François VI, Duc de La Rochefoucauld, Prince de Marcillac (; 15 September 1613 – 17 March 1680) was an accomplished French
moralist
Moralism is any philosophy with the central focus of applying moral judgements. The term is commonly used as a pejorative to mean "being overly concerned with making moral judgments or being illiberal in the judgments one makes".
Moralism has s ...
of the era of French Classical literature and author of ''Maximes'' and ''Memoirs'', the only two works of his dense literary oeuvre published. His ''Maximes'' portray the callous nature of human conduct, with a cynical attitude towards putative virtue and avowals of
affection,
friendship
Friendship is a relationship of mutual affection between people. It is a stronger form of interpersonal bond than an "acquaintance" or an "association", such as a classmate, neighbor, coworker, or colleague.
In some cultures, the concept o ...
,
love
Love encompasses a range of strong and positive emotional and mental states, from the most sublime virtue or good habit, the deepest Interpersonal relationship, interpersonal affection, to the simplest pleasure. An example of this range of ...
, and
loyalty
Loyalty, in general use, is a devotion and faithfulness to a nation, cause, philosophy, country, group, or person. Philosophers disagree on what can be an object of loyalty, as some argue that loyalty is strictly interpersonal and only another h ...
. Leonard Tancock regards ''Maximes'' as "one of the most deeply felt, most intensely lived texts in French literature", with his "experience, his likes and dislikes, sufferings and petty spites ... crystallized into absolute truths."
Born in Paris in 1613, at a time when the royal court was vacillating between aiding the nobility and threatening it, he was considered an exemplar of the accomplished seventeenth-century
nobleman
Nobility is a social class found in many societies that have an aristocracy. It is normally ranked immediately below royalty. Nobility has often been an estate of the realm with many exclusive functions and characteristics. The characteris ...
. Until 1650, he bore the title of ''Prince de Marcillac''. His great-grandfather François III,
count de La Rochefoucauld, was killed in the
St. Bartholomew's Day massacre, being a
Huguenot
The Huguenots ( , also , ) were a religious group of French Protestants who held to the Reformed, or Calvinist, tradition of Protestantism. The term, which may be derived from the name of a Swiss political leader, the Genevan burgomaster Be ...
.
Biography
Early life: 1613–1629
François de La Rochefoucauld was born on September 15, 1613, at Rue des Petits Champs, in Paris's
1st arrondissement neighborhood. La Rochefoucauld was given the education of a nobleman of his era, which concentrated on military exercises, hunting, court etiquette, elegance of expression and comportment, and a knowledge of the world. He was married at the age of fourteen to Andrée de Vivonne. Belonging to one of the most illustrious families of the French nobility, the young La Rochefoucauld, then prince of Marcillac, succeeded at the age of 16 (1 May 1629) to his uncle Benjamin de La Rochefoucauld, count of Estissac, as
camp master of the
Estissac regiment.
Military career
He joined the army the following year and almost immediately established himself as a public figure. He fought bravely in the annual campaigns, though his actions were never formally recognised.
Under the patronage of
Madame de Chevreuse, whom he met at this time, the first of the three celebrated women who influenced his life, he joined the service of
Queen Anne of Austria. In one of Madame de Chevreuse's quarrels with
Cardinal Richelieu and her husband, a scheme apparently was conceived by which La Rochefoucauld was to carry her off to
Brussels
Brussels (french: Bruxelles or ; nl, Brussel ), officially the Brussels-Capital Region (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) (french: link=no, Région de Bruxelles-Capitale; nl, link=no, Bruss ...
on horseback. Other cabals against Richelieu once resulted in La Rochefoucauld being sentenced to eight days in the
Bastille
The Bastille (, ) was a fortress in Paris, known formally as the Bastille Saint-Antoine. It played an important role in the internal conflicts of France and for most of its history was used as a state prison by the kings of France. It was stor ...
, and he was occasionally required to leave the Court, exiled to his father's estates. In the power vacuum following Richelieu's death in 1642, La Rochefoucauld among others took an active role in urging the queen and
Condé to act together against
Gaston, Duke of Orléans
'' Monsieur'' Gaston, Duke of Orléans (Gaston Jean Baptiste; 24 April 1608 – 2 February 1660), was the third son of King Henry IV of France and his second wife, Marie de' Medici. As a son of the king, he was born a '' Fils de France''. He lat ...
. However, the growing reputation of
Mazarin impeded the ambition of the plotters, and La Rochefoucauld's 1645 liaison with
Duchess of Longueville
Countess of Longueville
House of Orléans-Longueville, 1443–1505
Duchess of Longueville
House of Orléans-Longueville, 1505–1694
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!width = "10%" , Name
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made him irrevocably a
''frondeur'' (aristocratic rebel). He was a conspicuous figure in the 1649 siege of Paris, fought in many of the frequent military engagements, and was seriously wounded at the siege of
Mardyke
The Mardyke ( ga, An Mhuirdíog) is an area in Cork city, on the northern half of the long western part of the island formed by the two channels of the River Lee near the city centre. It was historically left as open space because the land along ...
.
In the
second ''Fronde'', La Rochefoucauld allied himself with Condé. He used the occasion of his father's funeral in 1650 to urge the attending provincial nobility to help him attack the royalist garrison of
Saumur
Saumur () is a commune in the Maine-et-Loire department in western France.
The town is located between the Loire and Thouet rivers, and is surrounded by the vineyards of Saumur itself, Chinon, Bourgueil, Coteaux du Layon, etc.. Saumur statio ...
. In the
battle of the Faubourg Saint-Antoine, in 1652, he was shot through the head. It was feared that he would lose his sight, but he recovered after a year's convalescence.
For some years thereafter, he retired to his country estate of
Verteuil. Although his fortune had been much reduced, in time he was able to restore it somewhat, thanks chiefly to the fidelity of
Gourville
Gourville () is a former commune in the Charente department in southwestern France. On 1 January 2019, it was merged into the commune Rouillac.Louis XIV
, house = Bourbon
, father = Louis XIII
, mother = Anne of Austria
, birth_date =
, birth_place = Château de Saint-Germain-en-Laye, Saint-Germain-en-Laye, France
, death_date =
, death_place = Palace of Vers ...
was about to assume absolute power, and the aristocratic anarchy of the Fronde was over. He wrote his memoirs during this time, as did many of his prominent contemporaries.
''Salon'' participation
![Arms of the House of La Rochefoucauld](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/9f/Arms_of_the_House_of_La_Rochefoucauld.svg)
Somewhat earlier, La Rochefoucauld had taken his place in the
salon
Salon may refer to:
Common meanings
* Beauty salon, a venue for cosmetic treatments
* French term for a drawing room, an architectural space in a home
* Salon (gathering), a meeting for learning or enjoyment
Arts and entertainment
* Salon (P ...
of
Madeleine de Souvré, marquise de Sablé
Madeleine de Souvré, marquise de Sablé (1599 – 16 January 1678) was a French philosopher, writer and salonnière.
Life
She was the daughter of Gilles de Souvré, marquis de Courtenvaux, tutor of Louis XIII, and marshal of France
Marshal ...
, a member of the
Marquise de Rambouillet ''côterie'', and the founder of a kind of successor to it, whose special literary work was the writing of ''Sentences'' and ''Maximes''. In 1662, the Dutch firm
House of Elzevir
Elzevir is the name of a celebrated family of Dutch booksellers, publishers, and printers of the 17th and early 18th centuries. The duodecimo series of "Elzevirs" became very famous and very desirable among bibliophiles, who sought to obtain the ...
surreptitiously published what purported to be his memoirs, which brought him both trouble and fame. Many of his old friends were offended. These memoirs were not a faithful copy of what he had written, and while he hastened to deny their authenticity, this was not generally believed.
Three years later, in 1665, he anonymously published the ''Maximes'' (maxims), which established his position among the men of letters of the time. At about the same date, his friendship with Marie-Madeleine Pioche de La Vergne,
Comtesse de La Fayette, began, which lasted for the rest of his life. The glimpses which we have of him henceforward are chiefly from the letters of
Madame de Sévigné Madame may refer to:
* Madam, civility title or form of address for women, derived from the French
* Madam (prostitution), a term for a woman who is engaged in the business of procuring prostitutes, usually the manager of a brothel
* ''Madame'' ...
, and though they show him suffering from gout, are on the whole pleasant ones.
He had a circle of devoted friends and was recognized as a top-ranking moralist and man of letters. His son, the Prince de Marcillac, to whom he gave his titles and honors in 1671, enjoyed a considerable position at court. But above all La Rochefoucauld was recognized by his contemporaries, including the king, as an exemplar of the older ''noblesse'', the nobility that existed under the great monarch before the brilliance of his reign faded.
This reputation he has retained to the present day.
La Rochefoucauld's ethical views have given rise to attacks upon his works by pious moralists of later eras. Like his contemporaries, he saw politics as a chessboard for powerful players, rather than as a struggle of ideologies or a means for achieving broad social goals. He appears to have been unusually scrupulous in his personal conduct, and his lack of success in the aristocratic struggles arose more from this than from anything else.
He died in Paris on 17 March 1680.
Literary works
His importance as a social and historical figure is overshadowed by his towering stature in French literature. His literary work consists of three parts—his ''
Memoirs
A memoir (; , ) is any nonfiction narrative writing based in the author's personal memories. The assertions made in the work are thus understood to be factual. While memoir has historically been defined as a subcategory of biography or autobiog ...
'', the ''
Maximes'', and his letters.
The ''Memoirs'' are of high interest and literary merit. A book purporting to be La Rochefoucauld's memoirs was published in the
Dutch Republic
The United Provinces of the Netherlands, also known as the (Seven) United Provinces, officially as the Republic of the Seven United Netherlands (Dutch: ''Republiek der Zeven Verenigde Nederlanden''), and commonly referred to in historiography ...
whence, despite the author's protest, it continued to be reprinted for some thirty years. It has now been proved to have been pieced together from the work of half a dozen men, with scarcely a third of it being La Rochefoucauld's. Some years after La Rochefoucauld's death, a new
recension Recension is the practice of editing or revising a text based on critical analysis. When referring to manuscripts, this may be a revision by another author. The term is derived from Latin ''recensio'' ("review, analysis").
In textual criticism (as ...
appeared, still largely adulterated but with some errors corrected. This work went unchallenged for more than a century. Only in 1817 did anything like a genuine, if still imperfect, edition appear.
![Chateau Verteuil](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/40/Chateau_Verteuil.JPG)
However, the pithy, elegant ''Maximes'' (maxims) had no such fate. The author made frequent alterations and additions to them during his life and a few were added after his death. It is usual now to publish them in their totality of 504. The majority consist of just two or three lines, and hardly any exceed half a page. La Rochefoucauld reflects on the conduct and motives of mankind, from the point of view of a man of the world who intends not to sugar-coat his observations. In fact, in his introduction, he advises,
Physical appearance
La Rochefoucauld's literary debut was his self-portrait: ''Portrait de La Rochefoucauld fait par lui-même'', published in collection compiled in salon of Mademoiselle de Montpensier: ''Recueil des Portraits et éloges en vers et en prose''.
Influence
Nearly all the great French critics of the 19th century wrote to some extent about La Rochefoucauld.
Philosopher
Friedrich Nietzsche
Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche (; or ; 15 October 1844 – 25 August 1900) was a German philosopher, prose poet, cultural critic, philologist, and composer whose work has exerted a profound influence on contemporary philosophy. He began his ...
greatly admired La Rochefoucauld and was influenced not only by his ethics, but also his style.
The editions of La Rochefoucauld's ''Maximes'' (as the full title runs, ''
Réflexions ou sentences et maximes morales'') published in his lifetime bear the dates 1665 (''
editio princeps''), 1666, 1671, 1675, 1678.
Previous editions were superseded by that of
Jean Désiré Louis Gilbert and
Jules Gourdault (1868–1883), in the series ''Grands Écrivains de la France'', 3 vols.
A separate edition of the ''Maximes'' is the so-called ''Édition des bibliophiles'' (1870). See also the English translation of ''The Moral Maxims and Reflections of the Duke De La Rochefoucauld'' by
George H. Powell (1903).
[See also ]
Ancestry
Citations
General references
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Attribution:
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External links
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{{DEFAULTSORT:La Rochefoucauld, Francois de
1613 births
1680 deaths
17th-century French writers
17th-century French male writers
Aphorists
Dukes of La Rochefoucauld
French letter writers
French male non-fiction writers
French memoirists
French Roman Catholics
Literary peers
Prisoners of the Bastille
17th-century memoirists