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Maximilien Béthune, Duke of Sully

And The Renaissance Actors Who Recreate Him.

Sovereign Prince of Hesdigneul | Duke of Sully |Marquis of Rosny |Baron of Rosny5

BIOGRAPHY


Duke of Sully (10 KB)(Click on PicturetoViewFull Size)Maximilien Béthune, Duke of Sully 1,2,3,4,5 was born on 13 Dec 1559 in Castle, Rosny-sous-Bois, Seine-St-Denis, France and died on 22 Dec 1641. Pronunciation: [mäksEmElyaN´ du bAtün´ dük du sülE´] Another name for Maximilien is sovereign Prince d'Henrichemont et de Bosbelle.1
Noted events in his life were:
  1. BIRTH;1,4 13 Dec 1559; Castle, Rosny-sous-Bois, Seine-St-Denis, France. He was born in the castle of Rosny, near Mantes.
    2. Religion:1Born and reared a Huguenot "Protestant," the Duc de Sully was only one of a number of prominent officials [of France] who were openly Protestant. Sully was a man of remarkable vision, as is shown in his Great Design, a plan for a federation of all Christian nations which appeared in his memoirs (1638). He attributed the plan to Henry. IV.
  2. BARON OF ROSNY;1,5 13 Dec 1559; Rosny-sous-Bois, Seine-St-Denis, France.
  3. SAINT BARTHOLOMEW'S DAY MASSACRE;1,7 24 Aug 1572; Paris, Seine-et-Marne, France. The massacre of French Protestant leaders, which began in Paris on August 24, 1572, was preceded on August 22 by an attempt (suborned by Catherine de Medici) on the life of Admiral Coligny. The failure of the attempt led to the formulation of the plan for a general massacre. An opportunity for this massacre came when numerous Protestant chieftains came to Paris for the wedding of Henry of Navarre (later King Henry IV). Involved with Catherine in the scheme were the Duke of Anjou (later King Henry III), Henri, Duke of Guise and King Charles IX. The first victim of the massacre was Coligny. His death was followed by the killing of minor chiefs and all Huguenots upon whom the soldiery and the mob succeeded in finding. The massacre subsequently spread from Paris into other sections of France, where the previous excesses were repeated.
    4. Note: Sully was twelve years old and was studying in Paris at the time of the massacre. He had the presence of mind to obtain a Catholic book of verse and hold it in his arms while he walked safely through the mob to a Catholic Cathedral for santuary.1
  4. MILITARY;1,4 1581-1583; Netherlands. Sully fought under Francis of Anjou and subsequently attached himself to Henry of Navarre, later King Henry IV.
    5. Soon after the St. Bartholomew's Day massacre, Sully attached himself to the King of Navarre, following him through all his adventures and battles and showing himself as one of the bravest men. Eventually, he became a respected captain. He was not a knight after the fashion of the paladins of romance; for while he attended thoroughly to his master's business, he had an eye to his own affairs. He married a wealthy heiress and did not scorn the emoluments of war. But in his devotion to the prince and the State, this prudent manager cut down his forests of Rosny, and gave the money thus procured to Henry in his need. The zealous Protestant counseled the king to end the war by avowing himself to be a Catholic.
  5. MARQUIS OF ROSNY;1,4,5 27 Feb 1594-1641; Béthune, Pas-de-Calais, France.
  6. SOVEREIGN PRINCE OF HESDIGNEUL;1,5 27 Feb 1594-1611; Boisbelle-Henrichemont, Berry, France. This was considered to be a rank of "Prince" versus an inherited title. Sully was also considered a rank of "Prince" verses a title:  sovereign Prince d'Henrichemont et de Boisbelle

    7.  
      Boisbelle-Henrichemont

       The land of Boisbelle, in Berry, was part of the "sirerie" of Sully, which  happened to be a franc-alleu. Marie de Sully, heiress, married Charles  d'Albret, constable of France (killed at Agincourt in 1415). Their  descendant Marie married Charles de Cleves, comte de Nevers in 1528,  and their grand-daughter Henriette de Cleves married Louis of Gonzaga,  whose son Charles sold Boisbelle and Sully in 1597 to Maximilien de  Béthune, the famous minister of Henri IV. Sully was made a duchy peerage  in 1606 (Levantal 915 says that Sully was purchased in 1602 from the duc de Thouars). Its possessor decided to found a new town, and named it Henrichemont (a pun on "Henri" and "riche") to honor his king.

      LETTERS OF PATENT:

      The privileges of sovereignty (including the right to mint coins) were  confirmed by Letters Patent of April 1598, September 1608, Dec 1608,  September 1635 and January 1644. Letters patent of June 6, 1664 state: "la  seigneurie de Boisbelle et Henrichemont est et demeure comme elle a été  de tous temps, en titre et prééminence de principauté, sans reconnaissance  d'aucun supérieur pour la foi et hommage; de justice souveraine sans  appel, sous l'autorité du duc de Sully et de ses successeurs et de tous les  autres droits qui appartiennent à seigneurs souverains".

      MINTING COINS

       Sully and his son minted coins under the title of "prince souverain d'Enrichemont et de Boisbelle". The land was united to the crown in 1766,  after a contract of Sep. 24, 1766 exchanged it for other lands in the king's  possession. At that time, the only taxes in Boisbelle were a salt-tax  (gabelle) and a tax on tobacco. The population was around 8,000, and the annual income for the duc de Sully was around 30,000 livres (Archives Parlementaires, 1e série, vol. 31, p. 399). The lands ceded in exchange were worth twice as much as Henrichemont, the premium reflecting the value to the king of buying a sovereign land.

  7. ROYAL COUNCIL;1,4 27 Feb 1594-1611; Versailles, Yvelines, France. Sully served on the royal council until 1611. Henry IV had already decided upon Sully as the man who should aid him in his work, which he found to be more difficult than that of battlefields. He needed a man of strong good sense, a brave heart, and (above all) a well balanced mind.
    8. Treaties & Negotiations:1The new King (Henry IV) entrusted him with the drawing up of the treaties between the Spaniards, Lorraine and Laon.
  8. PERSONAL COUNCIL TO THE KING;1,4 27 Feb 1594-1611; Versailles, Yvelines, France. Ingenieurs du roi, (Personal Counsel to the King) In Sully's memoirs, he revealed that he and Henry often engaged in easy bantering, which produced several of Henry's best known "bon mots."
    1. Grand Voyer1,3,8,10 1599 Sully's appointment as grand voyer in 1599, a new office, to oversee the roads and other aspects of the transport system, gave him the authority to put into effect his ideas on improving transportation of goods and communications. One reason for the hard work that the king and his minister put into the task was the need to improve communications between the court and the provinces if the monarchy was to enhance its control over the realm. The grand voyer was one of several new offices, which included the grand maître des mines et minières, designed to give Henry and Sully the sort of control over economic affairs they felt they needed to bring prosperity to France.

      2. As grand voyer, Sully had the authority to appoint a lieutenant in every generality and command the treasurers to provide money for local projects. Sully's accounts indicate that many of the funds he controlled were used for bridges; the destruction of so many of them in the civil wars was a major hindrance to commerce. Henry's reign was also the first time a real effort was made to dig canals, although many of them were proposed long before. The major canal begun under Henry was the Briare Canal, which joined the Loire with a tributary of the Seine, but it was not completed until 1642. It and several shorter canals initiated by Sully had a direct economic impact, because land transportation cost three to five times more than by water.
    2. Financial Reform;1,4 27 Feb 1594-1611. As Henry IV's leading minister, he was appointed to the finance commission (1596) after the peace of Vervins. Sully held the position of superintendent of finances and grand overseer of the roads of France and became the sole superintendent of finances (1598). He reorganized the finances and promoted the economic recovery of France after decades of civil war.

      3.     As overseer, he immediately undertook a tour which enabled him to recover large sums which he charged had been misappropriated by the local officials. Sully undertook to have reports made on every point; have accurate accounts kept; establish a balance between receipts and expenditures; take inventories of all the resources of the country province by province; take inventories of all branches of service; and fix the annual budget of expenses. The proceeds of the principal taxes were thus almost doubled without any additional expense to the country.
          A court of justice prosecuted dishonest agents, and the tax collectors were forced to keep strict accounts. The governors had been in the habit of levying arbitrary taxes in their provinces; the lords, upon their vassals. He put an end to the profits thus derived by these pilferers, and the taxes imposed by the king were consequently more productive.
          He revived all claims against the state, annulled many, and reduced the interest from 8½% to 6¼%. He took an account of all the leases on which the public taxes were formed and raised the price of them. A number of useless offices, fraudulent annuities, and illegal exemptions were suppressed, and others diminished in magnitude. Many persons who had taken upon themselves the title of noble were restored to the class of taxables.
          The system by which officials in finance and the judiciary purchased their offices from the Crown was formalized in 1604 by a tax on an office known as the "paulette" (named for the man responsible for collecting them). This was a less honorable device, but it also helped the treasury. At the same time, Sully pursued a policy of substituting royal officers for those employed by local representative bodies.
          The great strictness in matter of receipts was balanced by a wise economy in matters of expenditures. Agriculture, manufacturing, and commerce were encouraged, the burden of taxation upon the peasantry reduced, and the nobility relieved from the pressure of debt by declaring a moratorium. Until 1609, these measures were accompanied by an external policy of peace. Consequently, at the end of the reign of Henry IV, his government had paid 147,000,000 of debts, bought back 80,000,000 of domains, cut off 8,000,000 of annuities, reduced the taxation from 30,000,000 to 26,000,000 (of which the treasury realized 20,000,000), spent 40,000,000 in fortifications or on public works, made provisions for the service for the current year, and amassed a reserve of 20,000,000 livres.
    3. Agriculture;1,4 27 Feb 1594-1611. Henry IV took an equal interest in the three sources of public wealth -- agriculture, commerce, and industry. Sully was more exclusively in favor of agriculture; he once remarked that farming and grazing were the two udders from which France is fed. Henry IV, during his visit to Paris in 1599, said he would like to see that "there is not a peasant without a chicken in the stew pot each Sunday," a praiseworthy idea which was not entirely realized. However, word spread rapidly across the kingdom and Henry became known as "le roi poule au pot." 9

      4. Sully went twice through all the provinces (1596 and 1598) to study for himself the needs of the country. In 1600, he remitted to the people their arrears of the "tailles," amounting to 20,000,000, and reduced the land tax by 1,800,000 livres. Finally, in 1601, he permitted the exportation of grain -- a bold measure for this period, but a very wise one, which would enrich the country instead of impoverishing it. He also favored the draining of marshes.
    4. Industry and Commerce;1,4 27 Feb 1594-1611. Sully thought that field labor made men good soldiers. The worthy gentleman feared that the manufacturing industry would weaken the French. He was entirely opposed to the importation of foreign industries and modes of cultivation.
    5. Maritime Affairs; Colonies;1,4 27 Feb 1594-1611. The military marine developed by Francis I had fallen very low. Sully had no aversion to the navy, but he did not desire colonies for France. He would willingly have left to the peoples of Spain, the Netherlands, and England the care of conquering and peopling distant countries.
    6. Public Works; Canal of Briare;1,4 27 Feb 1594-1611. Many public roads were laid out by Sully. The plan of the great canals, which have since been cut throughout France, was then conceived. At that time, only one was finished -- that of Briare. This was the first (except in Italy) which had locks uniting two levels. Its length is fifty-five kilometers, and it connects the Loire and the Seine.
  9. THE ARMY;1,4 27 Feb 1594-1611. In 1595, there were only four regular regiments. Henry increased them to eleven, but the custom of hiring foreign troops continued. The cavalry continued to form much the larger part of the army, the nobility being unwilling to serve as infantry. The artillery under Sully's management assumed great importance. Since 1572, no lord had been allowed to have cannon in his castle without the express permission from the king. Sully caused a number of fortresses to be repaired and stocked the arsenals which had been left empty by the civil war.
  10. MINISTER OF FINANCE; 1,41596; Versailles, Yvelines, France. [fr.] "Superintendent des finances."
  11. MINISTER OF FORTIFICATIONS & BATTLEMENTS;1,4 1601; Versailles, Yvelines, France. [fr.] "Superintendent des Fortifications et des Bâtiments."
  12. GRAND MASTER OF THE ARTILLERY;1,4 1601; Versailles, Yvelines, France. [fr.] "Grand Maître de l'Artillerie."
  13. GOVERNOR OF BASTILLE;1 Bastille of St. Antoine, Paris, Seine-et-Marne, France.
  14. DUKE OF SULLY;1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8 1606-1641; Béthune, Pas-de-Calais, France. A French statesman, he was created duke in 1606. After the assassination of Henry (1610), he was dismissed from office by Marie de' Medici. Sully was honest, efficient, and industrious but had no systematic financial policy and made few innovations. In his retirement, he wrote extensive Memoirs full of valuable information, but on some points unreliable. He preserved his honesty and rectitude of character, as well as his religion, and was the friend and a minister of the king. It has been said that "Sully personified genius of order."9
  15. FIRST MINISTER OF FRANCE;1,4,5 1606-1611; Versailles, Yvelines, France.
  16. THE ASSASSINATION OF HENRY IV. KING OF FRANCE;1,4 14 May 1610. After Henry IV was assassinated; Marie de' Medici retained the ministers of the preceding reign, including Sully. Finding it necessary to make peace, Marie de' Medici turned towards the Spaniards and opened negotiations for the double marriage of her son and daughter with the prince and infanta of Spain. Sully, opposing this new policy, was removed by the queen (1611).
  17. MARSHAL OF FRANCE;1 1633, Louis XIII appointed Sully the Marshal of France.
  18. FINAL YEARS;1 Having accumulated an immense fortune, Sully withdrew from public life into the castles of the Sully-on-Loire and Villebon in the Loire Valley. He died in Villebon on December 22, 1641.
  19. DEATH & BURIAL: In 1624, Maximilien de Béthune, duke of Sully, became lord of Nogent. The town of this fact took the name of Nogent-le-Béthune. With he its death day before, it asked so that its burial be high in the vault of the Hospital, which was impossible: Sully being Protestant. Its burial was installed with the agreement of the monks in the rotunda close to the current church.   The burial carried out by Barthelemy Boudin into 1642, represents the minister of Henri IV in his large formal dress, cover of the ducal coat which entrouve to let appear its top of fits gashed. It carries the goffered cutter. One can feel the energetic will and the high intelligence of the man through the work of the artist. His wife, Rachel de Cochefilet, of percheronne family, died into 1659. Its statue has much less expression. It is certainly the work of one of the pupils or workmen of the maitre Boudin.
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Tomb of Sully

Duchess of Sully (10KB) (Click on PicturetoViewFull Size)

Maximilien married Rachel de Cochefilet, Viscountess de Vaucelas on 13 May 1592 in of Paris, Seine-et-Marne, France. (Rachel de Cochefilet was born in 1566 in of Paris, Seine-et-Marne, France, and died on 30 Dec 1659.)1,2,6

Volunteers Who Recreate the Duke of Sully:
Duke of Sully (10 KB)(Click on PicturetoViewFull Size)

Kirk Larsen
Renaissance Faire Events in Character:

1. Santa Barbara Renaissance Faire; Sep 1998; Live Oak Camp, Santa Barbara, California.

Santa Barbara Faire Links
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2. Crossroads Faire; 24 Apr 1999-31 May 1999; Crossroads Park, Corona, California. Kirk played the French Ambassador for the Guild of St. Denis on "Saturdays" during the run of Faire. We created Certificates of Knighthood and Lady-in-Waiting for the children, as well as authentic Privateer Letters of Marque for participants and guests. The following are rough examples.
Corona Faire Handouts
Lady-in-Waiting Knighthood Letter of Marque
Crossroads Faire Links
Crossroads Directions Weather Review Privateers


Duchess of Sully (10KB) (Click onPicturetoView Full Size)

Pauline Bingham
Portrays Rachel de Cochefilet [Viscountess of Vaucelas, Duchess of Sully]


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