D'Artagnan

Charles de Batz-Castelmore, Comte d'Artagnan (c. Lupiac 1611 - 25 June, Maastricht 1673) served Louis XIV as captain of the Musketeers of the Guard and died at the Siege of Maastricht in the Franco-Dutch War. A fictionalized account of his life by Gatien de Courtilz de Sandras formed the basis for the d'Artagnan Romances of Alexandre Dumas, most famously including "The Three Musketeers".

Early life

D'Artagnan was born in Lupiac. His father was the son of a newly ennobled merchant, Arnaud de Batz, who purchased the castle of Castelmore. Charles de Batz went to Paris in the 1630s, using the name of his mother, daughter of an illustrious family, Françoise de Montesquiou d'Artagnan. D'Artagnan found a way to enter into the Musketeers in 1632, perhaps thanks to the influence of his family's friend, Monsieur de Tréville (Jean-Armand du Peyrer, Count of Troisvilles). While in the Musketeers, d'Artagnan sought the protection of the influential Cardinal Mazarin, France's principal minister since 1643. In 1646, the Musketeers company was dissolved, but d'Artagnan continued to serve his protector Mazarin.

Career

D'Artagnan had a career in espionage for Cardinal Mazarin, in the years after the first Fronde. Due to d'Artagnan's faithful service during this period, Louis XIV entrusted him with many secret and delicate situations that required complete discretion. He followed Mazarin during his exile in 1651 in the face of the hostility of the aristocracy. In 1652 d'Artagnan was promoted to lieutenant in the Gardes Françaises, then to captain in 1655. In 1658, he became a second lieutenant in the newly reformed Musketeers. This was a promotion, as the Musketeers were far more prestigious than the Gardes-Françaises.

D'Artagnan was famous for his connection with the arrest of Nicolas Fouquet. Fouquet was Louis XIV's finance commissioner and aspired to take the place of Mazarin as the King's advisor. Fouquet was also a lover of grand architecture and employed the greatest architects and artisans in the building of his Chateau Vaux-le-Vicomte. He celebrated the completion with a most extravagant feast, in which every guest was given a horse. The king however felt upstaged by the grandeur of the home and event and, suspecting that such magnificence could only be explained through Fouquet pilfering the royal treasury, immediately had d'Artagnan arrest Fouquet. D'Artagnan guarded him for four years until Fouquet was sentenced to life imprisonment.

In 1667, d'Artagnan was promoted to captain-lieutenant of the Musketeers, effectively the commander as the nominal captain was the King. As befitting his rank and position, he could be identified by his striking burgundy, white and black livery - the colours of the commanding officer of the Musketeers. Another of d'Artagnan's assignments was the governorship of Lille, which was won in battle by France in 1667. D'Artagnan was an unpopular governor, and longed to return to battle. He found his chance when Louis XIV went to war with the Dutch Republic in the Franco-Dutch War. After being recalled to service, d'Artagnan was subsequently killed in battle on June 25 1673 when a musket ball tore into his throat at the Siege of Maastricht.

In fiction

D'Artagnan's life was used as the basis for Gatien de Courtilz de Sandras' (1644-1712) novel "Les mémoires de M. d'Artagnan". Alexandre Dumas in turn used de Sandras' novel as the main source for his d'Artagnan Romances ("The Three Musketeers", "Twenty Years After", and "The Vicomte de Bragelonne"), which cover d'Artagnan's career from his humble life's beginnings in Gascony to his death at Maastricht. Although Dumas knew that de Sandras' version was heavily fictionalised, in the preface to "The Three Musketeers" he affected to believe that the memoirs were real, in order to make his novel more believable.

The character is initially a hotheaded youth, and tries to engage the Comte de Rochefort and the three musketeers, Athos, Porthos, and Aramis in single combat. He quickly becomes friends with the musketeers, and has a series of adventures which put him at odds with Cardinal Richelieu, then First Minister of France. In the end, Richelieu is impressed by D'Artagnan, and makes him a Lieutenant of the Musketeers. This begins his long career of military service, as detailed in the sequels to Dumas' famous novel.

Another Comte d'Artagnan, Pierre de Montesquiou (1645–1725), contributed the idea that Dumas' d'Artagnan should become a Marshal of France.

French poet Edmond Rostand wrote the play "Cyrano de Bergerac" in 1897. After one of the play's famous scenes, in which Cyrano defeats Valvert in a duel while completing a poem, d'Artagnan approaches Cyrano and congratulates him on his fine swordsmanship.

The Baroness Emma Orczy's "Scarlet Pimpernel" series has a character named Baron Charles de Batz, a scheming, Machiavellian royalist who is willing to betray Sir Percy Blakeney to advance his own agendas. The name was probably selected as an in-joke, as the character is the polar opposite of the hero of the d'Artagnan series.

Neal Stephenson's "The Baroque Cycle" mentions the historical figure in passing, when a character recounts looting his corpse.

In a manga, Belmonde le Visiteur, D'Artagnan is the name of the main antagonist, along with his friends the musketeers.

In film, music, and television

Many moviemakers have been inspired by Alexandre Dumas' novel. Actors who have played d'Artagnan on screen include:

*Aimé Simon-Girard, in "Les Trois Mousquetaires (1921 film)"
*Douglas Fairbanks, in "The Three Musketeers" (1921), and "The Iron Mask" (1929)
*Walter Abel, in "The Three Musketeers" (1935)
*Don Ameche, in "The Three Musketeers" (1939)
*Warren William, in "The Man in the Iron Mask" (1939)
*Gene Kelly, in "The Three Musketeers" (1948)
*Cornel Wilde, in "At Sword's Point" (1952)
*Laurence Payne, in "The Three Musketeers" (TV serial) (1954)
*Maximilian Schell, in "The Three Musketeers" (TV movie) (1960)
*Gerard Barrais, in "Les Trois Mousquetaires" (French) (1963)
*Jeremy Brett, in "The Three Musketeers" (TV serial) (1966)
*Sancho Gracia, "Los Tres Mosqueteros" (TV Series) (1971)
*Michael York, in "The Three Musketeers" (1973), "The Four Musketeers" (1974), "The Return of the Musketeers" (1989), and "La Femme Musketeer" (TV miniseries) (2003)
*Mikhail Boyarsky, in "d'Artagnan and Three Musketeers" (1978) and its sequels (1992, 1993)
*Louis Jourdan, in "The Man in the Iron Mask" (TV Movie) (1977)
*Cornel Wilde, in "The Fifth Musketeer" (1979)
*Chris O'Donnell, in "The Three Musketeers" (1993)
*Philippe Noiret, in "D'Artagnan's Daughter" (1994)
*Gabriel Byrne, in "The Man in the Iron Mask" (1998)
*Justin Chambers, in "The Musketeer" (2001)
*Hugh Dancy, in "Young Blades" (2001)

Musical artist Citizen Cope mentions D'Artagnan in his album The Clarence Greenwood Recordings in the song D'Artagnan's Theme.

External links

* [http://crossroads.journalismcentre.com/2006/remembering-d%e2%80%99artagnan-in-maastricht/ D'Artagnan's death at the 1673 siege of Maastricht] , an article by Dr Hennie Reuvers in [http://crossroads.journalismcentre.com/ Crossroads] web magazine