Séguier, Pierre

Born May 29, 1588, in Paris; died Jan. 28, 1672, in Saint-Germain-en-Laye, near Paris. French chancellor from 1635 until his death, except for the periods 1650–51 and 1652–56. Count and peer from 1650.

Séguier was an absolutist. He brutally suppressed the revolt of the Va-nu-pieds in 1639 and directed the prosecution of the Marquis de Cinq-Mars and of F.-A. de Thou. Séguier assisted Richelieu in establishing the Aeadémie Française and became an academy member in 1635. A well-educated man, he was a devoted bibliophile and collector of manuscripts. He accumulated a valuable library of 4,000 manuscripts and 10,000 books. Some of the manuscripts and papers that Séguier collected as chancellor are in the M. E. Saltykov-Shchedrin State Public Library in Leningrad.