1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Phelypeaux

PHELYPEAUX, a French family of Blésois. Its two principal branches were those of the seigneurs of Herbault, La Vrillière and Saint Florentin, and of the counts of Pontchartrain and Maurepas. Raimond Phelypeaux, seigneur of Herbault and La Vrillière (d. 1629), was treasurer of the Épargne in 1599, and became secretary of state in 1621. His son Louis succeeded him in this latter office, and died in 1681. Balthazar Phelypeaux, marquis de Châteauneuf (d. 1700), and Louis, marquis de La Vrillière (d. 1725), respectively son and grandson of Louis, were also secretaries of state. Louis Phelypeaux (1705–1777), count of Saint Florentin and afterwards duke of La Vrillière (1770), succeeded his father as secretary of state, became minister of the king’s household in 1749, a minister of state in 1751, and discharged the functions of minister of foreign affairs on the disgrace of Choiseul (1770). He incurred great unpopularity by his abuse of lettres de cachet, and had to resign in 1775. Raimond Balthazar Phelypeaux, seigneur du Verger, a member of the La Vrillière branch, was sent as ambassador to Savoy in 1700, where he discovered the intrigues of the duke of Savoy, Victor Amadeus II., against France; and when war was declared he was kept a close prisoner by the duke (1703–1704). At the time of his death (1713) he was governor-general in the West Indies. The branch of Pontchartrain-Maurepas was founded by Paul Phelypeaux (1569–1621), brother of the first-mentioned Raimond; he became secretary of state in 1610.