Lot 1294 , Pre-revolutionary France, 1677-1700, i. Louis XIV, King of France (1638-1715); order, signed Louis, to [François de Montlézun de] Besmaus, governor of the Bastille, Paris

Pre-revolutionary France, 1677-1700
i. Louis XIV, King of France (1638-1715); order, signed Louis, to [François de Montlézun de] Besmaus, governor of the Bastille, Paris; written at the camp before Cambrai, 12 April 1677 To fire the cannon of the Bastille on the day on which the Te Deum is to be sung at Notre Dame as part of the thanksgiving for the victory achieved by his brother the Duc d’Orleans [at Cassel on 11 April]; countersigned by [Jean-Baptiste] Colbert (1619-1683), First Minister of State.

The battle of Cassel took place during the Franco-Dutch war, and led to the surrender of Saint-Omer and Cambrai.

François de Montlézun de Besmaus (c1613-1697), a Gascon, was in 1649 appointed captain in the guards of Cardinal Mazarin, who in 1658 appointed him governor of the Bastille, a post he held until his death.

ii. Certificate of the arms of Louis de la Grée, seigneur de la Ferriere, with an illustration of the arms, issued by Charles d’Hozier, Keeper of the General Armory of France; Paris, 5 February 1700
Register 5, number 110

A Louis de la Grée, seigneur de la Ferriere, one of the men-at-arms of the king’s company, living on the Isle-de-la- Cité, Paris, married Madeleine Manjot, widow of Henri Fremin, advocate in Parliament, in 1662.

An Edict of 1696 declared that, for a coat of arms to be valid, it had to be registered with the King of Arms, for a fee naturally. As a consequence, 110,000 coats of arms were registered (of which 80,000 by non-nobles) by Charles d’Hozier, the King of Arms. The registers are still in the National Library. By 1709 registration of arms ceased altogether, and the Edict was ignored from then on.

The surname d’Hozier is often associated with the both the manuscript and printed versions of the Armorial général de France. The manuscript blazons and illustrations were done under the auspices of Charles-René d’Hozier (1640-1732), while the printed work was done by his nephew Louis-Pierre d’Hozier (1685-1767). They were the Judges of Arms appointed by the king to verify claims of nobility and decide issues regarding the use of arms.
£200-250

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