Jean du Tillet

Jean du Tillet (died 2 October 1570) was a French nobleman, archivist and historian.

Life The was of the Gallican persuasion and held the lordship of La Bussière. Jean du Tillet was born in the early 16th century and inherited the lordship and the title sieur from his father, Elie du Tillet. He also took over the hereditary office of greffier civil (civil clerk) of the Parlement of Paris after his father retired in 1521. One of his brothers, Séraphin, disputed his right to the office of greffier in 1526. His younger brother Louis sheltered John Calvin in 1534 and was for a time Calvin's companion abroad, until Jean persuaded him to come home in 1538. He had another younger brother, also named Jean du Tillet, who later became bishop of Meaux. The two Jeans du Tillet were Renaissance humanists and frequent collaborators. The elder Jean was primarily an archivist interested in documents, while the younger Jean was more interested in manuscript collecting.

Those who described the French as being truly of German origin did them more honour than those who believed they were descended from the Trojans, since honour is due only to virtue. For no nation has suffered so little corruption of its morality, nor striven so mightily and for so long to maintain its freedom by arms, as the German nation.

Du Tillet argued that "Charlemagne belongs more to France than to Germany", and tried to show that the king of France was as much an emperor in fact as the Holy Roman Emperor. He traced the fief back to the Lombards and showed that it was not hereditary before the Capetians. On the whole, he sought to divorce French history from classical history and depict France as totally independent of Roman law and the Roman Empire.

He was familiar with the writings of Pierre Dubois.