He was born of a family of merchants, at Rheims, ennobled in the sixteenth century, but he was fond of connecting it with the Colberts of Scotland.

The great minister would often tell his children to reflect "what their birth would have done for them if God had not blessed his labors, and if those labors had not been extreme." He had married his daughters to the Dukes of Beauvilliers, Chevreuse, and Mortemart; Seignelay had wedded Mdlle.

de Matignon, whose grandmother was an Orleans-Longueville.

"Thus," said Mdlle de Montpensier, "they have the honor of being as closely related as M.le Prince to the king; Marie de Bourbon was cousin-german to the king my grandfather.

That lends a grand air to M.de Seignelay, who had by nature sufficient vanity." Colbert had no need to seek out genealogies, and great alliances were naturally attracted to his power and the favor he was in.