Brant, Pierre de Bourdale

Born in Aquitaine , on the territory of the current department of Dordogne , in the family of Francois de Bourdale and Anna de Vivonn. The wife of Marshal de Retz was his cousin.

He spent his childhood at the court of Margarita of Navarre , in the service of which were his mother and grandmother. In 1549 he went to study in Paris , in 1555 he graduated from the University of Poitiers . For his time, Brant was educated: he knew ancient Greek, Latin was somewhat worse, Spanish and High German.

Henry II appointed him commander of the Brantom Abbey. He made friends with the Queen's cousin, Filippo II Strozzi ^[2] , and with him fought against the Turks on the side of the Order of Malta . Visited Spain , Portugal , Morocco and England ; after the death of Francis II, his widow, Mary Stuart , accompanied Scotland .

Having entered the service of the Duke de Guise , he took part in the first battles of the Religious Wars - the siege of Bourges , Blois and Rouen ( 1562 ), in the battle of Dreux ( 1562 ) and the siege of Orleans (1563), where he witnessed the assassination of the Duke de Guise. During the 2nd religious war, at the head of the company he recruited, he participated in the Battle of Saint-Denis (1567). After the battle, he went with his company to Auvergne , where he participated in several battles. At the beginning of the 3rd religious war he was at the headquarters of the Duke of Anjou , but almost did not participate in the battles, as he fell ill with a fever. Participated in the siege of La Rochelle ( 1573 ) as an assistant to Philip Strozzi.

A fall from a horse at the end of 1584 (he had to spend almost two years in bed) forced Brantom to leave public life ^[3] . Having retired to his castle Rishmon, he set about compiling his memoirs in a “historical and anecdotal” way of “gallant” gentlemen and especially the ladies he had known. About this period, Prosper Merimee, in his preface to Brantom's complete works, wrote: “... having reached maturity, Brantom began to notice that he spent his best years without much benefit and did nothing for his exaltation. Content with appearances, he neglected reality. He passionately sought the friendship of the greats of this world, but he too clearly showed them that his devotion can be bought at the cost of a smile and kind words. He pretended to neglect the honors, and he was caught at the word. He saw, however, that his former associates had occupied high posts, became important dignitaries, and that he, the universal favorite, was still looked upon as an insignificant person. After years of success with the ladies and many love affairs, he remained lonely at an age when it is already difficult to tie oneself with legal ties and it is almost ridiculous to seek easy victories .

Brant died on July 5, 1614 in his castle.

All works appeared in print only after his death. Brantom's memoirs (originally in 9 volumes, Leiden, 1665-1666) consist of:

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  Portrait of Brantom.
  “Biographies of famous foreign commanders” are historical portraits of Emperor Charles V, Emperor Maximilian , Duke of Alba , Ferdinand of Aragon , Spanish King Philip , don Carlos , don Juan of Austria , Count Egmont , Prince of Orange , Caesar Borgia , Philip Strozzi and . (Brantom personally knew many of them, one way or another he encountered, he witnessed their political and military days and deeds). In a sense, here we have real memoirs, portraits made up of personal impressions.
• “Biographies of famous French military leaders” - portraits of Charles VIII , Louis XI , Louis XII , Francis I , Henry II , Charles IX, Connable Ann de Montmorency , Blaise de Montluck , de Brissac , Duke de Guise . Much of this book is written on personal impressions, but also a lot - on other people's stories or some other materials.
• "Biographies of famous women." Here Brantom writes about Anna of Breton (whom he could not know), about Catherine de Medici (who knew very well), about Mary Stuart , the Spanish Queen Elizabeth of France , about her beloved Queen of France and Navarre Margarita , the only surviving representative of the venerable French House ", Puts a brief" review "of maids of honor and court ladies of his era.
• His main work, which brought him world fame, is “Gallant ladies” ^[3] (sometimes considered the second part of “Biographies of famous women”), but if in “Biographies ...” everyone and everyone was certainly named after them, then in “Gallant ladies” "There are almost no names, it is written so frankly and so without respect for decency that it would be unworthy and dangerous to name names (" If I touch on some persons, I do not mean everyone, not mentioning the names of the affected persons and preserving the veil of secrecy. Moreover, their true faces I hide so well that a guess it’s impossible, which means that they will not follow any shame or suspicion from my words ”). Subsequently, the researchers, almost always accurately, established who is behind the formulas “one beautiful and worthy lady” or “a certain high-prince”.

Merimee wrote about Brantom in the foreword: “ judging the writer by the way he depicted himself, he was primarily a man of good manners, or rather a true son of his age, whose true portrait without major vices and major virtues we will find in his works . It is extremely useful to study them in order to know what the mores and ways of thinking of average people were three hundred years ago . ”

Brantom's memoirs are written lively and are full of jokes . His frankness regarding the private life of court celebrities later, in the Victorian era , seemed scandalous. The author’s unwillingness to give an assessment of even the most licentious, by the standards of the later times, behavior of his heroes allowed the authors of the ESBE to reproach him not only for frivolity, but also for cynicism ^[4] .

Brant also wrote The Discourse on Dueling, Bragging and Oaths of the Spaniards (Rodomontades et jurements des Espagnols) , a sketch of his father’s biography, notes and thoughts about Spain.

Merimee concluded his preface to the publication of Brantom’s writings with the following words: “ despite the inclination to portray the facts related to him, Brantom, we think, is strikingly sincere: he probably belonged to the category of people who feel the need to talk about themselves and be ecstatic from their own person indiscriminately and good and bad; they are simply incapable of hiding anything, for any event with their participation seems to them worthy of the memory of posterity . "

• A person is as many times a person as many languages ​​he knows (attributed to Emperor Charles V).
• I knew a lady who often used to say to her husband that he would rather make him a thief rather than a horn; since both of these titles are very ambiguous, the spouses, presumably, could boast a little bit of both.
• After all, we must admit that the nature of these charming creatures is such that the stricter the ban, the more the flames flare up, and it is impossible to keep track of everything.
• And there are those who — in annoyance that surrendered to another, and not to them — are zealous in zeal and track, trap and watch to provide more evidence of their own truthfulness.
• This is how loving creatures, giving themselves entirely to their chosen ones, expose their honor to many dangers, and if they extract from it the honors, means and methods of exaltation, then they do not oppose this at all.
• This is what a sizzling passion can be in a woman! So, experienced bakers explained to me that an old oven is easier to heat up than a new one; and having warmed up, it keeps heat better and gives tastier breads.
• Juno, Venus, Thetis, Ceres and other goddesses, each and every one, despised the name of the "maiden", except Athena, who jumped out of Jupiter's head, thereby proving that girlhood is just a concept born in the head.

• “A woman must have three things black: eyes, eyelids and eyebrows; three are thin: fingers, lips, hair, etc. You can consult Brantom about the rest ”( Prosper Merime ,“ Carmen ”).
• “To the troubles inseparable from the life of a man, do not add family worries, jealousy, etc. etc. Not to mention the cocuage (the position of a cuckold) that I read the other day in Brantom the other day. ” (letter of November 6, 1833, Pushkin A.S. to his wife).
• “Few low, insignificant souls left their mark - what names you will not find with Brantom!” ( Vladimir Nabokov , Shakespeare).
• Brantom's compositions were used by Merimet, Victor Hugo , Dumas (father) , Balzac , Ponson du Terail , Stefan Zweig , Heinrich Mann , Guy Breton and others when creating their works.

• "Gallant Ladies" (Dames galantes) - dir. Jean-Charles Tuckell, starring Richard Borenger France, 1990. The film is not a direct adaptation of Brantom's book.

• Margarita of Navarre
• Henri Soval

• Tallemans de Reo, Gideon
• Saint-Simon, Louis de Rouvroix

• Brant, Pierre // Brockhaus and Efron Encyclopedic Dictionary : in 86 volumes (82 volumes and 4 additional). - SPb. , 1890-1907.
• Brant Pierre. Gallant ladies. Per. Volevich I.Ya. M .: ABC-Classic, 2007
• Merimee P. Sobr. Op .: 6 vols., M .: Pravda, 1963.Vol. 5, pp. 211-234.

• Pierre de Brantome . - article from Encyclopædia Britannica Online . Date of treatment September 3, 2013.
• Complete Works of Abbot Brantom (Fr.)
• http://gw.geneanet.org/garric?lang=fr;p=pierre;n=de+bourdeilles