author
Pierre Marie Louis de Boisgelin de Kerdu
1758–1816
A French nobleman, Knight of Malta, and émigré officer, he wrote history with the eye of someone who had lived through upheaval. His books on Malta and Portugal blend scholarship with the perspective of an 18th-century man of action.
2 Audiobooks
The History of the Revolutions of Portugal
by abbé de Vertot, Pierre Marie Louis de Boisgelin de Kerdu
Les mystifications de Caillot-Duval Choix de ses lettres les plus amusantes avec les réponses de ses victimes
by comte de A. (Alphonse) Fortia de Piles, Pierre Marie Louis de Boisgelin de Kerdu
About the author
Born in Brittany in 1758, Pierre-Marie-Louis de Boisgelin de Kerdu was a French writer from a noble family. He studied at the Saint-Sulpice seminary, entered the Order of Saint John of Jerusalem in 1782, and also served in the French Royal Army before the French Revolution reshaped his life.
During the revolutionary period, he joined the royalist émigré forces, serving with the Régiment Royal Louis. Alongside his military and religious affiliations, he built a literary reputation, publishing historical works including studies of Malta and a version of the history of the revolutions of Portugal. Some sources also note that he wrote under the name Caillot-Duval.
He died in 1816 in Pleubian. Today he is remembered as a minor but interesting figure whose writing sits at the crossroads of noble life, military service, and historical storytelling in a turbulent age.