| |
| An original strike, the following is how the dealer described the piece: |
| |
| Issued as one in a series of medals honoring great men
of France. Galle, sculptor. |
| Cretien Guillaume De Lamoignon De Malesherbes was the
French minister of state. After serving as counselor to the Parlement of
Paris, he succeeded (1750) his father as president of the Court of Aids
at Paris. His father, then chancellor of France, made him director of the
press, the chief censor. His liberal policy permitted the publication of
the Encyclopédie. Fearing royal absolutism, he opposed the dissolution
of the parlement in 1771 and was exiled to his country estate. On the accession
of Louis XVI (1774), Malesherbes was appointed secretary of state for the
royal household. His responsibilities included ecclesiastical affairs, the
administration of Paris and some provinces, and appointments at court. He
attempted to improve prison conditions and limit the use of lettres de cachet.
Malesherbes resigned (1776) after the failure of the reform program of his
friend A. R. J. Turgot. For the next 13 years he campaigned for the civil
rights of French Protestants and Jews. |
| Recalled in 1787, he was made minister without portfolio
but resigned the next year and retired from political life. In 1792, at
his own request, he was appointed a defender of Louis XVI in the king’s
trial. Malesherbes was soon afterward arrested and guillotined as a royalist
along with his daughter and grandchildren. |
