Bio

Son of Barthélemy de Laffemas, comptroller of trade under King Henri IV, Laffesmas (b. 1583) served as a lawyer to the Parlement de Paris. His father’s economic treatises were studied by Cardinal Richelieu, and after the Cardinal became first minister, the younger Laffemas was secured as counsel to the Royal Council in 1625.

Like the Cardinal, Laffemas has literary pretensions, self-publishing several folios of poetry, none of which were especially well-received.