Paul de Rapin

Paul de Rapin (25 March 1661 – 25 April 1725), sieur of Thoyras (and therefore styled de Rapin de Thoyras), was a Huguenot historian writing under English patronage. His History of England, written and first published in French in 1724–27, was an influential exposition of the Whig view of history on both sides of the English Channel. Early life and education The son of Jacques de Rapin, an avocat at Castres (Tarn); his mother Jeanne was the sister of Paul Pellisson, official historian to Louis XIV. He was educated at the Academy of Saumur, a Protestant academic institution. Career In 1679, he became an advocate, but he never practised law. Soon after, he joined the army. The revocation of the Edict of Nantes in 1685, and the death of his father led him to move to England with his brother. Inclined to a military career, but unable to find work, he went on to the Dutch Republic where he enlisted in a company of French army cadets at Utrecht, commanded by his cousin, Daniel de Rapin. Rapin met the 15-years-old Jean de Bodt and seven-year old Jean de Collas also Huguenots. They accompanied William III to England in 1688 (Glorious Revolution); Collas became a page of the queen Mary II of England. De Rapin and de Both joined in Ulster under the command of the 1st Earl of Athlone. During the Williamite war in Ireland de Rapin took part in the Siege of Carrickfergus, the Battle of the Boyne, and was wounded at the Siege of Limerick (1690). Soon afterwards he was promoted to captain; but in 1693 he was asked to become tutor to the Henry, Viscount Woodstock. Rapin accompanied his father William Bentinck, 1st Earl of Portland, a diplomat, at the Peace of Ryswick (1697), perhaps also to Paris in the year after; in a very costly entourage. Bentinck was sent as ambassador to Paris for six months. While there, he opened negotiations with Louis XIV for a partition of the Spanish monarchy, and as William's representative, signed the two partition treaties, known as the Treaty of The Hague (1698). Because of this Treaty all the diplomats settled in the Hague. In April 1699 Paul de Rapin married the widow Marie-Anne Testart (1676–1749) in a tiny village called Sloterdijk outside Amsterdam.