The ''Trésor des chartes'' ("Charters treasury", la, Thesaurus chartarum et privilegiorum domini regis) are the ancient archives of the

French crown France was ruled by monarchs from the establishment of the Kingdom of West Francia in 843 until the end of the Second French Empire in 1870, with several interruptions. Classical French historiography usually regards Clovis I () as the firs ...

. They were spared during the

French Revolution The French Revolution ( ) was a period of radical political and societal change in France that began with the Estates General of 1789 and ended with the formation of the French Consulate in November 1799. Many of its ideas are considere ...

and are today stored at the Archives nationales (National Archives of France) in Paris, where they form the J and JJ series, totaling 422 ancient bound volumes (registers) and 1,020 boxes of loose records from the 10th to the late 18th century. The ''Trésor des chartes'' is not, however, the oldest series of records held by the Archives nationales, as that distinction goes to the so-called "Historic Monuments" series (series K and KK), an artificial series of historical records assembled after the French Revolution with archives seized during the French Revolution, in particular those of ancient abbeys and monasteries in the

Paris Region 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 ...

closed during the Revolution, which contained archives going as far back as the 7th century (archives of the

Abbey of Saint-Denis The Basilica of Saint-Denis (french: Basilique royale de Saint-Denis, links=no, now formally known as the ) is a large former medieval abbey church and present cathedral in the commune of Saint-Denis, a northern suburb of Paris. The building ...

in particular, necropolis of the kings and queens of France, founded by

Dagobert I Dagobert I ( la, Dagobertus; 605/603 – 19 January 639 AD) was the king of Austrasia (623–634), king of all the Franks (629–634), and king of Neustria and Burgundy (629–639). He has been described as the last king of the Merovingian dy ...

in the 7th century). The ''Trésor des Chartes'', in contrast to the "Historic Monuments", were strictly secular (lay) archives, and they have preserved their internal Medieval organization as they were not broken up and reordered in different series after the French Revolution, unlike what happened to the archives of the abbeys and monasteries of the Paris Region.

History

On 5 July 1194,

Philip II of France Philip II (21 August 1165 – 14 July 1223), byname Philip Augustus (french: Philippe Auguste), was King of France from 1180 to 1223. His predecessors had been known as kings of the Franks, but from 1190 onward, Philip became the first French ...

was defeated by

Richard I of England Richard I (8 September 1157 – 6 April 1199) was King of England from 1189 until his death in 1199. He also ruled as Duke of Normandy, Aquitaine and Gascony, Lord of Cyprus, and Count of Poitiers, Anjou, Maine, and Nantes, and was ...

at the

Battle of Fréteval The Battle of Fréteval, which took place on 3 July 1194, was a medieval battle, part of the ongoing fighting between Richard the Lionheart and Philip II of France that lasted from 1193 to Richard's death in April 1199. During the battle, the Angl ...

. Philip managed to flee but lost his archives, his treasury and the

Royal seal A seal is a device for making an impression in wax, clay, paper, or some other medium, including an embossment on paper, and is also the impression thus made. The original purpose was to authenticate a document, or to prevent interference with a ...

which were captured by Richard. After the battle, Philip was forced to re-establish the archives of the Kingdom, the registers and the domestic archives of the French crown and he entrusted

Grand Chamberlain A chamberlain (Medieval Latin: ''cambellanus'' or ''cambrerius'', with charge of treasury ''camerarius'') is a senior royal official in charge of managing a royal household. Historically, the chamberlain superintends the arrangement of domestic ...

with this mission which led to the creation of the ''Trésor des chartes'', the predecessor of what became the Archives Nationales during the

in 1790.''Histoire littéraire de la France''
Antoine Rivet de la Grange, François Clément, Charles Clémencet, Pierre Claude François, vol.17, suite du XIIIe siècle jusqu'à 1226, 1832, p. 214. After Gauthier's death in 1204,

Keeper of the Seals The title keeper of the seals or equivalent is used in several contexts, denoting the person entitled to keep and authorize use of the great seal of a given country. The title may or may not be linked to a particular cabinet or ministerial offi ...

Guérin was entrusted with this mission. From 1231, the documents were stored in the

Royal Palace This is a list of royal palaces, sorted by continent. Africa * Abdin Palace, Cairo * Al-Gawhara Palace, Cairo * Koubbeh Palace, Cairo * Tahra Palace, Cairo * Menelik Palace * Jubilee Palace * Guenete Leul Palace * Imperial Palace- Massa ...

in Paris. At the end of the reign of Saint Louis, the archives and, from around 1300, the registers of the Chancery were stored on the third floor of a Gothic building built on the side of the

Sainte-Chapelle The Sainte-Chapelle (; en, Holy Chapel) is a royal chapel in the Gothic style, within the medieval Palais de la Cité, the residence of the Kings of France until the 14th century, on the Île de la Cité in the River Seine in Paris, France. Co ...

, in the Capetian royal palace compound on the

Île de la Cité Île de la Cité (; English: City Island) is an island in the river Seine in the center of Paris. In the 4th century, it was the site of the fortress of the Roman governor. In 508, Clovis I, the first King of the Franks, established his palace ...

, above the

sacristy A sacristy, also known as a vestry or preparation room, is a room in Christian churches for the keeping of vestments (such as the alb and chasuble) and other church furnishings, sacred vessels, and parish records. The sacristy is usually located ...

of the Sainte-Chapelle, which occupied the 1st and 2nd floors of that building and contained the "treasure" of the Passion

relic In religion, a relic is an object or article of religious significance from the past. It usually consists of the physical remains of a saint or the personal effects of the saint or venerated person preserved for purposes of veneration as a tangi ...

s and some jewels. It was consequently called the ''Trésor des chartes'', the "Charters treasury", in

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...

''Thesaurus chartarum et privilegiorum domini regis''. The ''Trésor des chartes'' remained in that Gothic building until its demolition in 1783 to make way for the new neoclassical aisles of the Paris courthouse's formal entrance courtyard, at a time when Gothic architecture was looked down upon. The archives of

Philip IV of France Philip IV (April–June 1268 – 29 November 1314), called Philip the Fair (french: Philippe le Bel), was King of France from 1285 to 1314. By virtue of his marriage with Joan I of Navarre, he was also King of Navarre as Philip I from 12 ...

and of his three sons,

kings of France France was ruled by monarchs from the establishment of the Kingdom of West Francia in 843 until the end of the Second French Empire in 1870, with several interruptions. Classical French historiography usually regards Clovis I () as the first ...

Louis X Louis X may refer to: * Louis X of France, "the Quarreller" (1289–1316). * Louis X, Duke of Bavaria (1495–1545) * Louis I, Grand Duke of Hesse (1753–1830). * Louis Farrakhan (formerly Louis X), head of the Nation of Islam {{hndis ...

Philip V Philip V may refer to: * Philip V of Macedon (221–179 BC) * Philip V of France (1293–1322) * Philip II of Spain, also Philip V, Duke of Burgundy (1526–1598) * Philip V of Spain Philip V ( es, Felipe; 19 December 1683 – 9 July 1746) was ...

, and Charles IV represent almost a third of the preserved records. The chests that contained these archives were called ''layettes''. In 1615, Pierre Dupuy was commissioned by

Mathieu Molé Mathieu Molé (1584 – 3 January 1656) was a French statesman. Biography The son of Edouard Molé (d. 1614), who was for a time ''procureur-général'', he was educated at the University of Orléans. Admitted conseiller in 1606, he was ''pré ...

, first president of the ''

parlement A ''parlement'' (), under the French Ancien Régime, was a provincial appellate court of the Kingdom of France. In 1789, France had 13 parlements, the oldest and most important of which was the Parlement of Paris. While both the modern Fre ...

'' of Paris, to draw up an inventory of the documents of the ''Trésor des chartes''. This work occupied eleven years. His manuscript inventory is preserved in the original and in copy in the

Bibliothèque Nationale A library is a collection of materials, books or media that are accessible for use and not just for display purposes. A library provides physical (hard copies) or digital access (soft copies) materials, and may be a physical location or a vir ...

, and transcriptions are in the national archives in Paris, at the record office in London, and elsewhere.

History

References

See also