of Stuhmdorf of 1635, he still was only Dominus de Avaux (Seigneur d'Avaux). Claude de Mesmes was the second comte d'Avaux according to the numbering found in Boulliot, so his father seems to have been accepted and counted as the first comte d'Avaux. His portrait by Anselm van Hulle is adorned with his coat of arms. The escutcheon is surmounted by the coronet of a French count. By error, as it seems, the coronet has seven rather than the usual nine balls. The escutcheon is quartered. First quarter: Or crescent sable (for Mesmes). Second and third quarter: argent two lions passant gules (for Bigorre). Fourth quarter: Or, chief gules, base azure waved, charge mullet sable (for Lassus in Guyenne). A red label with three pendants appears on the head of the escutcheon. This label would have been needed before his father's death, in 1642, to indicate that he was a cadet and his father was the count. However, the date on the engraving is 1648. This seems another error. Order of the Holy Spirit On 5 April 1637 Claude de Mesmes became greffier (secretary) of the Order of the Holy Spirit. This office allowed him to wear the cordon bleu, which is the blue sash shown on his portraits. The offices of this order are often passed on in families, but Claude de Mesmes (now d'Avaux) sold his in 1643 to Noël de Bullion, sieur de Bonnelles. Father's death and partition His father decided to share his possessions between his three sons. At the father's death, in 1642, Henri inherited Roissy, the traditional main seat of the family and the family's townhouse in Paris. Claude, our subject here, inherited Avaux and with it the title of comte d'Avaux. Jean-Antoine, the youngest brother, inherited Irval and probably Vandeuil, which is the village next to Irval Castle. Diplomatic career As diplomat Claude de Mesmes first served under Cardinal Richelieu, the first minister of Louis XIII, and then under Cardinal Mazarin, who took over as first minister from Richelieu in 1642. He was sent to Italy and then into northern Europe: Poland, Denmark and Sweden. Finally, he participated in the negotiations for the Peace of Westphalia. Italy Claude de Mesmes's first major post was French ambassador to Venice, where he arrived in 1627, just one year before the outbreak of the War of the Mantuan Succession (1628–1631), which was triggered by the death