Charles-Joseph de Ligne, ghostwriter of fictional Eugene memoirs, doesn't think so. He has Eugene declare that no one, including the Huguenots Louis kicked out of France, hated Louis more than himself.
There is not a Huguenot, expelled by the revocation of the edict of Nantz [usually spelled "Nantes"; Henri IV's edict of religious tolerance] , who hated him more than I did. Therefore, when Louvois [secretary of state for war], hearing of my departure, said, "so much the better, he will never return into this country again,"--I swore never to enter it, but with arms in my hands. I HAVE KEPT MY WORD.
I have penetrated it on many sides, and it is not my fault that I have not gone further. But for the English, I had given law in the capital of the Grand Monarque, and made his MAINTENON shut herself up in a convent for life.
Those were the paragraphs that made me go..."Could be fake." Eugene having a grudge is one thing, but Eugene being the kind of person who would write this in the preface to his memoirs is quite another (even with memoirs-as-therapy), for which I had no evidence based on what I have read about him. I could be wrong, but given the amount of fanfic passing as memoirs out there, I had my suspicions.
It surprised me not at all when you said the author "wanted to vent about the French (post Diplomatic Revolution Austria's allies, about which de Ligne was not happy)," which makes perfect sense. I'm glad it was first person fanfic rather than an intent to deceive, though, more ethical and also extremely relatable. ;)
Re: War of the Spanish Succession: French, Dutch, and Bavarian Backstories: Fictional annotations
We have to share the quote with
There is not a Huguenot, expelled by the revocation of the edict of Nantz [usually spelled "Nantes"; Henri IV's edict of religious tolerance] , who hated him more than I did. Therefore, when Louvois [secretary of state for war], hearing of my departure, said, "so much the better, he will never return into this country again,"--I swore never to enter it, but with arms in my hands. I HAVE KEPT MY WORD.
I have penetrated it on many sides, and it is not my fault that I have not gone further. But for the English, I had given law in the capital of the Grand Monarque, and made his MAINTENON shut herself up in a convent for life.
Those were the paragraphs that made me go..."Could be fake." Eugene having a grudge is one thing, but Eugene being the kind of person who would write this in the preface to his memoirs is quite another (even with memoirs-as-therapy), for which I had no evidence based on what I have read about him. I could be wrong, but given the amount of fanfic passing as memoirs out there, I had my suspicions.
It surprised me not at all when you said the author "wanted to vent about the French (post Diplomatic Revolution Austria's allies, about which de Ligne was not happy)," which makes perfect sense. I'm glad it was first person fanfic rather than an intent to deceive, though, more ethical and also extremely relatable. ;)