Paul Duc de BEAUVILLIERS et Duc de SAINT-AIGNAN [Saint-Aignan-sur-Cher (41) 1648 - 1714]

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Paul Duc de BEAUVILLIERS et Duc de SAINT-AIGNAN [Saint-Aignan-sur-Cher (41) 1648 - 1714]
An important personality in the reign of Louis XIV - First First Gentleman of the King's Chamber, Louis XIV, who considered his piety and his life austere, appointed him Governor of his grandsons: the Duke of Burgundy, the Duke of Anjou then the Duke of Berry - On the death of Louvois he entered the Conseil d'En-Haut - He had married Colbert's daughter, was a friend of Fénelon and Saint-Simon. Letter written and signed in his own hand, 2 pages petit in-4, Versailles, March 23 [1704], to the Bishop of Alet [Charles-Nicolas Taffoureau de Fontaine / 1655-1708 / In the 1690s he had been the spiritual director of the Benedictine nuns of Montargis where the Duke of Beauvilliers had placed several of his daughters]. - A period note, from another hand, states: "Mr. the Duke of Beauvillier to Mr. the Bishop of Alet, on Mrs. his sons - the younger one turns to well - he speaks of piety - about 1704] - The transcription was made in modern spelling for a better understanding: "I made hold in Paris and MONTARGIS what you had the goodness to address to me for my children. One could not be more sensitive than I am to all that you are willing to do for them and whose continuation I insistently ask for, as well as your prayers for the younger of my sons who, thanks be to God, is turning to good effect; with regard to the elder, his dispositions are sustained and I have reason to hope that they will not change and that on the contrary they will be strengthened. I have been edified as I should have been by the humility and complete openness I found in the letter that preceded the one I have just received, and I am thus very much imbued with the sentiments that come to me in the latter and the abundance with which God favours your soul. I am not presumptuous enough to speak to you of the use that must be made of it, it is from you that I would learn it, Sir, if I were in a similar situation, and I would believe that it would be given to me rather to strengthen me in the decent work, in the destruction of so many faults that remain to me, than to simply taste its sweetness. Since my year of service still diminishes the little free time I had, I write to you less often than I would wish, I flatter myself that you are no less convinced of the truth with which I am your most humble and obedient servant. Madame de Beauvillier pays you many compliments".
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