Mézeray, François Eudes, sieur de (1610-83). Historian. Son of a Normandy surgeon, he studied at the University of Caen and served in the army before becoming a man of letters under the protection of Richelieu, Séguier, and Colbert. He contributed to Renaudot's Gazette and translated and revised histories of Byzantium and the Turks, as well as producing his famous illustrated Histoire de France from ‘Faramond’ to Henri IV in three large volumes (1643-51), best known in its abridgement, the Abrégé chronologique (1667). Mézeray's criticisms of French kings for over-taxing their subjects infuriated Colbert and led to the loss of the author's pension as Historiographe de France.
[Peter Burke]
