of King Louis XVI. In addition, the family produced several Knights of Malta and Saint-Louis, the First President of the Grand Council, a Member of The French Academy, a Chancellor of the Orders of the King (1789) and the first nine Presidents of the Chamber of Accounts, which from 1506 until 1794, followed one another without interruption. By Letters Patent of 1645, Anne of Austria, wanting to reward the services rendered by several generations of the House of Nicolay, set the grounds of Goussainville in Marquisat in favour of Antoine de Nicolay and his descendants. Towards the end of the fifteenth century, the House of Nicolay was divided into two branches, the first known as the Barons De Sabran, established in Ardèche and the other, The Marquis de Goussainville, in the Île-de-France. On 19 May 1815 King Louis XVIII called the House of Nicolay to hereditary peerage in the name of Aymard-Charles-Marie-Theodore Marquis De Nicolay. Other notable members of the family included Nicolas de Nicolay, Aimar-Charles-Marie de Nicolaï, Count François de Nicolay. Nicolas de Nicolay served for a time as Geographer-in-Ordinary to Henry II of France and spent most of his adult life traveling throughout Europe and the Turkish Empire. In 1568, Nicolay published an account of his travels under the title, 'Quatre Premiers Livres des Navigations. The work appeared in several editions including an Italian translation by Francesco Flori published in 1577. The House of Nicolay in England Gaspard de Nicolay (recorded as Caspar Nicolay in record of death) was a member of the Court of Frederick III, Duke of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg. He, his wife Joanna Sapphira and their two sons arrived in England from the Duchy of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg (now in the area of Thuringia, Germany) in 1736. Gaspard was Attendant and Page to Princess Augusta of Saxe-Gotha and the Nicolay family accompanied her to London, where she was to marry Frederick, Prince of Wales. Gaspard became Page of the Presence to Princess Augusta and Prince Frederick from 1736 until 1751 and then Page of the Backstairs from 1751 until 1772. Gaspard and Sapphira's two sons were Frederick de Nicolay (the elder) and Christian Frederick de Nicolay (the younger). Elder Branch Frederick was introduced to King George III, with whom he became a very great favourite; so much so that when his affianced bride Princess Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz was to be married to the King, the King sent Frederick de