Chrétien-Guillaume de Lamoignon de Malesherbes
Date of Birth
December 6, 1721
Date of Death
April 22, 1794
About
Malesherbes, first president of the Cour des aides, directed the royal book trade from 1750 to 1763. Although responsible for regulating print, he protected some writers and enabled the Encyclopédie to resume publication after its prohibition in 1752. As a minister under Louis XVI, he promoted reforms to taxation, criminal justice and civil status, and helped prepare the 1787 edict permitting non-Catholics to register marriages, births and deaths. In December 1792 he volunteered to join Tronchet and de Sèze in Louis XVI’s defence. Arrested a year later, he was convicted on accusations of conspiracy and executed on 22 April 1794.