Antoine de Sartine
Encyclopedia
Antoine Raymond Jean Gualbert Gabriel de Sartine, comte d'Alby (July 12, 1729 – September 7, 1801) was a French statesman who served as Lieutenant General of Police of Paris
(1759–1774) during the reign of Louis XV
and as Secretary of State for the Navy (1774–1780) under King Louis XVI
.
in 1729, the son of Antoine Sartine
, a French-born financier who arrived in Spain
with the troops of King Philip V of Spain
and served as intendente
(i.e. governor) of Catalonia
from 1726 to 1744. His mother was Catherine White, Countess of Alby (the daughter of Ignatius White, Marquess of Albeville, who served as Secretary of State to James II of England
).
. The same year, at the age of 23, he became Councilor (i.e. judge) at the Châtelet
of Paris
, the city's civil and criminal court. In 1755 he bought the office of Criminal Lieutenant, i.e. head, or chief judge, of the Châtelet's criminal branch. As a result of buying this office, he was ennobled and entered the prestigious aristocracy
. Eventually, in 1759, he married Marie-Anne Hardy du Plessis, the granddaughter of Charles Colabeau.
By then, he was in favor at the court of Versailles
, and so on November 21, 1759 he was appointed Lieutenant General of Police of Paris (i.e. head of the Paris Police
). He entered office in December of that year after buying the office of Lieutenant General of Police from his predecessor Bertin for the sum of 175,000 livres (approx. US$850,000 in 2006), which his friend Malesherbes
advanced him.
A skilled administrator, he improved the city's food supply. Along with the Provost of the Merchants de Viarmes, he commissioned the building of a new grain market, the Halle au blé, built between 1765 and 1768, a modern and airy building much admired at the time which is still standing by Les Halles
today and currently known as the Bourse du Commerce.
Street cleaning and lighting were also improved. He set up a brigade of street sweepers and had the first public toilets installed in the streets of Paris. In 1766, after launching an invention contest, he improved street lighting by installing new réverbère lanterns. These were oil lamps with reflectors which were hung above the center of streets and produced a more abundant and stable light than the candle lanterns that had been used for centuries before.
The same year, he founded the Royal Free Drawing School (now the National School of Decorative Arts
) which taught drawing skills, free-of-charge, to the sons of families from the lowest classes of society. The aim was both to train artisans and artists so as to improve the quality of the Parisian luxury goods industries and handicrafts, but also to teach poor youths a trade and keep them from roaming the streets and disturbing public order.
For the first time in history, he conducted a survey of the quarries beneath the city, many of which threatened the foundations of buildings. He also ordered fourteen public fountains restored and organized drowning assistance services.
Under his tenure, public order was well maintained in the French capital. He took great care in the recruitment of police commissioners (commissaires de police) to assist him. He is said to have fulfilled his office with justice, humanity, firmness, and vigilance, and was highly respected by everyone.
Among other measures, he subjected the night watchmen to military discipline; he put an end to the abuse of the claque
in theatres; he banned gatherings of horn blowers in pubs. In order to suppress underground gambling dives in the city, he opened official gambling houses watched over by his agents and taxed by the Treasury.
His services, in particular secret police
, were the best informed in Europe and served as a model in other countries. All the governments of Europe, Catherine II of Russia
, Maria Theresa of Austria
, the Pope, consulted him on the best way to organize police services in their states. He had agents and spies everywhere in the city and abroad, including as far away as in America and in India. Such was his reputation that foreign governments often required his help in searching for fugitives. Once, a minister of Maria Theresa wrote to Sartine asking him to arrest a famous Austrian thief who was thought to be hiding in Paris. Sartine replied to the minister that the thief was actually in Vienna, and gave the minister the street address where the thief was hiding, as well as a description of the thief's disguise.
Sartine personally analyzed an enormous correspondence and received his subordinates and commissioners of police anytime of day and night. He was the first to use repentant thieves and reprieved convicts as informants and agents. To courtiers who found this shocking, he used to say: "Pray tell me the name of honest people who would like to do such a job." Sartine was also a man of action, with great presence of mind. On one occasion, having to quell a riot on the Place Maubert, he met the crowd at the head of a company of musketeer
s and had an officer respectfully remove his hat and tell the crowd: "Gentlemen, we come here in the name of the King, but our orders are to shoot at the scoundrels only. I therefore pray the honest people to leave the square." The crowd disbanded without a gunshot.
Although admired by his contemporaries, he was also criticized for using his highly efficient secret police to spy not only on criminals but also on ordinary citizens. His services opened private letters sent through the mail, which was a frequent practice in Europe at the time, and spied on families. Sartine was thus aware of all sorts of scandals in the city, notably sexual scandals, and he sent daily reports to the king containing saucy and intimate details about courtiers, clerics, and private citizens, which were said to amuse the king and relieve him from the boredom of court life. Furthermore, his political police was known for its efficiency in detecting agitators, dissenters, anticlerical
propagandists, and other people perceived as trouble makers, who were imprisoned without trial through the lettres de cachet
. Some sources say that there were never more political prisoners at the Bastille
and at the fortress of Vincennes
than under his tenure.
In parallel with his career as Lieutenant General of Police of Paris, Antoine de Sartine became maître des requêtes
in December 1759 and conseiller d'État
in 1767. He was the director of the Library from 1763 to 1774, succeeding his friend Malesherbes
. As such, he was not only in charge of managing the Royal Library (now the National Library of France
), but he was also the chief censor in the kingdom, responsible for controlling the book trade and the press. Like his friend Malesherbes, he was a liberal and supported the philosophers of The Enlightenment
, in particular Diderot
and his Encyclopédie
, which he protected against the attacks of the ecclesiastical
party.
Antoine de Sartine was close to the party of the minister Choiseul
, who had been disgraced by Louis XV
in 1770 and ordered to retire to his estate. After the king's death in May 1774, Choiseul was allowed to return to Paris and his party regained favor at court. Thus, on August 24 of the same year, Sartine was appointed Secretary of State for the Navy (with the honorific rank of Minister of State
in 1775) and left his office of Lieutenant General of Police to his protégé Lenoir.
, resurrected by Choiseul
after the disasters of the Seven Years' War
(in which France had lost Canada
, Louisiana
, and India
); a resurrected French Navy which would later defeat the British Navy
in the War of American Independence
. In the ministry, Sartine surrounded himself with able men, such as the comte de Fleurieu. He modernized and rationalized the French Navy. By seven decrees (September 27, 1776), he gave naval officers the high hand over French ports and naval dockyards, which were put under the direction of the comte de Fleurieu. He also reorganized the corps of naval artillery
and marine infantry
. In 1775, after the aborted attempt by his predecessor to create a Royal Marine School in Le Havre
, he re-established the Companies of Marine Guards, naval schools training officers and whose access was strictly limited to children of the aristocracy
.
As conflict with England was looming on the horizon, he increased shipbuilding budgets fourfold, enabling large scale shipbuilding when France entered the American War of Independence in the beginning of 1778. In the space of only one year, nine ships-of-the-line
were built in the French shipyards. Sartine also initiated the building of the long breakwater
which protects the port of Cherbourg and commissioned the construction of dry dock
s in Brest
, Rochefort
, Lorient
, and Toulon
. Particularly interested in foundries
, he created the naval foundry of Indret near Nantes
(now a unit of DCN
specialized in conventional and nuclear propulsion
). In these critical times, he fought successfully against insubordination
in the Navy, notably by publishing a regulation in 1780 dealing with hygiene on board the vessels of the fleet and with marine crew health issues. Drawing from his police experience, he also used his spy network in the fight against England.
The budget deficit, which was aggravated by France's participation in the War of American Independence, led to conflict between the finance minister, Necker
, who sought to limit expenditures, and Sartine, who wanted to expand the French Navy even further. Necker accused Sartine of exceeding the budget allocated to the Navy by 20 million livres (approx. US$100 million in 2006). Necker complained sharply to King Louis XVI
that this overrun threatened an already almost bankrupt State. Eventually, the king dismissed Sartine on October 14, 1780 and replaced him with the marquis de Castries
. Sartine, however, was dismissed with honors: he received a reward of 150,000 livres (approx. US$700,000) for his services and he was granted a 70,000 livres yearly pension.
Antoine de Sartine tried to justify his actions as minister in a vitriolic pamphlet against Necker, whom he accused of having sold himself to the English, but he didn't win over the public and was the victim of numerous puns and epigrams such as this one:
. Hated by the revolutionary crowds for his tenure as Lieutenant General of Police and his use of the lettres de cachet
to imprison people without trial, attacked by Manuel
in his La Police de Paris dévoilée ("The Paris Police Uncovered"), he decided to leave France shortly after the Storming of the Bastille
on July 14, 1789, which probably saved his life. His son Charles Marie Antoine de Sartine, born in 1760, who was maître des requêtes
from the age of 20 until 1791 and chose to stay in France, was arrested in 1794, sentenced to death by the Revolutionary Tribunal
, and guillotined on June 17 of that year along with his 19-year-old wife and his mother-in-law the comtesse de Sainte-Amaranthe.
Sartine took refuge in Barcelona
, where he had spent his childhood. There, he was active among émigré
circles. Around 1797 he retired to Tarragona
, where he was a member of the enlightened circle of Archbishop Francisco Armañá y Font (Francesc Armanyà i Font). He died in Tarragona in 1801 at the age of 72 without having returned to France.
M. de Sartine was an educated man and an art lover. The books from his enormous library still appear on public sales now and then (for high prices), and can be recognised by the superb leather binding and the gold embossed coat of arms with the three sardines.
As a music lover, he gave permission, in 1764, to the young Mozart to give two concerts in Paris (exemptions on the privilege of the Theatres and the Opera had to be given by the Lieutenant-Général). The composer Jacques Duphly
named a harpsichord piece after M. De Sartine (Book IV).
On May 1, 1780, a British ship attacked the French unarmed ship "Sartine", with two cannon volleys, and the Sartine ran aground at the entrance to the old port of Marseille, hence the joke that a sardine blocked the port of Marseille.
In our times, M. De Sartine is a main character in a series of detective novels by Jean-François Parot.
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
(1759–1774) during the reign of Louis XV
Louis XV of France
Louis XV was a Bourbon monarch who ruled as King of France and of Navarre from 1 September 1715 until his death. He succeeded his great-grandfather at the age of five, his first cousin Philippe II, Duke of Orléans, served as Regent of the kingdom until Louis's majority in 1723...
and as Secretary of State for the Navy (1774–1780) under King Louis XVI
Louis XVI of France
Louis XVI was a Bourbon monarch who ruled as King of France and Navarre until 1791, and then as King of the French from 1791 to 1792, before being executed in 1793....
.
Origins
Antoine de Sartine was born in BarcelonaBarcelona
Barcelona is the second largest city in Spain after Madrid, and the capital of Catalonia, with a population of 1,621,537 within its administrative limits on a land area of...
in 1729, the son of Antoine Sartine
Antoine Sartine
Antoine Sartine , later known as Antonio de Sartine, was a French-born financier and Spanish administrator.Born in Lyon, France, within a family of shopkeepers, he became acquainted with some financiers and made a fortune supplying the troops of the French-born king Philip V of Spain during the War...
, a French-born financier who arrived in Spain
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
with the troops of King Philip V of Spain
Philip V of Spain
Philip V was King of Spain from 15 November 1700 to 15 January 1724, when he abdicated in favor of his son Louis, and from 6 September 1724, when he assumed the throne again upon his son's death, to his death.Before his reign, Philip occupied an exalted place in the royal family of France as a...
and served as intendente
Intendente
Governors in the various Provinces of the Viceroyalty of New Spain.In addition to governors, the following list intends to give an overview of colonial units of the provincial level; therefore it also includes some offices of similar rank, especially the intendant...
(i.e. governor) of Catalonia
Catalonia
Catalonia is an autonomous community in northeastern Spain, with the official status of a "nationality" of Spain. Catalonia comprises four provinces: Barcelona, Girona, Lleida, and Tarragona. Its capital and largest city is Barcelona. Catalonia covers an area of 32,114 km² and has an...
from 1726 to 1744. His mother was Catherine White, Countess of Alby (the daughter of Ignatius White, Marquess of Albeville, who served as Secretary of State to James II of England
James II of England
James II & VII was King of England and King of Ireland as James II and King of Scotland as James VII, from 6 February 1685. He was the last Catholic monarch to reign over the Kingdoms of England, Scotland, and Ireland...
).
First years in France
After the death of his mother, Antoine de Sartine was sent to France and put under the guidance of Charles Colabeau, businessman and friend of his father. He studied law in Paris. In 1752 he was granted letters of naturalizationNaturalization
Naturalization is the acquisition of citizenship and nationality by somebody who was not a citizen of that country at the time of birth....
. The same year, at the age of 23, he became Councilor (i.e. judge) at the Châtelet
Grand Châtelet
The Grand Châtelet was a stronghold in Ancien Régime Paris, on the right bank of the Seine, on the site of what is now the Place du Châtelet; it contained a court and police headquarters and a number of prisons....
of Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
, the city's civil and criminal court. In 1755 he bought the office of Criminal Lieutenant, i.e. head, or chief judge, of the Châtelet's criminal branch. As a result of buying this office, he was ennobled and entered the prestigious aristocracy
French nobility
The French nobility was the privileged order of France in the Middle Ages and the Early Modern periods.In the political system of the Estates General, the nobility made up the Second Estate...
. Eventually, in 1759, he married Marie-Anne Hardy du Plessis, the granddaughter of Charles Colabeau.
By then, he was in favor at the court of Versailles
Palace of Versailles
The Palace of Versailles , or simply Versailles, is a royal château in Versailles in the Île-de-France region of France. In French it is the Château de Versailles....
, and so on November 21, 1759 he was appointed Lieutenant General of Police of Paris (i.e. head of the Paris Police
Prefecture of Police
The Prefecture of Police , headed by the Prefect of Police , is an agency of the Government of France which provides the police force for the city of Paris and the surrounding three suburban départements of Hauts-de-Seine, Seine-Saint-Denis, and Val-de-Marne...
). He entered office in December of that year after buying the office of Lieutenant General of Police from his predecessor Bertin for the sum of 175,000 livres (approx. US$850,000 in 2006), which his friend Malesherbes
Guillaume-Chrétien de Lamoignon de Malesherbes
Guillaume-Chrétien de Lamoignon de Malesherbes , often referred to as Malesherbes or Lamoignon-Malesherbes, was a French statesman, minister, and afterwards counsel for the defence of Louis XVI.-Biography:...
advanced him.
Lieutenant General of Police of Paris
As Lieutenant General of Police, Antoine de Sartine was the real administrator of Paris for 15 years, invested with more powers than the Provost of the Merchants (head of the Paris municipality). Like his predecessors, he was in charge not only of public order, but also of street cleaning and maintenance, food supply, and public health and hygiene.A skilled administrator, he improved the city's food supply. Along with the Provost of the Merchants de Viarmes, he commissioned the building of a new grain market, the Halle au blé, built between 1765 and 1768, a modern and airy building much admired at the time which is still standing by Les Halles
Les Halles
Les Halles is an area of Paris, France, located in the 1er arrondissement, just south of the fashionable rue Montorgueil. It is named for the large central wholesale marketplace, which was demolished in 1971, to be replaced with an underground modern shopping precinct, the Forum des Halles...
today and currently known as the Bourse du Commerce.
Street cleaning and lighting were also improved. He set up a brigade of street sweepers and had the first public toilets installed in the streets of Paris. In 1766, after launching an invention contest, he improved street lighting by installing new réverbère lanterns. These were oil lamps with reflectors which were hung above the center of streets and produced a more abundant and stable light than the candle lanterns that had been used for centuries before.
The same year, he founded the Royal Free Drawing School (now the National School of Decorative Arts
École nationale supérieure des arts décoratifs
The École Nationale Supérieure des Arts Décoratifs is a public university of art and design and is one of the most prestigious French grande école...
) which taught drawing skills, free-of-charge, to the sons of families from the lowest classes of society. The aim was both to train artisans and artists so as to improve the quality of the Parisian luxury goods industries and handicrafts, but also to teach poor youths a trade and keep them from roaming the streets and disturbing public order.
For the first time in history, he conducted a survey of the quarries beneath the city, many of which threatened the foundations of buildings. He also ordered fourteen public fountains restored and organized drowning assistance services.
Under his tenure, public order was well maintained in the French capital. He took great care in the recruitment of police commissioners (commissaires de police) to assist him. He is said to have fulfilled his office with justice, humanity, firmness, and vigilance, and was highly respected by everyone.
Among other measures, he subjected the night watchmen to military discipline; he put an end to the abuse of the claque
Claque
Claque is an organized body of professional applauders in French theatres and opera houses. Members of a claque are called claqueurs....
in theatres; he banned gatherings of horn blowers in pubs. In order to suppress underground gambling dives in the city, he opened official gambling houses watched over by his agents and taxed by the Treasury.
His services, in particular secret police
Secret police
Secret police are a police agency which operates in secrecy and beyond the law to protect the political power of an individual dictator or an authoritarian political regime....
, were the best informed in Europe and served as a model in other countries. All the governments of Europe, Catherine II of Russia
Catherine II of Russia
Catherine II, also known as Catherine the Great , Empress of Russia, was born in Stettin, Pomerania, Prussia on as Sophie Friederike Auguste von Anhalt-Zerbst-Dornburg...
, Maria Theresa of Austria
Maria Theresa of Austria
Maria Theresa Walburga Amalia Christina was the only female ruler of the Habsburg dominions and the last of the House of Habsburg. She was the sovereign of Austria, Hungary, Croatia, Bohemia, Mantua, Milan, Lodomeria and Galicia, the Austrian Netherlands and Parma...
, the Pope, consulted him on the best way to organize police services in their states. He had agents and spies everywhere in the city and abroad, including as far away as in America and in India. Such was his reputation that foreign governments often required his help in searching for fugitives. Once, a minister of Maria Theresa wrote to Sartine asking him to arrest a famous Austrian thief who was thought to be hiding in Paris. Sartine replied to the minister that the thief was actually in Vienna, and gave the minister the street address where the thief was hiding, as well as a description of the thief's disguise.
Sartine personally analyzed an enormous correspondence and received his subordinates and commissioners of police anytime of day and night. He was the first to use repentant thieves and reprieved convicts as informants and agents. To courtiers who found this shocking, he used to say: "Pray tell me the name of honest people who would like to do such a job." Sartine was also a man of action, with great presence of mind. On one occasion, having to quell a riot on the Place Maubert, he met the crowd at the head of a company of musketeer
Musketeer
A musketeer was an early modern type of infantry soldier equipped with a musket. Musketeers were an important part of early modern armies, particularly in Europe. They sometimes could fight on horseback, like a dragoon or a cavalryman...
s and had an officer respectfully remove his hat and tell the crowd: "Gentlemen, we come here in the name of the King, but our orders are to shoot at the scoundrels only. I therefore pray the honest people to leave the square." The crowd disbanded without a gunshot.
Although admired by his contemporaries, he was also criticized for using his highly efficient secret police to spy not only on criminals but also on ordinary citizens. His services opened private letters sent through the mail, which was a frequent practice in Europe at the time, and spied on families. Sartine was thus aware of all sorts of scandals in the city, notably sexual scandals, and he sent daily reports to the king containing saucy and intimate details about courtiers, clerics, and private citizens, which were said to amuse the king and relieve him from the boredom of court life. Furthermore, his political police was known for its efficiency in detecting agitators, dissenters, anticlerical
Anti-clericalism
Anti-clericalism is a historical movement that opposes religious institutional power and influence, real or alleged, in all aspects of public and political life, and the involvement of religion in the everyday life of the citizen...
propagandists, and other people perceived as trouble makers, who were imprisoned without trial through the lettres de cachet
Lettre de cachet
Lettres de cachet were letters signed by the king of France, countersigned by one of his ministers, and closed with the royal seal, or cachet...
. Some sources say that there were never more political prisoners at the Bastille
Bastille
The Bastille was a fortress in Paris, known formally as the Bastille Saint-Antoine. It played an important role in the internal conflicts of France and for most of its history was used as a state prison by the kings of France. The Bastille was built in response to the English threat to the city of...
and at the fortress of Vincennes
Château de Vincennes
The Château de Vincennes is a massive 14th and 17th century French royal castle in the town of Vincennes, to the east of Paris, now a suburb of the metropolis.-History:...
than under his tenure.
In parallel with his career as Lieutenant General of Police of Paris, Antoine de Sartine became maître des requêtes
Maître des requêtes
Masters of Requests are high-level judicial officers of administrative law in France and other European countries that have existed in one form or another since the Middle Ages.-Old Regime France:...
in December 1759 and conseiller d'État
Conseiller d'État
A French Councillor of State is a high-level government official of administrative law in the Council of State of France.-Under the Old Regime:...
in 1767. He was the director of the Library from 1763 to 1774, succeeding his friend Malesherbes
Guillaume-Chrétien de Lamoignon de Malesherbes
Guillaume-Chrétien de Lamoignon de Malesherbes , often referred to as Malesherbes or Lamoignon-Malesherbes, was a French statesman, minister, and afterwards counsel for the defence of Louis XVI.-Biography:...
. As such, he was not only in charge of managing the Royal Library (now the National Library of France
Bibliothèque nationale de France
The is the National Library of France, located in Paris. It is intended to be the repository of all that is published in France. The current president of the library is Bruno Racine.-History:...
), but he was also the chief censor in the kingdom, responsible for controlling the book trade and the press. Like his friend Malesherbes, he was a liberal and supported the philosophers of The Enlightenment
Age of Enlightenment
The Age of Enlightenment was an elite cultural movement of intellectuals in 18th century Europe that sought to mobilize the power of reason in order to reform society and advance knowledge. It promoted intellectual interchange and opposed intolerance and abuses in church and state...
, in particular Diderot
Denis Diderot
Denis Diderot was a French philosopher, art critic, and writer. He was a prominent person during the Enlightenment and is best known for serving as co-founder and chief editor of and contributor to the Encyclopédie....
and his Encyclopédie
Encyclopédie
Encyclopédie, ou dictionnaire raisonné des sciences, des arts et des métiers was a general encyclopedia published in France between 1751 and 1772, with later supplements, revised editions, and translations. It was edited by Denis Diderot and Jean le Rond d'Alembert...
, which he protected against the attacks of the ecclesiastical
Ecclesiology
Today, ecclesiology usually refers to the theological study of the Christian church. However when the word was coined in the late 1830s, it was defined as the science of the building and decoration of churches and it is still, though rarely, used in this sense.In its theological sense, ecclesiology...
party.
Antoine de Sartine was close to the party of the minister Choiseul
Étienne François, duc de Choiseul
Étienne-François, comte de Stainville, duc de Choiseul was a French military officer, diplomat and statesman. Between 1758 and 1761, and 1766 and 1770, he was Foreign Minister of France and had a strong influence on France's global strategy throughout the period...
, who had been disgraced by Louis XV
Louis XV of France
Louis XV was a Bourbon monarch who ruled as King of France and of Navarre from 1 September 1715 until his death. He succeeded his great-grandfather at the age of five, his first cousin Philippe II, Duke of Orléans, served as Regent of the kingdom until Louis's majority in 1723...
in 1770 and ordered to retire to his estate. After the king's death in May 1774, Choiseul was allowed to return to Paris and his party regained favor at court. Thus, on August 24 of the same year, Sartine was appointed Secretary of State for the Navy (with the honorific rank of Minister of State
Minister of State
Minister of State is a title borne by politicians or officials in certain countries governed under a parliamentary system. In some countries a "minister of state" is a junior minister, who is assigned to assist a specific cabinet minister...
in 1775) and left his office of Lieutenant General of Police to his protégé Lenoir.
Secretary of State for the Navy
Antoine de Sartine inherited a strong French NavyFrench Navy
The French Navy, officially the Marine nationale and often called La Royale is the maritime arm of the French military. It includes a full range of fighting vessels, from patrol boats to a nuclear powered aircraft carrier and 10 nuclear-powered submarines, four of which are capable of launching...
, resurrected by Choiseul
Étienne François, duc de Choiseul
Étienne-François, comte de Stainville, duc de Choiseul was a French military officer, diplomat and statesman. Between 1758 and 1761, and 1766 and 1770, he was Foreign Minister of France and had a strong influence on France's global strategy throughout the period...
after the disasters of the Seven Years' War
Seven Years' War
The Seven Years' War was a global military war between 1756 and 1763, involving most of the great powers of the time and affecting Europe, North America, Central America, the West African coast, India, and the Philippines...
(in which France had lost Canada
Canada, New France
Canada was the name of the French colony that once stretched along the St. Lawrence River; the other colonies of New France were Acadia, Louisiana and Newfoundland. Canada, the most developed colony of New France, was divided into three districts, each with its own government: Quebec,...
, Louisiana
Louisiana (New France)
Louisiana or French Louisiana was an administrative district of New France. Under French control from 1682–1763 and 1800–03, the area was named in honor of Louis XIV, by French explorer René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de la Salle...
, and India
French India
French India is a general name for the former French possessions in India These included Pondichéry , Karikal and Yanaon on the Coromandel Coast, Mahé on the Malabar Coast, and Chandannagar in Bengal...
); a resurrected French Navy which would later defeat the British Navy
Royal Navy
The Royal Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Founded in the 16th century, it is the oldest service branch and is known as the Senior Service...
in the War of American Independence
France in the American Revolutionary War
France entered the American Revolutionary War in 1778, and assisted in the victory of the Americans seeking independence from Britain ....
. In the ministry, Sartine surrounded himself with able men, such as the comte de Fleurieu. He modernized and rationalized the French Navy. By seven decrees (September 27, 1776), he gave naval officers the high hand over French ports and naval dockyards, which were put under the direction of the comte de Fleurieu. He also reorganized the corps of naval artillery
Naval artillery
Naval artillery, or naval riflery, is artillery mounted on a warship for use in naval warfare. Naval artillery has historically been used to engage either other ships, or targets on land; in the latter role it is currently termed naval gunfire fire support...
and marine infantry
Marine corps
A marine is a member of a force that specializes in expeditionary operations such as amphibious assault and occupation. The marines traditionally have strong links with the country's navy...
. In 1775, after the aborted attempt by his predecessor to create a Royal Marine School in Le Havre
Le Havre
Le Havre is a city in the Seine-Maritime department of the Haute-Normandie region in France. It is situated in north-western France, on the right bank of the mouth of the river Seine on the English Channel. Le Havre is the most populous commune in the Haute-Normandie region, although the total...
, he re-established the Companies of Marine Guards, naval schools training officers and whose access was strictly limited to children of the aristocracy
French nobility
The French nobility was the privileged order of France in the Middle Ages and the Early Modern periods.In the political system of the Estates General, the nobility made up the Second Estate...
.
As conflict with England was looming on the horizon, he increased shipbuilding budgets fourfold, enabling large scale shipbuilding when France entered the American War of Independence in the beginning of 1778. In the space of only one year, nine ships-of-the-line
Ship of the line
A ship of the line was a type of naval warship constructed from the 17th through the mid-19th century to take part in the naval tactic known as the line of battle, in which two columns of opposing warships would manoeuvre to bring the greatest weight of broadside guns to bear...
were built in the French shipyards. Sartine also initiated the building of the long breakwater
Breakwater (structure)
Breakwaters are structures constructed on coasts as part of coastal defence or to protect an anchorage from the effects of weather and longshore drift.-Purposes of breakwaters:...
which protects the port of Cherbourg and commissioned the construction of dry dock
Dry dock
A drydock is a narrow basin or vessel that can be flooded to allow a load to be floated in, then drained to allow that load to come to rest on a dry platform...
s in Brest
Brest, France
Brest is a city in the Finistère department in Brittany in northwestern France. Located in a sheltered position not far from the western tip of the Breton peninsula, and the western extremity of metropolitan France, Brest is an important harbour and the second French military port after Toulon...
, Rochefort
Rochefort, Charente-Maritime
Rochefort is a commune in southwestern France, a port on the Charente estuary. It is a sub-prefecture of the Charente-Maritime department.-History:...
, Lorient
Lorient
Lorient, or L'Orient, is a commune and a seaport in the Morbihan department in Brittany in north-western France.-History:At the beginning of the 17th century, merchants who were trading with India had established warehouses in Port-Louis...
, and Toulon
Toulon
Toulon is a town in southern France and a large military harbor on the Mediterranean coast, with a major French naval base. Located in the Provence-Alpes-Côte-d'Azur region, Toulon is the capital of the Var department in the former province of Provence....
. Particularly interested in foundries
Foundry
A foundry is a factory that produces metal castings. Metals are cast into shapes by melting them into a liquid, pouring the metal in a mold, and removing the mold material or casting after the metal has solidified as it cools. The most common metals processed are aluminum and cast iron...
, he created the naval foundry of Indret near Nantes
Nantes
Nantes is a city in western France, located on the Loire River, from the Atlantic coast. The city is the 6th largest in France, while its metropolitan area ranks 8th with over 800,000 inhabitants....
(now a unit of DCN
DCN
DCNS is a naval defence company based in France and is one of Europe's leading shipbuilders....
specialized in conventional and nuclear propulsion
Nuclear propulsion
Nuclear propulsion includes a wide variety of propulsion methods that fulfil the promise of the Atomic Age by using some form of nuclear reaction as their primary power source.- Surface ships and submarines :...
). In these critical times, he fought successfully against insubordination
Insubordination
Insubordination is the act of willfully disobeying an authority. Refusing to perform an action that is unethical or illegal is not insubordination; neither is refusing to perform an action that is not within the scope of authority of the person issuing the order.Insubordination is typically a...
in the Navy, notably by publishing a regulation in 1780 dealing with hygiene on board the vessels of the fleet and with marine crew health issues. Drawing from his police experience, he also used his spy network in the fight against England.
The budget deficit, which was aggravated by France's participation in the War of American Independence, led to conflict between the finance minister, Necker
Jacques Necker
Jacques Necker was a French statesman of Swiss birth and finance minister of Louis XVI, a post he held in the lead-up to the French Revolution in 1789.-Early life:...
, who sought to limit expenditures, and Sartine, who wanted to expand the French Navy even further. Necker accused Sartine of exceeding the budget allocated to the Navy by 20 million livres (approx. US$100 million in 2006). Necker complained sharply to King Louis XVI
Louis XVI of France
Louis XVI was a Bourbon monarch who ruled as King of France and Navarre until 1791, and then as King of the French from 1791 to 1792, before being executed in 1793....
that this overrun threatened an already almost bankrupt State. Eventually, the king dismissed Sartine on October 14, 1780 and replaced him with the marquis de Castries
Charles Eugène Gabriel de La Croix, marquis de Castries
Charles Eugène Gabriel de La Croix de Castries, marquis de Castries, baron des États de Languedoc, comte de Charlus, baron de Castelnau et de Montjouvent, seigneur de Puylaurens et de Lézignan was a French marshal...
. Sartine, however, was dismissed with honors: he received a reward of 150,000 livres (approx. US$700,000) for his services and he was granted a 70,000 livres yearly pension.
Antoine de Sartine tried to justify his actions as minister in a vitriolic pamphlet against Necker, whom he accused of having sold himself to the English, but he didn't win over the public and was the victim of numerous puns and epigrams such as this one:
- I swept Paris with extreme care,
- And, wishing to sweep the English from the seas,
- I sold my broom so dearly
- That I was swept away myself.
Later years
Sartine lived in retirement in Paris until the start of the French RevolutionFrench Revolution
The French Revolution , sometimes distinguished as the 'Great French Revolution' , was a period of radical social and political upheaval in France and Europe. The absolute monarchy that had ruled France for centuries collapsed in three years...
. Hated by the revolutionary crowds for his tenure as Lieutenant General of Police and his use of the lettres de cachet
Lettre de cachet
Lettres de cachet were letters signed by the king of France, countersigned by one of his ministers, and closed with the royal seal, or cachet...
to imprison people without trial, attacked by Manuel
Louis Pierre Manuel
Louis Pierre Manuel was a French writer and political figure of the Revolution.-Revolutionary:He was born at Montargis, Loiret, and entered the Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, becoming tutor to the son of a Paris banker...
in his La Police de Paris dévoilée ("The Paris Police Uncovered"), he decided to leave France shortly after the Storming of the Bastille
Storming of the Bastille
The storming of the Bastille occurred in Paris on the morning of 14 July 1789. The medieval fortress and prison in Paris known as the Bastille represented royal authority in the centre of Paris. While the prison only contained seven inmates at the time of its storming, its fall was the flashpoint...
on July 14, 1789, which probably saved his life. His son Charles Marie Antoine de Sartine, born in 1760, who was maître des requêtes
Maître des requêtes
Masters of Requests are high-level judicial officers of administrative law in France and other European countries that have existed in one form or another since the Middle Ages.-Old Regime France:...
from the age of 20 until 1791 and chose to stay in France, was arrested in 1794, sentenced to death by the Revolutionary Tribunal
Revolutionary Tribunal
The Revolutionary Tribunal was a court which was instituted in Paris by the Convention during the French Revolution for the trial of political offenders, and eventually became one of the most powerful engines of the Reign of Terror....
, and guillotined on June 17 of that year along with his 19-year-old wife and his mother-in-law the comtesse de Sainte-Amaranthe.
Sartine took refuge in Barcelona
Barcelona
Barcelona is the second largest city in Spain after Madrid, and the capital of Catalonia, with a population of 1,621,537 within its administrative limits on a land area of...
, where he had spent his childhood. There, he was active among émigré
Émigré
Émigré is a French term that literally refers to a person who has "migrated out", but often carries a connotation of politico-social self-exile....
circles. Around 1797 he retired to Tarragona
Tarragona
Tarragona is a city located in the south of Catalonia on the north-east of Spain, by the Mediterranean. It is the capital of the Spanish province of the same name and the capital of the Catalan comarca Tarragonès. In the medieval and modern times it was the capital of the Vegueria of Tarragona...
, where he was a member of the enlightened circle of Archbishop Francisco Armañá y Font (Francesc Armanyà i Font). He died in Tarragona in 1801 at the age of 72 without having returned to France.
Trivia
M. de Sartine was fond of his wigs, and during his lifetime, a type of wig was named after him.M. de Sartine was an educated man and an art lover. The books from his enormous library still appear on public sales now and then (for high prices), and can be recognised by the superb leather binding and the gold embossed coat of arms with the three sardines.
As a music lover, he gave permission, in 1764, to the young Mozart to give two concerts in Paris (exemptions on the privilege of the Theatres and the Opera had to be given by the Lieutenant-Général). The composer Jacques Duphly
Jacques Duphly
Jacques Duphly was a French harpsichordist and organist, and the composer of bright, lively, and attractive keyboard music.- Biography :...
named a harpsichord piece after M. De Sartine (Book IV).
On May 1, 1780, a British ship attacked the French unarmed ship "Sartine", with two cannon volleys, and the Sartine ran aground at the entrance to the old port of Marseille, hence the joke that a sardine blocked the port of Marseille.
In our times, M. De Sartine is a main character in a series of detective novels by Jean-François Parot.