Henri-Charles de Beaumanoir, Marquis of Lavardin, (15 March 1644 – 29 August 1701) was a French soldier and Ambassador. Appointed Lieutenant general of Brittany in 1670 by Louis XIV, he faced the revolt of the Papier timbré in 1675. At the beginning of the troubles, he tried to restore order while delaying the entry of royal troops into the province, but he had to step aside as the situation deteriorated.
In 1687, in a context of intense diplomatic tensions between France and the Papacy, he was appointed extraordinary ambassador to Rome and was charged by the Sun King to oppose the withdrawal of the ambassadors' franchises by Pope Innocent XI. He then occupied the Farnese palace with several hundred men in arms and was excommunicated by the Pope. He was recalled at the beginning of 1689, shortly before the death of Innocent XI, because of the policy of appeasement practiced by Louis XIV.
Back in Brittany, the Marquis of Lavardin saw his functions as an officer of the king reduced by the rise of royal absolutism, but remained a leading figure in the province; he devoted the last years of his life to ensuring the recognition of the rights of the Admiralty of Brittany, threatened by the Admiral of France.
Biography
Family Henri-Charles de Beaumanoir was born on 15 March 1644 in Le Mans,Charles Henri de Beaumanoir (marquis of Lavardin, 1644–1701) into a powerful family of the Maine nobility: the Beaumanoirs of Lavardin. He was the descendant of Jean de Beaumanoir, the first marquis of Lavardin – from 1601 – and made marshal of France by Henri IV. His father, Henri II de Beaumanoir, marshal of the king's camps and armies, was killed in 1644The source gives 1641, but as the siege of Gravelines and the birth of Henri-Charles both took place in 1644, the correction is necessary. This date is corroborated by his funeral inscription. at the siege of Gravelines; his uncle, Philibert-Emmanuel de Beaumanoir, was bishop of Le Mans; finally, his mother, Marguerite-Renée de Rostaing – daughter of the marquis Charles de Rostaing -, was a close friend of Marie de Rabutin-Chantal, marquise of Sévigné
On 3 February 1667, Henri-Charles de Beaumanoir married Françoise de Luynes, daughter of Louis-Charles d'Albert de Luynes. His wife having died in 1670, he married Louise Anne de Noailles, daughter of Duke Anne de Noailles and sister of Cardinal de Noailles, on June 1, 1680. From his first marriage, he had an only daughter, Anne-Charlotte, who married Louis de La Châtre. From his second marriage he had a son, Henri, who was killed in 1703 at the battle of Speyerbach. This death marked the extinction of the male line of Beaumanoir of Lavardin, whose property and titles passed to René de Froulay de Tessé.
General Lieutenancy of Brittany
In 1670, the Marquis of Lavardin was appointed Lieutenant general of Brittany. Since the 16th century, the governor of the province had been assisted by two lieutenant-generals, one for the county of Nantes and the other for Lower and Upper Brittany.These designations refer to the historical regions of the province of Brittany and not to the Breton linguistic border which is currently in use. The Marquis of Lavardin was given the latter office and was therefore responsible for eight of the nine bishoprics of Brittany. His task was to replace the governor during his absences – a relatively common event – and to assist him in the administration of the province, particularly in military matters. The Marquis of Lavardin was himself assisted by two king's lieutenants, one for Lower Brittany and one for Upper Brittany. He succeeded the marshal de La Porte, who died in 1664, and his son, who retired to his estates in 1669. In the same year, the post of governor was filled after having been vacant since 1666: Charles d'Albert d'Ailly, Duke of Chaulnes, was the new holder. The third king's officer for the province was the Marquis de Rosmadec of Molac, lieutenant general for the bishopric of Nantes
The Duke of Chaulnes, by virtue of his functions, exercised the powers attached to the Admiralty of Brittany – distinct from the Admiralty of France -, endeavoured to extend them and behaved as a true Admiral of Brittany; when he acted in his absence, the Marquis of Lavardin enjoyed his prerogatives. In September 1669, even before he took up his official duties, the Duke of Chaulnes had regulated the enrolment of Breton sailors, and, at his request, the States of Brittany had created a commission to proceed with a naval armament of the coasts of Saint-Malo. In 1672, he fixed the salaries and vacations of the officers of the maritime jurisdiction and published an ordinance instituting a system of passports that the captains of the navy had to obtain from him. He then assumed responsibility for the maritime police and coastal security. The Marquis of Lavardin also took measures concerning the navy, even if they were less far-reaching; among the most important were: on November 20, 1674, the prohibition of seneschals, judges and officers from issuing pilot's letters – a navigation permit – on their own initiative; on November 8, 1677, the decree of an embargo on barley leaving the ports of Brittany; on July 16 and October 24, 1686, two ordinances regulating the repair of the guards' offices in the seven coastal bishoprics.
Mrs. de Sevigne was at that time a good friend of the Marquis of Lavardin, of whom she wrote in one of her letters to her daughter:And more precisely in his letter 145 written at Les Rochers, on 16 October 1675 . "He is the least low and cowardly courtier I have ever seen". Nevertheless, she stressed to her correspondent that she did not condone his humor or his lack of manners.
Revolts of the Papier Timbré
Between March and September 1675, the West of France experienced a series of uprisings linked to an increase in taxes, including that of stamped paper, required for authentic acts. Emotions were particularly high in Brittany, first in the towns, then in the countryside of Lower Brittany.
Riots in Rennes
At the beginning of April 1675, an antifiscal revolt broke out in Rennes; it was triggered by mimicry of similar events that had occurred in March in Bordeaux. On April 3, the first disturbances took place; on April 18, a great riot ransacked the tobacco and stamped paper offices and the repression of the popular emotion was carried out firmly by the son of the Marquis of Coëtlogon, governor of the city. On April 25, the crowd attacked and burned the Huguenot temple, because of the supposed religion of the local tax collectors; among the rioters were many schoolchildren. The irruption of Coëtlogon junior's cavalrymen, too late, did not prevent the attack and only two factious men were seized by the authorities. The crowd also attacked the prison, but Coëtlogon managed to rally the bourgeois militia to prevent access.
The Marquis of Lavardin entered Rennes in the meantime; after having taken the measure of events, he protested against the inaction of justice and gave formal notice to the parliament of Rennes to open proceedings against the two prisoners. Indeed, he considered that the rioters of April 25 were the same as those of April 18, with the notorious exception of the students, and that authority should therefore be shown. However, he refused indiscriminate repression and announced that his role was to "calm the disorder, appease the spirits, restore peace and tranquillity". One of the accused, a schoolboy, was released very quickly – he was only 14 years old – while the other, a baker, was kept in custody. On May 3, the arrival of the Duke of Chaulnes intensified the legal proceedings, as he was the bearer of orders from the king calling for the greatest severity against the rioters of April 18; three men injured during the disturbances were seized at Saint-Yves hospital.
Lavardin's analysis of the events in Rennes – together with other representatives of the nobility of Brittany – is that the Parliament, and more generally the men of law and the Nobility of the Robe, had adopted an approving passivity towards the city riots, because the Parliament viewed the rollback of the royal innovations in taxation with favour. This accusation was to be a major factor in the royal decision to exile the parliament of Brittany from Rennes. Lavardin's position is shared by a whole section of historiography - notably Claude Nières, Yvon Garlan, James B. Collins and John Hurt – but is rejected by Gauthier Aubert, who believes that the restraint of the parliamentarians is related to the lack of means to maintain order, and that the accusation against them is a means of exonerating the governor of the province and his deputies.
Takeover of Nantes On May 9, the king, by letters patent, revoked Sébastien de Rosmadec, governor of Nantes and lieutenant-general of the ninth bishopric of Brittany. On May 20, the Parlement of Rennes confirmed this recall and his replacement by the Marquis of Lavardin, described on the occasion as "experienced and capable". This relatively obscure disgrace – the Marquis of Molac had taken similar measures against the local rioters as the Coëtlogon in Rennes – can be explained by the fact that, unlike Lavardin, Molac did not oppose the slow judicial punishment of the Nantes factionalists; his inability to prevent the sequestration of Archbishop de La Vallière during the troubles may also have contributed to his replacement. Louis XIV, convinced of the extreme seriousness of the Breton revolt, took strong measures: on May 8, he asked for 600 men of the royal maréchaussée to be sent to Brittany; on the same day, Louvois promised Chaulnes a regiment of the Crown, i.e. 800 men, which would bring the number of troops stationed in the province to some 1,500, a not inconsiderable number given that France was in the midst of the Dutch war. The Duke of Chaulnes and the Marquis of Lavardin then began a tight game: On the one hand, by demonstrating the threat of intervention by royal troops, they sought to bring the towns and notables back to obedience, and on the other hand, they hoped that a rapid return to calm would make it possible to avoid – or at least shorten – the entry of the royals into Brittany, in order to protect the province from the complications that would result from it – accommodation for the soldiers, subsistence costs for the troops, exactions by the soldiery, etc.