Jean-Jacques Lefranc, Marquis de Pompignan

Biography

Jean-Jacques Lefranc (also Le Franc), Marquis de Pompignan  was a French man of letters and erudition, who published a considerable output of theatrical work, poems, literary criticism, and polemics; treatises on archeology, nature, travel and many other subjects; and a wide selection of highly-regarded translations of the classics and other works from several European languages including English.

His life and career, as well as his literary and other works are noteworthy today because of their location at the very center of the French Enlightenment; and although some of the positions he took are also considered to have been formative contributions to the counter-Enlightenment tendencies that were being articulated in parallel, he remains, in many respects, the typical Enlightenment man.

The prolific volumes of literary works are now of academic interest only, mainly to flesh out aspects of the culture of the time, which embraced a period in which tensions that were to explode in the French Revolution five years after his death were still held in check. Lefranc is remembered today, if he is at all, as a consequence of the maiden speech he gave at the Académie française in 1760, which led to him becoming forever known and defined as "the enemy of Voltaire".

His library of some 25,000 volumes was sold after his death by his son, and became founding collections for no less than three learned institution in Toulouse.[1] He built a neo-classical chateau at Pompignan, and over a period of thirty-five years created one of the earliest and most extensive parcs à fabriques (or French landscape garden).

The chateau stands in good order today, and although the park and its follies have been neglected, the extensive hydrological system still functions. In May 2011 the decision was taken to route the planned Bordeaux-Toulouse TGV and high-speed freight rail lines through the center of the Lefranc's landscape park.

The Lefranc family were originally landlords of the Château de Cayx (or see Château de Caïx on French Wiki, which gives more detail), overlooking a bend on the Lot some 12 km northwest of Cahors. Successive Lefrancs had served since 1640 as hereditary presidents of the regional Cours des Aides, which was located in Cahors. When Louis XIV ordered the court to be moved to Montauban (some 60 km south of Cahors over difficult roads), during the presidency of Jacques Lefranc in the early years of the 18th century, the family built a town house in Montauban as their local residence. It still stands impressively today at 10 rue Armand Cambon (there is a Place Lefranc de Pompignan nearby). At the same time, lands were purchased at Pompignan (some 20 km to the southwest of Montauban) to provide a convenient rural retreat.

Jean-Jacques' father, Jacques Lefranc, was the third of the name to become president of the Cour des Aides, and he was to be followed by his eldest son and grandson. The family retained the seat at Cayx, and the beautifully sited old chateau was where Jean-Jacques and his brother were reared; as a young man he styled himself Lefranc de Caix. His mother, born Mademoiselle de Caulet, was of the same millieu, her father serving as a "president of the morter" - a judicial rank - at the Parlement de Toulouse, where Jean-Jacques was also to have a brief tenure.

His education was entrusted to " ... the most skillful masters at the Capital, where he found himself among the disciples of the celebrated Pere Poré. The student made rapid progress, and was not slow in showing proof of a talent as rare as it was precocious. After successfully completing his classical studies [at the Collège de Louis-le-Grand], he remained in Paris to attend the School of Law."[2] Voltaire, fifteen years older than Lefranc, attended this school from 1704 to 1711, and was also influenced by Pere Poré.

He joined the staff of the Cours des Aides in 1730, during the presidency of his uncle, the abbé Louis Lefranc, who had succeeded his brother, Jean-Jacques' father Jacques, on the death of the latter in 1719. When Louis died in 1745, Jean-Jacques, who had by then served for fifteen years as a general advocate at the court, although expected to succeed him in turn, was not yet old enough to be awarded the position, and had to wait until early 1747 to take over its presidency.[3]

The same year he was also appointed conseiller d'honneur of the Toulouse parlement, but his opposition to the abuses of the royal power, especially in the matter of taxation, brought him so much trouble that he resigned almost immediately.