Bassompierre, FRANÇOIS DE

Bassompierre, FRANÇOIS DE, Marshal of France, was born in 1579 at Harouel, in Lorraine, and came at the age of twenty to the French court, where he gained the favour of Henry IV. Appointed colonel of the Swiss Guards after the king's murder, he was raised to the rank of Marshal of France in 1622; was sent on embassies to Spain, Switzerland, and England; and bore an active part in the siege of La Rochelle. He became, however, an object of suspicion and dislike to Richelieu, who caused him to be cast into the Bastille in February 1631, from which he was not liberated until 1643, after the death of Richelieu. He himself died in 1646. Bassompierre was an accomplished courtier, extravagant in luxury, and excessively addicted to gallantries. At the time of his arrest he destroyed 6000 love-letters. The best edition of his Journal de ma Vie, written in the Bastille, is by the Marquis de Chantérac (4 vols. Paris, 1870-77).