Claude-Carloman de Rulhière (or Rulhières) (12 June 173530 January 1791) was a French

poet A poet is a person who studies and creates poetry. Poets may describe themselves as such or be described as such by others. A poet may simply be the creator ( thinker, songwriter, writer, or author) who creates (composes) poems ( oral or wri ...

and

historian A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human race; as well as the st ...

Biography

He was born at Bondy,

Seine-Saint-Denis () is a department of France located in the Grand Paris metropolis in the region. In French, it is often referred to colloquially as ' or ' ("ninety-three" or "nine three"), after its official administrative number, 93. Its prefecture is Bobig ...

. He became '' aide-de-camp'' to Marshal Richelieu, whom he followed through the

Hanover Hanover (; german: Hannover ; nds, Hannober) is the capital and largest city of the German state of Lower Saxony. Its 535,932 (2021) inhabitants make it the 13th-largest city in Germany as well as the fourth-largest city in Northern Germany ...

ian campaign of 1757 to his government at

Bordeaux Bordeaux ( , ; Gascon oc, Bordèu ; eu, Bordele; it, Bordò; es, Burdeos) is a port city on the river Garonne in the Gironde department, Southwestern France. It is the capital of the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region, as well as the prefect ...

in 1758; and at the age of twenty-five he was sent to St Petersburg as secretary of legation. Here he witnessed the coup d'état which seated Catherine II of Russia on the throne, and thus obtained the facts noted in ''Anecdotes sur la révolution de Russie en 1762''. Catherine made repeated efforts to secure the destruction of the manuscript, which remained unpublished until after the empress's death. Rulhière became secretary to the comte de Provence (afterwards

Louis XVIII Louis XVIII (Louis Stanislas Xavier; 17 November 1755 – 16 September 1824), known as the Desired (), was King of France from 1814 to 1824, except for a brief interruption during the Hundred Days in 1815. He spent twenty-three years in ...

) in 1773, and he was admitted to the Académie française in 1787. The later years of his life were spent chiefly in Paris, where he held an appointment in the Foreign Office and went much into society; but he visited

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

and

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populou ...

in 1776. His unfinished ''Histoire de l'anarchie de Pologne'' (4 vols., 1807) was published posthumously under the editorship of PCF Daunou. The only important historical work which he published during his lifetime was his ''Eclaircissements historiques sur les causes de la révocation de l'édit de Nantes ...'' (2 vols., 1788), undertaken in view of the restoration to the Protestants of their

civil rights Civil and political rights are a class of rights that protect individuals' freedom from infringement by governments, social organizations, and private individuals. They ensure one's entitlement to participate in the civil and political life o ...

. Rulhière died at Bondy. His short sketch of the Russian coup d'état of 1762 is justly ranked among the masterpieces of the kind in French. Of the larger ''Poland''

Thomas Carlyle Thomas Carlyle (4 December 17955 February 1881) was a Scottish essayist, historian and philosopher. A leading writer of the Victorian era, he exerted a profound influence on 19th-century art, literature and philosophy. Born in Ecclefechan, Dum ...

, as justly, complains that its allowance of fact is too small in proportion to its bulk. The author was also a fertile writer of ''vers de société'' ("

olite Olite (''Erriberri'' in Basque language) is a town and municipality located in the Comarca de Tafalla comarca, Merindad de Olite merindad, in Navarre, Spain. History According to Isidore of Seville's ''Historia de regibus Gothorum, Vandalor ...

society verses"), short satires, epigrams, etc., and he had a considerable reputation among the witty and ill-natured group also containing

Nicolas Chamfort Sébastien-Roch Nicolas, known in his adult life as Nicolas Chamfort and as Sébastien Nicolas de Chamfort (; 6 April 1741 – 13 April 1794), was a French writer, best known for his epigrams and aphorisms. He was secretary to Louis XVI's siste ...

Antoine de Rivarol Antoine de Rivarol (26 June 175311 April 1801) was a Royalist French writer and translator who lived during the Revolutionary era. He was briefly married to the translator Louisa Henrietta de Rivarol. Biography Rivarol was born in Bagnols, La ...

, Louis René de Champcenetz, etc. On the other hand he has the credit of caring for

Jean-Jacques Rousseau Jean-Jacques Rousseau (, ; 28 June 1712 – 2 July 1778) was a Genevan philosopher, writer, and composer. His political philosophy influenced the progress of the Age of Enlightenment throughout Europe, as well as aspects of the French Revolu ...

in his morose old age, until Rousseau as usual quarrelled with him. Rulhière's works were edited, with a notice by Pierre-René Auguis, in 1819 (Paris, 6 vols. in-8). ''The Russian Revolution'' may be found in the ''Chefs-d'œuvre historiques'' of the '' Collection Didot'', and the Poland, with title altered to ''Révolutions de Pologne'', in the same collection. See also a notice by

Eugène Asse Eugene is a common male given name that comes from the Greek εὐγενής (''eugenēs''), "noble", literally "well-born", from εὖ (''eu''), "well" and γένος (''genos''), "race, stock, kin".Sainte-Beuve, ''Causeries du lundi'' (vol. iv.).

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Rulhiere, Claude-Carloman de 1735 births 1791 deaths People from Bondy 18th-century French historians French poets Members of the Académie Française French male poets French male non-fiction writers