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Encyclopedia Britannica - Main :: STE-SUS |
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SULLY, MAXIMILIEN DE BETHUNE , Duc DE (156o1641), French statesman, was born at the chateau of Rosny near Mantes, on the 13thof December 156o, of a noble family of Flemish descent. His father, Francois de Bethune, baron de Rosny, (1J32-1575), was the son of Jean de Bethune, to whom in 1529 his wife Anne de Me.lun brought as part of her dowry a seigneurie at Rosny-sur-Seine, which later (16o1) was made a marquisate. Brought up in the Reformed faith, Maximilien was presented to Henry of Navarre in 1571 and was. thenceforth attached to the future king of France. The young baron de Rosny was taken to Paris by his patron and was studying at the college of Bourgogne at the time of the massacre of St Bartholomew's Day, from which he escaped by discreetly carrying a book of hours under his arm. He then studied mathematics and history at the court of Henry of Navarre, and on the outbreak of civil war in 5575 he enlisted in the Protestant army. In 1576 he accompanied the duke of Anjou on an expedition into the Netherlands in order to regain the former Rosny estates, but being unsuccessful he attached himself for a time to the prince of Orange. Later rejoining Henry of Navarre in Guienne, he displayed bravery in the field and particular ability as an engineer. In 1583 he was Henry's special
interest
special
financial
commissioner
governor of Mantes and of Jargeau, captain-general of the queen's gens d'armes and governor of the Bastille; in 1604 governor of Poitou; and in 16o6 duke and peer of Sully, ranking next to princes of the blood. He declined the office of constable because he would not become a Roman Catholic. Sully encouraged agriculture, urged the free circulation of produce, promoted stock-raising, forbade the destruction of the forests, drained swamps, built roads and bridges, planned a vast system of canals and actually began the canal of Briare. He strengthened the French military establishment
marriage
The political role of Sully practically ended with the assassination of Henry IV. on the 14th of May 16ro. Although a member of the council of regency, his colleagues were not disposed to brook his domineering leadership, and after a stormydebate he resigned as superintendent of finances on the 26th of January 1611, and retired to private life. The queen-mother gave him 300,000 livres for his services and confirmed him in possession of his estates. He attended the estates-general in 1614, and on the whole was in sympathy with the policy and government of Richelieu. Ile disavowed the plots at La Rochelle, in 1621, but in the following year was arrested at Moulins, though soon released. The baton of marshal of France was conferred on him on the 18th of September 1634. The last years of his life were spent chiefly at Villebon, Rosny and Sully. He died at Villebon, on the 22nd of December 1641. By his first wife Sully had one son, Maximilien, marquis de Rosny (158.71634), who led a life of dissipation and debauchery. By his second wife, Rachel de Cochefilet, widow of the lord of Chateaupers, whom he married in 1592 and who turned Protestant to please him, he had nine children, of whom six died young, and one daughter married in 16os Henri de Rohan. Sully was not popular. He was hated by most Roman Catholics because he was a Protestant, by most Protestants because he was faithful to the king, and by all because he was a favourite, and selfish, obstinate and rude. He amassed a large personal fortune, and his jealousy of all other ministers and favourites was extravagant. Nevertheless he was an excellent man of business, inexorable in punishing malversation and dishonesty on the part of others, and opposed to the ruinous court expenditure which was the bane of almost all European monarchies in his day. He was gifted with executive ability, with confidence and resolution, with fondness for work, and above all with deep devotion to his master. He was implicitly trusted by Henry IV. and proved himself the most able assistant of the king in dispelling the chaos into which the religious and civil wars had plunged France. To Sully, next to Henry IV., belongs the credit for the happy transformation in France between 1598 and 16ro by which agriculture and commerce were benefited and foreign peace and internal order were maintained. Sully left a curious collection of memoirs written in the second person and bearing the quaint title, Memoires des sages et royales (economies d'estat, domestiques, politiques, et militaires de Henry le Grand, l'exemplaire des rays, le prince des vertus, des armes, et des loix, et le Pere en effet de ses peoples frangois; et des servitudes utiles, obissances convenables, et administrations loyales de Maxim. de Bethune, run des plus confidens, familiers, et utiles soldats et servite,urs du grand Mars des Francois: dediees a la France, a tons les bons soldats, et tous peoples frangois. The memoirs are very valuable for the history of the time and as an autobiography cf Sully, in-spite of the fact that they contain many fictions, such as a mission under-taken by Sully to Queen Elizabeth in 1601, and the famous" Grand Design," a plan for a Christian republic, which some historians have taken seriously. Two folio volumes of the memoirs were splendidly printed, nominally at Amsterdam, but really under Sully's own eye, at his chateau in 1638; two other volumes appeared posthumously in Paris in 1662. The abbe de 1'Ecluse rewrote the memoirs in ordinary narrative form and edited them in 1745. The best edition of the original
See E. Lavisse, Sully (Paris, 1880) ; L. Dussieux, Etude biographique sur Sully (Paris, 1887) ; G. Fagniez, Economie sociale de la France sous Henri IV. (Paris, 1897) ; B. L. H. Martin, Trois grands ministres, Sully, Richelieu et Colbert (Paris, 1898) ; E. Lavisse, ed. Histoire de France (Paris, 1905), vol. vi. ; P. Robiquet, Histoire municipals de Paris, vol. iii. Histoire de Henri IV. (Paris, 1904) ; E. Bonnal, L'Economie politique au X VI' siecle: Sully economiste (Paris, 1872) ; J. Gourdault, Sully et son temps (Tours, 18i3); T. Kfikelhaus, Der Ursprung des Planes vom ewigen Frieden in den Memoiren des Herzogs von Sully (Berlin, 1892); C. Pfister, " Les '(Economies royales' de Sully et le grand dessein de Henri IV." in Revue historique (1894), vols. liv.Ivi. ; Desclozeaux, " Gabrielle d'Estrees et Sully " in Revue historique (1887), vol. xxxiii. (C. H. HA). End of Article: SULLY, MAXIMILIEN DE BETHUNE If you wish, you can link directly to this article.
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