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Claude Petiet letter

 Collection — Folder: 1
Call Number: MS P249

Overview

This collection consists of a single letter written by an amanuenses for Claude Petiet, the French Minister of War, regarding backpay for the gendarmes. Written on both sides of a single sheet, the letterhead states "Liberte Egalite" with a motif in the middle for the French Republic.

Dates

  • Creation: 3 Floreal V [April 22, 1797]

Creator

Conditions Governing Access

No access restrictions.

Conditions Governing Use

Spencer Library staff may determine use restrictions dependent on the physical condition of manuscript materials.

Biography of Claude Louis Petiet (1749-1806)

Claude Petiet was born at Châtillon-sur-Seine, Côte-d'Or, France in February 1749. He began his military career as a gendarme of the king and later became an army commissary. From 1774 until the beginning of the French Revolution, he was war commissary of Brittany.

During the Revolution, Petiet first served as a war commissary for the Army of the Sambre and Meuse, and then as war commisary for the Army of the Coasts of Brest, where he took command of Nantes to defend it from the Vendéens. He was defeated and taken prisoner, but the Vendéens released him.

In 1795, Petiet was elected to the Council of Ancients. He was then appointed Minister of War in 1796 and ousted out of power the following year in July, under suspicion of royalist sympathies. However, the people soon thereafter elected him to the Council of 500, and when Petiet supported Napoleon Bonaparte's seize of power, Bonaparte named him a Councillor of State. Petiet governed Lombardy from 1800 to 1802 and later served as an Indendent General at the camp of Boulogne. Petiet died in May 1806, a week after being named a senator. His name appears on the Arc de Triomphe on the north pillar.

[Information retrieved from Jensen, Nathan D., "Intendent General Claude Petiet," https://www.frenchempire.net/biographies/petiet/.]

Extent

1 folder ; Folder measures 22x37 cm.

Language of Materials

French

Physical Location

MS P249

Immediate Source of Acquisition

Purchase, Maggs Bros Rare Books, June 27, 1966.

Processing Information

Former SC temporary call number: MS (Box) 38:62.

Former temporary collection name: Collection of 19th c. letters: Miscellaneous group of mainly English letters: mostly 19th c, some 20th c, a few 18th c.

Title
Guide to the Claude Petiet Collection
Subtitle
Claude Petiet letter
Author
Finding aid prepared by alh, 1966; mwh, 2020. Finding aid encoded by mwh, 2020.
Date
2020-11
Description rules
Describing Archives: A Content Standard
Language of description
Finding aid written in English.
Finding aid permalink
http://hdl.handle.net/10407/4163822564
Preferred citation
Claude Petiet letter, MS P249, Kenneth Spencer Research Library, University of Kansas

Repository Details

Part of the University of Kansas. Kenneth Spencer Research Library Repository

Contact:
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