Antoine Brun Explained

Antoine Brun
Office:	ambassador
Birth Date:	29 June 1599
Birth Place:	Dole, Franche-Comté
Education:	civil law
Alma Mater:	University of Dole

Anthoine Brun (1599–1654), baron d'Aspremont, was a Burgundian (Franche-Comté) diplomat in the service of Philip IV of Spain.

Life

Brun was born on 29 June 1599, the son of Claude Brun, advocate in the Parlement of Dole. He studied law at the universities of Dole and Bourges. In 1632 he was appointed procurator general of the Parlement of Dole. He was a leading figure in organising resistance to the French invasion of Franche-Comté in 1636.^[1]

Brun was appointed to the Supreme Council of Flanders in 1642.^[1] As a representative of the king of Spain, he played an important role in the negotiations leading to the Peace of Münster (1648).^[2]

Thereafter he became the king's first resident ambassador in the newly recognised Dutch Republic. He took up residence in The Hague in mid-1649, his first official despatch as ambassador being dated 29 June 1649.^[3] In 1650 he concluded a naval treaty with the Dutch on behalf of the king.^[4]

He was also a man of letters, publishing a French translation of a selection of the letters of Justus Lipsius: Le Chois des Epistres de Lipse (1650).

He died 2 January 1654.

Publications

Le Manifeste d'Antoine Brun (1638), edited by Emile Longin (Vesoul, 1905).
Le Chois des Epistres de Lipse, translated by Antoine Brun (Lyon, 1650).

Notes and References

De Hoge Raad voor de Nederlanden en Bourgondië. Leden en Bevoegdheden (1627-1665). ethesis.net. Annelies Vanhaelst. 2002. licentiate. Ghent University. Part 2: Prosopography.
Fritz Dickmann, Der Westfälische Frieden (Münster, 1959), p. 198: "Viele wollten allerdings das Hauptverdienst an ihr dem Burgunder Antonius Brun zuschreiben, dem geschickten und kenntnisreichen Parlamentsrat aus Dôle, der sich als Verteidiger seiner Vaterstadt gegen Condé auch militärischen Ruhm erworben hatte. Dieser Mann muß sich vorteilhaft von seinen Berufsgenossen unterschieden haben. Contarini fand, daß er zwar ein dottore sei, aber doch auch ein Weltmann und Soldat. Auch als Redner und Schriftsteller galt er etwas." (citing Contarini, in Fontes rerum Austriacum Abt. II, Bd. 26, p. 296f.)
J. & P. Lefèvre, Inventaire des Archives de l'Ambassade d'Espagne à la Haye (1932; reprinted Brussels, 1991), p. 80.
Traitté de la Marine, Faict, conclu, & arresté à la Haye en Hollande, le dix-septième du mois de Decembre 1650 entre Messire Antoine Brun, Ambassadeur ordinaire du Seigneur Roi d'Espagne d'une, & les Sieurs Deputés des Seigneurs Estats Generaux des Provinces Unies du Pays-bas d'autre part (The Hague, 1663).