wrote a valuable history of his own times (1553--1601), _Historia sui
temporis_. [Footnote: The title of the edition of 1604 is _Jacobi Augusti
Thuani in suprema regni Gallici curia praesidis insulati, historiarum sui
temporis (Parisiis Sonnius, Patisson, Drouart, in-fol._).] This great work
was written in Latin in one hundred and thirty-eight books, and afterwards
translated into French and published in sixteen volumes. The important
offices which De Thou held, his intimate acquaintance with the purposes of
the King and the intrigues of the French Court, the special embassies on
which he was engaged, as well as his judicial mind and historical
aptitude, his love of truth, his tolerance and respect for justice, his
keen penetration and critical faculty, render his memoirs extremely
valuable. In 1572 he accompanied the Italian ambassador to Italy; then he
was engaged on a special mission to the Netherlands; for twenty-four years
he was a member of the Parliament of Paris. Henry III. employed him on
various missions to Germany, Italy, and to different provinces of his own
country, and on the accession of Henry IV. he followed the fortunes of
that monarch, and was one of the signatories of the Edict of Nantes. But
his writings created enemies, and amongst them the most formidable was the
mighty Richelieu, who disliked him because our author had not praised one
of the ancestors of the powerful minister, and had been guilty of the
unpardonable offence of not bestowing sufficient honour upon Richelieu
himself. Such a slight was not to be forgiven, and when De Thou applied
for the post of President of the Parliament of Paris from Louis XIII., the
favourite took care that the post should be given to some one else,
although it had been promised to our author by the late monarch. This
disappointment and the continued opposition of Richelieu killed De Thou,
who died in 1617. But the revenge of the minister was unsated. Frederick
Augustus de Thou, the son of the historian, and formerly a _protege_ of
Richelieu, was condemned to death and executed. Enraged by the treatment
which his father had received from the minister, he had turned against his