Tan calf binding with raised banding, red title plate, gilt decoration and title on the spine.

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A very rare book recounting ‘a’ history of the Marquis de Langalle. This book (please view the photographs) is in good condition and is of sound provenance which is more than be said of the contents.

Phillippe de Gentil, Marquis de Langallerie or Langalerie the first Baron of Saintonge (* Lyon 24 September 1661  ; † 18 September 1717 in Vienna , according to other sources in Raab, today’s Hungarian Győr ) was a French nobleman who achieved scandalous fame in the early 18th century as a high-ranking military officer in several press campaigns: in 1706 with his publicly proclaimed change of sides to imperial Austrian service, in 1711 with his equally public conversion from the Catholic to the Reformed religion and in 1716 as the leader of a new religious movement which, according to public suspicion, was close to overthrowing the Pope in Rome with Turkish support and reorganising the balance of power in the Mediterranean.

Langallerie was captured in Stade in 1716. The Comte de Linange, Prince de Chabonois in Aurich , who was allegedly involved in his projects ; both were transferred to Vienna in the summer of 1716. The information about Langallerie’s place of birth and death differ. Most sources note that he died in Vienna after refusing food while in prison, others suggest that he was taken to Raab, today’s Győr in Hungary .  A number of writings, many of them fictional, were associated with his name during his lifetime.

Life: The information about Langallerie’s origins differs, as does his age and the number of marriages he had. Existing research agrees that he owes his military career to his willingness to enter into a marriage offered to him by Madame de Maintenon in 1687 with the then 46-year-old widow of President Francis Simiane de la Coste, Marie Anne de Pourroy, who was the chief lady-in-waiting at the court of Louis XIV and brought four adult children into the marriage. The marriage secured his wife and children and brought Langallerie courtly protection.

Military career: In the French army, he had a rapid career in the wars of the late 17th century, which ultimately culminated in the War of the Spanish Succession , and rose to the rank of lieutenant general. He received protection from Catinat , Villeroi and Vendôme . From 1704 onwards, Langallerie , together with Claude Alexandre de Bonneval, was accused of embezzling money – Italian war contributions amounting to 60,000 livres . When War Minister Michel Chamillart summoned him to Paris for an investigation, he – like Bonneval – evaded further proceedings by switching to imperial service. Both defectors attained high positions in the Austrian army in the circle of Eugene of Savoy and both took part in the siege of Turin in the summer of 1706 , which cost France control of northern Italy.

In 1707, Langallerie and Bonneval were executed in France ” in effigy “. Unlike Bonneval, however, Langallerie did not manage to establish a stable position in Austrian service. He seems to have made offers of service in all directions – successfully in Saxony, where he obtained a third high-ranking position as field marshal. In Dresden, now widowed, he married a second time, Jeanne Marguerite de Frere , born in 1686 ,  a reformed Huguenot who had fled to Germany and who, as far as can be seen, gave his life further religious orientation.

Conversion, private marital disaster and religious projects: On 19 July 1711, Langallerie converted from the Catholic to the Reformed religion with considerable press effort. A message launched to the newspapers spread throughout Europe via the Gazette de Leyde . An official justification was published in Frankfurt an der Oder with a view to the newspaper notice; it was received as far as England. The striking publication suggests that the religious conversion occurred with political calculation. Frederick I , the incumbent King of Prussia, was friendly towards the Reformed religion, the conversion took place geographically close to Berlin at the French Church in Frankfurt an der Oder , he involved Samuel Strimesius from the University of Frankfurt , who maintained good relations with the Berlin court and in 1703 took part in talks about a religious union as a negotiator for the Reformed.

Langallerie was unable to find further protection in Berlin. He decided to apply in Kassel – Landgrave Charles of Hesse-Kassel was known for his open-minded attitude towards reformed Frenchmen. However, his stay at court turned into a private disaster after the regent became more interested in Langallerie’s wife; she became mistress at court,  a situation that Langallerie escaped through several trips and an increasingly religiously motivated “projecting”. Contacts with Jews and reformed communities took him through Germany and, for the first time, to the Netherlands. He began a second trip to the Netherlands on 14 April 1714, going directly via Marburg , Coesfeld and Amersfoort to Amsterdam, where he arrived on 18 April.

In the Netherlands he stayed mainly in Amsterdam, with two stays in The Hague. During this time he wrote a major theological publication, the Christian Diary , which opened on 20 June 1713 , a politically oriented synthesis of the Christian religion. In addition, he maintained an extensive correspondence on religious and political topics and contacts with French Reformed congregations, the Jewish community in Amsterdam and the press. During both stays in The Hague he met with Madame DuNoyer , the most important author of current political gossip in the French language.

The Universal Theocracy project entered a new stage in February 1715, when Langallerie signed a contract with the impostor René Godeffroi Le Hachard, Comte de Linange, Prince de Chabanois , whose main goal was to overthrow “the hideous monster, the Pope”. Linange posed as the “Admiralissimus of the Theocracy” – Langallerie acted as its Generalissimo – in the new project outlines, which linked the Order of the Incarnate Word of God with a trade and colonization project.  Linange had his own experience in setting up projects as the “King of the Occupation of Angleport”, a fictitious island kingdom off Madagascar , which he represented with a trading company as the main source of income. Linange’s projects were decidedly speculative and fraudulent projects. He had previously persuaded wealthy French nobles to participate in risky projects and had already been imprisoned twice in France.

In addition, Langallerie concluded a contract with Osman Aga, the Turkish representative, to arrange the overthrow of the Pope in a military coup in an alliance with Turkey. In fact, at the beginning of 1716, Langallerie and Linange suddenly had considerable financial resources and surrounded themselves with a conspicuous entourage . The servants were dressed in the same uniform. All those involved showed their solidarity with a yellow feather, without it being clear why. Linange and Langallerie gathered settlers and elevated those interested in the theocracy to high official positions. Even before the arrest in the Netherlands, it was suspected that Turkish money was behind the lavish outfit of the entourage.

Capture and death: The arrest of Langallerie and Linange was preceded by indiscretions by his secretary Meyer, which T. O’Connor (1999) proved: Langallerie conferred with Swedish envoys in the Netherlands on 6 April 1716. He then instructed his secretary to translate the text of the treaty he had concluded with the Turks into German (a language the Swedes could understand). Meyer in turn sold a copy of the treaty to the Austrian resident Baron von Heems, who forwarded the news to the Vatican envoy Vincenzo Santini in Brussels the same day . Santini, in turn, commissioned a Florentine agent, Sebastiano Tani, to observe Langallerie and Linange and, in the same context, expressed his uncertainty on April 16, 1716, as to whether the circulating rumors had not been staged by Meyer in order to extort money from the imperial or Vatican contacts. Meyer had turned to Santini on April 9, posing as the savior of Christianity and demanding a small compensation to support his family in return for more information, which suggested the suspicion of fraud. Tani monitored Langallerie and informed von Heems and Santini with details that match Langallerie’s diaries: the latter conducted negotiations in all directions, visited a shipbuilder in Sardam and noted in passing that an Italian spy was observing him. The arrest warrants were finally issued by the Imperial Austrian authorities in Vienna on May 30, 1716; however, the Vatican in Rome appears to have exerted the pressure that led Vienna to take up the case. Great Britain had to agree to Langallerie’s extradition to Vienna after Stade, where Langallerie and his entourage were arrested, became Hanoverian and thus fell under the sphere of influence of George I , who had ruled in London since 1714. As a condition for Langallerie’s extradition, Hanover and Great Britain demanded that the prisoners neither be tortured nor executed. After interrogations in Stade and Aurich, they were subsequently transferred to Vienna for further investigation in a costly process, where a second series of investigations took place.

Langallerie and Linange were convicted in Vienna of planning to conspire with the Turks. Both were sentenced to life imprisonment. Langallerie died in 1717. No details are known about Linange’s end.

Literature – texts attributed to Langallerie: Two memoirs were attributed to Langallerie during the 18th century. Both are puzzling. The riddle of the first attribution is that it is first found in a translation in England and only then in an edition of a comparable French publication – and there only for the duration of a single edition.