Protestant Exiles from France/Volume 2 - Book Third - Chapter 8 - Section II
II. Peter Falaiseau, Esq.
Pierre Falaiseau, ecuyer, was the son of Messire Jacques Falaiseau, ecuyer, and Dame Anne Louard. As “Peter Falaiseau, gentleman,” he was naturalized in England on the 15th November 1681 (see List Second)[1] The next year he removed to Brandenburg. The Court of Berlin appreciated his talents, and the Elector Frederick William took him into his service as a diplomatist. In consequence of this Monsieur De Falaiseau soon returned to London as the ambassador from the Elector to the English Court. The correspondence between the two Courts was conducted in a controversial and animated style, which the Royal Stuarts provoked. The Elector afterwards sent him as his envoy to Sweden, then to Denmark, where he represented the Court of Berlin from 1692 to 1698. His last diplomatic residence was in Spain; but this embassy he resigned on some grounds of personal discontent, and again took up his abode in England, where he died. This is the outline of his life, which it would be foreign to my plan to fill up, except by detailing a very few incidents in its course.
After the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes, a personal friend, though entrusted with a hostile mission, visited Berlin. This was the Seigneur de Rébénac, Francois Du Pas, second son of Isaac Marquis De Feuquières. He was sent by Louis XIV. “to remonstrate with the Elector upon the countenance given in Brandenburg to the expatriated Huguenots.” Falaiseau wrote to him confidentially with a view to rescuing some of his French property. The Minister of State in Berlin, with whom Falaiseau as an ambassador officially corresponded, and whose friendship he enjoyed, was Paul von Fuchs. With him Rébénac promised to concert some scheme, as appears from the following letter:—
“Berlin, 12th April 1686. — To Monsieur De Falaiseau: I have seen, sir, by the letter which you do me the honour to write, how much confidence you are pleased to place in my friendship. Write to me, I beg, all the circumstances of your affairs, without, however, disclosing to me what your effects are or the place where they are, but only their nature, that I may take the proper measures. For some time past the King [Louis XIV.] has shown a wish to do me a favour, and, by his commands, my friends are looking out for an opportunity for it. If your effects are concealed, and are not discovered by the King’s officers, I will apply for the confiscation of them for myself, and I will deal with you in the manner that you desire. Besides my word of honour, which I give you upon it, and which, as far as I am concerned, the best assurance, I should be ready to give you others, even if it went as far as furnishing security. I do not offer to ask the confiscation for myself and give it back to you entire; in that case I should be deceiving the King, against whose intentions I should be acting, and I should be doing myself considerable wrong, inasmuch as I should be rendering the goodwill of my master towards myself of no effect. But I will content myself with what you mention; and I will act in the rest of the affair in concert with M. De Fuchs, to whom you and I shall be obliged to mark our gratitude. I am, sir, with all the esteem and passion imaginable, &c.
Mr. Kemble, to whom I am indebted for the above letter, gives specimens of the Falaiseau Correspondence, which prove that the refugee occupied a good and creditable position as an ambassador. As a specimen, De Fuchs says to him, in 1687, “This is only to tell you that your relation of the 16th (26th) March has been received, that your reasoning on the subject of Protestantism is found to be very just, that it is much approved of, and that an answer will not fail to be sent to you by the first ordinary, in expectation of hearing farther from you on the subject.” — (Addressed to Monsieur De Falaiseau, Councillor of State to his Electoral Highness of Brandenburg, and his Envoy Extraordinary to the Court of his Majesty the King of Sweden, at Stockholm.)
In England his loyalty was much appreciated, Secretary Blathwayt wrote to Mr. Greg, in 1692, “I have acquainted his Majesty with Monsieur De Falaiseau’s and your endeavours to interrupt the irregular trade of the Danes. For Monsieur Falaiseau, whose acquaintance I had formerly in England, I desire you to present my most humble service to him, and to assure him his Majesty does very much value his zeal for the common cause.”
Monsieur De La Fouleresse, a French gentleman, had settled in Denmark, and was secretary to King Christian V. De Falaiseau, on the occasion of his taking a journey to London, gave him letters of introduction to his friends in England. He writes to Falaiseau from London, June 1694: — “I have seen the most of your friends here, to whom I paid my respects, particularly the family of Monsieur Mouginet, which still retains an agreeable remembrance of you. My Lord Montague has been in the country for the last month; I was told yesterday that he was returned, and I shall not fail to go and see him in your name as soon as possible.”
It does not appear that Falaiseau was married. In 1695, Count Dohna wrote to him from Berlin, “Tell me, if you please, whether you intend to live for ever a bachelor. I approve of everything you do except that. . . . It is not one’s relations one ought to consult on that question; they think you rich, and are on the look-out for your inheritance.”
As already said, he, at the close of his diplomatic life, returned to England. In 1706, he had the honour to accompany Lord Halifax and Mr. Addison on a special errand to Hanover, to invest the Elector with the Order of the Garter. He had a pension of £200 a-year from the Royal Bounty Fund for French Protestants, administered by the Comité Laicque.[2] The date of his death was 19th April 1726. His Will is dated 21st May 1725 at Dieppe, where he found himself temporarily; it was solely in favour of Mrs. Mary Alsen, of Southampton, who proved it 6th May 1726.