October 1757. He was entrusted with the establishment of a black cabinet , cabinet noir , an authority to monitor the correspondence and the censorship of letters. This department made it possible for him and his employees to circumvent the secrecy of mail and letters and to control mail.

According to the posthumous statements of the French publicist Alexis de Tocqueville , Berryer was:

«(...) un homme dur, hautain, grossier, avec beaucoup d'ignorance et encore plus de présomption et d'entêtement. »

"(...) a tough, haughty, cruel man, with a lot of ignorance and even more presumptuousness and obstinacy."

His brutality earned him the hatred of the Parisian people. For example, he had the French writer, philosopher and enlightener Denis Diderot arrested on July 24, 1749 for his work Lettre sur les aveugles à l'usage de ceux qui voient , in which Diderot presented his materialistic positions. Diderot was transferred to the fortress Vincennes , château de Vincennes and remained imprisoned there until November 3, 1749.

On November 1, 1758, still under the protection of Madame de Pompadour and with the support of Étienne-François de Choiseul and Louis-Charles-Auguste Fouquet de Belle-Isle , Berryer became Secretary of State for the Navy, secrétaire d'État de la Marine , appointed.

On October 13, 1761, Louis XV replaced Berryer by Étienne-François de Choiseul. In order to keep Berryer in the service of the king, however, he gave him the job of keeper of the seals of France (garde des sceaux de France) , a position that he occupied until September 15, 1762.

Nicolas René Berryer (copperplate engraving)

Works (selection)

  • Arrest du Conseil d'État du roi, qui évoque les contestations nées & à naître, concernant la construction des bat? Imens dessinés à la manufacture royale de la porcelaine. (1754)

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Genealogy of Nicolas René Berryer
  2. Genealogy of the parents (French)
  3. Biographical data (PDF; 86 kB)
  4. Genealogy of the wife
predecessor Office successor
Claude Henry Feydeau de Marville (1705–1787) Lieutenant général de police
May 1747 - October 1757
Henri Léonard Jean Baptiste Bertin
Claude Louis d'Espinchal (1686-1770) Secrétaire d'État de la Marine
November 1, 1758 - October 13, 1761
Étienne François, duc de Choiseul
Jean-Baptiste de Machault d'Arnouville Garde des Sceaux de France
October 13, 1761 - September 15, 1762
Paul Esprit Feydeau de Brou (1682–1767)