Samuel Guichenon

He had an active adolescence "with prodigious humour and a tender heart" and studied law in Annonay before completing his doctorate in Lyon.

Under the influence of an old clergyman from Bourg-en-Bresse, following a trip to Italy and a dream about Francis of Assisi, Samuel renounced Calvinism and converted to Catholicism in 1630.

[2] He displeased the House of Savoy by disputing traditional chroniclers and disproving its hereditary rights to several lost territories such as Geneva and Cyprus.

Finally, under pressure, he recognized the House's traditional claim to Saxon origins and a dynastic link with the Holy Roman Emperor and endorsed the Duke of Savoy's policy of regional expansion towards Italy and of renouncing its claims to lands in western Europe which were too difficult to capture or hold onto due to French pressure.

Never published, his last work was Le Soleil en son apogée, a panegyric of Christine, edited during the last months of his life.