René Auguste Constantin de Renneville

Who was René Auguste Constantin de Renneville?

René Auguste Constantin de Renneville, was a French writer.

He was born at Caen. Because of his Protestant principles, Renneville left France for the Netherlands in 1699. On his return three years later he was denounced as a spy and imprisoned in the Bastille, where he remained until 1713. During his imprisonment he wrote a series of poems on the margins of a copy of Auteurs déguisés, which he called Otia bastiliaca. These were rediscovered by James Tregaskis in 1906.

Renneville was freed through the intercession of Queen Anne, and made his way to England. There he wrote his Histoire de la Bastille published in 1715 and 1719 in Amsterdam with Étienne Roger, a publisher who addressed the European market. The publication was dedicated to George I and appeared simultaneously in an abridged English and an illustrated German edition. A Dutch edition followed in 1717. At the time of his death in 1723 he was a major of artillery in the service of the elector of Hesse. His other important work is a Recueil des voyages qui ont servi a l'établissement de la Compagnie des Indes Orientales aux Provinces Unies.