Pierre d'Hozier, seigneur de la Garde (July 10, 1592 – December 1, 1660), was a French

genealogist Genealogy () is the study of families, family history, and the tracing of their lineages. Genealogists use oral interviews, historical records, genetic analysis, and other records to obtain information about a family and to demonstrate kinsh ...

Life

He was born in

Marseille Marseille ( , , ; also spelled in English as Marseilles; oc, Marselha ) is the prefecture of the French department of Bouches-du-Rhône and capital of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region. Situated in the camargue region of southern Franc ...

. He belonged to the household of the Marshal de Créqui and gave him aid in his genealogical investigations. In 1616 he entered upon some extensive researches into the genealogy of the noble families of the kingdom, in which work he was aided by his prodigious memory for dates, names and family relationships, as well as by his profound knowledge of

heraldry Heraldry is a discipline relating to the design, display and study of armorial bearings (known as armory), as well as related disciplines, such as vexillology, together with the study of ceremony, rank and pedigree. Armory, the best-known branch ...

. In 1634 he was appointed

historiographer Historiography is the study of the methods of historians in developing history as an academic discipline, and by extension is any body of historical work on a particular subject. The historiography of a specific topic covers how historians hav ...

and genealogist of France, and in 1641 of France, an officer corresponding nearly to the Garter king-of-arms in England. In 1643 he was employed to verify the claims to nobility of the pages and equerries of the king's household. He accumulated a large number of documents, but published comparatively little, his principal works being ''Recueil armorial des anciennes maisons de Bretagne'' (1638); ''Les noms, surnoms, qualitez, armes et blasons des chevaliers ct officiers de l'ordre du Saint-Esprit'' (1634); and the genealogies of the houses of La Rochefoucauld (1654), Bournonville (1657) and Amanze (1659).

Death and legacy

He died in

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

on 1 December 1660. At his death his collections comprised more than 150 volumes or portfolios of documents and papers relating to the genealogy of the principal families in France. Of his six sons, only two survived him. His eldest son, Louis Roger d'Hozier (1634–1708), succeeded him as , but became blind in 1675, and was obliged to surrender his office to his brother,

Charles René d'Hozier Charles is a masculine given name predominantly found in English and French speaking countries. It is from the French form ''Charles'' of the Proto-Germanic name (in runic alphabet) or ''*karilaz'' (in Latin alphabet), whose meaning was ...

References

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Hozier, Pierre d 17th-century French historians French genealogists 1592 births 1660 deaths Officers of arms French male non-fiction writers