LA CHALOTAIS, LOUIS RENE DE CARADEUC DE (1701-1785), French jurist, was born at Rennes, on March 6, 1701. He was for 6o years procureur general at the parlement of Brittany. He was an ardent opponent of the Jesuits and drew up in 1761 for the parlement a memoir on the constitutions of the Order, which did much to secure its suppression in France. The year 1763 began the conflict between the Estates of Brittany and the governor of the province, the duc d'Aiguillon (q.v.). The Estates refused to vote the extraordinary imposts demanded by the governor in the name of the king. La Chalotais was the per sonal enemy of d'Aiguillon, and he took the lead in its opposi tion. The parlement forbade by decrees the levy of imposts to which the Estates had not consented. The king annulling these decrees, all the members of the parlement but twelve resigned (Oct. 1764 to May 1765). The government considered La Cha lotais one of the authors of this affair. La Chalotais, his son and four other members of the parlement were arrested on a charge of writing insulting anonymous letters to the governor of the province. On Nov. 16, 1765, a commission of judges was named
to take charge of the trial.
La Chalotais was exiled, but after a long conflict, was recalled in 1775, and was allowed to transmit his office to his son. The opposition to the royal power gained largely through this affair, and it may be regarded as one of the preludes to the revolution of 1789. La Chalotais died at Rennes on July 12, 1785.
See, besides the Comptes-Rendus des Constitutions des Jesuites and the Essai d'education rationale, the Memoires de la Chalotais (3 vols., 1766-1767). Two works containing detailed bibliographies are Marion, La Bretagne et le duc d'Aiguillon (Paris, 1893) , and B. Pocquet, Le Duc d'Aiguillon et La Chalotais (Paris, 1901). See also a controversy between these two authors in the Bulletin critique for 1902.