Law Amusement
Surreal law facts
The truth is always stranger than fiction.
31 year sentence for a joke
Francis Seldon (the French called him François) was imprisoned in the Bastille, Paris (pictured), for 31 years just because he had plastered a small poster criticizing his Jesuit teachers for holding the king above God.
He was only 16 at the time and a student at a Jesuit College in Clermont when the king came to visit, in 1674. The poster had embarrassed the king. Even though Seldon was from a rich Irish family, sent to France to get an education, the king issued a lettre de cachet and the young boy was arrested and secreted to the Bastille in Paris. Louis XIV (1638-1715) later issued a further lettre de cachet, this time a life sentence to the brash young Irishman, while Seldon's heart-broken parents were told that the child had just disappeared. Seldon was transferred to another prison (îles Sainte-Marguerite) until 1691 when he was returned to the Bastille. In 1705, Seldon was freed after a jesuit priest took up his cause in exchange for 98% of Selodon's assets (Seldon did not know he was rich). The king was finally convinced to free Seldon.
Seldon returned to Ireland broken physically but wealthy beyond his wildest imagination. His parents had died, heartbroken, but he was heir to the family fortune which had been wisely administered in his absence. He belatedly honored his contract with Jesuits.
Source: www.duhaime.org
