In this article the office of the secrétaire du roi in seventeenth-century France was considered from the angle of possibilities of action provided by society to its holders. Two case studies were considered: first, the case of Anthoine de Laval who was not the secrétaire du roi but who wrote a book on public functions in which he analyzed his own career and actions as those of a secretary; and second, how Valentin Conrart, first secretary of the Académie française and secrétaire du roi acquired power through the opportunities provided to him by this function, and through the prestige it conferred to every action of his very diversified career. Hence, we understand that the office of the secrétaire du roi was powerful when officers did really fulfill their duties, since they acted from the center of the State, and because they constantly reshaped the symbolic value of the office. This article aims at re-assessing the political dimension of a fundamentally socio-political reality: the office under the Old Regime.