Speaking of....3 Musketeers is about real people too....the King of France
and the Duke of Buckingham were real people.... but no one believes Dumas'
story is true. Perhaps because the main characters are not real.
(snip)
Actually, d'Artagnan was a real person, and was a member, eventually
captain, of the King's Musketeers. However, the historical Charles de
Batz-Castlemore d'Artagnan was born somewhere around 1625 and so most of his
exploits were during the reign of Louis XIV, not Louis XIII. Athos, Porthos
and Aramis were also historic characters, but there is no record of them
ever meeting d'Artagnan, and as a matter of fact I believe that Athos was
killed in a duel around the time d'Artagnan was born.
I have friends who last year visited the part of Gascony that contains the
town of Artagnan. The town museum is full of the information about the
historical figure. There was also a rather fanciful biography written in
the early 18th cen. that is where Dumas got the idea for his stories, but he
most certainly played fast and loose with the time period and other facts.
For instance, Cardinal Richelieu, far from being the villian portrayed in
Dumas' stories, was arguably one of the greatest statesmen in France's
history.
Melusine
(the Three Musketeers may be why I fell in love with this time period, but
my research sure didn't stop there)
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