Call Number:

C0610

Repository:

Princeton University Library: Manuscripts Division

Extent:

• 33 volumes
• 2.7 linear feet

Language:

English

Preferred Citation:

Identification of specific item; Date (if known); Francis C. Brown Collection of French Royal Marriage Contracts, Box and Folder Number; Special Collections, Princeton University Library.

Date:

1607-1846 (inclusive)

Creator:

Brown, Francis C. (1936-2014)

Form:

Antenuptial contracts -- France., Legal documents -- France., Marriage records -- France., and Portraits.

Abstract:

Consists of 32 bound volumes, each containing an original, French, royal marriage contract with supplementary biographical sketches and portraits of the witnesses who signed the contracts, collected by Francis C. Brown (Princeton Class of 1958). The first two volumes are alphabetical catalogues of the marriage contracts

Francis C. (Cabell) Brown was born on Jan. 6, 1936, and graduated from Princeton University in 1958 with a degree from the Woodrow Wilson School. He attended Harvard Law School and graduated in 1961. He is currently an attorney in New York City.

The collection consists of 32 bound volumes, each containing an original, French, royal marriage contract with supplementary biographical sketches and portraits of the witnesses who signed the contracts, collected by Brown (Princeton Class of 1958). The contracts span the years 1607-1846, from the reign of Marie de Medicis to Louis Philippe, linking various members of the King' and Queen's courts and the noble houses in France (i.e., House of Bourbon), such as the marriage of Antoine Potier to Anne d'Aumont (1620) and Louis, Marquis de Vieuville, to Marie Fouquet de Belleisle (1722). Many of the contracts were signed by the reigning sovereigns and other nobility, such as Louis XIII, Louis XIV, Louis XV, Louis XVI, Louis XVIII, Charles X, Napoleon Bonaparte, Marie Antoinette, Philippe, Duc d'Orleans, Anne of Austria, Marie de Medicis, Armand Jean du Plessis, Duc de Richelieu, and Henri Jules de Bourbon.

Contracts are arranged chronologically, one to a volume.