Pierre Brûlart, marquis de Sillery

Pierre Brûlart, Marquis de Sillery, Viscount Puisieux, Baron Grand Pressigny (1583 – 22 April 1640) served Louis XIII as joint Minister of Foreign Affairs and War from 1617 to 1626.

Life

Pierre Brûlart was born in 1583, son of Nicolas Brûlart, marquis de Sillery, 1544–1624 and Claude Prudhomme. His father was Chancellor of France from 1607 to 1624.

He married in 1606 Magdalena de Neufville, granddaughter of Nicolas de Neufville, who was combined Secretary of State for War & Foreign Affairs from 1567 to 1588, and again since 1594. Also in 1606, he succeeded his wife's grandfather as Secretary of State for War, but Nicolas de Neufville retained the post of Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs until 1616.

In 1613, his first wife Magdalena de Neufville died childless; his second marriage was to Charlotte d'Estampes (ca. 1597–1677) in 1615. They had seven children who survived to adulthood; Charlotte 1619–1697, Roger Louis 1619–1691, Nicolas (died after 1677), Claude, Marie Eléonor (died 1687), Françoise and Eléonor Adam (died 1699).

As was then common, only Charlotte and Roger Louis married and the other five entered religious orders. Marie Eléonor became Abbess of the Benedictine convent founded at Avenay by Bertha of Val d'Or at the end of the sixth century CE. One of the most prestigious religious institutions in Champagne, this was testimony to the family's status; it was so popular, limits were placed on the numbers accepted.

He died in April 1640 and was buried in the Chapelle du Sacré-Cœur, built in Marines by his father.

Career In 1606, he succeeded Nicolas de Neufville, his wife's grandfather, as Secretary of State for War. When Nicolas de Neufville died in 1617, and after a short period when Cardinal Richelieu was minister, he succeeded them as Foreign Affairs, a post he held until 1626.

He was also sent to Spain in 1612, as Ambassadeur extraordinaire to arrange a royal wedding. As testimony of his activity as French ambassador in Spain, there is a mention in the text of the approval of the second part of Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes, signed by Francisco Márquez Torres (chaplain of the archbishop of Toledo, Bernardo de Sandoval y Rojas). The text briefly mentions his participation in the marriage agreement between the Spanish infanta (princess) Anne of Austria, daughter of King Philip III, and the French monarch Louis XIII.