Charles-Jean-François, author of the Abrégé Chronologique de l'Histoire de France, and president of the parliament of Paris, was born in that city in 1685, and died there in 1770. His father was one of the fermiers-généraux, and he himself, partly from his inherited wealth, partly from his position in the queen's household, of which he was controller-general, and partly from his personal qualities, was received into the best society of the French capital. He was in early life gay, witty, graceful in his manners, a good musician, and a neat song-writer. He had all, in short, that could make him (what was then the chief ambition of most Frenchmen to become) a man à la mode. In literature he attained such considerable distinction by his comedies and fugitive poems, that in 1723 he was received into the French Academy, and afterwards into the leading literary societies of Europe. After his fiftieth year he retired into private life, and devoted the remainder of his days to study and religious exercises. But as the Marquis d'Argenson remarks, "his devotion was as free of fanaticism as his writings of pedantry." His friendship for Voltaire remained undiminished till the close of his life; and it was a kindly motive that impelled him at the age of eighty to write seriously to that arch-scoffer, praying him to desist from his ceaseless pasquinades against Christianity. Henault will be remembered chiefly for his Abrégé Chronologique, first published in 1744, without the author's name. Between that date and 1756, there appeared numerous editions of it; but it was not till the latter year that Henault proclaimed himself as the author of the book. The Abrégé is a perfect model of its kind, and though it has now fallen somewhat into disuse, yet that result is rather a reaction against the excessive praise that was at first lavished on it, than a proof that it has been superseded. In the compass of two volumes, Henault has comprised the whole history of France from the earliest times to the death of Louis XIV. His information is, for the most part, drawn from original sources. The results of deep researches and lengthened disquisitions on public law are summed up in a few words. Controverted points of history, on which volumes have been written, are cleared up sometimes in a single sentence. The moral and political reflections are always short, and generally as fresh and pleasing as they are just. A few masterly strokes reproduce the leading features of each age, and the characters of its illustrious men. Accurate chronological tables set forth the most interesting events in the history of each sovereign, such as his birth, accession, marriage, death, &c., and the names of the great men that flourished during his reign. Interspersed throughout the work are occasional chapters on the social and civil state of the country at the close of each era in its history.

Hénault's other works are his Histoire Critique de l'Établissement des Français dans les Canaries, ouvrage inédit du Président Hénault, inspiré par le Manuscrit original écrit de sa main, Paris, 1801, in 2 vols. Svo.; Lettre du Président Hénault sur la République, adressée à l'Abbé Velzy, originally published in the Mercure de France; Lettres du Président Hénault à Marmontel, ou sujet d'un Extrait de l'Abriége de l'Histoire de De Thou, in the collection of Fontanier; Mémoire sur les Abrégés Chronologiques (Mém. de l'Acad. des Inscriptions); Discours qui a remporté le prix d'Eloquence de l'Académie Française, 1701, par Hénault, Conseiller au Parlement, Paris, 1707, in 4to.; Pièces de Théâtre, en Vers et en Prose, a collection which contains Corneille Véritable, François II., la Petite Maison, the Jeunes de Lui-même, the Roi d'Épinal, and the Temple des Chambres.