Includes letters and documents concerning the War of the Austrian Succession, France’s support for the Jacobite cause of Charles Edward, the Young Pretender, in England, and other aspects of French foreign policy; the finances of the French navy; diplomatic relations and commerce with other countries such as Spain, Russia, and Portugal; shipbuilding, navigation, scientific expeditions, and taxation. Papers concerning Maurepas’s management of the royal household document his patronage of the arts, including the Comédie Française and dancers of the Royal Academy. Also included are personal letters to Maurepas from his politically powerful aunt concerning life at the court of Versailles; and a report on naval affairs written by Joseph Pellerin for Voltaire, which Voltaire used later in his Précis du siècle de Louis XV.
Correspondents include Maurepas; his father, Jérome Phélypeaux, comte de Pontchartrain, and grandfather, Louis de Pontchartrain, who preceded him as Secretary of the Navy; his aunt, Armande de la Porte Mazarin, marquise de Mailly-Nesle; Charles Edward, the Young Pretender; King George II of England; Louis François Armand, duc de Richelieu; Joseph Pellerin; and Voltaire