Monsieur le Grand’s Final Letter to His Mother — Written from Prison, September 1642
Just hours after being condemned to death on 12 September 1642, Henri Coiffier de Ruzé d’Effiat, Marquis de Cinq-Mars — the twenty-two-year-old favorite who once had three hundred pairs of boots, Gobelins tapestries worth a king’s ransom, and the entire court wrapped around his finger — sat down and wrote this to his mother, the Maréchale d’Effiat: He already knew he was never going to see her again.
Original French (from the manuscript):
Madame, ma tres chere et tres honorée mere,
Je vous escris, puisqu’il ne m’est plus permis d’esperer de vous voir, pour vous conjurer, madame, de me rendre deux marques de votre derniere bonté : l’une, madame, en donnant à mon ame le plus de prieres qu’il vous sera possible, ce qui sera pour mon salut ; et l’autre soit que vous obtenies du Roy le bien que j’ay emploié dans ma charge de grand ecuyer et ce que j’en pouvois avoir d’autre part, auparavant qu’il fust confisqué, ou, soit que cette grace ne vous soit pas acordée, que vous aiez assés de generosité pour satisfaire à mes creanciers. Tout ce qui depand de la fortune est si peu de chose que vous ne me devez pas refuser en la derniere suplication que je vous fais pour le repos de mon ame. Croiés moy, madame, en cela plus tost que vos santimans, s’ils repugnent à mon soubet, puisque, ne fesant plus un pas qui ne me conduise à la mort, je suis plus capable que qui que ce soit de juger de la valeur des choses du monde. Adieu, madame, et me pardonnés si je ne vous ay pas assez respectée autant que j’ay vescu, et vous assures que je meurs,
Madame, ma tres chere et tres honorée mere, votre tres humble, tres obeissant et tres obligé filz et serviteur,
H. D’EFFIAT DE CINQ MARS
Modern English translation:
Madame, my very dear and very honored mother,
I write to you, since it is no longer permitted for me to hope to see you, to beg you, madame, to grant me two last marks of your kindness: the first, madame, by giving my soul as many prayers as you possibly can — this will be for my salvation; and the second, either that you obtain from the King the property I used in my office of Grand Écuyer and whatever else I might have possessed before it was confiscated, or, if this grace is not granted to you, that you have enough generosity to satisfy my creditors. Everything that depends on fortune is so little a thing that you must not refuse me this last supplication I make to you for the repose of my soul. Believe me, madame, in this rather than your own feelings, if they go against my wish, for since I no longer take a single step that does not lead me to death, I am more capable than anyone of judging the true value of the things of this world. Adieu, madame, and forgive me if I have not respected you enough while I lived, and rest assured that I die,
Madame, my very dear and very honored mother, your very humble, very obedient and very obliged son and servant,
H. D’EFFIAT DE CINQ MARS
He even attached a little note listing some of the creditors (M. de Guénégaud, M. Catelan, etc.) — basically a medieval Venmo request from the scaffold: This is the same man Louis XIII once called “the most depraved and ungrateful creature” while complaining about his boot collection. Now he’s reduced to begging his mother to clean up his mess so his soul can rest in peace. 😌
(Attached to the letter was a separate note with the full creditor list — I’ll post that + the auction inventory next)
Source: Letter preserved in Bibl. nat., fonds fr. 3833, fol. 204 (original manuscript). Printed in Henri Lacaille, “La vente des biens de Cinq-Mars (avril 1643)”, Annuaire-Bulletin de la Société de l’histoire de France, 1893, pp. 239–240.
