The
Ranums'
Panat Times
Volume 1, redone Dec. 2014
The Fronde, as presented by "Monsieur X"
in mss. fr. 25025 et
25026, BNF
"Ce ms renferme tout ce qui s'est passé pendant la guerre de la Fronde depuis le 25 xbre 1648 jusqu'à la fin de l'année 1651 que fini cette ridicule guerre" annotation on the inside cover of the first volume, which also bears the old catalog number of the Sorbonne: "1206"
Every Friday, beginning on Christmas Day of 1649, an anonymous compiler of newsletters sent several folded sheets of paper to someone in the provinces. Save for a gap between January 22 to April 16, 1649, that corresponds to the blockade of Paris, "Monsieur X" prepared one letter a week and eventually increased his production to two a week. The last letter is dated August 23, 1653. This two-volume collection is catalogued as "mss. fr. 25025-25026" at the Bibliothèque nationale de France. (In the citations from the manuscripts, the prefix "5" followed by a hyphen and a number "5-144" means folio 144 of ms. fr. 25025, and the prefix "6" refers to ms. fr. 25026.)
What general remarks can be made about the person who sent these newsletters?
A rough portrait of Monsieur X emerges from the two volumes of manuscript newsletters:
He sent his newsletters by the ordinaire (6-249).
He was aware that he was not the sole source of news: on several occasions he writes "vous avez su," yet he himself has not provided this information (e.g., 5-197, 5-226v). He also knew that the recipient received "les relations de la Cour" (5- 298)
He was sufficiently acquainted with the recipients of his newsletters for "je" (Monsieur X) to now and then give his personal opinions to "vous" (the far-off recipients).
He had access to several secretaries or copyists, none of whose hands have shown up in the Archives des Affaires étrangères. (View the 9 hands in the newsletters)
Many of the spelling mistakes in the letters of the scribes in his employ are the sort that could result from dictation: there are, for example, confusions between ce and se, qu'il and qui. In other words, it is possible that someone dictated while one or more scribes took down what they heard. On the other hand, these misspellings may be Monsieur X's own idiosyncrasies. Occasional repeated words or phrases reveal that at least some of the letters were copied, not taken from dictation. It cannot be ruled out that Monsieur X was part of a very exclusive newsletter business.
He had access to information contained in the various ordinaires that came from the provinces to Paris; he knew the exact time when couriers arrived and departed, and when they were delayed: "the ordinaires from Bordeaux did not arrive this week" (5-157v). Another time he noted at the very end of a letter that "vous en aures les particularités, l'ordinaire ne faisant que d'arriver"; and a week later, he summarized the news provided by that particular ordinaire: "... cependant l'ordinaire ... n'a apporté aucune lettre qui parlat d'affaire de ce pays là, à cause qu'elles avoint esté touttes retenues à la Cour" (5-274v, 276v).
He had access to a wide variety of information: "les lettres de..." came in from East, West, North, and South. Thus he provided news from such disparate places as Dunquerque, Amiens, Compiègne, Bordeaux, Limoges, Provence, Montpellier, Brittany, Burgundy, London, Barcelona. The one region of France rarely mentioned is the Dauphiné (see below, "Virieu").
He did not occupy a post that obliged him to "follow" the Court or Cardinal Mazarin. Indeed, when the Queen or the Cardinal left the capital, Monsieur X inevitably remained in Paris.
His information about what is going on in the Parlement almost certainly was provided by a third party. Indeed, Monsieur X does not give an insider's view of events at the Palais de Justice.
Avoiding partisanship, he was a voice of reason in a time of turmoil.
Although the manuscript was originally in the library of the Sorbonne, the author rarely mentions the University: an off-hand allusion (5-81v) to the presence of a representative from the University as a reception attended by the six corps de métier, the échevins, does not suggest that he is especially interested in the Sorbonne. True, he alludes to the Jansenist-Molinist squabble (5-155v), but does that necessarily place him at the Sorbonne?
Nor does Monsieur X seem to have been an ecclesiastic: "MM. du clergé n'ont pas oublié de se servir de la conjoncture de cette assemblée pour tascher d'abattre un peu l'authorité du Parlement ... et de se venger de ce qu'ilz insistent toujours à faire exclurre les cardinaux françois du ministere" (5-391).
His sources of information
His principal provincial correspondents in Bordeaux, Toulouse, Provence
Monsieur X has access to letters dispatched to Paris from Bordeaux, Toulouse, and Provence. These letters are often copied out near the end of a newsletter.
His principal correspondent in Bordeaux is very involved in the rebellion, writing "nous"; yet Monsieur X also quotes an anti-Frondeur letter from Blaye that had been brought to Paris by a delegation from Bordeaux (5-149v) and that rejoices at the imminent starvation at Bordeaux. These letters are quite political in nature.
Although the correspondents from the other two regions are generally rather favorable to the positions taken by their parlement, on the whole they are considerably more impartial.
Letters sent by people who are "following" the Court or a grand
These letters are not official in tone. Rather, they appear to have been written by well-informed individuals whose assertions could be weighed against statements in another source. For example, Monsieur X points out that "les lettres de Compiegne" say that not all the gouverneurs in Picardy were willing to surrender their power to Mazarin; and he then adds: "ce qui feut confiermé par les lettres d'Amyens ..." (5-34v).
In another instance, on the very day when a courier from the Court reached Paris, Monsieur X was able to tell his reader about the news he had brought (5-287).
With whom is Monsieur X in close contact in Paris?
He receives frequent briefings about the Parlement of Paris:
He sometimes characterizes parlementaires, as if he knew them personally. For example, he alludes to the enthusiasm of "Monsieur le Premier President, qui va de bon pied pour le service du Roy et de l'Estat" (5-11v). That said, he clearly presents secondhand accounts of the debates at the Palais de Justice and of the near-riots occurring there. Indeed, had he been professionally connected to the Parlement, he could scarcely have asserted that the Parlement had assembled, when in fact it had not (5-512). We shall see that he did not pick up this incorrect "fact" at the Palais de Justice: he learned it from someone around Gaston d'Orléans.
(For an insider account of parlementary debates during these years, see Jean Le Boindre, Débats du Parlement de Paris pendant la Minorité de Louis XIV, vol. I, ed. Orest and Patricia M. Ranum, and vol. II, ed. Isabelle Storez-Brancourt, Paris: Champion, 1997 and 2002).
He has access to the circle around the Regent and Mazarin:
A letter of late July 1649 contains an important clue: "Le Cardinal m'a dit" (5-70). Since the cardinal in question seems to be Mazarin, it is clear that on at least one occasion Monsieur X spoke to Mazarin face to face.
When the Cardinal left Paris for northeastern France, Monsieur X kept informed through people traveling with Mazarin. Thus he not only recounted the Cardinal's perigrinations, he included information about what Mazarin had done that very day: "S.E. s'en revient avant hier à Compiegne; mais elle est retournée aujourdhuy à La Fere ..." (5-242).
He also knows about Gaston d'Orléans's private conversation with Anne and Mazarin: "La Reyne et S.E. parlerent ces jours passé à S.A.R. du restablissement de M. l'abbé de la Riviere, mais elle jetta fort loing cette proposition (5-177v). By March 25 only three days after Mazarin, in Dijon, had written a letter and dispatched it to Paris Monsieur X knew the contents of the letter: "M. le Cardinal escrit de Dijon du 22 qu'il s'en va à St Jehan de Laune pour donner chaleur au blocus de Bellegarde et qu'ensuitte il doit revenir" (5-189v).
That Monsieur X is informed about the latest developments at Court, may result from contacts with Secretary of State Michel Le Tellier. For example, a "Monsieur Le Tellier" supplied him with information about Libourne that was not included in Monsieur X's usual source of information: "... à quoy M. Le Tellier ajoute que ..." (5-271v). On another occasion Monsieur X alludes to Le Tellier's position: "M. le duc d'Orleans tesmoigne asses de bonne volonté pour luy, mais M. Le Tellier luy est fort contraire" (5-283). He clearly is alluding to the Le Tellier.
Monsieur X also knows what is being said in the Royal Council: "On a parlé tous ces jours passés au Conseil ..." (5-120).
He is able to obtain copies of documents such as the details of the accommodement involving the Duke of Beaufort (5-64v).
It is, however, clear that Monsieur X does not hold a position in Anne of Austria's household, nor in the King's nor Mazarin's, that requires his presence. He remains in Paris when the Court flees Paris on January 6, 1649, and when it travels to the Southwest during the summer of 1650. In like manner, he remains in Paris whenever Mazarin leaves the capital.
In sum, we can be quite certain that Monsieur X was not closely attached to the royal family or to the Cardinal.
He has especially close ties to the palais d'Orléans:
It appears likely that Monsieur X belonged to the circle around "Monsieur," that is, Gaston de France, duc d'Orléans. He does not, however, appear to have been in the Duke's household: rather, he seems to have had friends at the palais d'Orléans (also called "the Luxembourg").
Be that as it may, Monsieur X knows what is happening that very day at the palais d'Orléans. For example, he knows that an ailing Mademoiselle is up and out of bed today" (5-132); he provides details about her social life (5-352). He refers to a letter that "arrived this morning" from the Court the addressee is not named, but it surely was Gaston d'Orléans, who was standing in for the Queen, who was in the Southwest (5-287). Most revealing of all, he knows what is going on "at this moment" in Gaston's cabinet: "on est à présent dans le cabinet de S.A.R.," drawing up a document that will free the princes (5-365).
He knows what Gaston is thinking about his "favorite," la Rivière: "Elle [S.A.R.] est resolue de n'avoir plus de favory particulier et de faire tout elle mesme ..." (5-177v); just as he is informed about the contents a letter that Gaston wrote the Queen: "Pour cest effect [S.A.R.] escrivit à la Reyne que ..." (5-260v).
The closeness of Monsieur X's ties to the household of Gaston d'Orléans is evident in the newsletter dated October 21, 1650 (5-310v). Here he alludes to news brought from Bordeaux by Miossens on October 19, 1650: "Depuis on a su par l'arrivée du comte de Miossens et d'un autre courrier extraordinaire, que la Cour était partie de Bordeaux". The unnamed courier can only have been "Richard, garde et courrier de M. le duc d'Orléans," who had reached Paris a day before Miossens. In other words, Monsieur X knew the content not only of Miossens's dispatch, but also of the one brought to Gaston by his personal guard (Dubuisson-Aubenay, I, pp. 334-335).
Another time, he notes that Count de la Serre had returned "ce matin" from Bordeaux, where he had given Condé a letter from Gaston d'Orléans (5-501). Then, as if Monsieur X had talked with La Serre himself, he adds: "Ce comte ajouste que ...."
A third example takes the form of the rectification of incorrect information whose source was none other than Gaston himself or someone close to him: "Le Parlement ne s'assembla pas le 15 du courant comme il a esté dit ..." and as Monsieur X had asserted in his newsletter of November 17, 1651 (5-511v). Monsieur X then gives the source of the incorrect information: "S.A.R. creut d'abord que le Parlement s'estoit assemblé ..." (5-512).
As a final example I will cite an incident narrated in the newsletter of January 19, 1652. It involves Ruvigny. Ruvigny was Gaston's falconer, but for over a year he had been acting as an intermediary for the Queen. (He happened to be Tallement des Réaux's brother-in-law, see below.) "The previous morning," Ruvigny had brought S.A.R. a message from Anne of Austria that aimed to "soften him up" and bring him around to her position. After recounting in detail what Gaston said to Ruvigny and how he had refused to prepare a reply to the Queen, Monsieur X states that Ruvigny took his leave and "today returned" to the Court (6-9v,10). This is yet another example of how rapidly Monsieur X was made party to discussions taking place in Gaston's private apartment.
One of the comments that Monsieur X added to a newsletter in January 1651 reveals the strength of his link to the palais d'Orleans and his dismay at how the King's uncle is being treated by the Regent and the Cardinal:
"Aujourdhuy la Cour d'ung costé et les Frondeurs de l'autre semblent faire deux parties, dont S.A.R. est comme l'arbitre, et c'est à qui l'aura de son costé. ... MM. de Beaufort et le Coadjuteur sont tousjours fort bien aupres de S.A.R. ... Il y a 2 jours que S.E., pressant S.A.R. d'abandonner les Frondeurs, S.A.R. le rebutta, luy dit qu'il ne vouloit pas qu'on luy parlat plus de cela, qu'il cognoissoit bien les bons serviteurs du Roy; et l'on tient que la Reyne en fit de grandes plaintes; et dé[s] ce soir là plusieurs granz tournoint desja le dos à ce favory. Cette jalousie et petit mescontentement continue encor. De ce feu il peut naistre d'estincelles. On va et vient. Il y a des emmissaires masles et femelles de touttes partz; tout sexe est employé envers tout sexe. On avoit promis à Leurs A.R. qu'on feroit l'accord du duc de Lorraine ... Aujourdhuy tout est rompu. La puissance de la Cour ne veut pas que cette puissance de Luxembourg [i.e., the palais d'Orleans] croisse. Les quartiers d'hiver de S.A.R. sont en Auvergne et Languedoch, afin qu'elle n'aye point de trouppes pres d'elle .... On commence à ouvrir des grands yeux sur touttes ces choses" (5-352,352v).
At the end of another letter, Monsieur X added some admiring remarks concerning Gaston d'Orléans, who by now had marshaled his strength and was pressing for Mazarin's exile:
"Depuis que S.A.R. print resolution d'esloigner M. le Cardinal et de le faire sortir du royaume et les princes de prison, cela a changé tout l'Estat. ... Cela a fait un bruit et des caballes incroyables, mais la fermetté de S.A.R. a tout vaincu. ... On travaille à la deslivrance des princes, et ce jourdhuy la Reyne et S.A.R. signent la lettre de cachet pour leur liberté; et l'on est à present dans le cabinet de S.A.R., ... pour dresser la declaration ... M. le Prince ne peut etre qu'à S.A.R. ..." (5-365).
An absence of parti pris, yet a growing exasperation
Considering the red-hot mood of the times, Monsieur X is really quite impartial. From time to time he nonetheless reveals his exasperation with the Fronde: he alludes to three Frondeur presidents who "aimaient mieux persister dans l'opiniatreté de leurs sentimenz," rather than accept honors from the Court (5-2v); and a bit later he notes that "Messieurs du Parlement menacent ... de recommencer leurs assemblées" (5-3).
He is no less exasperated with the grands who treat Mazarin rudely, who not only use "de grosses parolles" but "le querellent fort" in an attempt to get what they want (5-123). This does not mean, that he is pro-Mazarin: he simply is not fooled by the Roman's rhetoric. The Cardinal, he comments, "le voulut payer de parolles à son ordinaire" (5-181).
He generally saves his most personal thoughts for the end of a newsletter:
"Voilà les secretz discours de nostre Cour. Le temps nous fera veoir la verité du tout. Paris est toujours Paris, et l'authorité royale n'y est pas encor toutte establie. On tient le Pape pour notre ennemy. Le Cardinal m'a dit qu'il s'en alloit demeurer à Rome" (5-70v).
In one sentence, shown in the above illustration, Monsieur X then modifies a word, using the less modern hand (Hand # 2) that apparently came more easily to him . Here, Iinvironner" becomes "investir")
The personal thoughts that Monsieur X added to the end of two letters in late 1650 and early 1651 are especially revealing:
"Je crois que dans peu nous verrons esclorre quelq'ungs de ces accidentz inopinés qui arrivent tous les jours à la Cour. Il se brusle d'estranges factions dans l'Estat, et l'on ne croit pas qu'il jouysse jamais d'une paix parfaitte trainquillitté tandis que cest emprisonnement pourra fournir un pretexte aux mescontentz pour former un party. Enfin, cette France victorieuse de ses voisines lors qu'elle estoit unie, aujourdhuy divisée et en mesintelligence, devient leur proye. ... J'ay peur que ces espritz brouillons qui ont tant faict de libelles .... ne prennent ce pauvre homme à partie .... Les plus clairvoyans sont trompé en ce qui se fait et ce qui se dissemble. Icy nous ne voyons gueres bien les desseings de nos gouverneurs qu'alors qu'ilz sont esclos; mais la bonne foy, la justice, et la vertu se monstrent partout à face descouverte" December 30, 1650 (5-345)
"... Voicy une crise. Le Parlement presse; et on dit q'au lieu de response, le Roy sortira de Paris. ... Vous estes des subtilz et des prudentz; devinés du future, si vous pouves, principalement en France, où la conduitte des affaires et les evenementz des choses sont des esceuilz de toutte la prudence et politique." January 13, 1651 (5-352)
Who could the recipient of these letters have been?
"M. Virieu"
A tantalizing inscription on one of the newsletters raises the possibility that they were destined for a parlementary family in the Dauphiné. Folio 269v of ms. fr. 25025 the blank outer sheet of a newsletter bears a pencil inscription: "Mr Virieu." It seems to have been put there by Monsieur X himself. In other words, this letter may well have been intended for a certain Monsieur Virieu.
Folio 269v is very black and sooty so sooty that the penciled name more or less matches the color of the paper. Until, that is, a raking ray of sun just after a thunderstorm found its way onto my worktable in the Salle des Manuscrits and made the penciled inscription shine and stand out from the dark grey of the page.
I promptly delved into the manuscript volumes of the Cabinet des Titres and found two families with Virieu in their name. There were the "Prunier de Virieu," and there were the "Virieu de Pupetières." Both families were notables in the Dauphiné. By the early seventeenth century the Pruniers were well established in the Parlement de Grenoble, where Artus Prunier de Saint-André et de Virieu was premier président; and around the same time Charles Virieu de Pupetières was garde des sceaux in the same parlement. In 1608 the two families merged, so to speak, when François Virieu de Pupetières wed the daughter of Artus Prunier de Virieu.
For three decades the bride's brother, Laurent II Prunier, seigneur de Virieu, was second president in the Parlement of Grenoble, and from 1642 to 1649 he commanded en chef the province of Dauphiné, in the absence of royal governors and lieutenants généraux. His marriage in 1604 to his cousin (she was the daughter of Pomponne de Bellièvre, a Parisian parlementaire) produced Nicolas I Prunier de Virieu, "l'un des plus vertueux et des plus grands hommes qu'ait produit la Dauphiné." In 1650, Nicolas succeeded his father as président à mortier (BN, ms. fr. Dossiers bleus, "Prunier," fol. 19ff). In 1655, as a reward for his services, the property at Virieu was elevated to a marquisat; and in 1668 Nicolas was named ambassador to Venice. For the Bellièvres and their Prunier in-laws, see Olivier Poncet, Pomponne de Bellièvre (1529-1607), un homme d'Etat au temps des guerres de religion (Paris: Ecole des Chartes, 1998), passim.
Grenoble. Is that where the recipients of Monsieur X's newsletters resided? Is that why there are relatively few allusions to the Dauphiné? (For some allusions to Grenoble, see 5-34, 549, 5-51v, 5-444v.)
Who might Monsieur X be?
Monsieur X is not Louis Nublé, a barrister known for his newsletters. Despite great similarities in their hands, Nublé's script proves not to be identical to Monsieur X's. But does that mean that Monsieur X was not employed by Nublé, whom the parlementaires of Grenoble knew very well.
On August 5, 1648, Intendant De Heere, in Grenoble, referred to Nublé in a letter to Chancellor Séguier:
"Les nouvelles que la plupart de MM. du Parlement [de Grenoble] reçoivent sont d'un advocat de Paris nommé Nublé, qui a esté longtemps en cette province avec M. de Lauzières [Lozières], intendant auparavant moy. Il leur mande non seullement ce qui se passe au Parlement de Paris, mais ce qu'il luy semble qu'il devroit faire. C'est un homme qui se pique de sciance et de débiter des nouvelles" (BNF, ms. fr. 17390, fols. 43-44).
We know that Mazarin was relying on Lozières during the Fronde (AAE, France 1696, fol. 310, November 18, 1649). We also know that Nublé was in Grenoble in 1647 (BNF, mss., Rothschild collection, Vol. XI, letters 677-680), but that he was back in Paris by April 1648 and was sending newsletters to his nephew, who was the secretary of Gilles Ménage and whose was living with his master at Amboise:
"Il y a aujourd'huy 8 jours que j'escrivay à M. Menage ce qu'il peut savoir de nouvelles du Palais. Comme je n'avais rien à y ajouter mercredy dernier, je me tiens dans le silence. Je luy mande aujourd'huy ce qui nous en est depuis survenu" (Rothschild, letter 681).
Although we do not know their names, we know that one of Nublé's
friends was a householder of Gaston's (letter 659), and that one of his
close relatives, a certain Pierre Rouen, was a protégé of "quelques uns
des principaux officiers de la maison de M. le duc d'Orléans (letter
689).
Could Nublé's nephew, M. Girault, have been Monsieur X? Almost
certainly not, for Girault was still at Amboise in May 1649 (letter
685). But what about Pierre Rouen?
And what are we to make of the fact that Tallement des Réaux knew Lozières, Nublé, Girault, and Mesnage well enough to include them in his Historiettes? By contrast, these individuals do not appear in the Correspondence d'Albert Bailly (Aoste: Académie Saint-Anselme, 1999), 1643-1651, edited by L. Giachino, P. Cifarelli, and A. Amatuzzi.
* * *
In sum, we have a plausible recipient in Grenoble. We have a plausible circle from which news went out to Grenoble from Paris. Did Monsieur X belong to Louis Nublé's circle? Had he spent time with Nublé in Grenoble during the 1640s? If so, that would help explain the moments of familiarity that characterize the final paragraphs of some of Monsieur X's newsletters.
Virieu and Nublé suggest une piste à suivre for someone who wants to delve deeper into the background of mss. fr. 25025-25026. At the moment all we can assert is that, from December 1649 through August 1653, somewhere in Paris possibly in one of the overlapping little galaxies that revolved around Tallement des Réaux, Louis Nublé, and Gaston d'Orléans Monsieur X worked discreetly in his cabinet, preparing his newsletters.
* * *
I will leave the last word to Nicolas Goulas, a gentilhomme de la chambre to Gaston d'Orléans. Goulas provides us with thought-provoking evidence about how he obtained information for his Mémoires (Société de l'Histoire de France, vol. 195, pp. 44ff).
As part of the circle around Gaston d'Orléans (as Monsieur X likewise appears to have been), Goulas put Gaston at the top of his list: "Monseigneur s'étant comporté avec nous, dans le particulier, en véritable amy, et nous appellant quelquefois ses amés et féaux, je le mettray le premier et à la teste de ceux ... dont j'ay tiré mes nouvelles."
Goulas also obtained information about "l'état de la Cour de S.A.R." from his Goulas relative who also was one of Gaston's householders. Sometimes Nicolas himself would be admitted to Monsieur's cabinet: "D'ailleurs j'étois appelé dans le cabinet, je voyois et entendois mille choses qui m'illuminoient et me faisoit pénétrer dans ce qu'on prétendoit de tenir plus caché."
From the Duke de Rohan, who was "fort considéré et caressé de
Monseigneur [Gaston], Nicolas Goulas learned what was going on "chez Mme
la Princesse," where the Duchess of Aiguillon could often be found and
where the conversation turned upon the King and his mother: "[Rohan] me
faisoit le plan de cette société et des interests de ceux qui y étoient
admis, et c'étoit l'élite de la Cour."
Another valued source was the
Marquis de Vardes: "J'ay appris de luy mille choses d'importance. Il
avoit commerce avec la pluspart des grands ... si bien que dans les
conersations du soir, [he and his wife] nous faisoient part, à quelques
uns de leurs amis de la maison de Monseigneur, de ce qu'ils avoient
appris le jour."
And there was Pierre Patris, one of the poets at Gaston's court: "... difficilement auroit-on trouvé quelqu'un dans la maison [de Gaston] qui en sust plus de nouvelles, je dis tant de celles de Monseigneur que celles de Madame."
And on, and on.
Aside for Patris and Goulas, the above individuals are mentioned in Monsieur X's newsletters. Still, once again there is no evidence that Monsieur X was part of Goulas's circle. But if he was not, where did he get all his information about Gaston and the doings of the great nobles?
View the handwriting of the scribes, or consult the newsletters
"Monsieur X " Handwriting Opening page about the newsletters