Marguerite de Lussan
Marguerite de Lussan was an eighteenth century French historical novelist.
Biography
De Lussan was born in Paris in around 1682. It was rumoured that she was a natural daughter of Louis Thomas of Savoy-Carignano, Count of Soissons, born from his relationship with an unknown courtesan or a fortune teller named La Fleury, the latter theory appearing to be preferred by "modern research". At any rate, the prince "took a special interest in her education and permitted her to bear his arms", and she remained on friendly terms with her alleged uncle, Prince Eugene of Savoy.De Lussan was a historic novelist, encouraged to write by the scholar Pierre Daniel Huet. She based her writing on research that she conducted in chronicles and manuscripts. She dedicated her first novel to the novelist and playwright Jean-Louis-Ignace de La Serre, sieur de Langlade, an "intimate friend" and possible lover.
De Lussan's work Anecdotes de la Cour de Philippe-Auguste is noted as contrasting the story of two heroines and the consequences of their responses to the diktats of their parents.
De Lussan died from acute gastritis on 31 May 1758 in Paris, when she was aged 75.