Charles-Jean-François Hénault (8 February 1685 – 24 November 1770) was a French historian

Historian

A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human race; as well as the study of all history in time. If the individual is...

.

Early years

Hénault was born in Paris. His father, a farmer-general of taxes, was a man of literary tastes, and young Hénault obtained a good education at the Jesuit college. Captivated by the eloquence of Massillon, in his fifteenth year he entered the Oratory with the view of becoming a preacher but after two year's residence he changed his intention, and, inheriting a position which secured him access to the most select society of Paris, he achieved distinction at an early period by his gay, witty and graceful manners.

Career

Hénault's literary talent, manifested in the composition of various light poetical pieces, an opera, a tragedy (Cornélie, vestale, 1713), etc., obtained his entrance to the Academy

Académie française

L'Académie française , also called the French Academy, is the pre-eminent French learned body on matters pertaining to the French language. The Académie was officially established in 1635 by Cardinal Richelieu, the chief minister to King Louis XIII. Suppressed in 1793 during the French Revolution,...

 (1723). Petit-maître as he was, he had also serious capacity, for he became councillor of the parlement of Paris (1705), and in 1710 he was chosen president of the court of enquites. He also hosted the Club de l'Entresol

Club de l'Entresol

The Club de l'Entresol |Mezzanine]] Club) was a think-tank, club and discussion group founded in 1724 by Pierre-Joseph Alary and Charles-Irénée Castel de Saint-Pierre on the English model for free discussion of political and economic questions...

 (1724–1731) in his house on the Place Vendôme

Place Vendôme

Place Vendôme is a square in the 1st arrondissement of Paris, France, located to the north of the Tuileries Gardens and east of the Église de la Madeleine. It is the starting point of the Rue de la Paix. Its regular architecture by Jules Hardouin-Mansart and pedimented screens canted across the...

. After the death of the count de Rieux (son of the famous financier, Samuel Bernard

Samuel Bernard

Samuel Bernard , Count of Coubert , was a French financier.-Life:Of Dutch origin, Samuel Bernard was the son of the painter and engraver Samuel-Jacques Bernard...

) he became (1753) superintendent of the household of Queen Marie Leszczynska, whose intimate friendship he had previously enjoyed.

On Hénault'srecovery in his eightieth year from a dangerous malady (1765) he professed to have undergone religious conversion and retired into private life, devoting the remainder of his days to study and devotion. His religion was, however, according to the marquis d'Argenson, exempt from fanaticism, persecution, bitterness and intrigue; and it did not prevent him from continuing his friendship with Voltaire

Voltaire

François-Marie Arouet , better known by the pen name Voltaire , was a French Enlightenment writer, historian and philosopher famous for his wit and for his advocacy of civil liberties, including freedom of religion, free trade and separation of church and state...

, to whom it is said he had formerly rendered the service of saving the manuscript of La Henriade, when its author was about to commit it to the flames.

The literary work on which Hénault bestowed his chief attention was the Abrégé chronologique de l'histoire de France, first published in 1744 without the author's name. In the compass of two volumes he comprised the whole history of France from the earliest times to the death of Louis XIV

Louis XIV of France

Louis XIV , known as Louis the Great or the Sun King , was a Bourbon monarch who ruled as King of France and Navarre. His reign, from 1643 to his death in 1715, began at the age of four and lasted seventy-two years, three months, and eighteen days...

. The work has no originality. Hénault had kept his note-books of the history lectures at the Jesuit college, of which the substance was taken from Mézeray

François-Eudes de Mézeray

François Eudes de Mézeray was a French historian.He was born at Rye near Argentan, where his father was a surgeon.He had two brothers, one of whom, Jean-Eudes, was the founder of the order of the Eudists. François studied at the University of Caen, and completed his education at the College of Ste...

 and P Daniel. He revised them first in 1723, and later put them in the form of question and answer on the model of P le Ragois, and by following Dubos

Jean-Baptiste Dubos

Jean-Baptiste Dubos , also referred to as l'Abbé Du Bos, was a French author.-Life:He was born in Beauvais. After studying theology, he gave it up in favour of public law and politics. He was employed by M...

 and Boulainvilliers and with the aid of the abbé Boudot he compiled his Abrégé.

The research is all on the surface and is only borrowed. But the work had a prodigious success, and was translated into several languages, even into Chinese

Chinese language

The Chinese language is a language or language family consisting of varieties which are mutually intelligible to varying degrees. Originally the indigenous languages spoken by the Han Chinese in China, it forms one of the branches of Sino-Tibetan family of languages...

. This was due partly to Hénault's popularity and position, partly to the agreeable style which made the history readable. He inserted, according to the fashion of the period, moral and political reflections, which are always brief and generally as fresh and pleasing as they are just. A few masterly strokes reproduced the leading features of each age and the characters of its illustrious men; accurate chronological tables set forth the most interesting events in the history of each sovereign and the names of the great men who flourished during his reign; and interspersed throughout the work are occasional chapters on the social and civil state of the country at the close of each era in its history. Continuations of the work have been made at separate periods by Fantin des Odoards, by Anguis with notes by Walckenaer, and by Michaud

Joseph François Michaud

Joseph François Michaud was a French historian and publicist.He was born at Albens, Savoie, educated at Bourg-en-Bresse, and afterwards engaged in literary work at Lyon, where the French Revolution first aroused the strong dislike of revolutionary principles which manifested itself throughout the...

. He died at Paris on 24 November 1770.

Hénault's Mémoires have come down to us in two different versions, both claiming to be authentic. One was published in 1855 by M. du Vigan; the other was owned by the Comte de Coutades, who permitted Lucien Perey to give long extracts in his work on Président Hénault (Paris, 1893). The memoirs are fragmentary and disconnected, but contain interesting anecdotes and details concerning persons of note. See the of Grimm, of Madame de Deffand and of Voltaire; the notice by Walckenaer in the edition of the Abrégé; Sainte-Beuve

Charles Augustin Sainte-Beuve

Charles Augustin Sainte-Beuve was a literary critic and one of the major figures of French literary history.-Early years:...

, Causeries du lundi, vol. xi.; and the Origines de l'abrégé (Ann. Bulletin de la Société de l'histoire de France

Société de l'histoire de France

The Société de l'histoire de France was established on 21 December 1833 at the instigation of the French minister of Public Instruction, François Guizot, in order to contribute to the renewal of historical scholarship fuelled by a widespread interest in national history, typical of the Romantic...

, 1901). Also H Lion, Le Président Hénault (Paris, 1903).