Avant-propos

Conviction, Ambition and the Genesis of Sully's Économies royales

“…Pierre de l'Estoile, Benevent's uncle, reported in his diary entry of 20 February 1609 15 that he received a copy of the panegyric, and the court poet Franc,ois Malherbe on 16 April wrote a friend that he had seen a copy of it. 18 For Sully to have arranged the composition and publication of a piece praising his own services to Henry IV while the chance of his receiving succession to France's highest military office was still alive might have been only coincidence. But if one is aware that the only other time Sully had written and printed a work praising himself was when he sought to persuade Henry to make him his first minister, the likelihood of coincidence explaining the appearance of the panegyric to Sully diminishes.…”

“…To try to avoid offending Henry, Sully commissioned, about the same time as the panegyric to himself, a laudatory brief life of Henry IV. 18 It was circulated at court in manuscript by late January i6o9, 19 before the publication of the panegyric to himself. The brief life was not published until late February or early March, when Sully gave Carew a copy of it.…”