Le cardinal de Fleury ou comment devient-on le précepteur de Louis XV?

This articles traces the career of the future cardinal de Fleury, André-Hercule de Fleury, from his origins in Languedoc to the rank of minister to Louis XV in 1722. It reveals the strategies of ascension both in the Church and at court. Patronage played a vital role, and Fleury acquired this through his family's patrons and his own civility. His stance on Jansenism was a vital element in his visibility at court and thus in the choice to make him preceptor to the young King. He naturally had to defend his position, and in so doing played a discrete role. He won the confidence of the boy king, and became a vital intermediary for the Regent with Louis. Ecclesiastical politics provided a route to the royal council. He governed France for 17 years until his death in 1743. Based essentially on archival sources.