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Article: La Rochefoucauld, François, Duc De (1613–1680)
- Article from:
- Europe, 1450 to 1789: Encyclopedia of the Early Modern World
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LA ROCHEFOUCAULD, FRAN
Ç
OIS, DUC DE (1613
–
1680)
LA ROCHEFOUCAULD, FRAN
Ç
OIS, DUC DE
(1613
–
1680), French writer. A peer of France who later became a leading moralist in the French classical age, La Rochefoucauld, the eldest son of a provincial nobleman and courtier from the Angoumois in western France, was groomed early to inherit the family name, title, and estate. His formative reading centered more upon popular romance than the classical canon, as he acquired his nickname from a character in the serialized novel
Astr
é
e.
Married at fifteen when he was still the prince of Marcillac, he soon embarked upon a military career. Starting in the middle 1630s, he ...