Protestant Exiles from France/Book Second - Chapter 4 - Section II
II. La Marquise de Ruvigny.
Madame la Marquise de Ruvigny, in her widowhood, is separately memorialised, because (as the reader will perceive) historical inquirers have thus a vein opened up for further research. On the death of her aged husband in 1689, her younger son was with his regiment in Ireland. Her grief at his death, in the prime of life and at the height of promise, is alluded to in Lady Russell’s letter. And Dumont de Bostaquet says, as to the royal gift of the colonelcy of Schomberg’s Horse to her eldest son, that “she was little elated by the gift of such a magnificent regiment, seeing in it nothing but the exposure of her dear and only surviving son to the perils of that Irish war, which had deprived her of La Caillemotte.”
Greenwich was her place of abode up to this date. Mr. Baynes says, “The Dowager Marchioness De Ruvigny had a residence at Blackheath.”
From the Earl of Galway’s will, it appears that she made her will on 14th May 1698, but where the will was deposited I cannot ascertain. The date of her death is not preserved, but it probably was May 1698, or soon after, as may be inferred from the following communication to our ambassador in Paris, the Earl of Manchester:—
“Whitehall, July 17, 1699. . . . I am likewise to put into your Lordship’s hands a petition of my Lady Russell concerning her pretensions to the estate of the late Marquis De Ruvigny, her uncle — the memorial of Sir William Douglas — the petition of Monsieur Le Bas, Mareshal of the Ceremonies, and the case of Mrs Mary Cardins, who all pray to be restored to their estates in France as is more fully contained in the papers herewith delivered to your Lordship.”
Louis XIV. met such petitions by alleging that to repossess the memorialists was to dispossess the present occupiers, thus disobliging as many persons as would be obliged. This apology did not in honesty apply to the Ruvigny estate, as it was not given away until 31st March 1711, at which date the king gave to Cardinal de Polignac “la confiscation des biens de Monsieur de Ruvigny, qui s’appelle en Angleterre Milord Galway.”