SULLY, 3IAxrxtruEN DE BETHUNE, Duke of, the celebrated minister of Henry IV. of France, was the second son of Francois, baron de Rosny, and was born at Rosny, near Mantes, in 1560. The Rosny family, an offshoot from the great house of Flanders, was never possessed of much wealth or influence, and had severely deteriorated in both res pects during the early religious wars. Sully was at an early age committed to the care of Henry of Navarre, the head of the Huguenot party, which not only obtained for him an excellent education, Mit laid the foundation of a companionship which lasted, without intermission, till Henry's death. After narrowly escaping during the St. Bartholomew massacre, he accompanied his patron in his flight from court (1575), and during the civil war which followed, exerted himself to the utmost, by daring valor in the field and otherwise, to serve the master for whom he cherished the most absorbing devotion. After Henry's authority had been well established, Sully, who had for some years pre vious been his trusted adviser, became (1594) counselor of state and of finance. The financial affairs of the country were then in a frightful condition; from the chief of the department down to the very lowest country agent, the administration was an organized system of pillage, and but a small percentage of the taxes levied found its way into the imperial treasury. The baron de Rosny was the very man to remedy this state of matters; rude, obstinate, and haughty, but at the same time resolute, active, indefatigable, wholly devoted to his master's interests; and backed by the influence of Gabrielle d'Es trees, and by Henry's own clear-sighted convictions, he cared nothing for the clamor and hatred of the court, which had largely profited by the former state of chaos. Not content with regulating the affairs of the revenue from the seat of power, he made a tour through the chief provincial districts, armed with absolute authority, personally examined the accounts, dismissed or suspended delinquents, and largely replenished the treasury with the ill-gotten wealth which he compelled them to disgorge. By indomit able perseverance, he little by little brought the affairs of the country into an orderly state; although in the diminution of the expenditure his efforts were by no means so successful, as the king, his mistresses, and the other companions of his pleasures, com bined to oppose all retrenchment as far as they were concerned. In 1596 the disposable
revenue of the state was 7 to 9 millions; in 1609 it was no less than 20 millions, with surplus of 20 to 22 millions in the treasury, and the arsenalsand fleet in a state of excel lent equipment. Sully, however, was more than a mere financier; he had the supreme charge of various other branches of the administration, zealously promoted agriculture by diminishing the taxes of the peasantry, encouraging export trade, draining marsh lands, and constructing numerous roads, bridges, and causeways. Sully was the ser vant of the king and government alone, and was of necessity disliked by the people for his severity, by the Catholics for his religion, and by the Protestants for his invariable refusals to sacrifice the smallest jot of his master's or the country's interest for their sake. Accordingly, with the death of Henry, his career of supremacy was at once ended, and he was forced to resign the superintendence of finance, Jan. 26, 1611, though he retained his other high offices, and was presented by Maria de Medicis with 300,000 livres as acknowledgment of his services, He had been created duke of Sully and peer of France in Feb., 1606. Sully wrote three treatises on war and police, which are lost, and two pieces of verse which are extant; but the work which will ever be connected with his name is the Xemoires des sages et royales (Economies d'Estat de Henry le Grand; a dull, wearisome, and disorderly collection of writings, but of priceless value to a historian of Henry IV.'s time. Sully printed the first two volumes of the Memoires at his own chateau of Sully in 1634, the third and fourth were published at Paris in 1662, and the whole has been several times republished, as well as translated into English, German, and Russian. Sully died at Villebon, near Chartres (Eure-et-Loir), Dec. 22, 1641. Artists have generally represented Sully as older than Henry IV., while in reality he was seven years younger.