Noël Valois 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...

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The grandson of sculptor Achille Valois

Achille Valois

Achille-Joseph-Étienne Valois was a French designer and sculptor who studied for a time in the atelier of Jacques-Louis David and whose sculptural works may be seen in Paris. Among his early works is the Fontaine de Léda in Fontainebleau style re-sited in the Jardin du Luxembourg...

, Valois studied at the Lycée Louis-le-Grand

Lycée Louis-le-Grand

The Lycée Louis-le-Grand is a public secondary school located in Paris, widely regarded as one of the most rigorous in France. Formerly known as the Collège de Clermont, it was named in king Louis XIV of France's honor after he visited the school and offered his patronage.It offers both a...

. He then entered the École Nationale des Chartes

École Nationale des Chartes

The École Nationale des Chartes is a grand établissement, an elite French university-level educational institution based in Paris. It provides education and training for archivists and librarians and forms part of the University of Paris.-History:...

 in 1875, where he presented his thesis on William of Auvergne in 1879. He then joined the National Archives

Archives nationales (France)

The Archives nationales preserve the national archives of the French state, apart from the archives of the Ministry of Defence and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, as these two ministries have their own archive services, the Service historique de la défense and the Archives diplomatiques...

 in 1881.

The Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres

Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres

The Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres is a French learned society devoted to the humanities, founded in February 1663 as one of the five academies of the Institut de France.-History:...

 awarded him with the prix Gobert for the publication of his work on the Council of State under Henry IV

Henry IV of France

Henry IV , Henri-Quatre, was King of France from 1589 to 1610 and King of Navarre from 1572 to 1610. He was the first monarch of the Bourbon branch of the Capetian dynasty in France....

 in 1889. On 28 October 1893, he resigned from his post at the Archives National to devote himself to his research. Specializing in the study of the Western Schism

Western Schism

The Western Schism or Papal Schism was a split within the Catholic Church from 1378 to 1417. Two men simultaneously claimed to be the true pope. Driven by politics rather than any theological disagreement, the schism was ended by the Council of Constance . The simultaneous claims to the papal chair...

, historians realized thanks to him that the period of the papacy in the 14th century could be only studied by comparing the Avignon records with those of the Vatican.

Valois was elected to the Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres on 23 May 1902 in replacement of Jules Girard. He went on to chair the Académie and the Institut de France in 1913. He was a corresponding member of the academies of Bologna and Munich.

Works

• Guillaume d'Auvergne, évêque de Paris, 1228-1249 : sa vie et ses ouvrages, 1880.
• Étude sur le rythme des bulles pontificales, 1881.
• Cartulaires de l'abbaye de Notre-Dame-des-Prés de Douai, 1881.
• La Revanche des frères Braque : notes sur la révolution parisienne de 1356-58, Mémoires de la Société de l'histoire de Paris et de l'Île-de-France, 1883.
• Inventaire des arrêts du Conseil d'État (règne de Henri IV), 1886-1893.
• Le Gouvernement représentatif en France au XIV^e siècle, 1885.
• Étude sur le Conseil du Roi pendant la captivité de Jean le Bon, 1885.
• Le Conseil de raison de 1597, 1885.
• Étude historique sur le Conseil du Roi, 1886.
• Le Privilège de Châlo-Saint-Mars, 1887, online
• Le Rôle de Charles V au début du Grand Schisme (1378), Paris, 1887.
• Le Conseil du roi aux XIV^e, XV^e et XVI^e siècles, Paris, 1888.
• Raymond de Turenne et les papes d'Avignon (1386–1408), Annales du Bulletin de la Société d'Histoire de France, 1889.
• L'élection d'Urbain VI et les origines du Grand Schisme d'Occident, 1890.
• Louis I^er, duc d'Anjou et le Grand Schisme d'Occident (1378-1380), 1892.
• Une ambassade allemande à Paris en 1381, 1892.
• Le Projet de mariage entre Louis de France et Catherine de Hongrie et le voyage de l'empereur Charles IV à Paris, Bulletin de la Société d'Histoire de France, 1893.
• La Situation de l'Église au mois d'octobre 1378, Mélanges Julien Havet, 1895.
• Un poème de circonstance composé par un clerc de l'Université de Paris (1381), 1895.
• La France et le Grand Schisme d'Occident, T. I et II, Paris, 1896-1901.
• La prolongation du Grand Schisme d'Occident au XV^e siècle dans le midi de la France, pp. 163-175., 1899.
• Jeanne d'Arc et la prophétie de Marie Robine, Mélanges offerts à P. Fabre, 1902.
• Histoire de la pragmatique sanction de Bourges sous Charles VII, 1906.
• Un nouveau témoignage sur Jeanne d'Arc, Bulletin de la Société de l'Histoire de France, 1907.
• La Crise religieuse du XV^e siècle : Le pape et le concile (1418-1450), 1909.
• Encyclopædia Britannica (XI^e édition), 1911. "Basel, Confession of," "Benedict XIII. (anti-pope)," etc.
• Le Procès de Gilles de Rais, 1913.
• Vassy, 1914.