Gaston du Fresne de Beaucourt
Gaston du Fresne, marquis de Beaucourt (7 June 1833 – 22 August 1902) was a French historian. He created or contributed to the creation of several learned organizations and periodicals of Catholic inspiration.
Biography
Gaston du Fresne de Beaucourt was born in Paris, the son of Edmond du Fresne de Beaucourt, officer, and Emma Estièvre de Trémauville. Of Picardy origin (Amiens), his paternal family is the same as that of the 17th century scholar, Charles du Fresne du Cange. It was ennobled by the death in office of Alexandre Dufresne (1692–1763), counselor-secretary of the King in the Grand Chancellery, father of Charles du Fresne, maintained noble by letters patent of May 7, 1785. By his mother side of the family Gaston de Beaucourt was the great grandson of Bon-Albert Briois de Beaumetz, president of the Provincial Council of Artois, deputy to the Constituent Assembly, and the descendant of the banker Georges-Tobie de Thellusson.
Gaston de Beaucourt attended courses at the School of Charters as an auditor. His research as a historian, focused, in large part, on the time of King Charles VII, to whose life he devoted a History in six volumes, his main work. This publication followed a dispute with Henri Martin, whose bias of denigration towards Charles VII he did not accept.
The six volumes of this work were published over a period of ten years and earned him the Gobert Prize twice from the Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres.
In 1868, he created the Bibliographical Society, which began, in February 1868, the publication of the journal Polybiblion, a universal bibliographical review of Christian inspiration, reporting on works of all kinds published in the whole world. The aim of this review was "to unite Science and Faith in a common accord", to "propagate Faith through Science".
The Polybiblion review published every year two (from 1868 to 1874) and then three (from 1874 to 1899) volumes containing several hundred pages each, two for the literary part, one for the technical part. The literary part included the novels, tales and short stories published during the year with a critical study for each. The technical part included Theology, Jurisprudence, Sciences and Arts, Belles-Lettres, History, French and foreign periodicals. Each article was signed and a table of authors appeared at the end of each volume.
Polybiblion survived its creator for a long time, publishing a total of 195 volumes, until 1939. The first sixteen years of publication are available on Gallica.
In 1878, the Bibliographical Society merged with the Society of Popular Publications, created by the Viscount of Melun and the Count of Moustier, which encouraged its development.
In 1866, he founded the Revue des questions historiques, which attracted the publications of many other scholars. He directed it until his death. Gaston de Beaucourt created or contributed to the creation, in 1890, of the Society of Contemporary History, of which he was vice-president.
He periodically organized Conferences of Historical Studies, Priestly Libraries and International Bibliographic Congresses. During the year 1882, he was president of the Society of the History of France. In 1883, the Society of the History of Normandy conferred upon him the title of honorary president.[1]
He was a member of the Society of Antiquaries of Picardy, the Society of Antiquaries of Normandy, the Norman Association, the Diplomatic History Society.
A legitimist, under the Second Empire he belonged to the service of honor of the Count of Chambord[2] and published, after the war of 1870, two works, widely distributed, in favor of the same claim to the throne of France.
He was the first Marquis de Beaucourt.
Private life
Gaston de Beaucourt married Edith Cardon de Montigny (1835–1906), daughter of Jules Cardon, baron of Montigny, magistrate and deputy, and Stéphanie Asselin de Villequier, in Saint-Léger-de-Rôtes (Eure) on August 30 and 31, 1854. She brought him the castle of La Mésangère.
From this marriage came:
- Edmond du Fresne de Beaucourt (1855–1924), Saint-Cyrien, battalion commander, knight of the Legion of Honor, married in 1881 to Louise Arnois de Captot, without posterity
- Louis du Fresne de Beaucourt (1856–1920), married in 1886 to Bérangère de Bosredont, with one childless daughter
- Henri du Fresne de Beaucourt (1858-1915); Jesuit priest
- Jean du Fresne de Beaucourt (1860–1884)
- Emma du Fresne de Beaucourt (1862–1875)
- Élisabeth du Fresne de Beaucourt (1864–1925); nun
- Charles du Fresne de Beaucourt (1868–1904); priest
Works
- Le Règne de Charles VII d'après M. Henri Martin et d'après les sources contemporaines (1856)
- Un dernier mot à M. Henri Martin (1857)
- Charles VII et Louis XI d'après Thomas Basin (1860)
- Étude sur Madame Elisabeth d'après sa correspondance, suivie de lettres inédites et autres documents (1864)
- Notice généalogique sur la Famille du Fresne (1865; work published without the author's name)
- Le Caractère de Louis XV (1867)
- Colbert d'après sa correspondance (1869)
- Les Chartier, Recherches sur Guillaume, Alain et Jean Chartier (1869)
- Etude critique sur les lettres de Madame Elisabeth (1869)
- A tous les hommes de bonne foi, Monarchie et République (1871)
- Henri V et la Monarchie traditionnelle (1871; work published without the author's name)
- Lettre à M. Henri Martin (1871)
- Chronique de Mathieu d'Escouchy (1873–1874; 3 volumes)
- Histoire de Charles VII (1881–1891; 6 volumes)
- Captivité et derniers moments de Louis XVI, récits originaux et documents officiels (1892; 2 volumes)
- Lettres de Marie-Antoinette, Recueil des lettres authentiques de la Reine (1895–1896; with Maxime de La Rocheterie; 2 volumes)
Notes
- ↑ "Le Marquis de Beaucourt," Bulletin de la Société de l'Histoire de Normandie (1903), pp. 360–63.
- ↑ Belleval, René de (1895). Souvenirs de ma jeunesse. Paris: Librairie Emile Lechevalier, p. 130.
