[Gutenberg 52128] • A Gallant of Lorraine; vol. 1 of 2 / François, Seigneur de Bassompierre, Marquis d'Haronel, Maréchal de France, 1579-1646

Originally published in 1921, A Gallant of Lorraine: François, Seigneur de Bassompierre, Marquis D’harouel, Maréchal de France (1579-1646) [Volume 1 of 2] contains the first 24 chapters of this book series.

François de Bassompierre (12 April 1579 – 12 October 1646) was a French courtier. The son of Christophe de Bassompierre (1547–1596), he was born at the castle of Haroué in Lorraine. He was descended from an old family which had for generations served the dukes of Burgundy and Lorraine, and after being educated with his brothers in Bavaria and Italy, was introduced to the court of King Henry IV of France in 1598. He became a great favourite of the king and shared to the full in the dissipations of court life. In 1600, he took part in the brief campaign in Savoy, and in 1603 fought in Hungary against the Turks for emperor Rudolf II.

In 1614, he assisted Marie de' Medici, now queen mother, in her struggle against the nobles, but upon her failure in 1617 remained loyal to the young king Louis XIII and assisted the royalists when they routed Marie's supporters at Les Ponts-de-Cé in 1620. His services during the Huguenot rising of 1621–22 won for him the dignity of marshal of France.

— Wikipedia

EXCERPT FROM A Gallant of Lorraine: François, Seigneur de Bassompierre, Marquis D’harouel, Maréchal de France (1579-1646)

PREFATORY NOTE

ALTHOUGH the Mémoires of the Maréchal de Bassompierre are acknowledged to be one of the chief authorities for the history of France during the early part of the seventeenth century, they have never been translated into English, nor, if we except the charming but all too brief sketch of the marshal by Comte Boudet de Puymaigre in his Poètes et Romanciers de la Lorraine (Paris, 1848), has any biography of their author yet been attempted. That such should be the case is certainly very surprising, since seldom can a man have led so eventful a life, or played so many different parts with distinction, as did François de Bassompierre. Soldier, courtier, diplomatist, gallant and wit, he was to the Courts of Henri IV and Louis XIII very much what the celebrated Maréchal de Richelieu was to that of Louis XV, and when on that fatal February day in 1631 the gates of the Bastille closed upon him, not to reopen for twelve long years, one of the most interesting careers in French history practically terminated. In my endeavour to give a full and authentic account of this career, I have naturally found my chief source of information in Bassompierre’s own Mémoires, which he wrote, or rather arranged and revised, during his imprisonment in the Bastille; but I have also consulted a large number of other works, both contemporary and modern. Most of these are mentioned either in the text or the footnotes, but I desire to take this opportunity of acknowledging my great indebtedness to the admirable notes of the Marquis de Chantérac, who so ably edited the edition of the marshal’s Mémoires published by the Société de l’Histoire de France.

H. NOEL WILLIAMS.

LONDON, May, 1921.