"1614 KING LOUIS XIII Signed Royal Brevet — Abbey Grant, Duke of Guise, Diocese of Luçon — Regency Period"
A genuine autograph-signed royal brevet of King Louis XIII of France (r. 1610–1643), dated December 1614 — signed when the king was just 13 years old, during the regency of
Marie de Médicis. The document grants the Abbey of Bartault de Chaumont (Order of Prémontré, Diocese of Luçon, near Poitiers) to Sieur Bigot, secretary to the powerful Duke of Guise, 
 as a reward for loyal service — with the abbey's actual administration provided for Maître Étienne Galmer, cleric of the Diocese of Orléans.
The document is a vivid example of the crown's ecclesiastical patronage system, explicitly referencing the dispatch of confirming letters to the Court of Rome — illustrating the dual
French-papal approval mechanism required for abbatial appointments under the Concordat of Bologna. The Diocese of Luçon connection is of particular interest: 
this was the very diocese where the future Cardinal Richelieu served as bishop in this same period.
Signed in the king's own hand "LOUIS" and countersigned by the secretary of state, this document is a genuine working artifact of early Bourbon court patronage and church-state relations.
Size: 11.3" x 8.7"
1. December 1614 — regency period. Louis XIII was 13 years old, governed under the regency of his mother Marie de Médicis. This document is a genuine
royal brevet from that period, signed personally by the young king.
2. Ecclesiastical patronage mechanism. The document illustrates the standard practice of royal nomination to ecclesiastical benefices — the king
grants an abbey (a valuable source of income and prestige) to a courtier's family member, with the formal confirmation to follow from Rome (the
papal curia), since abbatial appointments required papal letters of confirmation. This is a vivid working example of the Concordat-era system
of French crown control over church benefices, predating the more famous Concordat of 1801 by nearly two centuries — rooted instead in the Concordat of
Bologna (1516) between Francis I and Leo X, which gave French kings the right to nominate candidates to abbeys and bishoprics.
3. The Duke of Guise connection. The House of Guise was one of the most powerful noble families in France, with deep historical ties to the
Catholic League and major influence at court. A grant made "in consideration of good services" to the Duke's secretary reflects the
patronage networks binding the great noble houses to royal favor during the early Bourbon period.
4. Prémontré Order, Diocese of Luçon. The Premonstratensian (Norbertine) Order was a significant medieval monastic order; the Diocese of Luçon
is notably the diocese where Armand Jean du Plessis — the future Cardinal Richelieu — served as bishop starting in 1606, making this document
contemporaneous with Richelieu's own early ecclesiastical career in that same diocese.
5. Mechanism of papal confirmation. The explicit reference to dispatching "necessary letters... at the Court of Rome" documents the dual
French-papal approval process required for abbatial appointments — a valuable illustrative detail for historians of Gallican church-state relations.