biography
| name: |
Brantôme, Pierre de
|
| |
in full Pierre de Bourdeille, Abbé et seigneur de (Lord of) Brantôme
|
pronunciation:
[brãtohm]
| sex:
| male
|
| lived:
| (c.1530–1614)
|
| biography:
| Soldier and writer of memoirs, born in Périgord, SW France. From a high aristocratic family, he followed a military career, took part in the Wars of Religion and fought against the Turks on his return from Scotland, where he had accompanied Mary, Queen of Scots. He visited the court of Henry II, who gave him the abbey of Brantôme. A fall from a horse in 1584 left him paralysed, from which time he began to write Mémoires de Messire Pierre de Bourdeilles, the many biographies which would be published posthumously (1665–6). Full of anecdotes, sometimes spicy, they are still read today, and comprise Les Vies des dames illustres, Les Vies des dames galantes, Les Vies des hommes illustres et des grands capitaines français, and Les Vies des hommes illustres et des grands capitaines étrangers. |
|
|
