Who is the Marquis de Dangeau?

Philippe de Courcillon, the Marquis de Dangeau, was a well-known figure in the Court of Versailles and was close to Louis XIV. Born the same year as the King, in 1638, he was made Colonel of the King’s Regiment at the age of 27 and accompanied him as an "Aide-de-camp" during all his campaigns. He lived with his wife in the Princes’ Wing of the Palace of Versailles, where the windows of his apartment opened onto the South Parterre: an ideal position for observing daily life in the Palace. In 1684 Dangeau started a Journal in which he recorded the events in the Court every day, alongside the rumours that they generated and personal reflections.

From the beginning of August 1715 Dangeau related in detail the final days of Louis XIV, in his Mémoire sur ce qui s’est passé dans la chambre du roi pendant sa maladie (Memoir on what happened in the King’s Bedchamber during his illness).