1553-1617
Jacques-Auguste de Thou was a historian and président à mortier of the Parlement de Paris (1595).
Conseiller d’État in 1588, he was one of architects of the rapprochement between Henri III and Henri de Navarre. He was appointed master of the royal library in 1593, and took part in the negotations and the drafting of the Edict of Nantes. As one who was close to both government officials and the king, de Thou was a privileged witness to his era, and he wrote Historiae sui temporis, in which he gives an account of the period between 1544 and 1607. It was very successful and was translated into French (London, 1734) despite being placed on the Index by the pope in 1609.