François Eudes de Mézeray (1610 – 10 July 1683) was a French

historian A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human species; as well as the ...

. Mézeray was born at Ri near

Argentan Argentan () is a commune and the seat of two cantons and of an arrondissement in the Orne department in northwestern France. As of 2019, Argentan is the third largest municipality by population in the Orne department.

, where his father was a surgeon. He had two brothers, one of whom, Jean-Eudes, was the founder of the order of the Eudists. François studied at the University of Caen, and completed his education at the College of Ste Barbe at

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

. His ''Histoire de France depuis Faramond jusqu'au règne de Louis le juste'' (3 vols., 1643–1651), is a fairly accurate summary of French and

Latin Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...

chronicle A chronicle (, from Greek ''chroniká'', from , ''chrónos'' – "time") is a historical account of events arranged in chronological order, as in a timeline. Typically, equal weight is given for historically important events and local events ...

s. Mézeray was appointed to a committee that supervised '' La Gazette''. Mézeray won the favor of Pierre Séguier and was given the title "Historiographer to the King of France". In 1649, on the death of

Vincent Voiture Vincent Voiture (; 24 February 1597 – 26 May 1648), French Mannerist and Baroque '' Précieuses'' poet and writer of prose, was the son of a rich wine merchant of Amiens. He was introduced by a schoolfellow, the count Claude d'Avaux, to Gast ...

, he was admitted to the

Académie française An academy (Attic Greek: Ἀκαδήμεια; Koine Greek Ἀκαδημία) is an institution of tertiary education. The name traces back to Plato's school of philosophy, founded approximately 386 BC at Akademia, a sanctuary of Athena, the go ...

. His ''Abrégé chronologique'' (3 vols., 1667–1668) went through fifteen editions between 1668 and 1717; and he used it to attack the financiers, with the result that his salary as historiographer was diminished by Colbert. Mézeray succeeded Valentin Conrart as permanent secretary to the Académie française (1675), and died at Paris. He translated

Grotius Hugo Grotius ( ; 10 April 1583 – 28 August 1645), also known as Hugo de Groot () or Huig de Groot (), was a Dutch humanist, diplomat, lawyer, theologian, jurist, statesman, poet and playwright. A teenage prodigy, he was born in Delft an ...

's ''Traité de la religion chretienne'' (1640), and a ''Histoire des Turcs depuis 1612 jusqu'en 1649'' (1650), which is an addition to a continuation of Laonikos Chalkokondyles.

References

* Daniel de Larroque, ''Vie de François-Eudes de Mezeray'' (1720); vol. xiii. of ''Causeries du lundi'' by Sainte-Beuve * Levasseur's ''Notice sur les trois frères: Jean-Eudes, François-Eudes, et Charles-Eudes'' (1855). * {{DEFAULTSORT:Mezeray, Francois Eudes de 1610 births 1683 deaths University of Caen Normandy alumni Members of the Académie Française 17th-century French historians French male non-fiction writers People from Argentan