Comte de Troisville

Portrait of the Comte de Tréville by Le Nain, which had been hanging in the salon of Troisvilles Castle near to Tardets. Sold by 1954 in Paris, this portrait is being shown this summer in Fort Worth Texas, USA at the Kimbell Art Museum.

Jean-Armand du Peyrer, Comte de Troisville (or Tresville), was a French officer born at Oloron-Sainte-Marie in 1598 and died on 8 May 1672 at Trois-Villes. He was fictionalized under the name Monsieur de Tréville in Alexandre Dumas's novel The Three Musketeers.

Biography

Origins

Du Peyrer was not from aristocratic stock, but of recent nobility. It was his father, Jean du Peyrer, who introduced the name de Trois-villes or Tréville into the family. In 1607 he bought the region of Trois-Villes which effectively brought him nobility, according to the customs of the Basque Country at the time. This purchase also allowed the elder Du Peyrer the right to be considered a gentleman and to sit upon the council of gentlemen in the viscountcy of Soule.