Charles-Augustin de Ferriol d'Argental

Charles-Augustin de Ferriol d'Argental (20 December 1700 – 5 January 1788), was a French lawyer and diplomat, particularly remembered as a lifelong friend of Voltaire.

Family His father was Augustin-Antoine de Ferriol (1653-1736 or 1737), comte d'Argental, président à mortier of the parlement of Metz and brother of Charles de Ferriol d'Argental, French ambassador to the Sublime Porte. His mother was Marie-Angélique de Tencin, sister of cardinal Pierre Guérin de Tencin and Claudine Guérin de Tencin, mother of d'Alembert. His brother was the dramatic writer :fr:Antoine de Ferriol de Pont-de-Veyle. He and Pont-de-Veyle were brought up with Charlotte Aïssé, bought as a child by their uncle Charles de Ferriol d'Argental. In 1737 Charles-Augustin married Jeanne-Grâce Bosc du Bouchet (d.1774). He was nicknamed 'goussaut' ('sturdy horse') within his family. On the death of his aunt in 1760, he inherited the title baron Saint-Martin-de-Ré.

Career D'Argental passed his bar exams in 1719 and became an advocate in the Parlement of Paris in 1721. He was offered the post of intendant of Saint-Domingue in 1738, but turned it down; he did however accept the post of Minister Plenipotentiary to France of the Duchy of Parma and Piacenza from 1759 to 1788. During the disputes between Louis XV and the Parlement in the 1750s, he was more inclined to the side of the Crown than of those seeking greater independence for the Parlement. Voltaire's first letter to him was written in 1724 and after this they corresponded frequently - more than 1,200 from Voltaire to d'Argental have survived, though d'Argental wrote much less often, and never visited Voltaire in Ferney.

As well as helping Voltaire in theatrical matters, d’Argental was his indispensable organiser in the campaigns against injustice in the 1760s - the Calas, de la Barre and Sirven Affairs. His close connections with the court and in particular with the Foreign Minister Choiseul were especially useful in these cases. As was normal at the time for actors, Lecouvreur was denied a proper Christian burial when she died and her body was disposed of in unconsecrated ground. In 1786, fifty-six years after her death, d'Argental managed to locate her burial place at what is new 115 rue de la Grenelle in Paris. He placed there a marble tablet with a poem to her that he had written.

Work It is believed by some scholars that d'Argental was the true author of the :fr:Mémoires du comte de Comminge (1735) which was published by his aunt, Mme de Tencin. However Voltaire confirmed that d'Argental himself never claimed to have been the author.

Death D'Argental died in 1788 after contracting a fever, which lasted only a few days.