The MS forms part of a recueil of various documents whose provenance and acquisition have gone unrecorded. Their order within the recueil corresponds to their approximate arrival in the BNF’s manuscripts department.

The declaration was to be given by Richelieu in England at the time of the Jacobean expedition.

After Frederick II of Prussia ordered Voltaire to return a contract that he could not find, Voltaire instead wrote this declaration. The declaration was sent to Lord Marischal by Madame Denis on 11 June 1753.

Voltaire opens by stating his compassion towards Decroze, whom he says lay bloody and dying from 29 December to 10 January. He goes on to note that he is aware of an investigation into Ancian, and adds that he has in his possession a copy of a criminal trial begun in 1756 or 1757 against the said Ancian. He concludes by noting that witnesses hear Ancian ask for a large stick to be brought to him, with which he beat the young man.

Voltaire begins by saying that he has seen, for the past fifteen days, Decroze who is wounded and in danger of death due to injuries inflicted upon him by abbé Ancian. He goes on to say that Decroze’s father told him on 28th December that his son continually named Ancian as the attacker. He discusses other cases in which Ancian wounded other people.

Voltaire certifies that on 4 January, Benoit Brochut, a carpenter’s boy at the Château de Ferney, stated that he was fetched on 28 December 1761 by Ancian who took him with several others to the house of Madame Burdet where the murder was committed. The boy was asked to sign this declaration and said that he could not write, but instead made his mark in the presence of witnesses. This declaration was sent to Vachat. Voltaire then goes on to discuss a previous case concerning Ancian in which Ancian was brought to trial for assaulting Vuaillet. He further certifies that Ancian had struck Gabriel Guet and his mother with a stick, and that the declaration concering this assault was signed in the presence of witnesses and given to Vuaillet. Another victim, Françoise Ferrou, claimed to have been beaten with sticks at the door of the Church of Colles on Easter day by Ancian, and Voltaire goes on to certify that Madame Burdet came to Ferney on 4 January with bruised cheeks which she said in the presence of witness had been given to her by Ancian. Voltaire concludes with a bid for justice, speaking of the fear in the neighbourhood of having a hot-headed and guilty man on their doorstep.

Frederick II of Prussia claimed that the “Idée” had been written by Voltaire. The manuscripts form part of a wider collection of letters and papers on foreign and home affairs dating to 1744-1756.