François Auguste de Thou

The Execution of Cinq-Mars and de Thou.

François-Auguste de Thou (c. 1607 - 12 September 1642) was a French magistrate.

He was born in Paris, the eldest son of Jacques-Auguste de Thou. He was a councillor to the parliament of Paris in 1626 and a conseiller d'État shortly afterwards. He was unwise enough to link himself to cardinal Richelieu's enemies. His guilty deed between Anne of Austria and Marie de Rohan was pardoned, but he fell in the conspiracy between Spain and Cinq-Mars, king Louis XIII's favourite. For not revealing what he knew of the conspiracy, his silence was taken as proof of guilt and he was beheaded at Lyon on the same day as Cinq-Mars on Richelieu's orders.[1]

He was a manuscript collector, to his collection belonged Minuscule 601 (Gregory-Aland).

A famous 19th century historical painting by Paul Delaroche shows Cardinal Richelieu in a gorgeous barge, preceding the boat carrying De Thou and Cinq-Mars to their execution.

Notes

  1. Encyclopédie Larousse du XXe sicèle, Paris, 1932
This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 5/29/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.