Malesherbes, Chrétien Guillaume de Lamoignon de (krātyăN` gēyōm` də lämwänyôN` də mälzĕrb`), 1721–94, 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 Encyclopédie (äNsēklôpādē`), the work of the French Encyclopedists, or philosophes.
..... Click the link for more information. . Fearing royal absolutism, he opposed the dissolution of the parlement parlement (pär`ləmənt, Fr.
..... Click the link for more information. 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 lettre de cachet (lĕ`trə də käshā`)
..... Click the link for more information. . Malesherbes resigned (1776) after the failure of the reform program of his friend A. R. J. Turgot Turgot, Anne Robert Jacques (än rōbĕr` zhäk türgō`)
..... Click the link for more information. . 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.

Bibliography

See biography by J. M. S. Allison (1938); study by E. P. Shaw (1966).

Malesherbes, Chrétien Guillaume de Lamoignon de

(born Dec. 6, 1721, Paris, France—died April 22, 1794, Paris) French royal administrator. A lawyer, he was made a counselor in the Parlement (high court) of Paris in 1744. As director of the press (1750–63), he allowed publication of many works by the philosophes, including Denis Diderot's Encyclopédie. In 1775 he became secretary of state for the royal household and instituted prison and legal reforms, including ending the misuse of lettres de cachet, and supported the economic reforms of the comptroller general, Anne-Robert-Jacques Turgot. He failed to win the king's support for his projects and resigned in 1776. In the French Revolution, he helped conduct the defense of Louis XVI (1792). He was arrested in 1793, tried for treason, and guillotined.