Live auction - fjt_1039408 - LYONNAIS (GOUVERNEURS DU...) Jean-Baptiste Petit-Mortier, secrétaire du gouverneur de Lyon n.d.

LYONNAIS (GOVERNORS OF)

The governments, military and political divisions of the kingdom were twelve in number in the 16th century, they were thirty-nine in 1776, of which eighteen were first class (Picardy, Flanders, Normandy, Lorraine, Burgundy, etc.) and twenty-one second class (Boulonnais, Artois, Berry, Auvergne, etc.). The governors, important figures during the Wars of Religion and sometimes dangerous rivals of power, saw their powers diminished by royalty, in particular by Henri IV or by Richelieu. Louis XIV reduced their exercise to three years and left them only honors, while the intendants exercised the reality of power in the field. The governments nevertheless continued to be transmitted in the great families: Condé in Burgundy, Luxembourg in Normandy, etc..