Pierre Adolphe Chéruel

Who was Pierre Adolphe Chéruel?

Pierre Adolphe Chéruel was a French historian.

He was born at Rouen and educated at the École Normale Supérieure, becoming a fellow in 1830. His early studies were concerned with local history. His Histoire de Rouen sous la domination anglaise au XVe siècle and Histoire de Rouen pendant l'époque communale, 1550-1382, are major productions for a time when the archives were neither catalogued nor classified, and contain useful documents previously unpublished. His theses for the degree of doctor, De l'administration de Louis XIV d'après les Mémoires inédits d'Olivier d'Ormesson and De Maria Stuarta et Henrico III, led him to the study of general history. The former was expanded afterwards under the title Histoire de l'administration monarchique en France depuis l'avènement de Philippe-Auguste jusqu'à la mort de Louis XIV, and in 1855 he also published his Dictionnaire historique des institutions, mœurs et coutumes de la France, of which many editions have appeared.

These works may still be consulted for the 17th century, the period upon which Chéruel concentrated all his scientific activity. He edited successively the Journal d'Olivier Lefèvre d'Ormesson, interesting for the history of the parlement of Paris during the minority of King Louis XIV; Lettres du cardinal Mazarin pendant son ministère, continued by the vicomte G. d'Avenel; and Mémoires du duc de Saint-Simon, published for the first time according to the original manuscripts.