Louis de Rouvroy, duc de Saint‐Simon (French politician and writer) Add a review

Louis de Rouvroy, duc de Saint-Simon, GE (French pronunciation: [lwi də ʁuvʁwa]; 16 January 1675 – 2 March 1755), was a French courtier and memoirist, who also spent time as a soldier and diplomat. He was born in Paris at the Hôtel Selvois, 6 rue Taranne (demolished in 1876 to make way for the Boulevard Saint-Germain). The family's ducal peerage (duché-pairie), granted in 1635 to his father Claude de Rouvroy (1608–1693), served as both perspective and theme in Saint-Simon's life and writings. He was the second and last Duke of Saint-Simon.

His enormous memoirs are a classic of French literature, giving the fullest and most lively account of the court at Versailles of Louis XIV and the Régence at the start of Louis XV's reign. His relationship with Louis XIV was distant and difficult, but he was a life-long friend of Louis' nephew Philippe II, Duke of Orléans, who was made Regent for the infant Louis XV after the old king died. Orleans appointed Saint-Simon to his council and in 1721 made him ambassador to Spain.