This book examines Etienne Pasquier's use of various genres: the dialogue, the published correspondence, and ecclesiastic history as well as his self-fashioning and his recognition by posterity for his efforts to protect the French state against threats both real and invented during the French Civil Wars of Religion.
Etienne Pasquier (1529-1615) was a renowned magistrate of the parliament of Paris, a poet, and a counselor to four French kings. This book examines his use of historical vignettes to counsel the king and to teach ethics during the French Civil Wars of Religion. An ethical focus permeates all of Pasquier's works, most notably his major opus, Les Recherches de la France, and his correspondence, which contains Pasquier's ideal self-portrait for emulation by other statesmen, lawyers, and his own sons.