Roger de Rabutin, Comte de Bussy

Who was Roger de Rabutin, Comte de Bussy?

Roger de Rabutin, Comte de Bussy, commonly known as Bussy-Rabutin, was a French memoirist. He was the cousin and frequent correspondent of Madame de Sévigné.

Born at Epiry, near Autun, he represented a family of distinction in Burgundy, and his father, Léonor de Rabutin, was lieutenant general of the province of Nivernais.

Roger was the third son, but by the death of his elder brothers became the representative of the family. He studied first at the Jesuit school in Autun, and then at the College de Clermont. He left to enter the army when he was only sixteen and fought in several campaigns, succeeding his father in the office of mestre de camp. He participated in the 1634 siege of La Mothe-en-Bassigny in Lorraine under the direction of maréchal de La Force. He himself tells us that his two ambitions were to become "honnête homme" and to distinguish himself in arms, but luck was against him. In 1641 he was sent to the Bastille by Richelieu for some months as a punishment for neglect of his duties in his pursuit of gallantry.

In 1643 he married a cousin, Gabrielle de Toulongeon, and for a short time he left the army.