François Sublet de Noyers
Encyclopedia
François Sublet de Noyers (1589–1645), one of Cardinal de Richelieu's political creatures, who derived his position and political weight from the Cardinal's consistent patronage, was a secretary of state to Louis XIII
, and a member of his Conseil du Roi
. He was a knowledgeable patron of arts.
Sublet de Noyers held the posts of intendant des finances, then of Secretary of war, reorganizing the army in Picardie and Champagne, an example of the developing tradition of professional administrators in the kingdom. He was superintendent of the Bâtiments du Roi
, charged with overseeing all constructions undertaken on the part of the Crown, and a patron consequently of public art, but also a private patron.
with the sons of Jean Sublet, two of whom were ennobled towards the end of the reign of Charles IX
. At the end of the 16th century the family found itself established in the Marais
quarter of Paris and in Normandy, where the demesne of Noyers lay in the baillage of Gisors
.
François Sublet de Noyers was the early protegé of his uncle, Jean Bochart, president of the parlement de Paris and surintendant des finances, who paved his nephew's way in the Conseil des finances. François was the effective head of the family upon the retirement of his father to the Carthusian monastery of Paris. In 1613 he married Isabelle Le Sueur, daughter of a maître des comptes, who brought him a solid dowry and further connections with the noblesse de robe.
Distant relations of the Bochart de Champigny family with Richelieu placed François in the Cardinal's orbit, under the high patronage of Queen Marie de Medici and the prince de Condé
. At the beginning of the 1630s Richelieu placed him in supervision of the armies of Champagne
and Picardy
in which post Sublet de Noyers distinguished himself in particular with the fortifications undertaken under his surveillance, and he gained useful field experience.
With the sudden death of his wife he entered upon an austere private life that his detractors attributed to his having taken secret vows in the Society of Jesus
. Like others in Richelieu's immediate circle he did move in harmony with the Jesuits, as a member of the Confrérie des Messieurs de Paris. His funds financed the construction of the Jesuit novitiate in Paris.
At the time of his appointment as secretary of state for war to succeed Abel Servien
, forced out by court intrigue, he was 47 years old. From 1640 Sublet de Noyers and his rival Léon Bouthillier, comte de Chavigny
, secretary of state for foreign affairs
, were the closest political collaborators with Louis XIII and Richelieu, between whom Sublet de Noyers transmitted confidential information, interpreting the one to the other. As the minister responsible for carrying on the all but constant state of war from 1636 to 1643, war with Spain, peasant revolts in the provinces, the opening stages of the Fronde
, Sublet de Noyers assumed a prominent position in the Conseil. The King, who considered him at first merely one of Richelieu's "lost souls", warmed to him by degrees, won over by his austere piety and his service to the party of the Dévots
; eventually Louis entrusted him with even the low duties of evicting from court the Cardinal's enemies, like Cinq-Mars.
His extensive modernizing of the French army
ranged to recruitment, provisioning, troop payments, lodging, the creation of military hospitals, put in place a reformed bureaucracy more directly dependent on royal will, but effected through a hierarchy of nepotism and patronage. He himself was constantly on the move, accompanying Richelieu and the King and visiting all the fronts of French involvement in the Thirty Years' War
in turn.
Sublet de Noyers, who had rendered himself indispensable, was made superintendent of the king's architectural projects, the Bâtiments du Roi
, in 1638. Here he employed the same systematized patronage, founded on kinship and acquaintance. His Fréart cousins, the brothers Fréart de Chambray
and Fréart de Chanteloup, played determining roles in the choices that directed official patronage in the arts and architecture. The royal projects were essentially confined to restoration and interior embellishments and the royal château of Fontainebleau
and the Palais du Louvre
. The churches of Paris and urbanistic projects
in the capital also required his attention. In retrospect the single most important official gesture made on his part was his insistence in 1640-41 that Nicolas Poussin
return from Rome to Paris. His other concerns included establishing a royal printing-press.
Sublet de Noyers' recent biographer, Camille Lefauconnier, estimates that at the height of his career he enjoyed an income of approximately 50,000 livres tournois
, from his official emoluments, from the rents on his properties in Normandy and in Paris, and the dowry of his late wife.
He divided his time among several residences, near the King at Fontainebleau, near the Cardinal at Rueil. In Paris his house was in rue Saint-Honoré, closer to his two masters than the old family accommodations in the Marais, which was beginning to lose its cachet. The house in rue Saint-Honoré was famed in its time for its sober elegance, which set him apart from his colleagues' more expansive and luxurious hôtels particuliers
In Normandy Sublet de Noyers abandoned by stages the château de Noyers constructed by his father to reside more and more during the 1640s at Dangu. This domaine was acquired in 1641 through an exchange forced upon the family of the duc de Montmorency, effected by his leverage as a creature of Richelieu. From a client of the Cardinal, he came to develop his own network of those who owed him favours, those whom he protected, those whose army commissions they owed to him, Above all he gained a reputation as a patron of the arts, gathering round him painters, sculptors and architects, the Intelligents, whose broad concerns were to impose a classical order upon French arts.
He was at the same time the protector of the religious establishment of France, headed by the Jesuits, with whose General at Rome he maintained a correspondence.
, for whose account he continued his place at the Bâtiments, where he was disappointed in his expectations of reimbursement. He retired a second time to Dangu where he died, 20 October 1645, surrounded by friends and relations.
In the new reign, his reputation was eclipsed by the careers of Louvois
and of Jean Baptiste Colbert. The Montmorency instituted proceeding to have Dangu returned to them, and in 1663 they were successful before the Parlement.
His branch of the Sublet family came to an abrupt end with the death in 1673 of his only son Guillaume, unmarried. His daughter Madeleine became a Carmelite nun. The cadet branch of the family, the Sublet d’Heudicourt made names for themselves in the wars of Louis XIV
.
Louis XIII of France
Louis XIII was a Bourbon monarch who ruled as King of France and of Navarre from 1610 to 1643.Louis was only eight years old when he succeeded his father. His mother, Marie de Medici, acted as regent during Louis' minority...
, and a member of his Conseil du Roi
Conseil du Roi
The Conseil du Roi or King's Council is a general term for the administrative and governmental apparatus around the king of France during the Ancien Régime designed to prepare his decisions and give him advice...
. He was a knowledgeable patron of arts.
Sublet de Noyers held the posts of intendant des finances, then of Secretary of war, reorganizing the army in Picardie and Champagne, an example of the developing tradition of professional administrators in the kingdom. He was superintendent of the Bâtiments du Roi
Bâtiments du Roi
The Bâtiments du Roi was a division of Department of the household of the Kings of France in France under the Ancien Régime. It was responsible for building works at the King's residences in and around Paris.-History:...
, charged with overseeing all constructions undertaken on the part of the Crown, and a patron consequently of public art, but also a private patron.
His career
He came from an aristocratic family with a history of service to the French monarchy and an unshakeable Catholic faith, that came to prominence at BloisBlois
Blois is the capital of Loir-et-Cher department in central France, situated on the banks of the lower river Loire between Orléans and Tours.-History:...
with the sons of Jean Sublet, two of whom were ennobled towards the end of the reign of Charles IX
Charles IX of France
Charles IX was King of France, ruling from 1560 until his death. His reign was dominated by the Wars of Religion. He is best known as king at the time of the St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre.-Childhood:...
. At the end of the 16th century the family found itself established in the Marais
Le Marais
Le Marais is a historic district in Paris, France. Long the aristocratic district of Paris, it hosts many outstanding buildings of historic and architectural importance...
quarter of Paris and in Normandy, where the demesne of Noyers lay in the baillage of Gisors
Gisors
Gisors is a commune in the metropolitan area of Paris, France. It is located northwest from the center of Paris.Gisors, together with the neighbouring communes of Trie-Château and Trie-la-Ville, form an urban area of 12,669 inhabitants...
.
François Sublet de Noyers was the early protegé of his uncle, Jean Bochart, president of the parlement de Paris and surintendant des finances, who paved his nephew's way in the Conseil des finances. François was the effective head of the family upon the retirement of his father to the Carthusian monastery of Paris. In 1613 he married Isabelle Le Sueur, daughter of a maître des comptes, who brought him a solid dowry and further connections with the noblesse de robe.
Distant relations of the Bochart de Champigny family with Richelieu placed François in the Cardinal's orbit, under the high patronage of Queen Marie de Medici and the prince de Condé
Henry II de Bourbon, prince de Condé
Henri de Bourbon became Prince of Condé shortly after his birth, following the death of his father Henri I...
. At the beginning of the 1630s Richelieu placed him in supervision of the armies of Champagne
Champagne (province)
The Champagne wine region is a historic province within the Champagne administrative province in the northeast of France. The area is best known for the production of the sparkling white wine that bears the region's name...
and Picardy
Picardy
This article is about the historical French province. For other uses, see Picardy .Picardy is a historical province of France, in the north of France...
in which post Sublet de Noyers distinguished himself in particular with the fortifications undertaken under his surveillance, and he gained useful field experience.
With the sudden death of his wife he entered upon an austere private life that his detractors attributed to his having taken secret vows in the Society of Jesus
Society of Jesus
The Society of Jesus is a Catholic male religious order that follows the teachings of the Catholic Church. The members are called Jesuits, and are also known colloquially as "God's Army" and as "The Company," these being references to founder Ignatius of Loyola's military background and a...
. Like others in Richelieu's immediate circle he did move in harmony with the Jesuits, as a member of the Confrérie des Messieurs de Paris. His funds financed the construction of the Jesuit novitiate in Paris.
At the time of his appointment as secretary of state for war to succeed Abel Servien
Abel Servien
Abel Servien, marquis de Sablé et de Boisdauphin, comte de Roche-Servien and comte de La Roche des Aubiers was a French diplomat who served Cardinal Mazarin and signed for the French at the Treaty of Westphalia...
, forced out by court intrigue, he was 47 years old. From 1640 Sublet de Noyers and his rival Léon Bouthillier, comte de Chavigny
Claude Bouthillier
Claude Bouthillier, Sieur de Fouilletourte , French statesman, began his professional life as an advocate. In 1613 he was councillor in the Parlement of Paris, and in 1619 became councillor of state and a secretary to the queen-mother, Marie de Medici.The connection of his father, Denis Bouthillier...
, secretary of state for foreign affairs
Minister of Foreign Affairs (France)
Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs ), is France's foreign affairs ministry, with the headquarters located on the Quai d'Orsay in Paris close to the National Assembly of France. The Minister of Foreign and European Affairs in the government of France is the cabinet minister responsible for...
, were the closest political collaborators with Louis XIII and Richelieu, between whom Sublet de Noyers transmitted confidential information, interpreting the one to the other. As the minister responsible for carrying on the all but constant state of war from 1636 to 1643, war with Spain, peasant revolts in the provinces, the opening stages of the Fronde
Fronde
The Fronde was a civil war in France, occurring in the midst of the Franco-Spanish War, which had begun in 1635. The word fronde means sling, which Parisian mobs used to smash the windows of supporters of Cardinal Mazarin....
, Sublet de Noyers assumed a prominent position in the Conseil. The King, who considered him at first merely one of Richelieu's "lost souls", warmed to him by degrees, won over by his austere piety and his service to the party of the Dévots
Dévots
Dévots was the name given in France in the first half of the 17th century to a party following a Catholic policy of opposition to the Protestants inside France, and alliance with the Catholic Austrian empire abroad....
; eventually Louis entrusted him with even the low duties of evicting from court the Cardinal's enemies, like Cinq-Mars.
His extensive modernizing of the French army
French Army
The French Army, officially the Armée de Terre , is the land-based and largest component of the French Armed Forces.As of 2010, the army employs 123,100 regulars, 18,350 part-time reservists and 7,700 Legionnaires. All soldiers are professionals, following the suspension of conscription, voted in...
ranged to recruitment, provisioning, troop payments, lodging, the creation of military hospitals, put in place a reformed bureaucracy more directly dependent on royal will, but effected through a hierarchy of nepotism and patronage. He himself was constantly on the move, accompanying Richelieu and the King and visiting all the fronts of French involvement in the Thirty Years' War
Thirty Years' War
The Thirty Years' War was fought primarily in what is now Germany, and at various points involved most countries in Europe. It was one of the most destructive conflicts in European history....
in turn.
Sublet de Noyers, who had rendered himself indispensable, was made superintendent of the king's architectural projects, the Bâtiments du Roi
Bâtiments du Roi
The Bâtiments du Roi was a division of Department of the household of the Kings of France in France under the Ancien Régime. It was responsible for building works at the King's residences in and around Paris.-History:...
, in 1638. Here he employed the same systematized patronage, founded on kinship and acquaintance. His Fréart cousins, the brothers Fréart de Chambray
Fréart de Chambray
Roland Fréart, sieur de Chambray was a French theorist of architecture and the arts; though not a practitioner himself, his two major publications appeared at a moment when French architects were struggling to apply a new sense of discipline and order to the practice of building.-Biography:Fréart...
and Fréart de Chanteloup, played determining roles in the choices that directed official patronage in the arts and architecture. The royal projects were essentially confined to restoration and interior embellishments and the royal château of Fontainebleau
Château de Fontainebleau
The Palace of Fontainebleau, located 55 kilometres from the centre of Paris, is one of the largest French royal châteaux. The palace as it is today is the work of many French monarchs, building on an early 16th century structure of Francis I. The building is arranged around a series of courtyards...
and the Palais du Louvre
Palais du Louvre
The Louvre Palace , on the Right Bank of the Seine in Paris, is a former royal palace situated between the Tuileries Gardens and the church of Saint-Germain l'Auxerrois...
. The churches of Paris and urbanistic projects
Urbanism
Broadly, urbanism is a focus on cities and urban areas, their geography, economies, politics, social characteristics, as well as the effects on, and caused by, the built environment.-Philosophy:...
in the capital also required his attention. In retrospect the single most important official gesture made on his part was his insistence in 1640-41 that Nicolas Poussin
Nicolas Poussin
Nicolas Poussin was a French painter in the classical style. His work predominantly features clarity, logic, and order, and favors line over color. His work serves as an alternative to the dominant Baroque style of the 17th century...
return from Rome to Paris. His other concerns included establishing a royal printing-press.
Sublet de Noyers' recent biographer, Camille Lefauconnier, estimates that at the height of his career he enjoyed an income of approximately 50,000 livres tournois
Livre tournois
The livre tournois |pound]]) was:#one of numerous currencies used in France in the Middle Ages; and#a unit of account used in France in the Middle Ages and the early modern period.-Circulating currency:...
, from his official emoluments, from the rents on his properties in Normandy and in Paris, and the dowry of his late wife.
He divided his time among several residences, near the King at Fontainebleau, near the Cardinal at Rueil. In Paris his house was in rue Saint-Honoré, closer to his two masters than the old family accommodations in the Marais, which was beginning to lose its cachet. The house in rue Saint-Honoré was famed in its time for its sober elegance, which set him apart from his colleagues' more expansive and luxurious hôtels particuliers
Hôtel particulier
In French contexts an hôtel particulier is an urban "private house" of a grand sort. Whereas an ordinary maison was built as part of a row, sharing party walls with the houses on either side and directly fronting on a street, an hôtel particulier was often free-standing, and by the 18th century it...
In Normandy Sublet de Noyers abandoned by stages the château de Noyers constructed by his father to reside more and more during the 1640s at Dangu. This domaine was acquired in 1641 through an exchange forced upon the family of the duc de Montmorency, effected by his leverage as a creature of Richelieu. From a client of the Cardinal, he came to develop his own network of those who owed him favours, those whom he protected, those whose army commissions they owed to him, Above all he gained a reputation as a patron of the arts, gathering round him painters, sculptors and architects, the Intelligents, whose broad concerns were to impose a classical order upon French arts.
He was at the same time the protector of the religious establishment of France, headed by the Jesuits, with whose General at Rome he maintained a correspondence.
His disgrace
At the apogee of his power in 1642, Richelieu died. The King was unable to resist the cabal of Sublet de Noyers detractors, led by Chavigny and Cardinal Mazarin. He requested leave from court and departed precipitously in April 1643. The death of Louis XIII soon afterwards gave him some hopes of returning, with the favour of Anne of AustriaAnne of Austria
Anne of Austria was Queen consort of France and Navarre, regent for her son, Louis XIV of France, and a Spanish Infanta by birth...
, for whose account he continued his place at the Bâtiments, where he was disappointed in his expectations of reimbursement. He retired a second time to Dangu where he died, 20 October 1645, surrounded by friends and relations.
In the new reign, his reputation was eclipsed by the careers of Louvois
Louvois
Louvois may refer to:* François-Michel le Tellier, Marquis de Louvois , French Secretary of State for War, commonly referred to as "Louvois"* Camille le Tellier de Louvois , French clergyman, son of the marquis...
and of Jean Baptiste Colbert. The Montmorency instituted proceeding to have Dangu returned to them, and in 1663 they were successful before the Parlement.
His branch of the Sublet family came to an abrupt end with the death in 1673 of his only son Guillaume, unmarried. His daughter Madeleine became a Carmelite nun. The cadet branch of the family, the Sublet d’Heudicourt made names for themselves in the wars 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...
.