Maximilien de Béthune

thumb| Maximilien de Béthune Sully (13 December 1560 – 22 December 1641) was a nobleman, soldier, statesman, and counselor of King Henry IV of France. Historians emphasize Sully's role in building a strong, centralized administrative system in France using coercion and highly effective new administrative techniques. While not all of his policies were original, he used them well to revitalize France after the European Religious Wars. Most, however, were repealed by later monarchs who preferred absolute power. Historians have also studied his Neostoicism and his ideas about virtue, prudence, and discipline. Quotes Les anglais s’amusent tristement selon l’usage de leur pays. The English take their pleasures sadly after the fashion of their country. Mémoires (Amsterdam, 1638); reported in the Oxford Dictionary of Quotations, 2nd ed. (1953), p. 517 The quotation is also attributed to Froissart: see Notes and Queries, 3rd s., vol. 10 (4 August 1866), p. 99, and 5th s., vol. 10 (17 August 1878), p. 136; William Hazlitt, "Merry England", in The New Monthly Magazine, vol. 14, no. 60 (1825), p. 558—ils se rejouissoient tristement selon la coutume de leur pays. External links Category:Memoirists from France Category:Finance ministers Category:Soldiers Category:Protestants Category:1560 births Category:1641 deaths Category:People from Paris