Malesherbes, Chr�tien (Guillaume de Lamoignon) de 1721-94
French statesman

He was born in Paris. In 1744 he became a Counsellor of the Parlement of Paris, and in 1750 he was made chief censor of the press; he allowed the publication of the Encyclop�die in Paris, despite the fact that its 'privilege' (licence) had been revoked. On Louis XVI's accession (1774) he was made Secretary of State for the royal household. He brought about prison and legal reforms alongside Anne Robert Jacques Turgot's economic improvements, but resigned on Turgot's dismissal (1776). Under the Convention he went to Paris to conduct the king's defence. Despite his integrity and reforming zeal, he was mistrusted as an aristocrat during the Revolution, arrested as a Royalist in 1794, and guillotined.