Le Claire

Renaissance

Arms borne upon the restoration of hereditary nobility, 28 May 1623

Jean Le Clerc

1586, 1633

Nancy, Lorraine

Knight of the Order of Saint Mark (Republic of Venice) · Court Painter to the Dukes of Lorraine · Hereditary nobility restored, 1623

Soldier of the Republic of Venice against the Ottomans, Knight of Saint Mark, and one of the most distinguished painters ever produced by Lorraine, the figure who, with his brother Alexandre, restored the hereditary nobility of the House of Le Clerc de Pulligny in 1623.

The Name Through History

A single continuous line, recorded under many forms as it passed through Lorraine, France, the Rhineland and Britain.

  1. De Parroye / de Haute-Pierre

    before 1310

    Seigneurial houses of Lorraine from which the maternal ancestry descends

  2. Moingins dis li clers

    c. 1310 – 1400

    Lorrain vernacular byname, 1355 charter

  3. Le Clerc · Leclerc

    15th – 17th c.

    French-Lorraine seigneurial line

  4. Le Claire

    late 17th – 18th c.

    Transitional French spelling of the direct line

  5. Leclaire

    18th – 19th c.

    Napoleonic-era French form

  6. Le Clair · Leclair

    19th c.

    Rhineland branch, German civil registers

  7. Licklär

    1880 – 1970

    Germanised orthography, 20th-century Rhineland

  8. LeClaire

    21st c.

    Restored British form, House of Greenland-LeClaire

Family connection

Parents. Son of Claude II Leclerc de Pulligny (1532–1598) and his first wife Claudon Galland de Pulligny.

Position in the Direct Line

Jean Le Clerc is a collateral figure of the wider House and is not part of the continuous bloodline shown on the home-page pedigree. Their branch descends from Claude II Leclerc de Pulligny in the direct line.

Historical context

Jean Le Clerc, eldest son of Claude II Leclerc de Pulligny, was born at Nancy in 1586 into a house that had only recently suffered the confiscation of its nobility for his father's conversion to Protestantism. His own life would be devoted, in different ways, to repairing that loss.

Around 1602 he travelled to Venice, then one of the great military and artistic powers of the Mediterranean. He entered the service of the Republic and fought in its long campaigns against the Ottoman Empire, distinguishing himself sufficiently to be received into the Order of Saint Mark, the senior honour by which the Serenissima rewarded loyalty and valour.

Alongside his military service he became one of the most accomplished painters produced by Lorraine. Trained in the Italian and Venetian schools, he worked in the manner of the Caravaggesque masters and absorbed the dramatic chiaroscuro of early-seventeenth-century Venice. His paintings are recorded in churches and collections of Lorraine and northern Italy.

On his return to the Duchy he entered the service of the Dukes of Lorraine as court painter, combining artistic achievement with the diplomatic and ceremonial duties of a trusted court servant. Through his loyalty, his military distinction and his international reputation, he played a leading role in the formal restoration of the hereditary nobility of the House of Le Clerc de Pulligny by letters of 1623, reversing the confiscations imposed in his father's lifetime.

He died in 1633, having helped to restore his family's standing and having carried the name of Le Clerc into the artistic and military memory of two of the great states of early modern Europe.

Jean's career unfolded against the long Venetian-Ottoman struggle for control of the eastern Mediterranean and the parallel flowering of Caravaggesque painting in Italy. To combine distinguished military service to the Republic with a successful artistic career, and then to return home as court painter to one's hereditary sovereign, was an exceptional trajectory by any standard of the period.

Significance & legacy

Together with his brother Alexandre, Jean rebuilt the position the family had lost during the Reformation crisis. The restoration of hereditary nobility in 1623 is in large part their work, and through them the House of Le Clerc de Pulligny passed intact into the second half of the seventeenth century.

Jean Le Clerc is remembered both as a Knight of Saint Mark and as one of the finest painters Lorraine produced in the early seventeenth century. His career stands as the clearest single example in the family's history of nobility recovered through personal merit, military, artistic and diplomatic.

Known records & evidence

  • Venetian state archives, Order of Saint Mark, early seventeenth century.[1]
  • Lorraine court records, appointment as court painter to the Dukes of Lorraine.[2]
  • Letters patent of 1623 restoring the hereditary nobility of the House of Le Clerc de Pulligny.[3]

Lineage explorer

Jean Le Clerc in the line

Trace the generations from this ancestor to the present day, follow how land, titles and arms descended, or open the wider network of marriages and allied houses.

No documented descent chain is recorded from Jean Le Clerc to the present generation.

Related entities

Other documented people, family branches, places and armorial records connected to this entry in the archive.

Related places

Citations & sources

Each numbered reference below supports a specific statement on this page. The evidence label records how firmly that reference attests the point.

  1. 1.Venetian state archives, Order of Saint Mark, early seventeenth century.↩
    Published Genealogy
    Full reference: Venetian state archives, Order of Saint Mark, early seventeenth century.
  2. 2.Lorraine court records, appointment as court painter to the Dukes of Lorraine.↩
    Published Genealogy
    Full reference: Lorraine court records, appointment as court painter to the Dukes of Lorraine.
  3. 3.Letters patent of 1623 restoring the hereditary nobility of the House of Le Clerc de Pulligny.↩
    Primary Source
    Full reference: Letters patent of 1623 restoring the hereditary nobility of the House of Le Clerc de Pulligny.
  4. 4.Letters of confirmation and restoration of nobility to Alexandre Le Clerc de Pulligny↩

    Chancery of the Duchy of Lorraine ·

    Primary Source
    Full reference: Letters of confirmation and restoration of nobility to Alexandre Le Clerc de Pulligny, Chancery of the Duchy of Lorraine, 1623
  5. 5.↩

    House of LeClaire

    Published Genealogy
    Full reference: LeClaire Family Historical Archive, House of LeClaire — https://leclaire.co.uk/historical-archive
  6. 6.↩

    French National Archives, sovereign and noble records of the Ancien Régime and after.

    Published Scholarly Research
    Full reference: Archives Nationales (France), French National Archives, sovereign and noble records of the Ancien Régime and after. — https://www.archives-nationales.culture.gouv.fr/
  7. 7.↩

    Genealogy platform; use only entries that themselves cite primary records.

    Published Scholarly Research
    Full reference: Geneanet, Genealogy platform; use only entries that themselves cite primary records. — https://www.geneanet.org/
  8. 8.↩

    Open-licensed historical images, maps and document scans.

    Published Scholarly Research
    Full reference: Wikimedia Commons, Open-licensed historical images, maps and document scans. — https://commons.wikimedia.org/
  9. 9.↩

    Charles d'Hozier's Armorial général de France (1696), digitised by the BnF.

    Published Scholarly Research
    Full reference: BnF, Armorial général de France (d'Hozier), Charles d'Hozier's Armorial général de France (1696), digitised by the BnF. — https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/btv1b8470253q
  10. 10.↩

    Open-licensed reproductions of French armorial bearings.

    Published Scholarly Research
    Full reference: Wikimedia Commons, Heraldry of France, Open-licensed reproductions of French armorial bearings. — https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Heraldry_of_France
  11. 11.↩

    Digitised primary sources of the BnF, including charters and registers of Lorraine.

    Published Scholarly Research
    Full reference: Gallica (Bibliothèque nationale de France), Digitised primary sources of the BnF, including charters and registers of Lorraine. — https://gallica.bnf.fr/
  12. 12.↩

    Parish, notarial and seigneurial registers for Nancy and the former Duchy of Lorraine.

    Published Scholarly Research
    Full reference: Archives départementales de Meurthe-et-Moselle, Parish, notarial and seigneurial registers for Nancy and the former Duchy of Lorraine. — https://archives.meurthe-et-moselle.fr/
  13. 13.↩

    Parish and notarial records covering the Pulligny / Xirocourt area.

    Published Scholarly Research
    Full reference: Archives départementales des Vosges, Parish and notarial records covering the Pulligny / Xirocourt area. — https://archives.vosges.fr/
  14. 14.↩

    Bibliographic catalogue of printed and manuscript holdings.

    Published Scholarly Research
    Full reference: Bibliothèque nationale de France, Catalogue général, Bibliographic catalogue of printed and manuscript holdings. — https://catalogue.bnf.fr/

Canonical URL: https://leclaire.co.uk/people/jean-le-clerc