Gaspard de Fieubet

As the first president of the Parlement of Toulouse, a significant court of law appointed by the king, Fieubet played a role in Louis XIV's policies in the South of France, particularly in curbing the rights of Protestants.

In Toulouse, he purchased the Hôtel d'Ulmo on Ninau Street, seeking to exert control over the municipality by appointing the capitouls himself.

[7] From the second half of the 17th century, the Fieubets also became part of a dense network of allied families holding positions in the Parlement of Paris.

Consequently, the Parlement held considerable weight in the city: the Parlementarians, their families, and their servants accounted for approximately 4,000 people, representing over 13% of the intra-mural population.

[11] As early as 1654, through two rulings, Gaspard de Fieubet contested the jurisdiction of the Parlement of Paris, which had sentenced François-Jacques d'Amboise d'Aubijoux to death in absentia for participating in a forbidden duel where his lieutenant was killed.

[13] Fieubet continued this trend by placing his agents within the municipality of Toulouse, such as Germain de Lafaille, whom he appointed as syndic.

[2] While Fieubet served as the first president of the Parlement of Toulouse, his brother-in-law, Jean de Tourreil, was the attorney general.

For instance, during the winter of 1666-1667, Fieubet presided over the "Grand Days" of Nîmes, during which numerous measures against Protestants were decided.

[17] In 1685, two rulings from the Parlement of Toulouse condemned a group of Portuguese merchants, accused of Judaizing, to be burned alive in public.

In fact, if Toulouse Parlementarians were wealthy, it was out of necessity to purchase their position and maintain their rank, not because their office was lucrative.

[10] Around 1653, Gaspard de Fieubet purchased the Hôtel d'Ulmo, built a century earlier on Ninau Street, where the prominent Parlementary families of Toulouse resided.

[19] It was logical for Toulouse legal scholars to dedicate their collections to Gaspard de Fieubet, the first president of the Parlement.

[23] Fieubet was also the dedicatee of other legal works such as "Eclaircissement nouveau, sur le prêt et les intérêts" by Bernard du Puy (1687).

Due to serious disputes with the mathematician Pierre de Fermat, the representation of the latter was absent from this gallery for a long time.

In January 1658, a priest named Jean Montralon, with Jansenist leanings, was sentenced and hanged at Fieubet's instigation.

[3] As Fieubet suffered from gout, in 1657 he obtained from the Archbishop of Toulouse, Pierre de Marca, the latter's own cushion to kneel on in the cathedral choir, a position that caused him pain.

1659. Louis XIV swears on the Gospels to respect the municipal liberties of Toulouse before the kneeling capitouls. Painting by Antoine Durand (circa 1662). Municipal Archives of Toulouse.
Hôtel d'Ulmo , residence of Gaspard de Fieubet, Ninau Street in Toulouse.
Dedication page of "Annales de la ville de Toulouse" by Germain de Lafaille (1687), BNF (Bibliothèque nationale de France).