Memoirs of the Marchioness de La Rochejaquelein

This eyewitness account of the Royalist revolt in La Vendée against the French Revolution was first published in 1815 by the widow of two Royalist generals. Written for her children, it has great immediacy and remains a valuable historical source. This 1827 edition includes a preface by Sir Walter Scott.

Marie-Louise Victoire de Donnissan, Marquise de la Rochejaquelein (1772–1857) was brought up at Versailles, a god-daughter to Louis XVI. At the outbreak of the French Revolution, she married her cousin, the Marquis de Lescure. After the execution of the king, she accompanied Lescure to La Vendée where a Royalist insurrection was waged from 1793 to 1796. Widowed in 1793, she later married Lescure's cousin, Louis, Marquis de La Rochejacquelein, brother of one of the Royalist leaders. Her memoir, first published in 1815 and translated and reprinted many times, remains one of the most authentic records of this period. Although understandably partisan, she reports atrocities carried out by both sides with great immediacy. This reissue is taken from the 1827 Edinburgh edition, with a preface by Sir Walter Scott. Scott draws parallels between the Vendéen insurrection and the civil war in Scotland waged by the Covenanters.