As you know, the figure of the daring and bold musketeer D'Artagnan is quite reliable. And this character is not a product of the imagination of Mr. Dumas the Elder. However, in his story about the exploits of the brave Gascon, the author nevertheless allowed some liberties by placing the real D'Artagnan in a different historical environment.
There were a lot of D "Artagnans in the history of France. Something about 12 people. And therefore, to say which one of them Dumas had in mind, writing out the image of the restless Gascon, is not so simple. This happens because the writer, as always, is enough freely dealt with history and placed the real prototype in a completely different historical environment. Thus, Charles de Batz Castelmore D "Artagnan, and it is he who, by all accounts, is the prototype of a fictional character, lived in the novel "The Three Musketeers" and acted at the court of Louis XIII and Cardinal Richelieu. Which in reality could not be, because the real D "Artagnan served Cardinal Mazarin and Louis XIV. Dumas simply placed the right hero at the most convenient time for him - the heyday of the musketeer freemen and the end of religious wars.
You understand, the real D "Artagnan could not take part in, say, the siege of La Rochelle. But he participated in completely different, no less interesting state affairs and intrigues than the story with the pendants and the Duke of Buckingham, which had no real However, all this could not affect the childhood and youth of the hero, which almost completely corresponded to the portrait created by Dumas.
Bertrand de Batz - the father of the future musketeer, although he was a nobleman, in fact, never differed in wealth. His house was never an abode of luxury and bears little resemblance to those grandiose castles of the Loire Valley through which we had to pass in search of the noble nest of D "Artagnan. Gascony after French Revolution ceased to be indicated on the maps as an independent region. Nevertheless, the film crew of the "Around the World" program reached the city of Osh without much difficulty. Difficulties began later, when we moved on, in search of the microscopic town of Lupiyak, which, in fact, was the ultimate goal of our route. This city is so small that it was not easy to find it even on the map. D "Artagnan really came from the deepest province that can only be found in France.
The most interesting thing is that in Lupiyak there is only the D "Artagnan Museum, and the Castle of Castelmore itself is not even in this village, but under it, a couple of kilometers. was a real provincial. And even his paternal surname de Batz Castelmore was deliberately replaced by his mother. Since the name of his mother Francoise de Montesquieu D "Artagnan was known in the capital much better, since his roots went back to the ancient Armagnac family.
This house can be called a castle with a big stretch - an ordinary rural mansion. It has been rebuilt more than once, but on the whole it retains the same appearance as it was at the time of the birth of our hero. At the entrance, there is even a memorial plaque in his honor. Nevertheless, we could not get inside, because now, like 400 years ago, it is private property. The gray-haired hostess, reminiscent of a good-natured witch, even casually set her melancholy dog ​​on us. The film crew of the program "Around the World" had no choice but to hastily retreat.
I must say that the Gascons are very proud of their world-famous countryman. That is why a majestic monument was even erected to him in the center of Osh on a pompous staircase overlooking the embankment. Once all memorial Complex looked very impressive. But today, alas, traces of destruction clearly appear on the creation of grateful descendants. Time does not spare not only people, but even the monuments erected in their honor.
How did the Gascon deserve such love in his homeland? Of course, this is mainly the merit of Dumas, who glorified the musketeer, but the life of the prototype was also full of very interesting events. In full accordance with the novel Charles de Batz Castelmore, D "Artagnan, with the help of Mr. de Troyville, enters the regiment of musketeers. Almost the entire life of D" Artagnan from 1730 to 1746 proceeded in the royal guard, of course, in gallant adventures, as well as on the battlefields . At this time, France was conducting many military campaigns. In Germany, in Lorraine, in Picardy. In 1746, D "Artagnan met with Cardinal Mazarin. Very quickly, the Gascon became a man who was used for the most secret and delicate assignments. For example, in 1751 Mazarin faced stiff opposition in Germany from noble lords and their vassals - the Fronde. He sent his indefatigable emissary to enlist the support of his few supporters.
At the same time, Chevalier D "Artagnan, who was about 40 years old, married Baroness Ancharlotte de Saint Lucie de Saint Croix, the widow of a captain killed during the siege of Arras. The lady was very wealthy, which greatly improved the affairs of our Gascon. The marriage agreement was signed as a witness by Cardinal Mazarin.
Meanwhile, D "Artagnan becomes a confidant of Louis XIV. For example, when in 1760 the royal motorcade after the monarch's wedding returns from a trip to the provinces, it is D" Artagnan that rides ahead of the motorcade. At this time, the life of the Gascon mainly unfolds in Versailles. Having earned the absolute trust of the king, D'Artagnan becomes the executor of especially important and dangerous assignments. It was he who was charged with the arrest of the Duke of Fouquet, the powerful finance minister, who was too rich and even richer than the king, which caused the envy of the latter, as well as powerful opponents - Ministers Colbert and Le Tenier. Fouquet was arrested by D "Artagnan and escorted to the Bastille and the fortress of Finerol.
In 1767, Charles de Batz finally officially became Count D "Artagnan. Six years later, he participates in a campaign in Flanders, which as a result became fatal for him. On July 10, 1773, the siege of Maastricht began. Trying to take the main height and knock out from there the Dutch, D "Artagnan walked at the head of the army and won. However, when everything is over, it turns out that 80 musketeers and their brave captain are dead. The king mourned his faithful servant, who gave him more than 40 years, and ordered a memorial service to be served in his personal chapel. Chars de Batz died, and D "Artagnan became a legend.








The fact that the famous D "Artagnan actually existed has long been considered indisputable. Many even read his memoirs translated into Russian. But few people know that there is no more truth in this work than in Dumas's novels, and his hero is not at all similar to the musketeer who lived and performed his exploits during the time of Louis XIV - the Sun King. Yes, and it seems that he did not write any memoirs. Nevertheless, the magnificent Gascon - no matter whether natural or synthesized - continues to be "read". First published in 1844, The Three Musketeers has been translated into 45 languages ​​and has sold more than 70 million copies and has been made into 43 films.

By 1843, Alexandre Dumas knew all of Paris. The forty-year-old son of a mulatto general became famous for his plays and feuilletons, saloon witticisms and loud love affairs. Not so long ago he took up the writing of historical novels and now jumped out of bed at the light of day and grabbed a pen. Enormous, disheveled, he scribbled entire reams of paper with lightning speed. He shouted from behind the door to his friends who came to visit: “Wait, my friend, Muse is visiting me!” For a year, Dumas brought down three or four plump volumes on readers. This gave rise to the legend that a whole team of "literary blacks" worked for him. In fact, he wrote himself, and entrusted his assistants only with the selection and verification of material. Chief among his "Negroes" was Auguste Maquet - a nondescript subject with a memory-archive, where little-known details of the past were stored. Together they made an ideal couple: Macke, the reasoner, extinguished the excessive enthusiasm of his ardent boss.

One fine day, Dumas went to the Royal Library to look for material for the next novel. In a pile of books, he came across an old tome called "Memoirs of Mr. D" Artagnan, lieutenant commander of the first company of the royal musketeers. He vaguely remembered that this was the name of some military leader of the era he was interested in, and asked a kind librarian for a book at home The memoirs were published in 1704 in Amsterdam at the printing house of Pierre Rouge - there were published works banned in France. The book really contained scandalous details about the life of the royal court, but they were not too interested in Dumas. He liked the hero himself much more - a brave Gascon, at every turn getting into dangerous adventures.I liked his comrades with the sonorous names of Athos, Porthos and Aramis.Soon Dumas announced that he had found Athos's memoirs in the same library, which spoke about the new adventures of fellow musketeers.He simply invented this book , thereby continuing the baton of hoaxes begun by the author of the so-called "Memoirs of D" Artagnan.


Memoirs of D'Artagnan. 1704 edition

In fact, this book was written by Gascien de Courtille de Sandra, a poor nobleman born in 1644. Not having succeeded in the military field, he took up literature, namely, writing fake memoirs of famous people with a lot of scandalous revelations. For his activities, he served several years in the Bastille, then fled to Holland and there he took up his old ways. Having composed, among other things, the memoirs of a musketeer, he returned to his homeland in 1705, naively hoping for a short memory of the royal servants. He was immediately seized and returned to the fortress, from where he left shortly before his death. The tabloid author was incorrigible: even in prison, he managed to compose the "History of the Bastille" with a mass of tales about the horrors of this ancient dungeon. But his most famous work, no doubt, was the memoirs of D "Artagnan, although already in that era few people believed in their authenticity. "What impudence! - some old warrior was indignant. does not belong to a single line!” Courtil himself claimed that he used the authentic notes of D "Artagnan, allegedly confiscated after the death of the latter by a specially sent royal official. But this is unlikely - although the musketeer was literate, he owned a pen much worse than a sword, and he hardly wrote anything other than IOUs. Moreover, even the most desperate braggart would not write about himself like the hero of Curtil. On every page he fights, weaves intrigues, avoids traps, seduces beautiful ladies - and always wins. Later, the researchers found that the writer invented almost nothing. He simply attributed to his D "Artagnan the affairs of a good dozen thugs and spies who served various masters in the conflicts that shook France. Dumas continued the same tradition, forcing his musketeer to bravely object to Cardinal Richelieu and help Queen Anne in the story with diamond pendants. By the way, she herself this story was probably made up famous writer La Rochefoucauld, to whom Courtil attributed other false memoirs.

Did Dumas know about the true origin of D'Artagnan's book? Most likely he knew, but it did not bother him. He said that history is just a nail on which he hangs his colorful paintings. Another thing was embarrassing: the musketeer from the memories looked brave, cunning ", dexterous, but not too pretty. He was a typical mercenary, ready to serve the highest bidder, and fearlessly slashing the right and the wrong with a sword if they got in his way. His attitude towards women was also far from romanticism. The writer had to work over the image of his hero, giving him some of his features.The result was the novel "The Three Musketeers", published in 1844. The noble Gascon depicted there forever won the hearts of readers, but scientists - both historians and writers - were not satisfied. and Dumas as impostors, they have been searching for the true D "Artagnan for a century and a half.

Not only D "Artagnan
The adventure classics of the 18th-19th centuries produced many bright heroes, and almost all of them have prototypes in real history. D "Artagnan is just one example. Another is the German baron Hieronymus Karl Friedrich von Munchausen (1720-1797), about unusual fate which "Around the World" told last year. It is worth recalling that he not only survived both of his authors - Raspe and Burger, but also threatened them with a trial for insulting his baronial dignity. The hero of Daniel Defoe's 1719 novel Robinson Crusoe was known to be the British sailor Alexander Selkirk (1676-1720). True, he spent desert island four years instead of twenty-eight, and it was in the Juan Fernandez Islands, and not in Tobago, as Defoe wrote. The hero of Alphonse Daudet's novel Tartarin of Tarascon is based on the cousin of the writer Jacques Reynaud (1820-1886), who once, in a romantic impulse, took Daudet to Algeria to hunt lions. In order not to offend his relative, the writer gave his hero the sonorous surname Barbarin, but in the town of Tarascon there was a family with such a surname, and he had to be renamed Tartarin. The great detective Sherlock Holmes, according to scientists, was written off from Conan Doyle's institute mentor, the famous surgeon Joseph Bell (1837-1911). He not only solved crimes with the help of deductive method but also smoked a pipe and played the violin. Even such an exotic hero as Captain Nemo had a prototype. Jules Verne calls him the leader of the Indian rebels Nana Sahib (1824-after 1857). This noble feudal lord disappeared without a trace after the defeat of the uprising - in principle, he could hide in sea ​​depths. Alexander Dumas himself did not always invent his heroes. For example, the story of the Count of Monte Cristo was born from a chapter in the book The Police Without a Mask, published in 1838 on the basis of the investigative archives. It spoke of a young shoemaker, François Picot, who was falsely arrested on the eve of his wedding. Seven years later, he was released and began to take revenge on the scammers, killed three, but fell at the hands of the fourth. There was also a treasure in this story, bequeathed to Pico by his cellmate, the Italian abbot.

On the banks of the Garonne

The trail of the famous musketeer leads to the banks of the Garonne and Adour, to the ancient Gascony, where the famous countryman is still proud of. However, neither Curtil, nor Dumas, who was completely dependent on him for facts, knew the birthplace of the musketeer. They considered him a native of the Bearn region of Gascony, where the real D "Artagnan had never been. In addition, he had a completely different name - Charles Ogier de Batz de Castelmore. This was found out by French historians, and in particular Jean-Christian Ptifis - the author of the book "True D" Artagnan, published in Russian translation in the famous ZhZL series.

Charles was born around 1614 in the heart of Gascony. He could not be proud of the antiquity of the family: his great-grandfather Arno Batz was an ordinary merchant who bought the castle from completely ruined owners. Having slipped a couple of livres to a royal official, he received the title of nobility along with the noble prefix "de". His grandson Bertrand strengthened his status by marrying the girl Françoise de Montesquiou. However, as a dowry, the young man got only the ruined castle of Artagnan and numerous debts, the payment of which deprived his family of the remnants of his fortune. In fact, Bertrand had only the castle of Castelmore, where Charles, his brothers Paul, Jean and Arno and three sisters were born.

Despite loud name, it was just a two-story stone house with two dilapidated turrets. We can judge its situation from the inventory of property compiled in 1635 after the death of Bertrand de Batz. The lower living room was furnished with a long trestle table, a sideboard, and five worn leather armchairs. Next was the matrimonial bedroom, where there were two wardrobes - one with linen, the second with dishes. On the first floor there was a kitchen with a large cauldron and a huge vat for salting meat. Upstairs, in addition to another living room with the same old furniture, there were four bedrooms for children and guests. From there, a staircase led to one of the towers, where there was a dovecote. The inventory scrupulously lists the family's possessions: two swords, six brass candlesticks, six dozen napkins...

After the death of the head of the family, the house and six farms belonging to the de Bats passed into the hands of greedy creditors. Fortunately, the children by that time were already attached thanks to influential relatives. Daughters, despite their infancy, were engaged ahead of time to local nobles. Elder brother Paul was the first to join the ranks of the musketeers, but soon changed his honorary service under the king to an army post. Having gained fame and money on the battlefields, he bought the family estate and increased its area at the expense of neighboring lands. This strong business executive lived for almost a hundred years and died with the title of Marquis de Castelmore. Jean, who also served in the guards, disappeared from the annals of history early, probably died in battle or in a duel. Brother Arno chose a spiritual career and for many years was an abbot.

... From the feeling that Dumas brought out the three brothers in the images of Porthos, Athos and Aramis, it is difficult to get rid of. But the writer did not know anything about them, and even Charles D "Artagnan himself (we will still call him that) saw them much less often than with his invented friends.

Why "invented" if they really existed? The fact is that all the glorious four could communicate only for a few short months in 1643. In December of this year, in one of the countless skirmishes, Armand de Silleg, also known as the seigneur de Athos, was mortally wounded. In the same autumn, Isaac de Porto, a nobleman from Lannes, whom Dumas renamed Porthos for the sake of rhyme, entered the musketeers. A few years later, he retired and returned home, having sunk into obscurity there. The third musketeer, Henri D "Aramitz, was indeed a close friend of D" Artagnan and in 1655 retired to his native Bearn, where he became abbot. All three were relatives of the captain of the musketeers de Treville - also a descendant of a merchant who appropriated title of nobility. This brave officer enjoyed the full confidence of the king and actively promoted his fellow Gascons. D "Artagnan also counted on this when he went to Paris with a letter of recommendation to Treville in his pocket. This was until 1633, when he was mentioned among the participants in the musketeers' review. At that time he was 18 years old, as Dumas writes. However, La- Rochelle had already been taken, the story with the pendants (if there was one) was safely resolved, and the Duke of Buckingham, with whom the Gascon allegedly met, died from the killer's dagger.To the disappointment of fans, all these adventures of the brave musketeer were invented. , and he was looking forward to them, hurrying to Paris on the piebald horse sung by the writer.

In the footsteps of the Musketeer
There are not so many historical places associated with the name of the famous musketeer. The main one, of course, is the French castle of Castelmore, but it is privately owned and visitors are not allowed into it. But in the neighboring town of Lupiac, a hotel was named after D "Artagnan, and a monument was erected to him in the Gascon capital Osh in 1931. Nearby is the village of Artagnan, where Count Robert de Montesquiou created a museum dedicated to his ancestor a hundred years ago. After the death of the Count, the collection died in the fire of a fire, and the castle stood in ruins for many years. Today it has been restored, but only walls remain of the former building. Of course, the Louvre, the Palais Royal, the Tuileries Garden and other places mentioned in Dumas' novel have survived. The gloomy fortress of Pignerol in Provence still stands today, where the musketeer had to be the jailer of Minister Fouquet. And in the Dutch Maastricht, you can find a place outside the city wall, where a brave general was struck down by a bullet. In general, not so much has been preserved, so the directors of films about D "Artagnan do without historical surroundings. For example, the famous Soviet film of 1978 was filmed in the Crimea and partly in the Baltic States, which did not prevent its success at all.

Path to glory

There were many musketeers in the armies of that time, as all soldiers armed with muskets were called. This bulky precursor to the rifle was powered by a flintlock or, like a cannon, by a lit fuse. In both cases, shooting was a tricky business: the muzzle of the musket needed to be mounted on a special stand, which made it possible to somehow aim. Each musketeer was accompanied by a servant who carried a stand, a supply of gunpowder and all sorts of devices for cleaning capricious weapons. In close combat, the musket was useless, and its owner used a sword. A company of musketeers was created to guard the king in 1600, however, until 1622, its fighters were called carabinieri. The company included a little more than a hundred people, half of which light hand de Treville turned out to be Gascons. D'Artagnan also joined their ranks, renting an apartment on Vieux-Colombier Street - the Old Dovecote. According to Curtil, he very soon had an affair with the owner's wife, who turned under the pen of Dumas into a charming Madame Bonacieux.

The life of the Musketeers was not easy. They received little, besides, the etiquette of the guards prescribed to squander their salaries in taverns. The king never had enough money, and his guards used their own money to buy uniforms, including the famous cloaks and hats with feathers. It was required to dress as fashionably as possible in order to keep up with the hated rivals - the cardinal's guards. Clashes with them occurred almost every week and claimed many lives. Even during the war, when the charter forbade duels on pain of death, opponents found an opportunity to wave their swords. We do not know anything about dueling, as well as about the military exploits of D "Artagnan in those early years. Only the legend of his participation in the siege of Arras in the spring of 1640 has survived. The young musketeer showed not only courage, but also wit. The besieged Spaniards wrote on the gate: "When Arras is French, the mice will eat the cats." The Gascon, under fire, crept closer and wrote a short “not” before the word “will be”.

At the end of 1642, the omnipotent Richelieu died, and King Louis XIII briefly survived him. Power was in the hands of the regent Anna of Austria and her favorite, Cardinal Mazarin. This miser decided to dismiss the musketeers, and D "Artagnan was out of work. Only in 1646 did he and his Gascon friend Francois de Bemo obtain an audience with the cardinal and received the positions of his personal couriers. For several years, the former musketeer raced along the roads in heat and cold France, fulfilling the instructions of his master. finest hour came in August 1648, in the terrible days of the Fronde, when the Parisians rebelled against the hated power of Mazarin. D "Artagnan in a carriage managed where by abuse, where by persuasion, to pave the way through the ranks of the rebels and take the cardinal and the young king with his mother out of the Louvre. Mazarin soon left the country and settled in the town of Brühl near Cologne. The Gascon continued to serve him, visiting the supporters of the cardinal throughout Europe Finally, in 1653, Louis XIV, who had come of age, again brought the Italian to power, and together with him D'Artagnan returned to Paris in triumph.

Soon he found himself under the walls of the besieged Bordeaux - the last stronghold of the Fronde. Disguised as a beggar, he managed to penetrate the city and persuade its defenders to surrender. Having made war with the Spaniards, he returned to Paris, where the king in 1657 restored a company of musketeers. Then they had a single uniform: red camisoles and blue cloaks with a white band. And the horses of the defenders of the king were gray, so they were called the company of the Gray Musketeers (later another company was created - the Black Musketeers). However, Mazarin did not increase their salary. Therefore, some pulled money from rich mistresses, others looked for a way out in marriage. D'Artagnan also followed this path, marrying the wealthy heiress Charlotte de Chanlesi in 1659. The cardinal himself and many courtiers were present at the wedding, the wine flowed like water. embankment of the Seine.

With an interval of a year, the couple had sons Louis and Louis-Charles. However, the idyll did not work out. The newlywed was already over thirty, she managed to be married and was not distinguished by either beauty or meek disposition. And D "Artagnan, with his psychology of an old bachelor, quickly got tired of the unusual family life. A year later he left for the war and has been home only twice since then. In rare letters, he justified himself: "My beloved wife, duty is above all for me." Charlotte bit her lips as she imagined her boyfriend having fun with other girls. She knew perfectly well that in his youth the musketeer was a desperate womanizer, and even now he is far from old for amorous exploits. In 1665, she decided on an extreme measure: she took the children and left for the countryside, leaving her husband forever. Both sons of the Gascon became officers and lived to old age, but the family was continued only by the youngest, whose descendants survived until the 19th century.

reluctant jailer

Not too sorry for the loss of his wife, d "Artagnan set off on new adventures. Back in 1661, together with the king, he visited the luxurious castle of Vaud, the residence of the surgent of finance Nicolas Fouquet. This dodger often confused the state treasury with his own, and his palace was much superior to the pomp of the Louvre Louis began to frown even at the gate, on which the coat of arms of the minister flaunted: a squirrel with the Latin motto “I will climb anywhere.” When he saw marble grottoes, a marvelous park with fountains, a dining room where tables were moved by an invisible mechanism, the fate of the impudent courtier was decided. D "Artagnan was ordered to arrest the minister and take him to the impregnable castle of Pignerol in Provence. In Nantes, Fouquet, sensing something was wrong, tried to escape, but the musketeer overtook him in the city crowd and transferred him to another carriage with bars on the windows. In the same carriage, the minister was taken to Pignerol, and the king offered the Gascon the position of its commandant. His answer went down in history: "I prefer to be the last soldier of France than her first jailer." And yet, D "Artagnan had to spend more than one year in the fortress. The prisoner did not give him any worries: broken by his fall, Fouquet became very pious and, if he annoyed the musketeer, then with religious teachings.

Having rejected the position of jailer, D'Artagnan willingly accepted the title of caretaker of the royal poultry house, fortunately, no one demanded that he personally remove the cages of birds. In addition, the court sinecure brought in a good income. He even began to call himself a count, and in the spring of 1667 he was appointed captain of the musketeers "This position corresponded to the general's. The dream of a young man who once came from Osh to Paris on a piebald horse came true. But soon the battle trumpet again called the restless Gascon on a campaign. During new war with the Spaniards, he distinguished himself in the capture of Lille and was appointed its governor. According to contemporaries, he ruled fairly, forbidding his soldiers to oppress the population. True, in the summer of 1671, he brutally suppressed the uprising of the peasants in the Vivare region. Well, he remained the son of his age, after all, the rebels were the enemies of the king, to whom he experienced not only loyal, but also to some extent paternal feelings ...

In the summer of 1673, d "Artagnan with his musketeers went to Flanders, where Marshal Turenne's army besieged Maastricht. More than once the French broke through to the walls of the city, but the Spaniards kept pushing them back. On the evening of June 24, after a powerful artillery preparation, both companies of musketeers attacked and occupied one from the forts of the enemy. In the morning, the Spaniards forced them to retreat under heavy fire. Few of the French reached their positions. There was no D "Artagnan, in search of which several volunteers went. His body was found only in the evening: the commander's throat was pierced by a bullet. Contrary to Dumas, he did not have time to become a marshal of France. This title was soon received by his cousin Pierre de Montesquiou, who, by the way, did not distinguish himself in anything special.

Alexandre Dumas was repeatedly reproached for inattention to historical truth. However, due to chance or artistic flair, his hero turned out to be much closer to the real D "Artagnan than the unprincipled condottiere Courtil. However, in the combined character of the Three Musketeers, all three D" Artagnan coexist, and each reader can choose a hero for himself. One will be closer to a desperate romantic, suspiciously similar to Mikhail Boyarsky. To others, he is a cunning and witty man who emerges unscathed from any alterations. And the third - an honest campaigner, who made the nobleman's motto the law of life: "The sword is for the king, honor is for no one!"

Scrolled through the first one yesterday.
I advise you to read the second article. Of course, there are no exact data in it, only assumptions. An excerpt from it:

Quote (emphasis added)

3. "What would you like to be called?"
At first glance, it may seem surprising that M. Dumas, having created such vivid characters, did not bother to reveal their names to readers. How could four friends for thirty seconds extra years dispense exclusively with titles, surnames and nicknames in communication with each other? Frankly, even at the time of the distant childhood of the author of these lines, this question was extremely occupied, and in particular, why even Constance, in the last minutes of her life, referring to her lover as “you”, calls him “d'Artagnan”, that is, she only remembers his last name?
However, it remains only to accept the fact that Mr. Dumas, so revered by us, left this gap in the biography of his heroes (all, with the exception of Aramis, who was lucky enough to hear his name - Rene - from the gentle lips of the charming Duchess de Longueville in the novel "Twenty years later "). Readers can only rely on their own imagination and put forward various versions, regarding how each of the heroes of the trilogy could be called.
Needless to say, this essay we are talking exclusively about a literary character who came out from under the sharp and talented pen of Alexandre Dumas père. No other persons, real or fictional, who can claim the name of a glorious musketeer, have nothing to do with our observations, although it is quite possible, and even quite obvious, that the hero of the Dumas trilogy owes his appearance to some of them.
Nevertheless, if we talk about the possible variants of the name of the valiant Gascon, then first of all the name of his real prototype, whose name was Charles de Batz de Castelmore d'Artagnan, comes to mind. Another d'Artagnan, who also served as the prototype of the hero Dumas, is mentioned in the preface to the novel "The Three Musketeers", when the author of the novel gives the name of the manuscript, which partially formed the basis of the plot of the novel - "Memoirs of Mr. d'Artagnan". These memoirs, as enlightened readers know, are apocryphal, since their author was Gascien de Courtil de Sandra, who lived at the end of the 17th century, by the way, a contemporary and probably an acquaintance of the real d'Artagnan, Charles de Batz. In these memoirs, the musketeer is called Charles, in other words, he bears the name real person, from which it was basically written off by Mr. Curtil.
Well, two sources give one name. Let's take it as possible variant, especially since the name Charles, or Karl, as it is often conveyed in Russian spelling, was very popular in France, and even the twelve kings of this country did not hesitate to wear it.
But do not forget that in those days when Dumas' musketeers lived, the nobles (and "d'Artagnan was a nobleman") often did not limit themselves to one name for their child, wanting to provide him with more reliable protection heavenly patrons. Then, perhaps, M. d'Artagnan, the father, could give his son at least a double name. Whom to choose as the second defender? Let us remember that M. d'Artagnan, the father, was a contemporary of the "glorious king" Henry IV, moreover, he participated with him and M. de Treville in the wars for faith, as we learn from the first chapter of The Three Musketeers, and, finally, he lived in Gascony, where the memory of the king was especially revered. Since he gave his only (which is also mentioned in the first chapter) son one "royal" name - Charles, why shouldn't he give his son a second, no less sonorous - Henri? Charles-Henri d'Artagnan, whose ancestors had served the kings of France for "more than five hundred years".
By the way, it should be noted that the name Charles (Karl) is of ancient German origin, and is not at all church. The same applies to the name Henri (Heinrich). And if we recall that in those distant times a large number of Protestant Huguenots lived on the territory of Gascony and Bearn, it is easy to assume that d'Artagnan's ancestors were not Catholics either. Anyway, before blessed memory King Henry the Fourth (himself, by the way, a Protestant converted to Catholicism) is occupied by the French throne. And the Protestants, as you know, did not recognize Catholic saints, and, quite possibly, did not attach such of great importance church names, designed to provide their children with the patronage of the saints, after whom they were named.
I note in passing that in the process of searching for some information regarding the personal qualities of M. d'Artagnan-son, which will be discussed below, in the chapter "King" of the novel "Vicomte de Bragelon" I found something curious:
“Wait, wait, you will see what a man is capable of who sang Huguenot songs under a cardinal, under a real cardinal!”
Yes, yes, these are the thoughts of d'Artagnan himself, addressed to Louis the Fourteenth! Thus, he himself admits that he had some idea of ​​​​Protestant culture, and we can assume that we were not too mistaken when we recorded the ancestors of the Gascon to the Huguenot Protestants.
For these two reasons, Charles-Henri seems quite suitable name for the son of a Gascon nobleman.
However, all of the above is just a fantasy of your obedient servant, which she found it possible to share with you. (Let me note in brackets that four or five more people spoke out in support of this version of the name d'Artagnan, among them the one to whom this work mainly owes its appearance).

Mikhail Boyarsky in the role of D "Artagnan. Photo: boiarsky.narod.ru


Based on the novel by Alexandre Dumas "Three Musketeers" more than one generation has grown up. While historians pointed out to the writer how many inaccuracies in the image D "Artagnan, the townsfolk followed with interest the adventures of the brave personal guard of the king. So what is true and what is fiction? Who really was the Gascon who became the prototype of the legendary image?



Despite the fact that many of the details of the story about D "Artagnan are fictional, the creation of the image is based on real story the life of a Gascon who was in a company of royal musketeers. Charles Ogier de Batz de Castelmaur is born ( full name D "Artagnan by his father) in 1613, Dumas moved the story 20 years ago to realize the idea with diamond pendants, around which the entire action of the novel unfolds.



The surname D "Artagnan Charles Ogier got on the mother's side, Francoise de Montesquieu D" Artagnan, who came from the Count de Montesquieu family. After the death of his father, the Gascon got more than a modest fortune of three arquebuses, seven muskets and two swords. Among the bequeathed were also 6 pieces of lard and 12 pickled geese. In a word, the musketeer had frankly nothing to start his journey in Paris with. It should also be remembered that D'Artagnan also inherited a bright red horse from his father. The father strictly ordered the horse to be protected, but the newly minted musketeer sold it for a very prosaic reason: the king's guards had exclusively gray horses.



Book D "Artagnan, like his real prototype, had a servant, since it was simply impossible to do without an assistant in this branch of the military. To control a musket, the length of which was often greater than human height, was often simply impossible alone. The servant received a rich salary from D "Artagnan, he could easily afford it, since the lion's share of his income was the salary of the Tuileries porter, and later the caretaker of the royal poultry house. In both positions, D" Artagnan actually did almost nothing, but he received a stable salary of 2-3 thousand liras a year and lodged free of charge at the palace.



The finale of the career of both the book and the real D "Artagnan was brilliant: Dumas described a heroic death in battle with the rank of marshal of France, but the Gascon really died during the capture of Maastricht with the rank of field marshal. The news touched Louis XIV to the core, who admitted that France has lost a great warrior.



The heroes of the cult film about the adventures of the Musketeers are still popular. Continuing the topic -.

His name was Charles Ogier de Batz de Castelmore, Comte d'Artagnan (Fr. Charles Ogier de Batz de Castelmore, comte d "Artagnan). He was born in 1613, near the castle of Castelmore, Gascony, France, died heroically on June 25, 1673, Maastricht, Netherlands World famous Gascon nobleman who made brilliant career under Louis XIV in the company of the royal musketeers.

The prototype of the protagonist of the famous "Three Musketeers" was born in Gascony, in the family of the nobleman Bertrand de Batz Castelmoro. The boy was named Charles. Old Castelmoro had only one wealth - five sons, distinguished by courage and intelligence. Each of them went to Paris in his own time to become the royal musketeer. In order to make their names sound more noble, at court the young Castelmoros were represented by the surname D'Artagnan - the name of one of the estates in Gascony. But the young Gascons did not have rights to this surname.

Charles de Batz, the youngest son of Castelmoro, arrived in Paris in 1640. On the way to the capital, he experienced many adventures - he was beaten several times, managed to sit in prison, in addition, all his money and things disappeared, including letter of recommendation to the commander of the company of musketeers, Mr. de Treville. Charles traveled to Paris on foot. In the city, he expected to meet his older brothers, but it turned out that one of them had died, and the rest were at war in Italy.

In one of the taverns, Charles met a young man named Isaac Porto (in The Three Musketeers he turned into Porthos). Charles introduced himself under the name of D'Artagnan and told him about his misadventures. Porto served in a company of guards and also dreamed of becoming a royal musketeer. To do this, he made friends with the right people. So, his friends were close relatives of de Treville - the musketeers Henri Aramitz and Armand de Sillec d'Athos d "Auteville, who later entered the history of literature as Aramis and Athos.

On the same day, Charles met both of these gentlemen, and unlike the ups and downs of the book, the young people immediately, without any duels and showdowns, agreed to take part in the fate of the poor Gascon. The next day, Aramitz and d'Athos introduced young Charles to Monsieur de Treville. He would gladly take D'Artagnan into his company, because his brothers have proven themselves very well in the service of the king. But the musketeers had to buy weapons, uniforms and a horse at their own expense, and Charles did not even have money for food. Therefore, de Treville sent him to the same guard company where Isaac Porto served.

If the beginning of Charles's life in Paris coincides with the adventures of the fictional D'Artagnan, then further events looked very little like a fascinating novel. Having become a guardsman, Charles was not in the midst of royal intrigues, but at the forefront. He participated in many battles, besieged fortresses, visited many countries - and was always there for him. true friend Porto.

In 1643, Louis XIII died, and a new set of musketeers was made. D'Artagnan was not lucky this time either, and Isaac Porto tried on a new uniform. It soon became clear that Charles was not allowed to serve the king by Cardinal Mazarin. D'Artagnan, during his three years of service to the cardinal, showed himself to be a very dexterous and reliable person. And so Mazarin decided to bring him closer to him.

Many of the assignments that the young man performed are still shrouded in mystery, only a few of them are known. So, Aramitz and D'Artagnan secretly traveled to England with letters from the cardinal to the exiled royal family.

Shortly after this order, an assassination attempt was organized on Charles - seven assassins attacked him on a deserted street. D'Artagnan took the fight, killed one of the mercenaries, but he himself was bleeding. Fortunately, several musketeers passed by and rushed to protect Charles. Soon all the killers were dead, but in this battle he died close friend D'Artagnan - Armand de Sillec d'Athos d'Auteville.

Arrival of d'Artagnan. Alex De Andreis

Military service Charles continued, he participated in all the battles that fell to the lot French army. Among his colleagues, he turned into a legend - from the bloodiest battles he always came out completely unscathed, although he bravely threw himself into the thick of things.

And fate, meanwhile, presented D'Artagnan with a gift - on November 1, 1644, he became the royal musketeer. But Cardinal Mazarin did not forget about his devoted servant. D'Artagnan remained the cardinal's courier and carried out his secret missions. In addition, Charles reported to the cardinal about the attitude towards the cardinal among the people and in the army. That is why D'Artagnan did not suffer from Mazarin's decision to dissolve the royal musketeers, which he took in 1647. Charles remained in the service of the cardinal.

But soon the cardinal himself had to flee from France, along with Anna of Austria and Louis XIV - the Fronde began in Paris. The carriage with the fugitives was accompanied by Charles d'Artagnan.

All the time the cardinal was in exile, Charles was his eyes and ears - he rode all over the country, collecting information for his master, secretly making his way to Paris. When the Fronde ended, the cardinal still had to leave France - The Royal Family decided to get rid of it. And Charles again followed him into exile.

The Gascon himself remained as poor all this time as when he had just entered Paris. And at the same time, Mazarin was ready to shower his faithful servant with gifts, jewels and lands, but he himself lost almost everything.

Only in 1652, Louis XIV called Mazarin to himself and the cardinal again received power and money. He gave D'Artagnan the rank of lieutenant and the post of "gatekeeper of the Tuileries" - the royal palace. It was a very profitable place, where they paid a huge salary, but there was practically nothing to do.

But D'Artagnan was not at all bored - he still carried out the most responsible and secret orders of Mazarin. So one day, under the guise of a Jesuit priest, he went to England, where he reconnoitered the plans of Oliver Cromwell. He completed this task so successfully that he soon became the "keeper of the poultry yard" - another highly paid and dust-free position. Many glorious deeds were done by D'Artagnan.

And when Louis XIV decided to restore the company of musketeers again, it was the brave Gascon who took the place of their commander. Charles was subordinate to 250 people, including the king himself. All 250 men had gray horses and gray suits, which is why they were nicknamed the "Gray Musketeers". D'Artagnan himself, finally, by the age of 37 became a rich man.

He lived in luxury home and received the title of count. At the same time, D'Artagnan did not curry favor with the cardinal and the king. Once Louis offered Charles the post of commandant of the Bastille, to which D'Artagnan replied: "I prefer to be the last soldier of France than her first jailer." But Charles was by no means the last soldier, but one of the very first - fearless and strong. And he died as a soldier - during the storming of the Dutch city of Maastricht in 1673.

The life of d'Artagnan, richly flavored with various kinds of fantastic episodes, formed the basis of the three-volume Memoirs of M. d'Artagnan, published in 1700. In fact, this text (as well as a number of other pseudo-memoirs) was written by the writer Gascien de Courtil de Sandra; d'Artagnan himself did not write anything, and in general, as his papers show, he was illiterate.

In the 19th century, when Alexandre Dumas père created his cycle about musketeers on the basis of this book (“Three Musketeers” (1844), “Twenty years later”, “Vicomte de Brazhelon”), the fantasticness of “d'Artagnan's memoirs” was already good known. In order to make his books more believable, in the preface to The Three Musketeers, he added facts supposedly proving the reality of the "memoirs". Dumas included in the heroized biography of d'Artagnan a number of already existing semi-legendary plots of the 17th century, which were not initially connected with him (the episode with the pendants of Anna of Austria, an attempt to save Charles I, the legend of the Iron Mask - supposedly the brother of Louis XIV, etc.). Also, d'Artagnan Dumas, between the events described in the second and third books of the trilogy, appears in the play The Youth of King Louis XIV.

Charles also had a famous cousin, Pierre de Montesquiou, Count d'Artagnan, later - Count de Montesquiou (fr. Pierre de Montesquiou d "Artagnan, 1640 - August 12, 1725). Unlike Charles, who never became a marshal as in book by Dumas (he was a "field marshal", according to the modern rank - major general), who received this title.

A descendant of the famous French family of Montesquiou, he was the fourth son of Henry I de Montesquieu, Monsieur d'Artagnan, and his wife Jeanne, daughter of Jean de Gassion. He was the cousin of Charles de Batz de Castelmore, to whom he owes one of his titles - Comte d'Artagnan - and who was the prototype for the hero Alexandre Dumas in the Three Musketeers novels. Montesquiou served twenty-three years as a musketeer in the French Guards before becoming a brigadier in 1688. He was then promoted to "Maréchal de camp" (major general) in 1691 and lieutenant general on 3 January 1696 before becoming marshal of France on 15 September 1709 as a reward for distinguished command at the Battle of Malplac on 11 September, in which he was wounded and three horses were killed under him.